Question Panic in the experienced diver?

It would seem to me that, as we gain experience and go through some minor glitches on dives, we should increase our capacity to tolerate issues underwater. I'm wondering what could cause an experienced (say, more than 200 lifetime dives) diver to become distressed enough to lose rational thought. Has anyone here (who meets those criteria) been through a panic event? What caused it, and what did you do?

 

[SnorkelLA]

My buddy once knocked my regulator out of my mouth, and I went completely bat s*** crazy. My log book shows this was my 2nd ever dive

 

[Puffer Fish]

Mine was swimming over a bottom that I thought was reasonably solid,only to sink into something that was sort of like dark chocolate pudding...you could feel it cling to your legs, and the first movement to get out cause a complete black out...zero vis, zero light..and the bottom of it was so thick you could not move your legs to kick..even though a lot of year ago, that feeling of complete lack of control and being trapped has stayed with me. Since then, I've been thru a lot of situations where I started moving towards panic, and all I have to do is tell myself "lets just take a second and relax, we really don't want to go back to that place."

I think my own actions scared me more that the situation... I had a ton of air, and while the stuff was thick, I knew it could not be more that 6 or 8 ft deep. But I panicked and completely opened the fill bottle on my Fenzy vest (instantly adding just under 70 lbs of lift)...it took seconds to move at all, then slowly moved and then I shot to the surface. Don't know if I exhaled, inhaled, and a lot of really bad things could have happened in those few seconds. I was fine, but if you have ever been thru an adrenaline rush like that, you come down really hard. I went to shore, refilled the Fenzy fill bottle and went back to the area and sank back down in the stuff. Bet it took me 10 minutes to actually relax... and another 10 to figure out how to get out (kicking is not the answer, as you tend to sink deeper)...

I believe, had I not gone back, I would have given up diving.

Later I would take students out there, never saw anyone that did not panic the first time, even when told what they were going to experience...

 

[Jaydubya]

I aspirated water inside a cave and probably would have bolted to the surface if that had been physically possible. After I stopped coughing, I found myself hyperventilating- it felt as if my reg was not able to deliver enough gas. I realized that I need to calm down or I'm going to die here. My buddy saw that I was stressed and was trying to find out what was going on- that added to my stress- I managed a strong hold signal- he "got" it and I then was able to force myself to relax. In a minute or two it was as if nothing had happened. I did not panic- but I definitely saw it's ugly head and was able to fight it back.

 

[boulderjohn]

A friend of mine had an interesting panic experience. He is very experienced--he is a tech diving instructor. He was on a very simple recreational dive at about 90 feet and suddenly, for no discernible reason, he felt some fairly intense panic. He had enough sense and experience to suspect narcosis, even though he was not all that deep. He ascended 10-15 feet and almost immediately felt better. His diving companions looked at him, puzzled, and he slowly descended to join them again. He felt fine and finished the dive without incident. He is convinced it was a form of narcosis.

 

[oldschool]

Last spring, I was making a dive at Lake Travis in a spot called the Oasis wall. The guy I was diving with was soon to start his tech course and needed another deep dive prior to starting. We headed out from the wall and dropped over the edge of the river channel to approx 96 ft. Visability that day was maybe 2 ft max. Once we hit 96 ft, we turned around and followed the reciprocal course back to the wall which is at about 60 ft. The plan was to come to the wall, take a right and dive along the wall, then surface. On the way back to the wall, I glanced up and realized I had unknowingly entered into a very large grotto. I was now unexpectedly in an overhead environment. I've been into many grottos before and was never worried (probably because I was aware I was entering a grotto). I stayed at the ceiling and checked my air. I had plenty so that was not a problem. I maintained hand contact with the ceiling (viz was less than one ft by now) and back pedaled until I felt the outer edge. It seemed like a lifetime. Anyway, at the time, I didn't panic. However, later on that day, the experience started messing with my mind. Since then, I sometimes struggle with diving in low visability situations which can be a problem since the majority of my dives are in local lakes. I am taking it slow, getting comfortable with it again. I have a 19 cf pony now which provides a bit more security. I guess it will just take time to get back the nerve.

 

[Thalassamania]

I have always modeled safety as a "cone" in the water that is point down. As long as you are inside the cone you're OK, when you start to drift outside of it you are in trouble and when you are completely outside of it you are not going to make it. Skill, as transmitted through training as well as experience both teaches you how to stay, not just inside, but in the center of the cone so that even as you go deeper and the circle scribed by the intersection of the plane of your depth and the cone narrows, you are still close to the middle. Panic results in the almost chaotic jump from inside the cone to somewhere outside the cone with little or no frame of reference as to how to get back. This is sometimes the result of a single big event, but is more often the result of a series of small displacements, each one of which multiplies the one(s) that came before. What is the difference between say Parker Turner struggling to get to the opening till he passes out and the new diver clawing his way to an embolism because his valve was not open all the way? I don't really know ... some would say that it is a lack of imagination while others would say that it is strength of will. If I had to guess I say that lack of panic comes from the habituation of good habits that jump you back into the cone, almost without concern as to where you were displaced to. Thinking slow, taking a deep breath and remembering that even if all your gear has failed you've got four minutes or so (rather a long time) to solve your issues can go a long way.

 

[mk706]

I believe in some instances narcosis brings on symptoms of the sudden sense of dread that can lead to panic. I have experienced this on at least three occasions.

First was diving the Might O. On a recreational dive, breathing air all was fine for the first 25 minutes of the dive. Between 110-120FSW I experienced a sudden sense of dread, believed something terrible was surely about to happen. Fought the urge to surface, made a controlled accent to about 85FSW, then couldn't find the correct mooring. Now in nearly full-on panic mode. Thankfully, my insta-buddy swam up, checked on me, got me to the correct mooring and we continued to ascend. By 70FSW all was well, my breathing returned to normal and my head cleared.

Has happened on two more dives, both on air, at reasonable depths (~90FSW). Believe the culprit was narcosis after assessing my previous and following profiles. I now choose to dive nitrox or trimix on most dives deeper than 85FSW. Have not since experienced the sense of dread or other effects of narcosis.

 

[Thalassamania]

Dark narc can be really hard.

 

[gcbryan]

I think we're all capable of it if the wrong set of circumstances occur but I've not experienced it or heard of it with more experienced divers either. Part of it is pushing the panic bar higher with experience of course and part of it may be knowing what your personal limitations are or what your personal "buttons" are and just staying away from those.

I'm sure it's more likely to occur with a set of circumstances that you didn't foresee. I was in a pretty stressful situation but wasn't even close to panic whereas my buddy (more experienced than I) was close to it...but still not there.

I was in a situation that wasn't initially stressful at all and probably came close to panic but again didn't.

The first dive mentioned was just a dive when all hell broke loose including a drastic change in the weather while we were under.

The second dive was a "nothing" dive but I had just replaced the neck seal on my drysuit and the sizing was close enough without trimming it that I thought I'd go on a dive with it first. This was a night dive with some surface swimming involved and although the neck was tight it didn't seem like a major problem. Minutes into the dive I just felt like something was wrong. I was very uncomfortable. After another few minutes I felt like I had to ascend. I signaled my buddies but didn't stick around to try to explain what was wrong as I didn't know but I thought I might pass out.

The surface was only 30 feet away. Even when I got to the surface and was able to talk to my buddies I wasn't sure what was going on. I thumbed the dive and then as I started the surface swim back I reached up to my neck seal and put my finger in there to loosen it up a bit and instantly felt much better. When I got home and looked in the mirror I had a fairly deep indented line going around my neck! This was still there the next morning. It looked as if I had been garroted (which I had)!

When I've seen threads asking what the most stupid thing you've done in scuba was I think of that incident but I guess it is as close as I've come to panic as well. I didn't panic but I'm sure it was either a matter of a few more minutes until I would have either panicked or passed out!

 

[Zippsy]

Once, when working as a DM with about 350 dives. Only 2 minutes underwater and still going down a mooring line, everything seemed to be going wrong. Strong current, divers not staying on the line, some going fast, others slow, ear trouble, etc. I started to feel like I could not get enough air and was hyperventilating. We were only around 15m but I said, screw this, turned and started up the line. 5m higher I was able to get it under control and go back down but for that 30 seconds or so, i was in pure panic mode. Only training kept me on the line and some will power and rest turned me around.

Strange, but a while after that incident, pure stupidity had me doing a solo dive at 30m with a few minutes deco obligation and something like 15 bar. Panic didn't cross my mind then and probably should have!