Unreasonable fear of depth

[diver 85]

Currently, how experienced are you ie under 100 dives as you state in your personal info??...Just a guess but I'm betting it'll bet better with more dives....Don't give up, the hardest part is behind you IMO....keep diving & if 'it' continues, you'll have a decision to make--this is supposed to be a fun sport.......good luck.......

 

[Fuzzmutton]

I think my next trip out to Monterey I will put into practice some airsharing drills with the hubby to make sure we aren't rusty. We're pretty good at the free water ascents because that's what we did the most of instead of coming back into the shore, the beach is so shallow for soooo long that I HATE trying to keep from popping to the surface like a cork. I would much rather ascend from a little farther out and make a leisurely swim in to shore. My buoyancy COULD use some work, but I'm sure that goes back to my weighting, which I'm still fiddling with...sigh.


I'm only at around 50 dives, I'm hoping at the 200-500 range I will be a
*cough* somewhat better diver than I am now

 

[ScubaKris]

Hard not to go below 60 often. If you dive amorrison or Vortex springs, you would hit below that.

Work on your self rescue to get rid of your fears. I suggest a pony bottle that works. I carry a 30cuft. I have been certified since 74 and most of my dives in the past 20 years were solo. I have a solo diver instructor cert.

Spare airs and 6 cuft bottles are not enough. For one they are never full. second if you needed to get up fom 60' you may burn 2 psi a minute. If you had a 6cuft bottle that only had 2000 psi left in it,.. it would only give you 2 minutes.

A safety stop would be nice if you were in trouble at that depth and ran out of air, you probably were down too long. If you had a sling 30 at 2000 psi it may give you 15 - 20 minutes. may be needed if you surfaced in 3-5 and dhad to wiat for a drift dive boat to pick you up.

Point is ,... do something to get rid of the fear and be comfortable.

Don't dive deep to dive deep,.. have a reason,.. most good reef dives are shallow

 

[ianr33]

My wife does not like to go deeper than about 60 feet although in the past we have done lots of 100 foot dives together. She just feels comfortable at a depth where she can head for the surface if she needs to. After doing cave and trimix I have gotten pretty used to the idea that the surface is not an option. I am comfortable with that because I trust my gear/buddy/training. She is concerned that a gear failure could be fatal whereas to me it is just an inconvenience requiring an air share or closing down a regulator.

My suggestions would be :
1) Take it slow,never feel that you have to do anything you are not comfortable with.
2) Practice air shares from depth. Go to 60 feet or 80 or whatever,share air and ascend.If you dont like the idea of doing that at 60 feet do it at 20 feet at first.
When you are happy that you can do an air sharing ascent from the deepest portion of your dive then the fear of having to bolt to the surface should go away.
I am a big fan of a long hose,makes sharing much easier in my opinion,so easy in fact that you can practice it for a few minutes on every dive.Just deploy the hose and carry on with the dive.The extra length makes swimming together real easy.
If you find you can not do an air sharing ascent together for whatever reason (e.g. bouyancy problems) then it would be best not to do deep dives until you can !!!

Also suggest that you are familiar with rock bottom turn pressures.

Knowing that you can both ascend safely even after a catastrophic failure should remove a lot of stress.

 

[ianw2]

Fuzzmutton:

Me too!

Being told that the “good stuff” is all shallow, you don’t have enough experience, it’s no big deal, etc. is hooey.:mooner:

At depth, I had an unreasonable fear. I worked at figuring out where it came from. For me, it is claustrophobia. It is not rational, but it is real. I once felt the crush of claustrophobia in a Wyoming wheat field miles from anywhere or any mountains. The “crush” of that much open sky just put me over the edge.

The same goes for being under water at depth. When I realize that I can’t simply surface from a particular depth, the feeling is exactly the same as being in a slow moving elevator between floors. My heart rate goes up. My breathing rate goes up. It feels as though I’m sucking cold molasses through a coffee stirrer trying to get air out of my reg. (BTW – I dive with a Legend LX ACD, too! – great reg and much freer than my old reg.)

What helped me was understanding the root of my problem and getting a pony bottle. Now that I understand where the anxiety came from, and I have my redundant air supply right there on my right side, I haven’t felt the same anxiety level at all. In fact, now, I rather enjoy being at depth because, for me, it represents overcoming my fear. It has also made me much more patient with new divers who face fears of their own.

Working on air sharing drills with your husband is a great idea. So are the tips from Spectrum. Try to analyze your fear and see where yours is coming from. Think about getting a pony bottle and using it. Keep diving. Once you manage to work through your fear, both diving and the conquering of your fear will be an “empowering” experience and feeling!

Obviously, cave diving is not in my future. And diving Devil's Throat in Coz is not going to happen, either. You should see my SAC rates for the few swim throughs I DID try in Coz.I think one was a 1.2!

Cheers!

Ian

 

[b1gcountry]

I would also consider the possibility of narcosis affecting you at these depths. If its out of your comfort range, and you get a little narcosis as well, it would probably be enough to set you off. I'm usually more of a happy drunk, but when I'm not in a good mindset, or I'm cold, being deep will start to get me nervous.

Tom

 

[Fuzzmutton]

All good stuff. I keep hearing the pony mentioned, believe me I considered this VERY early on in my diving career. Why would I have held off on something that could have been so comforting? At 50 dives I am still refining so many skills. It will take me a while to get trim, weight, and buoyancy perfected. Some days I do so well I feel like a natural and some days I feel like a gross amatuer. If I sling a tank on one side I'm afraid it will set me offbalance. I remember I got my weight pockets "off" a little once and kept rolling to one side during the dive, it was hilarious. I probably only had about 15 dives in then. I can just see me swimming with a permanent list from 40 cu. ft. tank

I posted before about my first deep dive and getting narced (new diver). It was a real bad experience, I wanted really really bad to bolt but didn't. Other than that I don't think it (narcosis) bothers me that much, unless I'm having some paranoia that I don't know about.

Ian, I know what you mean about not wanting to do the caving or such, I'm taking it a step further and including wrecks...no overhead environments for me, thank you.

 

[ianr33]

IMHO the bottom line is that if a diver is confident that he/she can handle any problem that might reasonably occur then they will probably be pretty relaxed about the dive. On the other hand if they think a problem would result in injury/death then it is only natural to feel scared.

As regards the pony,if you do a careful search you might find one or two posts about them Dont know if it is the right solution for you or not but I will say that it should not affect your balance. I have never noticed a list to one side even when slinging an 80 and a 40 at the same time.

 

[SlowRain]

I won't beat the horse around what other's have said about comfort zone and training. Those are important...as is going at a pace you are comfortable with. Practice basic skills such as air sharing, mask clearing, etc until you feel they are second nature.

I know this sounds weird, but I have used this method most of my life for a lot of things other than diving, but first putting a plan in place for the dive...that is along the lines of "going to x depth, staying x minutes, surfacing at x time". Give your mind something to focus on rather than run rampant with worry (being nervous is normal, but letting it consume you is not healthy). Use that energy to mentally rehearse your dive plan...consider what emergencies could happen, and then rehearse your response to those. I am not talking about a "once-over" but doing it numerous times.

When I first started diving there were no computers, so I would write out my plan on a slate, depth, NDL, deco required...everything. I would also bracket target depth by 20 feet and 20 minutes either direction with NDL's etc. And I would rehearse the dive mentally...over and over and over.

I still do the same thing even though diving a computer today...I will always have a slate in my BC pocket with the dive plan written out, bracketed, with EVERYTHING I would need to get myself to the surface safely (by the time I am going into the water, I usually have the thing memorized). And I still rehearse mentally. If you get into the habit of REALLY putting some effort into this, I think you might find it helps...it certainly did for me.

As far as a pony bottle...go for it if you feel it is an asset. Like anything else that is new...do some controlled dives with it to get used to the feeling of having it on you. I do some diving where I am hauling at least one 40cf deco bottle and it just takes getting using them some to get used to it. Just as a suggestion, for use strictly as a pony bottle in the depths you would most likely be diving, (say around 100' max) a 19 cf would be easily adequate...I think a 40 is a little bit of an overkill for pony use, but as they say "whatever gets you home" so bigger isn't a bad thing.

 

[2Tours N Iraq`]

I'm curious, how many people that are afraid of going deep are also afraid of heights? I wonder if there is any correlation between the two in that you are a great distance away from good old terra firma which causes fear to set in. I know I'm a bit of an odd duck in that I'm not afraid of heights, the dark, drowning, dying, etc. In fact, depth has never bothered me. I received my deep cert after just 24 dives under my belt as part of my AOW & Master Diver training. To each their own and I do agree with everyone, don't dive beyond your comfort limit and take it slowly to expand your diving horizons.