My Dark Narc

[Wet Behind the Ears]

Long time reader, first time poster.

First a little about me. I've got a couple hundred dives over the last 6 years. I usually prefer to dive with a buddy, but over the last couple of years I'll dive alone when no one else is available. I dive mostly cold sea water, but about 1/4 of my dives have been in warm water.

We were heading out on a charter for a night dive, most of the divers were part of an AOW class doing their night dive. The class was going to explore the top of the ledge at 20'-25' My buddy had doubles, and I had a single He wanted to go deep.

The plan was i was going to follow him down to ~100' so he could show me some unique formations, then I was coming back to the shallows and he'd continue his deep dive. Visibility was 15'- 20', about average for the area. Navigation was straight forward, follow a compass heading down the rock slope to the sand then come back on the reciprocal heading.

I got to the bottom at 110' and was overcome by the dark narc. I've felt a similar sense of panic before when I worked too hard at depth and had what I assume was a CO2 buildup. I just knew I needed to get shallow. I signaled my buddy I was turning, and headed back up the slope. I turned, checked my compass heading and headed up the rock slope. I felt a great sense of relief just knowing I was heading up.

My relief turned to dread as I ran out rock at 80'. I expected the rock to take me all the way up to 25'. I looked left and right, but the rock sloped down in every direction. The thought of heading down to find my original course flashed breifly through by brain, but just the though of heading down filled me with terror.

I had no choice but to head up. I checked my air, I had plenty. I just focused on my compass heading and depth guage and headed up. I made sure I went up extra slow. I was so fearful I was afraid I'd bolt for the surface. I just had to keep telling myself that I was fine. I couldn't help but think that all I wanted was to see my wife and kids again, that tonight wasn't the night to die. My logical mind knew everything would turn out fine. but my emotional mind wasn't so sure.

Then I saw it! The glow of the boat lights in the distance. Shortly after that I found the top of the ledge. I felt a profound sense of relief, I knew I'd see my family again. I soon found the AOW class, and followed them around for the next 1/2 hour.

The moral of the story, let your rational mind rule your emotional mind, don't compound a bad situation by doing something stupid and trust your diving skills.

 

[Thalassamania]

Dark Narc is very real, but can be dealt with. Think back on the feeling you had when it first started. Then take three very slow deep breaths, concentrating on emptying your lungs and refilling them. While you do that think about pushing the creeping feeling of overwhelming dread back. Repeat this exercise focusing on having the dark pushed back, moved way away from yourself. Do this a few times a day for a week or so, then try the dive again.

If the Dark Narc creeps up ... take your three deep breaths, it will go away and your mind will clear. If it does not work for you, go back and repeat the regimen, I've known divers that required as many as a half dozen of these "adjustment" dives, but all able to learn to deal with it.

There is, of course, a way to simply buy your way out ... trimix.

 

[Aussie scuba chick]

What exactly is "dark" narc?

 

[Rick Inman]

What exactly is "dark" narc?

A form of nitrogen narcosis that manifests as a feeling of dread and/or impending doom.


Yup, you can buy yourself out with trimix (what I like to breath when deep). Also, if I focus on a task for a minute, it seems to help. Also, if I go deeper the dark narc turns to happy narc (probably the stupidest solution I can think of, though).

 

[StreetDoctor]

So your dive buddy didn't go with you? Sounds like that could have turned bad real fast...

A lot of talk about narc lately has me interested to see what I experience on the spiegel grove next month. We're going to 100' on nitrox, granted the water will be warmer and the vis will be better than I'm used to but the deepest I've been before this is 75ish.

 

[msbrew]

A form of nitrogen narcosis that manifests as a feeling of dread and/or impending doom.


Yup, you can buy yourself out with trimix (what I like to breath when deep). Also, if I focus on a task for a minute, it seems to help. Also, if I go deeper the dark narc turns to happy narc (probably the stupidest solution I can think of, though).

thanks Rick. i recently had that feeling and could explain it. my husband just thought it was panic and wanted to abort the dive, but i was fine when i assended a few feet. now i know there is a name for what happened and hope it doesn't happen again.

 

[Wet Behind the Ears]

So your dive buddy didn't go with you? Sounds like that could have turned bad real fast...

I didn't indicate to him that I had an issue. I was pretty sure I knew what was going on, I just figured I'd go with my original plan a little early, and head for the shallows solo. Everything would have been fine, except I didn't take into account that there was a slight current, so I wasn't where I expected to be.

Thalassamania, you're one of the voices of reason that I saak out on this board. You were dead on, it took me about a half dozen dives before I got 100% comfortable in the water again.

In the short run it took the fun out of diving for a while. In the long run it's added to my confidence in my ability to dive in adverse conditions.

Wet

 

[Thalassamania]

Breathe, three times, in and out, slowly ... really does work.

 

[Dockmaster]

It happened to me this summer during a shore dive, at 90 feet. I was towing the dive flag and all of a sudden it felt like it was stuck in lobster trap lines, so I tugged at it. All of a sudden, the line went slack, so I thought the flag had snapped off and began to coil the rope. While I was hauling in the rope, the group I was diving with kept going deeper, so I was afraid I was going to be left behind. Next thing I know, the flag pops up next to me! The float had shrunk down to the size of a Red Bull can. I had lost site of the group, but remembered the bearing and caught up to them. Then the dark thoughts krept in; I'm going to die and leave my wife and son alone. I couldn't shake the fear of death no matter how many times I told myself to relax. The rough surface conditions, low vis, cold water, and the stress of the dive flag, along with a little too much nitrogen had pushed me to my breaking point. I tugged on my dive buddy's fin and signaled "Home" over and over again. My buddy and I have dove together for years, so he knew this was very unusual for me, so he took my hand and we turned around. At about 80 feet, I began to feel much better and at 65 feet I signaled that I was OK and let go of his hand.

We spent about an hour on the surface having lunch and talking about what I had felt underwater. I felt much better after talking with my buddy, who I thanked over and over for helping me out. I wanted to get back on the horse, so we changed tanks and went back down to 90 feet, but much slower this time, without incident.

Thanks for the three deep breaths trick; I'll try it if this ever happens again.

 

[kathydee]

ve again.

If the Dark Narc creeps up ... take your three deep breaths, it will go away and your mind will clear. If it does not work for you, go back and repeat the regimen, I've known divers that required as many as a half dozen of these "adjustment" dives, but all able to learn to deal with it.

Humm, had this last summer around 98ft but couldn't name it. Though it was physical, ascended a little ways - it cleared and I continued the dive at the shallower depth.

Now I'm not clear, is it was physical, psychological or a combo? I believe you are saying it is possible to stay at the depth and breath through it? - or should one asend a little ways?