First Narc. scared the crap out of me.

[csholer]

So i was divin tahoe this weekend, we dropped down to sand bed about 30ft. then rolled over the edge down to 100'. leveled off and were cruising for about a minute, the suddenly i had full blown panic attack. hyperventilating, disoriented totally freaked out. couldn't make heads or tails out of my computer. little voice in the back of my head was screaming at me " what the f#$% are you doing!!!!" somewhere in my mind i realized i was narced and needed to gain some altitude so i focused as hard as i could on the only thing i could comprehend on my computer, my ascent indicator, i put it up against my mask and just concentrated on keeping it in the green as i went up. VERY VERY difficult to concentrate as i was still hyperventilating and struggling to control the nearly overwhelming urge to bolt to the surface. as i passed thru 60' i was able to suddenly read my computer and my breathing slowed then at 50' i was cool. totally normal, in total control again. this whole episode felt like it took forever. thought for sure i was going to be out of air. reality after replay of the dive on my computer the whole incident lasted about 6 minutes. anyway, i nav'd back to our drop point where i found my buddies waiting for me on the surface. very scary incident. i'm so thankful for the training that was hammered into me early on by my instructors or i'd probably be doa right now. so lesson learned? trust your training don't give in to irrational urges when bad stuff happens and breath!!!

 

[drbill]

Wow... I've never been narced to the extent I thought about bolting to the surface. In fact my first two really noticeable experiences with narcosis didn't occur until my 47th year of diving. I used to dive repeatedly to 180-200 ft on air with almost no noticeable effect (I was, of course narced to some degree).

I stopped doing my deep diving about a year ago, and then the first time I descended to 150 ft it was obvious to me that I was narced and not functioning as well as I should have. Then I did a 107 ft dive right in the dive park (okay, okay... a little "outside" the dive park) and was narced enough that I couldn't orient myself and head towards shore (didn't have the compass with me since I've done about 1,400 dives in the park alone).

When it creeps up on you, narcosis can have serious effects on your judgment. Good that you were able to gain a measure of control and head up a bit to clear your head.

 

[TSandM]

Wow -- dark narc, very unpleasant.

Mine were feeling I had lost all buoyancy control and was initiating an uncontrolled ascent to the surface (and I dumped all the air from wing and suit, and splatted into the silt, to the consternation of my buddies), and a second dive where I became convinced that my regulator was malfunctioning and not delivering enough air. Luckily, I didn't lose it in either case (in terms of complete panic) and went up only enough to clear my head, which was really only about 20 feet.

Narcosis is scary.

 

[Thalassamania]

Dark nark ... can be trouble. Stop, take three long full breaths, get control and ascend slowly ... pretty much what you did (congrats) but often the three slow breaths will break the spell a bit.

 

[gcbryan]

The cruising was probably what did you in. I never work hard if I'm going deeper. The CO2 build up is probably what pushed you over the top (along with the narcosis of course).

As mentioned above, a few long breaths will clear that out while ascending a bit will lessen the narcosis.

I actually think the "happy narc" is worse in that people aren't paying attention at all and will do crazy things like continuing to descend or over stay the NDL's by much more than their gas supply.

Edit: I forgot to add, good job on getting things under control!

 

[raviepoo]

Wow! I've never been narced like that. I get a little happy sometimes, but never anything to scare the %@# out of me. Good job getting yourself out of it.

 

[stefo2]

Scary, fortunately I have never experienced any more than a little happiness myself. I have a few questions, though: Had you been to that depth before? Did you not feel anything before it hit you? I guess you did a pretty fast descent which may explain some, but still, scary that it should come on so suddenly...
What were your "buddies" doing waiting for you at the surface? How did they even get there before you? Why were you on your own ascending and navigating back to the drop-off point?

 

[robint]

It is really interesting how some people get "dark narc" and some get "happy narc". Personally, I get the dark version, I don't panic, but I keep staring at my gauges and want to get shallower asap. I don't like it at all. I think that is MUCH better than the happy narc people who get goofy and try to give their reg to fish, or see mermaids swimming around, etc. Those are the people who usually run out of air, dart to surface, or worse.

Congrats on keeping it together and now you know what to look for in the future. Sometimes you need to go that deep on a dive (something to see), its best to be prepared.

 

[ligersandtions]

Glad you convinced yourself to calm down and do what you knew you should do (despite it not being what you wanted to do). It's good that you had the ability to convince yourself that it was just narcosis and you needed to ascend a bit to feel in control again.

My question for you is what the hell happened to your buddies? Why didn't they stay with you and keep an eye on you? Why did they go to the surface without you? It sounds like it might be time to re-evaluate who you are diving with....when the crap hits the fan, you want to be with buddies who are going to be able to work through it with you, rather than abandon you and head for the surface...

 

[csholer]

thanks everyone for the positive responses. i hope my description of my "symptoms" helps someone else recognize the issue if it ever happens to them. to address a couple questions on the buddy thing.... i was 2nd in line out of four. my buddy was only about 10' ahead of me taking a photo of some big ass crawdads so i was hanging off him so as not to stir silt up.slightly above and behind. the other pair were likewise engaged with their own thing about 20' behind and facing 90 away from me. getting buddy aid was really my first thought, and most likely could have had i been more rational at the time. but to me that 10' to my buddy seemed a mile, and i chose self rescue. may not have been the best decision, but it was the best my extremely impaired mind could come up with at that time. so they lost me cus i went out of vis vertically. they got back to initial point before me because i had been moving horizontally as well as vertically farther from shore(didn't realize that until the swim back. thank god for nav training and my compass) we all did safety stops and they still knew where they were and where the bouy was. i had to find it once i got back to the wall. as an aside... tahoe looks just like the deep blue of the south caribbean when you can't see the bottom. really pretty. so as far as my deep experience, i've got about 30 or so "deep" dives between 90-135 ft. not a lot i know, but still not green anymore. once again, i really appreciate everyones input, thanks a bunch guys chris