Stress

[Garrobo]

In one of the threads there is a discussion about stress. What the heck is stressful about diving. When my body hits the water all the stress goes away.

 

[Diver Dennis]

The stress comes from thinking about telling my wife how much I spent on the new camera. I haven't gotten one yet so my legs are still in one piece... so far.

 

[dboddy]

Stress is a relative term...when your relatives visit...you are stressed!! Go dive!!!

 

[Pirate Lady]

Stress!!!! We all have it. I have found the BEST MEDICINE is diving. Nothing better than clear blue water and a reef with beautiful fish to float away the stress factor.

 

[Rick Inman]

I have tested it, and my blood pressure drops after a dive.

When I was doing my tech training, my instructor intentionally stressed me underwater. Also, I found that I would feel stress about an upcoming deep dive, but be relaxed while in the water. Most of my stress came from the anticipation of what was coming, but went away when I actually got in the water.

 

[String]

In one of the threads there is a discussion about stress. What the heck is stressful about diving.

The in the water bit is fine.

The stress of constantly checking forecasts to make sure its safe, loading and packing all the dive gear, loading the boat equipment, driving 100+ miles for the site, setting up and loading the kit, prepping the boat, hoping the boat works and troubleshooting issues, getting to the dive site safely if its rough and the same in reverse is the stress.

Also when covering for other divers down there's the stress of keeping roughly in their area, the wait until their bag arrives and so on.

Diving for me is normally an 18 hour day, most of that is stress for 1 sometimes 2 x 30 mins of relaxation in the middle.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

In one of the threads there is a discussion about stress. What the heck is stressful about diving. When my body hits the water all the stress goes away.

Lots of things underwater can cause stress ... and stress causes both physical and mental issues that can lead to problems. Diving in murky water can be stressful ... especially if you're reasonably deep and get one of those "where the hell am I?" moments. Encountering an unexpected current can be stressful. Wondering what's up with your dive buddy ... or where he went ... can be very stressful. Having a 1,000 lb sea lion swim up and get in your face tends to stress some people out.

Yes, I also find diving to be a very relaxing activity ... when everything goes as expected. Unfortunately, it's the nature of the ocean to be unpredictable. And when you encounter the unexpected, stress is one of your body's ways of dealing with it.

That's why it's important to practice certain skills to the point where you can do them without having to put a lot of thought into it ... because stress tends to narrow your mental bandwidth, and it's just at that point where you're focusing on dealing with the source of your stress that something's going to go south and lead to an even bigger issue.

Underwater, stress is NOT your friend ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Garrobo]

Only girly-men get stressed.

 

[ScubaSarus]

We all live in glass houses

 

[RonFrank]

I've been stressed on a few dives, or at least on the surface. One example was on the Grove following a line from the boat in 6'+ seas with my camera getting tangled, and in strong current to boot. I burned through 500psi of air before even starting down!

Diving is not stressful.... until it is!

This is one reason I routinely practice various drills when doing SS's, or even on some dives.