Weird Narcosis Experience?

[chillyinCanada]

300 dives and the first one to 75’ to experience narcosis, does this sound weird to anyone else?

Unless you are actually looking for it, most first timers wont even notice they are narked. Even deeper, it’s touch and go whether one will recognise narcosis unless they have learned to detect its effects on them.

A CO2 hit is not narcosis, by itself it is a real pita, when combined with narcosis it’s an asskicker.

The symptoms the diver described do not seem to me to be either. I would go along with the vertigo theory, as I have heard some bizarre symptoms from two friends that have suffered. Spinning is something that we all have experienced, but sometimes the brain processes the information differently.

Perhaps @Duke Dive Medicine would drop by and give an informed opinion.


Bob

300+ dives and still referring to it as an oxygen tank, is equally odd.

 

[shoredivr]

300+ dives and still referring to it as an oxygen tank, is equally odd.

Yes that stood out to me. Maybe an editor changed it.

 

[Celt]

A very fast descent in cold water will bring on a sudden hit. I always assumed it was narcosis. We had a pet name for it “ the twilight zone “ from the old Alfred Hitchcock series

 

[chillyinCanada]

A very fast descent in cold water will bring on a sudden hit. I always assumed it was narcosis. We had a pet name for it “ the twilight zone “ from the old Alfred Hitchcock series

Is it normal to still be discombobulated on the surface and in other settings for ages afterwards?

Do you folks have the same visual weirdness the writer describes?

 

[Celt]

Is it normal to still be discombobulated on the surface and in other settings for ages afterwards?

Do you folks have the same visual weirdness the writer describes?

The bottom would look like there was a pattern to it and would feel soft, I would go straight into a gear check to bring about a routine and it would pass very quickly. A fast change in pressure and cold murky water brought it on. Very disorienting first time it happens.

 

[Bob DBF]

...twilight zone “ from the old Alfred Hitchcock series

Rod Serling might take offence, giving his show to Hitchcock.


Bob

 

[Celt]

Rod Serling might take offence, giving his show to Hitchcock.


Bob

Apologies to Rod Serling I always thought it was Alfred Hitchcock

 

[chillyinCanada]

Perhaps you should credit Salvador Dali instead?

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

300 dives and the first one to 75’ to experience narcosis, does this sound weird to anyone else?

Unless you are actually looking for it, most first timers wont even notice they are narked. Even deeper, it’s touch and go whether one will recognise narcosis unless they have learned to detect its effects on them.

A CO2 hit is not narcosis, by itself it is a real pita, when combined with narcosis it’s an asskicker.

The symptoms the diver described do not seem to me to be either. I would go along with the vertigo theory, as I have heard some bizarre symptoms from two friends that have suffered. Spinning is something that we all have experienced, but sometimes the brain processes the information differently.

Perhaps @Duke Dive Medicine would drop by and give an informed opinion.


Bob

Strictly speculation, but my first thought was contaminated gas. Caloric vertigo is another possibility, the author did describe water ingress into her hood. That's transient though, and goes away when the temperature in the inner ear equilibrates. Maybe if it went along with a panic attack like @IncreaseMyT described.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[IncreaseMyT]

I was actually thinking about that last night for a while, and my friends situation could have been a middle ear squeeze rather than cold water vertigo. I am reading It doesn't take much to get vertigo if the pressures in your middle ear are not equal.

This would make sense on why he couldn't come up, because a reverse squeeze would make the situation worse. I think this is why that mask is so important for my son, his middle ear will not equalize upon ascent without it.

Crazy how similar their descriptions of the symptoms were. I was skeptical at first of him, as you can imagine I thought he wouldn't want to dive again because he got into a fight with a bull shark.