Panicked!

Yesterday I had my worst dive.
That was my 53rd dive and I'm an AOW diver. I'm in Kas, Turkey for more than 15 days now and I in this period I had about 14 dives, all with the same crew I've known for 3 years.

It was all very nice at the beginning we all had fun and laughed, I was pretty self-confident about myself and my diving skills. When I entered the water I realized that my BCD was leaking air from the shoulder purge valve but I didn't think it was a big deal. All in all I was a big, experienced diver, you know, and this couldn't be a problem for me (yeah right)... I also didn't want the whole team in the water to wait for me to change my BCD. The first thing I noticed was that I sank faster than I was used to but I thought that I've been making this up...

Anyway the dive was fun, we were having fun and all untill I realised a funny feeling. I knew that I'm more susceptible to nitrogen than my buddies, there've been times when I felt narcd at 28-33m when my buddies didn't even feel an itch. I thought I was slowly being narcd again but this time it was different. I was somehow uncomfortable, unease. I began to breathe deeply and little bit faster (15th minute of the dive, 27.6m depth). I thought I could control it, tried to be calm with no success. My heart was beating faster now and my breath was really fast too. I knew I had to ascend a little bit and things would be fine again. I went up a few meters but nothing changed, I had a big panic in me growing like an avalance. I knew I HAD to be calm and breathe normally but that just was outta my hands. Bells started to ring in my head, my brain was shouting to me like crazy "GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!". The only thing I could think of was that there was a BIG amount of water on and above me and it was squeezing me like a bug. I didn't even breathe this fast in my Discovery dive... I was sure I was gonna drown-drown-drown down there so I HAD to get to the surface instantly. I went on ascending making sure that I wasn't going up faster than my bubbles. I really wanted to swim straight to the surface like hell. I didn't care about the safety stop and I knew I didn't need a deco stop, so I just wanted to reach the surface with the right speed. I never felt this panicked in my life before. I couldn't control my feelings so I signaled the dive leader that there was something wrong with my head and perception and I had to abort and get up to the surface. He came to me, held my hand (god this was a bliss, really) and we ascended slowly. He tried to make me focus on fish and the reef etc till we saw the chain of the boat (ca 12m). he asked me if I could swim to the chain and make my safety stop on my own but I hold on to his hand like a baby and wanted him to come with me (quite embarrassing...). At the chain I felt much better, my breath was slow and deep again and I pulled myself together. he left to go to the group and sent an experienced diver to the chain to take care about me. (I had more than enough air by that time anyway.)

After a never-ending safety stop I waited some more for the safety stop of the diver who was sent to me and we ascended to the surface.

When the group came back everybody said that those feelings were normal and "mentioned in the book" but I do not wanna experience thsi again. so I need some comments from you guys here about why this may have happened...

diving conditions:
1) that day it was more cloudy than usual (kinda dark waters) and that diving spot was new to me.

2)faulty BCD which I later realized caused me to use my fins all the time to compansate my buoyancy. a friend later also told me that I well may have breathed faster than usual to fix my buoyancy which could have caused an increased nitrogen intake. thus that narcd feeling.

3) no buddies. nobody had a body. It was a "friends all" dive you know, so it was like every body was a buddy. this disturbed me a little at the beginning of the dive, gotta say...

4) I didn't have a problem with cold, had a full suite on and the water was fine.

5) I had a bad headache once I was on the boat after the dive. Dunno why...

6) Had some alcohol the day before but I think I hidrated enough throughout the day.

7) I was anxious before the dive at the office, felt some throbbing at my heart, I almost thought about drinking something to calm me down. that feeling disappeared before even the boat took off, though.


In addition to the panic what I surprised me during the dive was that all the education I had and all the extra material I read on the external sources didn't help me a bit. I just couldn't overcome the panic. how could that happen? I was and still am totally disappointed in myself.

We talked about this a lot that night and we 're gonna have another "fun dive" today. I'm scared and concerned actually. Some say that I just gotta continue diving ASAP or this thing'll become fixed in my head and then it's gonna be difficult to get rid of. So today I'm gonna watch myself and not go deep (I don wanna go deeper than 18m) and see what I feel...

Any ideas, comments or recommendations?..
Thanks a lot.

You didn't panic. Panic is the point where you lose control. It sounds like you kept control and aborted the dive. You can read about something till the cows come home but you'll never know what it feels like until you actually experience it.

Sounds like there were a lot of potential causes of stress before and during that dive. Next time try to address the stress before you hit the water.

Kudos to the dive leader! He did all of the right things.

You might want to learn about carbon dioxide (CO2) retention and its possible relationship to nitrogen narcosis. The post-dive headache and your increased activity level in the water (constant kicking to compensate for faulty BCD) suggest CO2 retention. Your pre-dive "nervousness" may have led to shallow breathing, which contributed to the CO2 retention. Based on your depth profile, nitrogen narcosis was a real possibility. Anxiety/panicky thoughts is just one manifestation of this phenomenon.

You mentioned that your heart was "throbbing" before the dive. Why do you think that happened? Were you nervous about the dive? Were you feeling apprehensive about diving to a depth at which you knew you'd be narc'ed? If so, it might be best to take baby steps and very gradually extend your comfort zone with regard to depth.

If you were trained to dive with a buddy, then you should adhere to your training. Diving with a bunch of friends can be a lot of fun, but you shouldn't ignore basic safety principles. Make sure on your next dive that everyone has a formally assigned buddy. Two heads are better than one when sorting out problems. Also, it helps to have someone else verify that you saw a great white shark swim by.

Get that BCD fixed ASAP!

Greetings ddogu and welcome to SB! First and fore most RELAX it is going to be fine.
This situation has already taught you a great deal but now is the time to reflect and retain the wisdom from your experience. bubbletrubble is right on the money, C02 can and will have the effects you have described. Your pre-dive stressors create anxiety that fuels the narcosis process which can lead to the "DARK NARC", the I am going to die syndrome. I have had this same experience and fought through it from beginning to end. It was on my first Deco dive to 140' and I was using a pair of fins that were not doing their job. To flimsy thus I had to kick harder more often to keep up, here comes the C02 and my narcosis begins to be very pronounced at 120'. At 140' the bells are ringing as you have mentioned. One of the hardest things I have done to date was forcing myself to calm down and stop the rushing flow of anxiety. I closed my eyes and willed myself to relax, it helped me to do a share air drill and take a few breaths of my buddies 28% nitrox which seemed to help. This was still a unpleasant dive because of the fins but it taught be huge amounts of information that have become priceless to me now. I feel your dive will do just the same as you wrap your head around the debrief of your dive. Do not let this experience conquer you but YOU CONQUER IT! Learn and dive some more it can and will get easier to deal with as your experience / comfort levels grows. It helps to stick with a buddy you are confident with that your comfort levels are alike. This makes it easier to plan and execute dives that both can enjoy. Stick to your guns and hit this one head on, you are going to be fine just one thing, NEVER DO A DEEP DIVE WITH FAULTY EQUIPTMENT! NO EXCEPTIONS!! GET YOUR BCD FIXED AND INSPECT AND CHECK IT BEFORE EVERY DIVE!
Good luck and safe diving to you and your friends sounds like a good bunch of people!
CamG Keep diving....keep training....keep learning!

Thanks for sharing, its a story I will tell in my aow classes. You really did handle yourself well during the actual dive; you kept a clear head, did not give into the panic cycle, and abandon all rational responses. You did the right thing and asked for help.

That being said, your judgment and pre-dive planning was poor; you are very lucky this situation turned out the way it did and can take some important lessons away from it that were probably emphasized ad nauseam in your ow and aow class. All dives are 'risky' and require a risk assessment and risk analysis. NO DIVE, especially deep dives, ought to be taken with a grain of salt and be 'trust me' dives. The biggest problem I see, even in my classes, is that divers try to hide or ignore small problems that they don't realize could be more extreme underwater. You were task loaded, effected very heavily by narcosis, increased your CO2 retention via heavy exercise, and had gear malfunctions. Anytime there is a problem, fix it because you don't know how the problem is going to work its cycle, remember murphy's law . The other comment I have was about the buddy situation...although it was a 'group' dive, you should still choose buddies prior to the dive and do your equipment checks with a specified buddy. This may have prevented the actual dive from occuring...avoid indirect peer pressure at all costs because it could cost you your life.

All in all, I am glad you posted because it shows you are learning something from the incident. Good job and be safe!

What you called 'panic' I suppose can happen to anyone. I was on a boat last year with a couple who had been diving for a long time. When we jumped off and got to about ten yards the lady went back up. When the dive finished and we got back on the boat she was sitting there. She said that she started flipping out for some reason and felt the necessity to abort her dive. She said that she had hundreds of dives and nothing like that had ever happend to her. On the second dive she jumped in and was OK. Go figure.

This really sounds like CO2 retention -- the panicky feeling that wouldn't go away, and the headache afterwards. Were you using rental gear? A regulator with the cracking pressure adjusted too high can cause this, especially if you were swimming hard.

I agree that the pre-dive planning wasn't great. I think you have learned a lesson, that if something isn't working right on the surface, it isn't going to get better underwater. If you had gone to the surface in a real panic, and gotten there and been unable to get positive because your BC was leaking, can you imagine what a mess that would have been? Assuming a malfunction will be fine because all of your prior dives have gone smoothly is just an invitation for Mr. Murphy to get involved.

Not wanting to delay the group is a very common cause of bad decisions.

Ditto what everyone said about CO2 retention.

Congratulations on a safe ascent and aborting the dive. In the future, remember the time to abort the dive is before you get into the water with gear that's not working properly. With all the stresses you experienced during the dive, this could easily have turned out much worse.

Your situation also teaches about task loading. Multi-tasking on the surface works well. However, at depth, the more tasks a diver attempts to simultaneously accomplish can lead to a panic situation.

Equipment problems, buoyancy issues, possible narcosis, in conjunction with deep diving can all contribute to a potentially dangerous situation.

Remember, the KISS principle is a key cornerstone to safe diving.

Congratulations for making good decisions in deciding to abort and thereafter. It takes a strong person to break away from "not wanting to slow the group".