Early signs of Panic and prevention

I was reading an article published in undercurrents

http://www.undercurrent.org/UCnow/articles/WhyDie9809.shtml

It seems that most Diver deaths are from inexpierence and/or panic.

What are some warning signs of panic? Have you ever been in a situation where you felt panicked? How did you deal with it?

What helps in prevention of Panic (besides lowering breathing, taking nice long breaths and venting CO2?

This is just a curious question, that I have not seen breached on the board yet.

Movements becoming jerky, no longer smoothly swimming

obsessive checking of SPG or other gear

Exhale becoming short and frequent (as opposed to being prolonged small stream of bubbles at less frequent intervals)

reduced buddy and situational awareness

contact maintenance -- holding on to the bottom/wreck, an ascent line, or perhaps even you.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and others will chime in with other symptoms.

I've seen divers get nervous underwater, but never full blown panic, because we've resolved the problem and/or aborted before it reached that state. In a lot of cases, the diver is already nervous on the boat ---- either nervous chatter, or excessive boasting about his abilities; problems getting gear together; delays in getting ready, getting into the water, or descending. If you see this sort of stuff, it is a lot easier to sort out what is bothering the diver while still on the surface and to modify or cancel the dive. You don't have to ask "are you nervous?". The more indirect "When was the last time you've done this sort of dive?" will generally bring things to the surface.

One of the first signs is the divers eyes, if he looks like he saw a ghost, eyes as big as grapefruits, chance is their is some panic going on. I have been in a panic situation where my buddy was doing the freakin out. I stayed calm and followed what I learned in My Stress and Rescue class. Thats where you'll get the best info on figuring out what the problem is and how to solve thy problem.

I want to give myself at least 200-400 dives before I take the stress and rescue course. I figure if I am going to get _That_ certification I should be very compentent in what I do.

Good information so far, it seems that one thing that some people do is remove their regulator from their mouth. As the article describes, they had problems breathing so they removed the regulator and drowned.

I've been paniced, looking abck on it.
We anchored in what was supposed to be 65 at the top of the reef. If you drop off the side of the reef it was supposed to only go to about 80'. We went down the line and slipped off the reef to the bottom. I was a little heavy and tried to do a fin pivot to get my bouyancy. I couldn't get off the bottom and thought I was overweighted. I looked at my gauge and saw that we were at 112'. I signaled my buddy to try to say "I'm overwiehgted and can't get off the bottom." All I could think was I have to pull myself back up the reef and get to the anchor, then I can pull myself up the line otherwise I'm gong to sit here on the bottom till I run out of air-which at 112' won't be very long and the work to pull myself up is going to make my air go faster, etc. You can see where this was going to go. I didn't really feel out of control, but my buddy said my eyes were the size of my fists. She came over and thought that my inflator was off. She hits my inflator and I hear the air - wham - snapped right out of it but I could tell I was narced. That's all it took and I was ok as far as the panic goes, but I was pretty shook up about the whole deal. We called the dive and sat out the rest of the ride.
How did I deal with it? I didn't, my GOOD buddy (that I will trust with my life forever) did. I have never gone solo and I never will, and I will never trust the briefing completely again and I will constantly check my gauges-even in the 1st 10 minutes of the dive.

One of the best ways you can help relieve a panicky situation is to have a clear "stop" sign. Make sure your buddy is clear on this sign before the dive. If you notice some/any of the signs noted above, "stop" the diver. If you can stop the mental cycle that spirals into panic, usually whatever problem is there can be solved. When I've been with nervous students, and they get jerky and big-eyed, I will signal them to stop.....usually 2 or 3 times. Then ask them a question they can answer easily....."whats your pressure", etc. and then signal OK. They will often respond by describing their problem, which is usually minor. By giving them a task the can easily do, it gets the problem out of their mind.
Of course, sometimes you are too late, or they're too worked up to "fix".

Wetvet

Windwalker once bubbled...
I want to give myself at least 200-400 dives before I take the stress and rescue course. I figure if I am going to get _That_ certification I should be very compentent in what I do.

Click to expand...

Rescue is a good class to take as soon as you are comfortable underwater and the mechanics of scuba are somewhat second nature. 25 to 50 dives experience is probably reasonable.

I had 75 logged OWD when I took the course, I only log those that are worth talkin about. Anyway, the course not only taught me to be a better buddy, but it made me more comfortable and confident in my skills. When I dive I know my limits and I am constantly aware of my buddies situation.

Basic rescue techniques should be introduced and practiced in the basic course. A full rescue course should be taken right after completion of the basic course, and then again 25-50 later. A refresher should be taken every year or so. This is the most important course of all.
A rescue course is not only how to respond to an mergency but also what causes exidents and panic and how to prevent it. A diver having those skills and knowledge will be a safer diver for themselves as well as treir buddy. Why wait and hope that nothing happens meanwhile, what if it does.

Rescues don't have to be and probably won't be picture perfect. Stress and Rescue (I am SSI also so I recognize the course name) places its emphasis on exactly what you are asking. I can't speak for the Rescue courses in other agencies, but judging by the fact that Charlie's response reads almost exact like my Stress and Rescue course, I assume that they do as well.

The emphasis is how to prevent and identify stressors BEFORE they turn into a full blown panic and how to minimize the stress in dive planning.

Yes, they do make you learn how to pull up a panicking diver who wants to grab your air hose (my course went with my DiveCon, so I am expected to learn that) and how to deal with an unconscious diver on the bottom among other things. It is FAR EASIER and MORE EFFECTIVE to catch most of this stuff as far back as the breakfast conversation (if possible) in the morning than once panic starts underwater.

A personal experience will illustrate my point:

On my AOW class, we were on a dive in a local lake. There were three students and an instructor. My dive buddy was a student who had been buddied up with his best friend for literally every dive through Open Water. I am single and had "pick of the draw" dive buddies for every dive through Open Water and had about 10 more dives. I was also planning on taking Stress and Rescue and had already purchased the tape and book. I had studied both. The newest diver was a young lady that I had certified with who hadn't dove since her open water. She was "very light on insulation". She and I were alike in that regard and were doing our drysuit certs as well. "Laurie" (I'll call her that for convience) was buddied with the instructor.

About ten minutes into the dive, I noticed that Laurie was looking a little worried. I couldn't tell about what, but her movements were a little too quick. My dive buddy was doing all right and he slipped up by the instructor to check something out (I can't remember what). I hung back. Sure enough, I see "Laurie" looking around like she is trying to get the instructor's attention. Then her eyes go grapefruit wide. At this point, she starts reaching for her secondary regulator. This all happens quickly enough that alerting either of the other two is not going to happen.

I give her the "up" signal and prepare to share air if needed. She breathes out of the secondary regulator on the way up and we do a controlled ascent. But she settled right down the minute that she knew that she had my attention. She mentions that her primary was breathing a little wet and that the water coming in bothered her. I don't know enough about regulators to help with that then (Over the weekend it turned out that the regulator had a leaky diaphram.), but I knew enough that the instructor would note her abscence and be up shortly. In what seemed like forever, but was probably only a few minutes, the instructor came up checked out the regulator, and we found it good enough to continue the dive.

My point: it was far easier to recognize her getting stressed and get her to safety than it would have been if I had been watching her flail around in a full-blown panic. She was close. The minute the eyes get that "wide open grapefruit" look and movements start getting that quick, I have since learned from experience, that nothing good will happen if it continues and there isn't much time involved.

At the very least you will know what to look for to start thinking about getting people to safety instead of continuing the dive in the manner that started. That class is also why I practice good health habits myself. It is easy to help prevent myself from being panicked if I am comfortable in myself.