I don't have much experience with panic.
The only full-blown panic case I've witnessed was during my DM training. I was assisting the instructor with a couple on their OW course. The goal of the dive was to practice mask clearing at 5m on a sandy bottom. The guy did his clearing quite well, but the girl struggled on her first attempt and used a ****-ton of air.
When the instructor asked her to repeat the exercise, her eyes went wide open and she bolted to the surface. I barely managed to catch up with her and slow our ascent so we wouldn't fly out of the water.
During the debrief, she said she was feeling uncomfortable with the exercise and remembers the instructor asking her to repeat it. Then her next memory was floating on the surface with me. Her mind literally went blank for a few seconds.
The only full-blown panic case I've witnessed was during my DM training. I was assisting the instructor with a couple on their OW course. The goal of the dive was to practice mask clearing at 5m on a sandy bottom. The guy did his clearing quite well, but the girl struggled on her first attempt and used a ****-ton of air.
When the instructor asked her to repeat the exercise, her eyes went wide open and she bolted to the surface. I barely managed to catch up with her and slow our ascent so we wouldn't fly out of the water.
During the debrief, she said she was feeling uncomfortable with the exercise and remembers the instructor asking her to repeat it. Then her next memory was floating on the surface with me. Her mind literally went blank for a few seconds.