stupid(?) narcosis question

[sparkyjames]

The feelings you get when you are narced are not at all those you get when you are drunk. Doppler made that point already. But with a little practice you CAN detect the onset of narcosis, as people diving deep on air will attest. The taste of the air you are breathing will change in subtle ways (e.g. become slightly "metallic"), you will be more tolerant of the cold (can be dangerous...), you will seek reassurance from reading your instruments, sometimes sounds will be altered (my son swears that he could hear noises from his first stage), etc. etc. As long as you can distance yourself from these effects and stay in control of your dive you will most likely be OK. Your buddy will probably not notice, except maybe that you are looking at your gauges more often than usual, or that you are blinking your eyes in funny ways. S/he will probably be narced too, anyway.

Sometimes, particularly in stressful situations, narcosis can overwhelm you. I remember a couple of dives when I was convinced that I would never see the surface again. Not funny. Then there is indeed only one remedy, which is to SLOWLY ascend to a more comfortable depth. The symptoms WILL go away.

BTW, sparkyjames knows not what he is talking about. Sorry.

I am wondering what part of my post you did not think was true.
I have saied I always try to plan my dives so that this is not a isue.

And I think the risk are to great to even mess about.

one would think I know what I think and how I plan my dives
YES?

but this is just my thoughts on the matter.

To me any one that plans a dive with the intent of becomeing Narced is asking for troouble
there are gases to use to avoid or lessen the risk.
to me its like thinking if I jump off the roof of my house I might brake my leg so Ill do it and see if it hurts

why risk it?
becides there are classes you could take to learn to plan a dive to greater depth if you think this is some thing you want to do.

I would say start with the DIR-F class.
it is important to rember SAFETY FIRST.
So why risk it?
So you can say I got narced.
Sparky

 

[jbd]

My farm animals just might take offense here. What does the farmer plan to do with beef cattle? Why is it I have one that can't be caught? Maybe that calf is smarter than me

Reality check...

There are two areas we humans readily see when we are "impaired" by anything... alcohol or drugs.

One is balance... the junkie or drunk have a hard time walking a stright line. Unfortuntely, you can't fall when you are suspended in a liquid medium, so we can not make a useful reference there.

The other is speach. Slurred or hesitant speach is to us a sure sign that an individual is "under the influence". Well we don't speak under water, so our other reference is gone as well.

In short, MANY people who are experiencing narcosis have no clue. That's the real danger of it. You have become farm animal stupid and have no idea that you are in this condition. You can deny it, as many do. Or you can accept it as fact and plan your dives accordingly. Personally, I would dive with anyone who admits to being narced at 80 ft, but I usually choose to not dive with those who claim that they never get narced at all. One is safe, but the other is already farm animal stupid on the surface.

 

[drillalaska]

I have been narced before at 130 feet. It does feel like being drunk. I notified my buddy and we both got back on the boat.

Who cares if have experience with being drunk, drunks have no judgement.

 

[The Chairman]

DIR-F class? Why? Start with advanced NitrOx and Deco then move to trimix classes. That will give you the training to be able to dive deep. DIR-F does not cover that subject.

 

[ShakaZulu]

Nitrogen acts as an anesthetic at depth and the effect is not the same as alcohol. The two are .....

with this as in many cases you are just trading one set of risk factors for another, but it is not worth arguing about as it still remains a personal choice.

That is the key there, I feel super kewl when that happens.....scares me. Need more deep dive experience, with a deep dive buddy.

 

[vjongene]

I am wondering what part of my post you did not think was true.
I have saied I always try to plan my dives so that this is not a isue.

My point here was that you were talking about a phenomenon (nitrogen narcosis) without having experienced it yourself, just repeating stuff found in most OW training materials. The original question was: "Does experience with the effects of alcohol allow one to deal better with nitrogen narcosis". Your answer said basically that one should plan dives to avoid narcosis altogether, which does not address the question.

The fact is that many divers plan dives under conditions where they know that narcosis will be a factor. This can be taken into account in the dive plan, and there are many signs that signal narcosis to a diver who knows what to look for. The subject of whether "deep air" is an acceptable dive practice has been discussed here many times. Several respected diving agencies still include it in their teaching curriculum. Others argue that since diving on trimix is demonstrably safer, this is the only acceptable form of diving beyond "recreational limits".

In my own case, I am going to be diving the wrecks in Bikini next month. Because of the remoteness of the island, helium is not available. The wrecks lie on a 55-60 m bottom. I have no doubt whatsoever that I will be narced during those dives, as will be everyone else in the group. So we'd better be prepared.

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

The closest experience to narcosis is breathing nitrous oxide at the dentist's office.

Please don't call your friendly, neighborhood dentist and beg for laughing gas. It will not produce any tolerance to nitrogen narcosis.

Some narcosis tolerance seems to occur with repeated deeper dives. On any given day, however, you may experience a hit at a depth you have never experienced or expected it to happen.

Sometimes narcosis can be pleasant and other times it may produce a lot of anxiety. Occasionally, it is only when you surface that you realize that you weren't all there. Narcosis can also create a near panic state and you can easily lose it at depth. Do your best to recognize the effect and avoid it if possible.

Er...NetDoc...can you explain why I have been seeing so many cows and chickens at my office lately?

Regards,

Larry Stein