Survived a Panic Attack at 100 feet - lessons learned

[mpm6821]

Hi all,

To begin with, I'm a new member to ScubaBoard and I can't believe all the good stuff I've been missing by not being on here! I can spend hours on this site reading to my hearts content and sharing my passion with like minded folks so "Great to meet everyone!"

On a recent trip down to the Florida Keys I suffered a MAJOR panic attack at depth and I thought I would share my experience and the lessons I learned. Suffice to say, I'm alive and suffered no physical harm...mentally I'm still working though some issues but I've found several people on this board who have had similar experiences and reading about it has definitely helped.

On to the story.....

About four days into a pretty spectacular dive trip, we found ourselves going through our usual morning routine of loading up the boat with tanks/food/water/etc and heading out for a day (and night) of diving. That particular morning we decided to head back to the USCGC Bibb which we had some pretty awesome dives on earlier in the week.

When we got in the water there was a decent current but I was able to get to the descent line without to much trouble. Upon descending, it was apparent that the current was stronger on the bottom but not to the point where I felt the need to abort my dive (which I have no problem doing).

We bottomed out around 125 feet and penetrated part of the wreck. Since we were diving NDL on air, our time inside was very short and we exited the wreck around 95-100 feet. Although I've been mildly narced before, I'm positive I was this time because for some reason I was confused and headed for the wrong ascent line to hang out until I had to begin my ascent. I turned around to look for my buddy and he was headed to the other ascent line in the opposite direction.

I immediately hit my tank banger to get his attention and when he looked backed I signaled to the ascent line I was headed towards and then gave him the "up" signal indicating my intentions. He shakes he head no and points towards the ascent line he's heading towards and follows with an "up" signal. It was clear we both thought the respective lines we were swimming towards was the correct one. Clearly one of us was wrong (turns out it was me) but the last thing I was going to do was leave my buddy after doing a deep dive like that.

I'm irritated as all get out but I start swimming after him. By this time the current had really picked up to the point where I was kicking really hard and basically had to pull myself along the deck. Bring on the CO2 build up....

When I get to the line I'm breathing REALLY hard and all of a sudden I feel that the harder I breathe the less air I can get. My wetsuit feel like it's too around my neck, I feel panic starting to creep up and next thing you know I'm in a full tailspin and the only thing going through my head is "GET TO THE SURFACE NOW OR YOU'RE GOING TO DIE RIGHT HERE!!!!!".

I can honestly say it was the single most terrifying moment of my life by a factor of ten. Nothing else has even come close and this is coming from a guy who skydive's as his other hobby!

So I'm in a full blown panic attack and my buddy is about 8-10 feet above me on the ascent line. Every ounce of me was screaming to BOLT to the surface but somewhere way deep in the back of my head I knew that if I did, my chances of surviving to the end of the day were quite low. I mustered every ounce of sanity I had left, clamped my reg to my face with my hand and just kept saying to myself..."you're OK...just breathe....you're OK....you've got plenty of air...just breathe".

By doing that I managed to quell that insane need to bolt to the surface but I was still not in good shape. I looked up at my buddy who was still very close above me (but wasn't fully aware of what was going on) and knew that only thing that would help me get through this was to make human contact immediately! I grabbed his fin, pulled him down to my level, took a hold of his BC shoulder straps and just focused on looking him square in the eyes. That simple feeling of knowing there was somebody else there and making contact with them worked like a magic charm and within about 10 seconds, I had my breathing under control and I knew everything was going to be OK. My buddy finally figured out something was wrong after he saw that my eyeballs we about as big as silver dollars!

We ascended normally, made our safety stop and got back on the boat with out further incident. So here are the lessons I learned....

1. Plan your dive and plan it again - since I had done a few dives on this wreck earlier in the week, I decided to dive the same route I had before. My mistake was to assume the currents would be the same strength and direction but they weren't. If I would have descended on the down current line, swam through the wreck and exited, my trip back to the ascent line would have been down current...basically could have drifted. This would have basically eliminated all that CO2 build up on the hellish swim to the line

2. Know your body and your abilities - Wreck diving is a true passion for me and while back I made sure I sought out the proper training to conduct that type of diving safely. I have accumulated quite a number of wrecks and progressed through repetition to have safely dove that wreck as well as several others like it with confidence. Regardless of my confidence level, I should have recognized that when I started getting confused and agitated, my evil-step brother nitrogen was stepping in and I needed to take the appropriate steps to deal with it....sometimes easier said than done.

3. Pick your dive buddy carefully - On that trip, I happened to be diving with one of my closest long-time friends and someone who I trust with my life implicitly. We are both fairly experienced and have dove a lot together so we always seem to know where each other is and never get too far apart on higher risk dives. I'm not sure I would have made it out of that situation if I wasn't with my trusted buddy.

4. When disaster strikes, do one thing at a time and move on to the next thing and keep going until you're safe - I actually got this line from a booked called Shadow Divers (awesome book BTW) and it is the truth. When I was panicking, I swear I said to myself "one step at a time" and my thought process went like this:

"Breathe..."

(OK...I can breathe)

"you've got plenty air..."

(yep...plenty of air)

"find your buddy..."

(found him...it's cool)

"It's going to be OK..."

(yep...it IS going to be OK)

5. Learn from your mistakes - I've spent quite a bit of time rehashing that dive in my head and I know the errors I made and the circumstances that escalated the situation. The key now is to not make the same mistake twice!


My fingers have now totally cramped up from typing so much but I hope that for those of you who read this, you can learn from others and take away something that might make your next dive adventure just a little bit safer. Bubbles!

Michael

 

[robint]

thanks for posting, I am sure many people can benefit from your "adventure".

 

[scuba70]

Wow, what an experience. I'm glad you got everything straight while you were at depth. It just goes to show that even with your experience level, you haven't necessarily experienced everything yet.

 

[TSandM]

Reading this brought back memories of THIS thread, which is one of my all-time favorites. Managing to make your approach steady and methodical in the face of heart-pounding, short of breath anxiety is difficult, but it's how you survive.

 

[Walter]

A couple of points.

1. That was not a panic attack.

A panic attack is a sudden episode of intense fear that develops for no apparent reason and that triggers severe physical reactions. Panic attacks can be very frightening. When panic attacks occur, you might think you're losing control, having a heart attack or even dying.

You may have only one or two panic attacks in your lifetime. But if you have panic attacks frequently, it could mean that you have panic disorder, a type of chronic anxiety disorder.

Panic attacks were once dismissed as nerves or stress, but they're now recognized as a real medical condition. Although panic attacks can significantly affect your quality of life, treatment — including medications, psychotherapy and relaxation techniques to help prevent or control panic attacks — is very effective.

2. You were close to panic, but you did not panic. You stayed in control. Good job! Next time, catch it before it gets that far.

Any time we feel something like this, we need to relax and take slow deep breaths.

People panic because they are afraid. When they get scared, they will begin a pattern of shallow, very rapid breaths. Shallow breathing, especially rapid shallow breathing causes carbon dioxide build up. Carbon dioxide build up, in turn, causes a person to feel a greater need to breathe. They breathe faster and shallower resulting in more CO2 and very quickly the rational part of the brain shuts down. That is panic.

The best way to break the cycle is to never let it get started. The best way to stop it from beginning is to train divers so they are very skilled and have confidence in their abilities. That begins with swimming ability and builds with learning to skin dive. On top of that, it's important to add confidence building skills.

Sometimes, people still get scared. An understanding of the panic cycle can stop this fear from turning into panic. "Stop, breathe, think, act" isn't enough. They have to understand that they need to take deep, slow breaths. Slow, deep breathing lets us think and thereby solve our problems.

 

[openmindOW]

Thank you for sharing your personal story with us.

I was not there, so I am not going to speculate as to what happened.

I do have a question, though. Feel free to not answer if this too personal. Have you ever had a "panic attack" on the surface?

Narcing can be dangerous. I don't knwo if you narced, but you might have.

I am glad that you were not hurt.

 

[mpm6821]

Thanks for all the feedback...very helpful.

openmindOW - in answer to your question, that's he first time I have every experienced a feeling like that in my life and I can promise you I have been in some pretty scary situations before. Only way to describe it was sheer terror as I thought I was going to have to do something very stupid (bolt) and probably pay a huge price.

Walter - great point about making a concerted effort to take slow, deep breaths to regain normal breathing. I believe that is what I eventually ended up doing but it was probably more sub-consciously than in my immediate thinking process. Definitely some good advice I will remember.

 

[goldenbear01]

first off, congrats on keeping a cool head. secondly, i'm a newb to diving, so please don't take anything i read as a flame of anyone--i'm just trying to get better info so that i can be a safer diver. anyway, i'm wondering if once your buddy realized that you were heading to the other line, he shouldn't have waited for you to reach him before ascending the line. he probably figured that with your experience and skill level you'd be ok and whatnot, but aren't buddies supposed to dive within about arms-length of one another, even in good viz conditions? or do buddies only need to be w/in a quick/short swim of one another (assuming good viz)?

 

[Lyndon C]

............ anyway, i'm wondering if once your buddy realized that you were heading to the other line, he shouldn't have waited for you to reach him before ascending the line. he probably figured that with your experience and skill level you'd be ok and whatnot, but aren't buddies supposed to dive within about arms-length of one another, even in good viz conditions? or do buddies only need to be w/in a quick/short swim of one another (assuming good viz)?

first, i have to say that each one of us here really have to ponder that anything could happen and we just have to know how to deal with it. for me my confidence level is quite good but whenever i dive with my wife, it is when this fear that what if something wrong might happen when at depth. to eliminate this fear factor, i use a buddy line and it just works wonders. so my suggestion is that each one of us should bring a buddy line and if one feels something is wrong then one can always signal for a buddy line attachment and arrest any onset of panic. prevention is the key here.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I may get burned for this but IMO how close you need to be to your buddy depends on conditions, viz, depth, current, experience, familiarity with the site.
If the Site is new and there is a site guide we stay with them, slightly higher than them and stay in fairly close contact with each other. The worse the viz or conditions the closer we stay to each other. We have had conditons where we held hands
Know the style of your buddy or buddies and dive accordingly. I don't want to be tripping over my buddy all the time either. Regular contact and communication is vital.
My best instructor is my buddy. He drilled the stop, breathe, think then act concept into me for diving.
That concept applies in an out of the water. Back when I was training Paramedics and now when I teach regular first aid I explain the chain reaction
Move too quick= elevated respiration= elevation pulse= elevated adrenelyn = thought process goes down= situation deteriorates