Weird Narcosis Experience?

[Bob DBF]

I altered my state of consciousness well after I learned to deal with narcosis, so it gave me a bit of insight the other way around.

The effects of narcosis can be mitigated but it takes practice and discipline that turns diving into more work than fun. My mentor, there were no classes above OW, at the time, taught me about dealing with narcosis as well as deco. To this day I won't plan to do a deep dive without doing workup dives. How narcosis presents itself may change, and one needs to insure that they will take the proper actions when impared, baby steps insures you can bail from the situation rather than get so narked you don't know you are.

 

[mcohen1021]

Biggest load of horse doodoo I've read on SB in a while. Sounded like a scuba soap opera. Couldn't even read the entire thing

 

[BlueTrin]

While I tried to fix it, trapped air bubbled up through an incomplete seal at my wrists, ballooning into my gloves and threatening to rocket me to the surface. Hands now encased in giant orbs, I wrapped my legs around the anchor line to keep myself at a steady depth while my buddy took over. My mind wailed.

Was it part of the hallucination?

Don’t use lift bags as gloves, you have been warmed

 

[BlueTrin]

Also this bit is suspicious

Nine metres… 15 metres… 18 metres… Scuba diving is a strange, reverential experience: breathing through an oxygen tank,

Have you ever seen someone with 300 dives under their belt refer to their backgas as an oxygen tank …

 

[billgraham]

I hear ringing and/or thumping with some of my narcs. Can be the key indicator to me now that I recognize it. That was the reason that I was buying part of her story.

It's your heartbeat.

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?

I have had a mild visual thing diving the CCR a time or two and it made me stop and chill out for a minute. Sort of like a halocline.

She said the water was 20 degrees. Without mentioning units one would assume metric based on the fact she used meters to describe depth. 20 degrees celcius is about the time I switch from 3mil to 7mil wetsuit. 20 degrees Fahrenheit would cause the ocean to be a solid block of ice.

I read that again myself and what she said is that she needed a drysuit because the water temp was below 20. She said it was November and I'm assuming we are talking about the UK so probably a lot colder. She talks about "Icy water" . . .

Are there any run of the mill psychoactive substances that could feed into hallucinatory onset while entering the narcosis zone? She doesn't mention if she had any history of LSD use, or attendance at raves.

I've read a lot of the scientific literature about LSD, and I don't recall anything about intoxication triggering acid flashbacks, so I'd discount that particular possibility.

I may have a passing familiarity with such substances (cough) and this sounds like a lot of hooey to me.

I've never read a newspaper article about diving that didn't refer to an "oxygen tank" so that's likely an idiot editor.

My read on this is a bit of dysphoria from narcosis and a slightly out of control fast descent (she's at 32m so it's certainly possible) coupled with some high anxiety ("it's always the same, high anxiety, but who is to blame?") bad vis, cold water on the face and in the ears, new gear (the drysuit) = a scary, exhausting dive.

 

[Bob DBF]

Also this bit is suspicious



Have you ever seen someone with 300 dives under their belt refer to their backgas as an oxygen tank …

It reads like a high school creative a writing class gone bad.

Reminds me of the woody Allen bit about plagiarism, "I was thrown out of N.Y.U. my freshman year for cheating on my metaphysics final, you know. I looked within the soul of the boy sitting next to me."