Feeling Narced on a Deep Dive?

[KnowledgeIsPower]

So as a new diver that has just completed the AOW course, I have only done a few deep dives with the supervision of an instructor or DM (deepest dive was to 111 ft, with two other dives around 100 feet and several around 80-90 feet).

I know that beyond 70 feet some begin experiencing the feeling of being Narc'd, and most do at 100+ feet. To be quite honest, I am not sure if I felt anything on my deep dives. I felt normal, in control, calm. I didn't feel any overwhelming euphoria nor did I do anything crazy and I have pretty good memory of the dive. My wife also told me the same thing, she didn't feel any different. We are both completely different in stature and size (she is short and petite while I am pretty tall and large).

The reason I am curious is because I want to be able to take control of a situation or prevent a situation from occurring if I do get Narc'd at a deep depth, but I am not sure if I am just lucky or if I am just oblivious? I know my AOW instructor was supposed to give us a task to do at that depth (like tying a knot) but unfortunately we never got a chance to do that activity on our dive. Just curious what other divers' experiences are...

 

[tursiops]

No more tasks like knot tying on the AOW deep dive...that went away several years ago. Now you look at color changes.

You may not feel narced, but your cognitive and physical skills are still diminished. And it can change from dive to dive. Warm clear water is less narc-inducing than cold dark waters. CO2 buildup affects it too. About all you can do is dive a lot, to depth, and learn your own responses.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Dirty secret: generally speaking and despite the DIR crowd's wailing about using trimix below 90', there aren't that many people who'll notice any real narcotic effect between 1' and 130'. Is there something there, yeah, maybe. But it's not really what most people are told narcosis is, so they often get confused when they're at 120' and feel fine.

Even within the MOD of air - we'll say 200' even though the 1.4 pO2 limit is 187' - in my experience and that of others I dive with, generally one isn't going to find themselves seeing purple elephants, trying to share their regs with passing fish or mermaids, or anything else. What you will notice at those depths is a buzzing, fuzzy, wet-blanket over your higher brain functions. Task loading will mean an ever-shrinking number of tasks is all you can juggle without forgetting something. Conscious reaction time will be significantly slowed. Etc. One still may be able to function within what they consider an acceptable level of risk at such depths on air, but one will not generally feel totally OK. The one time I found myself kicking along a ledge around 180'-220' on air and feeling absolutely nothing ​in the way of narc was the day I told myself I was probably narced out of my mind and spent most of the dive obsessively monitoring myself and my instruments.

Once you've experienced that kind of more obvious narcosis (I'm not suggesting it without proper training, etc...depth in diving is like speed in driving, and the consequences of small errors/delays get bigger very quickly as depth increases), detecting much more subtle impairments within recreational depths becomes easier. But it's still going to be subtle in my experience: I've dove the same wreck at 120' the same day twice, first on air OC and next on 10/50 trimix dil with my CCR...didn't really notice much of a difference in clarity of thought, reaction time, visual details recognized, etc. YMMV.

 

[Steve_C]

Once I get past 80 I find that I feel a need to focus a bit more on what I am doing. Check air regularly, etc. Easier to loose track of time. Presonally I do not dive below 105-110. I can see what I want to see there and above.

My AOW was done in a quarry at 65 ft so not what most would consider deep. Though it was below the thermocline. Did a timed task on land. Did the same task at depth. I remember being proud that I had done it much quicker at depth. Until my instructor showed me the numbers. I was measurably slower even at that modest depth.

As pointed out above. It is about task loading and thought clarity.

And no I do not think the AOW prepared me for deeper diving. Took a deep diver specialty later in the ocean. That and experience on progressively deeper dives did prepare me for my kind of diving.

 

[Taliena]

I was never narced when diving on air. When I started diving on trimix, then I realised that I am narced too when doing a deep dive on air. No problems to a 42m, but deeper, yes, I always have some tunnelvision. Sometimes I feel a little bit between 36 and 42m. So as an aow diver, I never recognised the symptoms.

 

[Vegan Shark]

It varies person to person, and temperature/vis/your mindset at the time definitely seems to be a big factor. In warmer, high vis environments I don't feel narced, but put me in Monterey with 50F water, on an overcast day with 10-15ft vis and I definitely feel a mental cloud past 100ft.

 

[Remy B.]

Here we go again, not everybody is the same, and then comes the CO2

, bring the pop corn.

 

[Scubagolf]

In Belize on vacation and dove the Blue Hole on Thursday. Very benign conditions, but I had no sense of narcosis at all at 135' while concentrating on depth/time.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

The whole "euphoria" thing is way overblown. Whether you feel narcosis, or how you respond to it depend on a bunch of factors.

- the environment ... people who dive in cold, dark conditions tend to get more anxiety or "dark narc" ... and it tends to show up more pronounced than in warmer, more docile conditions
- the diver ... personalities, confidence level, physical abilities, all impact the effects of narcosis ... as do factors that change from day to day such as fatigue or emotional state

The fact is that most people don't even realize when they're narc'ed. You're buddy's more likely to notice your narcosis than you are. It'll show up in different ways, like your inability to pay attention to what you're doing, buoyancy difficulties due to changes in your breathing pattern (in the class I watch my students' bubbles ... I can usually tell when narcosis sets in by how their breathing pattern increases), or something really simple like the lack of a response to a signal.

I don't like the whole notion of knot-tying or puzzles or other "gimmicks" commonly used to test for narcosis. They're artificial, and things that no one's ever going to do outside of a class. And all they really do is confirm something you already know ... that you're going to be slower doing those things underwater than on land. But I teach in cold water, where people wear thick gloves, so much of that effect has nothing to do with narcosis anyway. I test for responses to light signals (it's always dark here at 100 feet), or OOA (I'll give my student an OOA signal and see how they respond). With the latter I've had students who just stare at me like they don't understand what I'm telling them. The most common thing I notice at those depths is how many students forget to check their air gauge regularly ... at a depth where it's most important to do so.

Did your instructor teach you anything about air management beyond checking your gauge? If not, then think about the potential impact of neglecting to do so. This is why I require my students to determine, before we do the AOW deep dive, that they are carrying adequate air to do the dive. 100 feet is the last place you want to suddenly realize that you haven't been paying attention to your gauge and that while you've been enjoying the dive you've slipped into the red zone.

For the typical recreational diver, narcosis is quite manageable ... but you have to have a decent understanding of what it is you're trying to manage. Fundamentally, it's your ability to pay attention ... to your dive profile, your buddy, and your air supply. For many divers who think they're just fine, those things become more and more difficult to keep track of as you go deeper. That's why I don't particularly think the deep dive should be part of AOW ... especially for those who go to AOW straight after OW class.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[AfterDark]

So as a new diver that has just completed the AOW course, I have only done a few deep dives with the supervision of an instructor or DM (deepest dive was to 111 ft, with two other dives around 100 feet and several around 80-90 feet).

I know that beyond 70 feet some begin experiencing the feeling of being Narc'd, and most do at 100+ feet. To be quite honest, I am not sure if I felt anything on my deep dives. I felt normal, in control, calm. I didn't feel any overwhelming euphoria nor did I do anything crazy and I have pretty good memory of the dive. My wife also told me the same thing, she didn't feel any different. We are both completely different in stature and size (she is short and petite while I am pretty tall and large).

The reason I am curious is because I want to be able to take control of a situation or prevent a situation from occurring if I do get Narc'd at a deep depth, but I am not sure if I am just lucky or if I am just oblivious? I know my AOW instructor was supposed to give us a task to do at that depth (like tying a knot) but unfortunately we never got a chance to do that activity on our dive. Just curious what other divers' experiences are...

You have done some deep diving without a problem. So what are your concerns? If you expect to be able to predict whether you'll be narced on one dive or another you will be disappointed. A diver could feel narced on the 1st dive but not on the 2nd dive. Doesn't mean the diver wasn't just didn't feel it. NN has been a mystery for over 100 years and I suspect will continue that way for a long time.

IMO we need to understand the brain to a greater extent then we do now before we can hope to completely understand what's going on with NN.