Please help

[essi69]

Hello I'm looking for advice/help... Have been an avid diver for 10+years (rescue cert) 90dives... 3years ago I did a 3fun dives off Phuket and I panicked/ freaked out at the descend on the first dive... Spent the second dive worrying about freaking out again and actually could only enjoy my last dive... Then last week I was in Bali and decided to do a few fun dives... 1st dive freak out... I just panicked and could not get passed it...I did the dive but felt soo anxious the whole time and could not do another dive...I don't know what's wrong with me??... I love diving I love being under water... I don't want to give up something I have truly found so much happiness doing... Can anyone give me any advice or point me in a direction of finding help.... Wahhhh
Any advice would be greatly appricated
Essi

 

[MelasLithos]

The buddy with whom I learned diving used to panick on each first dive of a trip. According to our OW instructor, it happens. Breathing underwater is not a natural state for a human being and goes against aeons of evolution. So panick is an normal response and happens in some people. Mind you, I'm not sure at which point this is true or was said just to make her feel better, but sounds good enough for me.

It used to happen only on the first descent. After that, she would usually be a bit nervous for the first day of diving, and then absolutely enjoy the rest of the diving. With more experience, and taking it slowly, now she got past the full blown panic and is just nervous on the first dive. The rest of our trips are great.

We tried to solve the issue by always going extra slow for the first dive, being attentive, and of course, warning the divemaster so that he can react quickly if needed. Also, I have been trying to take her on longer dive trips, where we would have several days of diving, so that she can really have time to enjoy the diving, and not always go from "first dive in a while" to "first dive in a while", with all the anxiety that brings.

For me, your situation looks a bit the same, except that you have been diving already before without this and it started only recently. I'm not a psychologist, but if I go with the explanation our OW instructor gave us, maybe some latent ancestral fear manifested itself during this dive? Maybe it has been extra long since your last dive? Or maybe it's something else, with another triggering factor?

Anyways, based on our experience, what worked for my buddy was to go extra slow, be well surrounded, and dive (preferentiably in a familiar and "safe" environment). Maybe try going for longer dive trips, more than just a few fun dive, so that you have time to remember how enjoyable diving is past the initial anxiousness?

Additionnally, my buddy and I are currently doing our Rescue course, in order to learn better how to deal with this type of situation if it arrises again, but I see that you are already rescue certified. Maybe a refresher of some kind might help?

 

[RainPilot]

Stop. Breathe. Think. Breathe. Act.

You'll be fine.

As to the causes and prevention, 90 dives in 10 years is not an awful lot of continuity, especially if a lot of them were training dives early on.

If this trip is the first since your last panic issue, thats a 3-year layoff from diving. I suspect that, like a lot of divers, the rescue course made you think a lot more about what can go wrong. It's not uncommon for a new Rescue Diver to be a little paranoid post-course, usually a couple of days of intense diving gets that out of their system. In your case, I think you are experiencing a dissonance between your conscious mind and your subconscious. Your intellect is saying "Hey, I love diving, I'm comfortable under water, this is easy!" while your subconscious is saying "Hey, all these things could go wrong, I haven't been diving regularly, what if I'm not up to scratch with dealing with issues etc..."

The only real solution to this is water time. I always recommend to divers to spend as much time underwater as they can, even in a pool. In your case, especially in a pool.

Find a pool you can use, get a buddy / instructor / mentor if you can and spend a couple of hours just hovering, doing drills and practicing skills. The muscle memory will only be good for you and the repetition should help settle the nerves.

Good luck either way and good job on your self-analysis / self-awareness, it's a trait I see too infrequently.

 

[Diver0001]

Hello I'm looking for advice/help... Have been an avid diver for 10+years (rescue cert) 90dives... 3years ago I did a 3fun dives off Phuket and I panicked/ freaked out at the descend on the first dive... Spent the second dive worrying about freaking out again and actually could only enjoy my last dive... Then last week I was in Bali and decided to do a few fun dives... 1st dive freak out... I just panicked and could not get passed it...I did the dive but felt soo anxious the whole time and could not do another dive...I don't know what's wrong with me??... I love diving I love being under water... I don't want to give up something I have truly found so much happiness doing... Can anyone give me any advice or point me in a direction of finding help.... Wahhhh
Any advice would be greatly appricated
Essi

Essi,

It doesn't sound to me like you were "panicking". It sounds to me like you were having a "panic attack". These are different things.

I would suggest to google "panic attack" and read up on what you find there. Let us know if you recognise this as what is happening to you.

On the short term the best advice I can give you, not being a psychologist, is to:
- push boundaries VERY slowly
- stay WELL within your comfort zone
- approach new situation with caution

If I'm right about this then there are various treatments and interventions possible. One of the things that might help when it comes to new situations is to use visualization to imagine the dive before putting yourself in that situation. Using youtube to find videos of people making dives at the particular site or similar sites may help you prepare.

Breathing exercises may help you to reach a calmer state of mind before starting the dive. Releasing tension and making sure you are not somehow retaining CO2 seem like keys to me. Again, I'm not a professional in this area, just a diver.

Finally, if you continue to have these experiences then seeking professional help might help you get a grip on what is happening and what, in your specific case, are the best approaches to dealing with it.

Good luck.

R..

 

[stuartv]

90 dives in 10+ years? 9 dives per year, or less? You might just try getting in the water more often, so it becomes and stays a truly familiar feeling. Even if you're just going and getting in a pool once every couple of months.

 

[essi69]

Thanks guys actually just reading your replies has given me some reassurance... I do think more regular consistent diving is probably a good start...and yes "panic attack" is a pretty accurate description of how it felt... I'll look into it... Thanks guys really appreciate your time, thoughts and suggestions...

 

[Saboteur]

In addition to just doing pool dives I'd suggest getting your own gear ( if you dont already) even if you are going to be an occasional or vacation diver. I'm just a vacation diver now and I opted to get my own equipment, since using unfamiliar gear at the beginning of every dive trip doesn't help with confidence.

 

[Land Fish]

I'm far from qualified to give advice, but as someone who panicked underwater and is still diving, I'd like to share my experience, and hopefully that'd give you some ideas?

First major panic I had was during a refresher dive as I hadn't dived for over 2 years, and I shot to the surface when attempting to clear the mask. (Btw, I'm eternally grateful that my then instructor insisted on doing one.) After that, I forced myself to exercise clearing mask every time I went diving. Now it doesn't bother me anymore if I have water in my nose.

Second time was during mola mola dive, I was freezing (had about 7.5mm for my core...still not enough) and I was miserable, thought I was going to pass out so I panicked. Called the dive and went up. I stopped diving in water where temperature falls below 23C, and I've not had issue with panic caused by thinking that I'd freeze.

What I'm trying to say is that try to identify what caused panic and work on it.

If no obvious causes, I agree with the suggestions above that take it slow but dive more.

 

[UFOrb]

Hi @essi69 I'm not sure I can really add much more to the advice you've already been given here, but FWIW, I always feel nervous on my first couple of dives after a break of several months. I think it's a normal and common reaction. In your case it seems some nervousness is becoming a more intense anxiety. I'm no expert on terminology but I'm not sure you're actually 'panicking' as surely you'd have called the dives early, and wouldn't have gone back for your 2nd & 3rd dives in Phuket!?

Which sites you were diving? (I've dived both Bali (last month in fact) & Phuket). There are some challenging sites around Bali. I always like to start a trip with a nice easy relaxed dive just to get back in the zone, then build up to more challenging dives once I'm feeling more confident.

My wife had a couple of horrible dives for one reason or another in Malta a few years ago, which really put her off. But 2 years later, after a break for having our 2nd child, I convinced her to try again at an easy site off Koh Lipe - it did the trick and she was bang on it again after that.

As others have said, I would also recommend breathing exercises. Mindfulness meditation is really effective for dealing with anxiety. If you're interested, PM me and I'll give you a link for a good (no flowery nonsense) guided 10minute mindfulness exercise that I've used...which reminds me, I should also get back into meditation!

I really hope you resolve this. Good luck!

Edit: Alongside mindfulness, you may also find cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) worth considering to get to the bottom of why you've started to get over-anxious and dealing with it.

 

[Frackingawesome]

on a resent dive in NJ i had a horrible experience. The worst dive of my life. i was actually scared for my life at one point. Basically i took to much Dramamine and could not think clearly enough to stay safe. Anyway, i was horrified to get back in the water. And i put it off for 3 weeks. Even driving to the quarry i felt sick and just full of dread. Anyway when i got there my wife and i got ready and started our dive. As soon as we started to go down i started to freak out. my wife saw this and started to try to distract me. She gave me the camera and started to make me take photos of her, she poked me, she was just distracting and annoying and it worked. i was so distracted that i didn't even realize i was down to 1500psi. It worked and the second and subsequent dives where awesome.

What i am trying to say is what worked for me was to find something to take my mind off the fact that i was diving and to focus on something that i "needed" to do. I guess sometimes our minds are our worst enemies.