Unreasonable fear of depth

[JahJahwarrior]

Diving is supposed to be fun, so as long as you are enjoying shallow dives, then do shallow dives! No shame!

I've dove deep, and it was dark, murky and cold. It was fun. I never really gave any thought to the "what if's" and in general, I suppose I'm not usually one to panic. I figure I'll take it as it comes and be prepared for everything I can.

As others have said, a pony might be a good idea for you if you fear OOA. Having more life support gear never hurts! It's also a good idea to think about some things such as an extra mask, and servicing your BC inflator and maybe even putting one of those little hats on the hose so if it did stick open, you could pull off your hose more easily. Get your regs looked at too sometime to make sure they are operating correctly. Having freshly serviced gear might also make you more at ease. (however, I would NOT reccomend a deep dive on just-serviced gear. I've heard far too many stories of gear failure due to improper servicing, so do a shallow dive first to make sure the guy put the thing back together correctly. Any problems ought to crop up immediately if he didn't.)

 

[Meng_Tze]

....
All in all, there's nothing wrong with diving within your comfort zone. It's s'posed to be fun.

As far as overcoming your fear, I think more experience and diving will help. It might also help to practice buddy skills and air sharing skills so that you know you have other options.

What he said

 

[Zoomer]

fuzzmuttom, I think I know what you are feeling. Being a new diver and soon going to start my AOW class, the thought of going 90' bothers me a little. I have thought long and hard about it, even stood at the bottom of a 4 story building estimating the height of the building and thinking "I"m going to be deeper than this building is tall". Not sure what exactly my fear is about going that deep.

 

[Katamuki]

My wife does not like to dive deeper than about 80 feet. She absolutely does NOT like the narc effect and at the slightest feeling she signals for our team to go back up a way to continue the dive. She is absolutely comfortable on the darkest moonless night at 80 feet but going deeper even in the day makes her uncomfortable. So, that has become part of our plan when we dive together, no big deal.

 

[ryanpublic]

Does anyone else out there, or would they admit it if they did, have a fear of diving deeper, than say, 60 ft? And, to complicate things further, only at times.

I LOVE diving, I am passionate about it. Although I am new to diving I have always been fascinated by it and wanted to do it. I read about it, think about it and dream about it when not actually doing it...yet...when I actually think about going below 60 ft. I almost break into a sweat.

Sometimes when doing a deep dive, if there is interesting things to see and the water is murky enough to not be able to tell my depth by looking up I have been fairly comfortable at 70, 80 and even 90 feet. It's when I can look up in clear water and see all that water on top of me and the surface light so far away, knowing I have to maintain a certain ascent rate to safely get through it and if I NEEDED to GET TO THE SURFACE like, right now, I wouldn't be able to, nor would I be able to do an emergency OOA ascent (I know my lungs, I had a hard time with the 30 ft. required for class), that I feel like I would rather be back on the boat than diving.

I do my best shore diving, shallow stuff, at around 30 ft. What is wrong with me that makes me lay in bed with my heart pounding at the thought of doing a 90 ft dive? Does anyone else have this problem? I'm not a coward, I do night dives even, it's just this depth thing. And any suggestions for getting past it would be appreciated.

Well it didn't used to bother me! Thanks for that image!:11:

Just kidding. I'd just give it time. Nothing wrong with diving shallow for a while. You'll end up building confidence in yourself, your equipment, and even your hubby buddy. Take as long as you want there's plenty to see above 60'.

I can't really say I ever experienced that fear but there are some things that made me nervous when I started out that don't bother me a lot anymore. When I started diving I told my instructor I just wanted to take it slow. Didn't want to get into photography or nitrox, nothing extreme. Now it's been two years, I'm at dive 221 (in those two years). And now I'm into that extreme underwater photography and nitrox. But I don't think I'll go to the REALLY EXTREME of wreck diving or TRIMIX:ignore: or rebreathers:no.

If you really want advice about how to get over it, maybe just keep your buddy close and take your mind off it by not looking up?! Tell him you want to hold his hand til you get used to it. Keep your attention on the fish or the reef. You say you're comfy when the surface isn't obvious so that might help.

 

[YellowfinKunkfish]

The thought of going deeper than 60 feet bothers me too. I Looooooove diving, and we dive in low vis all the time. Low vis seems to have no effect on me at all, don't mind it, love diving in it. The thought of being very deep in low vis, makes me nervous. I wouldn't say I'm afraid, (cause I don't like to say I'm afraid of anything.) But, I will admit, it makes me uneasy. I think it's similar to what bothers the OP, more water above me makes any situation, no matter how simple to solve, more serious. The further down I go, the longer it's going to take me to get back up. I recently went on my deepest dive yet, to 60 feet. I was anxious, but I can't really say it was because of depth, because I was also VERY cold. The water was 45 degrees, and we had been in it, at that time probably about 20 minutes. I signalled to end the dive, and my husband/buddy signalled that we would ascend by just gradually swimming up the shoreline. That wasn't exactly what I wanted, (I kind of really wanted to just get out right then) but it worked out just fine. I know eventually I'll get there, it will just take more time in the water. There's more stuff down there deep that I want to see!

Rhonda

 

[crpntr133]

I use to have this fear when I first started diving. In OW I thought, I don't care if I go past 30 feet. Second dive we went to 45'. Ok so then 45' was my limit. Soon after did 75'. Now I have been to 135' several times.
I know what everyone means about looking at a building and thinking, man that is a lot of water over my head. Makes you think about what you are doing.

 

[texdiveguy]

I usually dive "murky" water and my comfort zone is there. I sometimes get agoraphobic in really clear water. Once, it happened in a pool that was so clear, I could count the tiles on one side of the pool from the other. I had an irrational urge to hide in the deepest, darkest part of the pool.

All in all, there's nothing wrong with diving within your comfort zone. It's s'posed to be fun.

Right on!!!!

 

[Pearldiver07]

I too had depth issues when I started. I've never really pushed to go deeper either. When the situation and circumstances were right it just seemed right. I might suggest that during your initial training when they discussed recommended depth limits and the reasons why your mind locked onto it hard. Or perhaps at the emotional level you're not as secure in your gear functioning reliably as you think. But I'm just guessing here.

I did my deep dive of the AOW and Deep Specialty in the lakes of Texas. It was dark, COLD, and had about 3' viz on a couple of the dives. Fortunately, the last two were about 20 feet of viz, which I found helped considerably. I can tell you I understand not feeling comfortable. In my opinion, if you never get that "am I sure I want to be here?" thought, I'd say you're not thinking enough.

I now am learning tech skills, and going beyond the traditional rec limits, but not just to do it. I regularly practice my skills, but going deep to log one is really not my thing. If there's a reason, like checking out a wreck, I don't want to be limited. But believe me when I tell you that any deep dive I do is not done lightly.

Look, if the moment is right, it'll happen. In the end, it doesn't really matter why you don't want to go deep if you're happy now. If you're having plenty of fun at 30', there's nothing to worry about, and really there's no reason to go beyond.

Enjoy your dives, as they're all good if you have fun.

 

[Cajuncru Diver]

Whatever your fear is you are realistic to understand that you have it and you should respect that....how many times have we all heard the advice that if you "don't feel comfortable" about a dive don't make it..........it's better to stay at a depth at which you are comfortable than do something that causes you to hyperventilate or panic..........stay at your confort level and you will find that level will expand with experience.