jvanostrand
Contributor
I met Peter Murray at Peacock Spring last week and I thought I'd exercise my SB account and ask about managing anxiety.
It was the same week in Peacock and at about the farthest penetration of my young cave diving career that I experienced anxiety. It was enough anxiety that my breathing changed and a small additional issue might have sent it out of control. What went through my head was "if my breathing gets out of control I'll be in trouble" and that made it worse. I managed to calm down by going to my "happy place". I realized during cave training that the lights-out-line-follow was very relaxing. I okayed the line and was calm in about a minute. I was worried about anxiety on the next dives but also a little more confident that I could manage it if it did appear again.
I've noticed that hypercapnia seems to be a factor. I've had dives where I've kept up with a buddy who's pace is just a tad faster and after 20 or 30 minutes I notice my breathing is a little too fast and my anxiety level seems higher too. I've learned to notice when this happens and slow down or take breaks.
I've also noticed that distractions are good. This dive was through large dusty tunnels which are, in a way, kind of boring. Had there been lots of turns or restrictions I wouldn't have had time to think about worrying things. On later dives I did things like calculate gas consumption rate and speed and estimate exit times and pressures.
I recall some discussion during cave training about anxiety, range anxiety, gas anxiety, etc. I think we talked about avoiding it but I don't recall anything about how to manage it once it appears.
After the dive I mentioned the event and my buddies admitted to having points during dives where they've felt anxious. So it seems common.
Clearly the first step is to avoid anxiety. There are things one can do that help avoid anxiety, like having confidence in one's gear, diving a good plan, using a p-valve, having suitable thermal protection, more experience, etc. But even with those in place anxiety can still happen.
I'd like to hear people's thoughts and experiences about a few ideas.
1. Did your cave training discuss anxiety? Did it talk about how to avoid it? Did it talk about how to manage it once it appears? If it doesn't should it and how?
2. Is this something that divers are wary of talking about? Should it be discussed more?
3. Do others find that hypercapnia is a factor? What other factors are relevant?
4. What do you do when anxiety appears?
It was the same week in Peacock and at about the farthest penetration of my young cave diving career that I experienced anxiety. It was enough anxiety that my breathing changed and a small additional issue might have sent it out of control. What went through my head was "if my breathing gets out of control I'll be in trouble" and that made it worse. I managed to calm down by going to my "happy place". I realized during cave training that the lights-out-line-follow was very relaxing. I okayed the line and was calm in about a minute. I was worried about anxiety on the next dives but also a little more confident that I could manage it if it did appear again.
I've noticed that hypercapnia seems to be a factor. I've had dives where I've kept up with a buddy who's pace is just a tad faster and after 20 or 30 minutes I notice my breathing is a little too fast and my anxiety level seems higher too. I've learned to notice when this happens and slow down or take breaks.
I've also noticed that distractions are good. This dive was through large dusty tunnels which are, in a way, kind of boring. Had there been lots of turns or restrictions I wouldn't have had time to think about worrying things. On later dives I did things like calculate gas consumption rate and speed and estimate exit times and pressures.
I recall some discussion during cave training about anxiety, range anxiety, gas anxiety, etc. I think we talked about avoiding it but I don't recall anything about how to manage it once it appears.
After the dive I mentioned the event and my buddies admitted to having points during dives where they've felt anxious. So it seems common.
Clearly the first step is to avoid anxiety. There are things one can do that help avoid anxiety, like having confidence in one's gear, diving a good plan, using a p-valve, having suitable thermal protection, more experience, etc. But even with those in place anxiety can still happen.
I'd like to hear people's thoughts and experiences about a few ideas.
1. Did your cave training discuss anxiety? Did it talk about how to avoid it? Did it talk about how to manage it once it appears? If it doesn't should it and how?
2. Is this something that divers are wary of talking about? Should it be discussed more?
3. Do others find that hypercapnia is a factor? What other factors are relevant?
4. What do you do when anxiety appears?