relaxing and breathing

[beester]

Hi Mud,

Thanks for posting your experiences and let me be the first to say.. hats of for getting your OW and in such a magnificent divespot that the Galapagos Isles are (to be honest they are on the top of my still need to dive list).

On to your issue... I read your experience carefully and in my honest opinion this is a catch 22 situation. Let me try to explain, and please bare with me.

Breathing: When you think about diving and breathing you probably believe that inhaling is the most important part of breathing. This is not the case, the exhale is much more important. When you inhale you oxyginate your blood through your lungs, however you also are removing CO² from your system which has been generated by your metabolism (exhale).

It's this CO² that triggers your breathing reflex and makes you feel out of breath and anxious. (technically the acidic level of your blood which increases by CO² is monitored by your brain, which in turn triggers your breathing).

So let's say you feel a bit stressed or anxious for whatever reason. You start breathing more shallow/harder. You probably are not inhaling more shallow but exhaling more shallow. So you are retaining CO² in your blood. This will trigger your brain to tell you "oh ow out of breath"... causing you to feel more anxious and out of breath even tho you are breathing harder. This added anxiety will cause you to breath even faster and shallower, again more CO² in your system... rinse and repeat... a runaway proces. In the end if you are not aware or a DM / instructor doesn't assist you are going to feel really as if you have no air, while you are doing every effort possible to breath (hyperventilation). French divers have a term for this called "essoufflement".

The only way to get out of this vicious circle is not by breathing more in but by breathing less in and more out. Slowing your breathing down does this naturally that's why the instructor in your first episode tried to calm your breathing.

Anxiety: As already stated by some former posters anxiety is a slippery beast and can be triggered by alot of factors, many of them can be personal. This anxiety can trigger another vicious circle called the panic circle, where in the end you feel so out of control that you can no longer think straight. First of all you need to analyse the trigger that's causing the anxiety and then try to remedy that and this is personnal. I'll give an example:

Getting swept by current causes anxiety, many things can cause anxiety:

• Physical exertion: You are not fit enough, or you think through lack of experience you can fight a strong current, triggering shallow breathing Remedy: Get in better shape or know that fighting against current is not possible and try to move across current. Recognise when you get out of breath.
• Feeling out of control: If you've never experienced such current you'll feel out of control, causing stress. Remedy: Get more experience driftdiving.
• Past issues: If you've got bad past experiences with current, the memory of this might cause anxiety Remedy: Try to acknowledge this feeling and know that the memory in itself is causing the stress.
• etc

To summarize, what i suggest is to recognise when your stress level is building and when you notice this focus on your breathing (exhaling). At least this will not increase the stress level. Next to that you need to remedy the source of the anxiety but this (as stated) can be because of alot of factors. In my personal experience the more you dive in various environments the more you'll feel at ease.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

B

 

[TSandM]

Beester's post is a good one.

Breathing through a regulator, although really pretty easy, is not normal breathing. If you try to work extremely hard while breathing off a reg, you can't clear your CO2 -- and CO2 is a VERY powerful stimulator of the drive to breathe. When it rises, you feel acutely short of breath, and anxious -- and when you try to breathe FASTER on a regulator, you are actually breathing less effectively.

There is a reason that scuba classes teach folks not to swim INTO strong current. It is because it just doesn't work very well. Dives in areas of strong current are generally considered relatively advanced dives, because keeping together in current requires good awareness, and because it requires some poise to remain calm if the water is trying to make you do something you don't want to do.

You may not be fond of the idea, but you might benefit from doing some simple quarry diving at a place like Dutch Springs, where the water itself isn't the challenge. Just get used to diving and breathing, until you can find the zen-like place that most of enjoy underwater. Then you can take your more developed skills into ocean challenges with more confidence!

 

[The Chairman]

You live in New York? You have a built in group right here on ScubaBoard: Dive NY! Check 'em out by clicking their name. To join them go to Group Memberships and ask.

As for breathing, I was taught early on to do one or two complete exhales to gain control of my breathing. IOW, exhale until you can't exhale anymore and then exhale a bit more anyway! This seems to reset my breathing impulse and calm me down!

 

[Elvistheking]

In your shoes I'd get myself on a drysuit course in NY (this will also give you quality time with a professional), find your self some semi-regular buddies (on here and/or a dive club) then just go diving, probably in a inland site for the first few but then you live right by the sea take advantage of that! I'm guessing the waters around NY are probably darker and colder but you'll get used to it and I bet there are some great wrecks near a port of that size!

Diving every week or every other week your in water comfort and thus confidence will improve no end, then when you go on your 3/4 trips a year you'll be very "dive fit" and you'll find the blue water wetsuit stuff a complete doddle and be able to enjoy it all the more, and you'll be much better equipped to handle any problems that may arise.

 

[jmasin]

Like others have said, I think it is just hours in the "saddle".

I'd say when I crossed 25 dives I had a step function in comfort. When I crossed 50 I had another etc.

Now I relax so much the reg slips and I loose air around my lips during an inhale LOL. My point is, the relaxation comes with time.

Diving is like any activity. If you play golf think of how many swings it took to be comfortable with a decent swing. 100s? 1000s? 100s of thousands? How many hours on the course?

I spent countless hours learning how to skate before I stopped falling down, every new skill resulting in a fall until I did that for hours... Now think about how many hours you have diving. I have ~70 dives logged but only 45hrsof total time. Not that much in the grand scheme of things.

The only difference is a loosing a golf ball is a little less frightening than swallowing salt water... so the tendency for anxiety is higher.

**EDIT**

The best part of all, diving is now HOW I RELAX So it's the best of both worlds. It will come...

 

[bleeb]

Like others have said, I think it is just hours in the "saddle".

I'd like to qualify that. When you're a new diver, it's not just hours, but how close together those hours are, which is one of the things the Original Poster seemed to be wondering about. Since a significant part of diving is physical skills and reflexes, when you're brand new, I'd say that with a couple of dives every few weeks or months, each time you're not quite at zero but still close to restarting. Once those skills are a bit more automatic (as people have said in this thread, somewhere in the range of 10-25 dives, but all reasonably close together) skills don't erode quite as fast, although after four or six or twelve months off, you might still take a few dives to get your form back.

(Trying to put some WAG numbers on here, in case they help the OP.)

 

[jmasin]

Bleep, good point(s)!

 

[mud8847]

CrispyCritter/Beester/TSandM,

Wow, I think I just had an OOOOOOO Ah ha moment! I never thought about exhaling, which totally and completely makes sense now. Previously, when in stressful situation like the two previously encountered I do remember things starting to slide down hill and the order they happened. A previous hobby dealt heavily with breathing and not depriving your brain of oxygen, which obviously hinders your ability to think and react from a brain perspective. I now see a direct correlation between the situation and my reaction to both stressful events. In both short-breathing and pre-panic situations, my initial re-action was to increase my air intake to allow sufficient oxygen to my brain trying to provide more allowance thought wise to deal with the problem when in fact that made the problem worse! Just sitting here and taking deeper breathes without equally or a greater rate exhaling seems to initiate pre-hyperventilation forget being in a situation where you are sucking air through a long hose at a couple of atmospheres. In both situations, I increased my air intake while the act of clearing my lungs or exhaling remained the same.

This seems so simple now; however, everything and I mean everything seems to have taken on a new dimension or level of depth remarkably since receiving my OW, which is not limited to the act of simply breathing normally!

TSandM,

Actually, I plan to try and become a regular fixture at Dutch Springs for those exact reasons; no current, less stress, plenty of people to dive with, and still from the sounds of it a fun Saturday or Sunday afternoon!

I want and my thirst for knowledge seems immense. To be honest, I could care less about certifications I want the knowledge and skill! I was browsing the PADI site as I do often and looking at the specialty courses and forget only taking three plus the two required for AOW, I want and am interested in double that. Personally, there is never too much knowledge or too much education or training!

Tstormdiver/jmasin,

To be honest, yes, I need to build a level of confidence with the simple action of breathing under water and being underwater. I think given my history of many DSD dives and diving in some challenging conditions for me I became over confident and when I did encounter a situation or series of situations, it knocked me on my butt and back to realty. For example, eye opening experiences that diving is dangerous and like anything that is dangerous requires care, feeding, maintenance, and non-stop learning/education!

This thread has helped me immensely as if anything changed my mindset and thought process for the good! It is not necessarily me or something I’m doing wrong although there are a few things I need to change and work on but I’m not managing my expectations correctly. What I mean is, as most of all of you have stated diving at the interval I dive and the frequency actually at this early stage in my development is working against me not for me as I thought. Being my dive count is that of an extreme novice still despite previous dives as the elapsed time during that whole period actually washes those numbers. I feel much better knowing I’m not crazy, broken, or defective all though that is a different conversation or just over thinking things like I always do. I am a new diver with a little bit above average insight, which is just enough to make me dangerous and facilitate my ability to over think things!

How often do any of you dive? I’m curious to my level of passion or compulsion if you will.

PS: Beester very nice write up!

 

[jmasin]

How often do any of you dive? I’m curious to my level of passion or compulsion if you will.

Sadly not as much as I'd like.

I'd say maybe a few dives locally when it warms up, then 2 or 3 clear water trips a year (it's what I spend my money on now) that are 15-20 dives per trip.

I did only 1 trip last year due to family changes, so I'm itching to get going again this year.

 

[mud8847]

I’m lucky, my fiancée is a sun worshiper so she doesn’t seem to mind when she gets home or I call her at work and say can you take off the following dates, which is usually followed by “why, what did you do?” It tough, I like traveling and diving when I travel. Generally, I tend to schedule our getaways or actual vacations in warm places that just so happen to coincide with places I want to dive. However, don’t want to dominate our trips apart with me some where under the water and her gorgeous butt alone on a beautiful beach!

My plan has been and moving forward to try and get away 3 times a year for some warm water diving action with about 2 dives per trip (shore diving seems to be an interesting option) with an equal number of local visits, which of course doesn’t seem anywhere enough. I have digressed to thinking about throwing on gear, excuse to start buying my own and sitting at the deep end of my pool on a nice day to practice previously learned OW skills. No ummm, I was checking the liner for tears yeah ummm!

How do you deal with significant others who aren’t divers? To trade upgrade her for the diving model or compromise? J/L lol I know I have a sickness