Strange Experience

[AfterDark]

It is my understanding that narcosis with oxygen occurs below 130. Feet. Correct? My bottom on that dive was 115. Could I have been experiencing narcosis? If so, why didn't anyone else?

No, death would occur at 130' on oxygen. Narcosis could haapen at that depth on air.

 

[Aggiebq86]

I went on a dive in a wet suit I was thinking of buying. It was tighter across the chest and diaphragm than I expected. As soon as I submerged I felt the anxiety level shot up because I couldn't fully inhale. As soon as I put on a more comfortable suit the anxiety went away.

 

[knowone]

Oxygen - Snotr


Oxygen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


YouTube - CNS Oxygen Toxicity - Richard Vann PhD


YouTube - SCUBA: Rescuing a Toxic Diver


Oxygen toxicity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



A guy came over to fit himself out, and insisted on buying a semi-dry
that restricted full inhalation. Needless to say he left without the suit.

He had obviously settled down and realised when next we spoke.

Not as well will the glaringly obvious will kill you.

I think the neck seal was too tight also

as indicated by his purple head.


However he still would not have left with the suit even had his head remained
caucasian and empty

 

[jrwalsh20]

i recently returned from a trip where a similar experience happened to me, it was my 4th dive of the trip and it happened to be the easiest and shallowest i did all week, bottom was at 72. I have around 70 dives total and it was the first time it happened. I just got a slightly anxious/panicked feeling. nothing bad happened, i realized that there was nothing wrong with me and/or any equipment and at no time was i or my buddy in a dangerous situation. The feeling went away towards the end of my dive and did not happen again on my dives after that. I could not explain it or why it happened but it did. I think you did the exact correct thing on the first dive and the dive that you aborted.

I can not tell you what to do only you can do that, but a suggestion i may have - if i have only had 10 dives under my belt i would not be at 115fsw (you said this was your bottom depth). Like i said i have 70 dives under my belt and i have been under 105fsw only once. I am not afraid of going deep or doing deep dives i just find that there is a lot of cool stuff much shallower. I do not know your training or your skills so please dont think that i am telling you what to do, just saying what i would do. Stay shallow until you become more comfortable and then gradually go deeper if you want.

Safe diving

 

[victor]

Narcosis may have been the initial trigger.
I know that when I start to feel an irrational anxiety then I am getting narced. I don't seem to exibit some of the other side effects, e.g. poor maths skills, etc but it may be that my anxiety just forces me to do everything more carefully.

Now that you have triggered the anxiety you are remembering it on every dive.
My sugestion would be to go somewhere without the sort of diving that triggers the anxiety, walls, free descents, deep, e.g. Bonaire or similar.
The dive, dive, dive until you have forgotten that this ever occured, stay shallow e.g. 60ft max.

Once thats done do a deep dive in a controlled manner and see if anxiety is your symptom of being narced.

 

[Fish in a Barrel]

It's probably less common, but dehydration can also be another physical trigger for anxiety or panic attacks. I've experienced dehydration induced anxiety before (though not while diving), and it was not pleasant.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

You present an interesting question and story. First, you are not alone. General anxiety or stress comes over divers for no apparent reason at times. Rather than trying to analyze the root cause, which may in fact be futile, I think you should focus on the positives- you recognized your stress and anxiety; you responded properly by stopping, thinking, relaxing, and calming yourself. You terminated the dive for safety reasons. You recognized this the next day, and rather than force a decent, surfaced , took a moment, reevaluated and then, determining you coulyour stres the next day,took corrective and cautious steps in ascending, and collecting yourself before the second decent, and were intune with your stress. Comfort in the water will come with each additional hour of bottom time. Be attentive to you body and psyche, but don't overthink things like breathing. From your post I am confident you will become more comfortable with each dive, and I like your focusand coolheadedness even as a new diver. I'd dive with you any time.
DivemasterDennis

 

[TSandM]

If this was your own gear you were using, I'd definitely get it in to a shop and get the cracking pressure checked.

We had a friend who was a new diver who came on a trip with us -- she complained of nerves and buoyancy control issues through the whole trip. It eventually turned out her brand new regs were not adjusted correctly, and the cracking pressure was three times what it should have been. Increasing the work of breathing like that made it hard for her to keep her CO2 normal, so added to the normal anxiety of being a new diver was the anxiety born of a body trying to tell her she wasn't breathing enough.

If this was rental gear, I'd talk to your LDS about a session in the pool with some of their equipment, and see if you feel different there.

 

[discokat]

As I came out of a swim through and over the wall, I immediately had an extremely panicked feeling.

I think the other posters are probably right on target with the narcosis suggestion. However, if I'm reading what you wrote about your initial panic situation (and I might be wrong), you seemed to have developed the anxiety once you exited the swimthrough and were out over the wall with the deep directly in front of (and below) you. This might mean the problem wasn't the swimthrough itself but the feeling of helplessness that can arise when confronted with a vast open space before you. If this is the case you might have experienced a case of agoraphobia. Agoraphobia can be defined as a fear of wide open spaces, or a feeling of being in a situation where you can't get out. In a situation like this, you might have gotten the same feeling once you submerged on your next dives due to the similar circumstances surrounding your first case of anxiety.

However, it most likely a case of narcosis and/or the unfamiliarity of being so deep after so few dives. I just wanted to point that out as something else you might want to consider.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

However, if I'm reading what you wrote about your initial panic situation (and I might be wrong), you seemed to have developed the anxiety once you exited the swimthrough and were out over the wall with the deep directly in front of (and below) you. This might mean the problem wasn't the swimthrough itself but the feeling of helplessness that can arise when confronted with a vast open space before you. If this is the case you might have experienced a case of agoraphobia. Agoraphobia can be defined as a fear of wide open spaces, or a feeling of being in a situation where you can't get out.

@discokat: If looking over the edge of the wall into an abyss was the OP's issue, I'd say that's more consistent with an acrophobia-like condition than agoraphobia.