Predicting and Preventing and Handling Dive Panic or Anxiety

While panic and anxiety are still common among divers, regardless of their age or gender or certification or experience or recency of diving, it is rarely the cause of scuba deaths according to the fatality data analysed by Diver Alert Network (n=947). As I prepare my talks for OurWorldUnderwater in Chicago next month, I am interested in collecting more recent personal experiences of how divers have handled dive panic or anxiety since I last conducted online surveys ten years ago.

According to Dan Orr, a trigger event is the earliest identifiable root cause that transforms an unremarkable dive into an emergency. A harmful action or reaction is a root cause that exacerbates the situation. An incapacitating injury is an action that caused death or rendered an incapacitated diver susceptible to drowning.

So, how have you as a diver handled the stress of a trigger event(s) and avoided a harmful action or reaction and thus avoided an incapacitating injury or death?

So far I have only had one serious "panic" moment - and it was a result of several triggers - or maybe one - you be the judge. The first was allowing myself to perseverate over how difficult it was going to be to don my 8/7 that I just bought - then getting it on was a trip to the moon - I hit the water already stressed. Once in the water I saw my defog floating and decided that I HAD to get it into a pocket. Finally swam to the point we wanted to descend. At that point I was waaay out of breath and should have just rested until I was ready to descend but I didn't want to delay my buddy any more. At about 40' I realized that I was ready to bolt to the surface in panic. I was hyperventilating and compounding the problem. I managed to slowly ascend with my buddy - made the safety stop and all was fine. Afterwards I dissected every move I made prior to that dive to see where things fell apart. My solution was to attach my dive slate with the words "EXHALE". I don't know if I ever needed to look at the slate - having done it was enough to remind me to regulate my breathing and to completely exhale so I could then get two full lungs of oxygenated air. Also, I try not to hit the water already overtaxed and feeling harassed. I'm not sure how that will fit in with your previous study date or help with your presentation - but this helped reduced my stress level.

Good luck with your presentation.

I will forward my experience as a diver and observations of others as an instructor tomorrow. Too detailed to go into here. But would be very interested in sharing resources as this fits with the talks I have been doing over the last several years.

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Unfortunately, your poll only permits one answer, and I think a lot of divers may have encountered more than one of those stressors in the last 12 months. I know I have.

My most stressful dive in the last year was a dive on the Rosalie Moeller in the Red Sea. We had rough surface conditions and current and a very erratic upline. I had to hand off my deco bottle to the RIB while being thrown around and bashed by the hull of the boat, and then fight my way in current to the ladder. I felt very stressed at points and began to think, "I can't do this," but I made myself slow my breathing, relax, and try again, and I eventually managed all of it.

For me, the key to all the stressful situations I've been in while diving has been breath control, followed by giving myself a good mental shaking.

Too Many First for one diver .........

Wildly off topic, but is the "Dive Time" burn-in I see on the Cobalt screen cap you've posted visible when you're looking at the screen normally or is it something the camera just picked up?

Camera

That is one scary profile, was the diver injured by the rapid ascent?

• Out of breathing gas
• Entrapment
• Rough water -YES
• Physical trauma or injury - YES
• Buoyancy problem
• Inappropriate breathing gas - YES
• Emergency ascent
• Equipment problem
• Cardiac symptoms, but dove anyway
• Too many "first's" (i.e. new equipment and dive site)
• Strong current or surge - YES
• Middle ear equalization problem - YES

I recommend that folks look back at previous threads on panic and diving. I especially recommend:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/advanced-scuba-discussions/378868-panic-experienced-diver.html

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ad...98-diving-education-today-42.html#post4904050

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...ng/225436-thoughts-training-panic-hazing.html

The only time I panic underwater is when I realize that this will be the last dive for a month or so.