I had read about other divers experiences and successful reactions to an overwhelming desire to bolt to the surface during dives. Having experienced several close calls in combat zones and other high-risk environments I never expected it to happen to me. However, on one particular dive while swimming against the current to the anchor line (instead of using the granny line), I became a little winded (but not too bad I thought), got a little hot (but not too hot or so it seemed), was trying to watch my buddy, then saw a big shark up close at about 80 feet, then my wetsuit seemed to tighten a little around the neck, it happened. I felt as though I could not get enough air, and really started breathing hard, and the thought of shooting to the top seemed like the best option. I knew in the back of my mind that was the worst choice and I recalled the other divers accounts and knew just what to do. I stopped, slowed my breathing, and slowly went up the line just a little. Very quickly (although it seemed an eternity) all returned to normal and I continued on to have a wonderful dive and several more (of course I used the granny line and slowed down a little). So thanks to all that shared in the past it helped me a great deal. I hope this will help others!
Reading others experiences about wanting to bolt helped to keep me calm
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You did a great job thinking through it and defusing the impulse!
You've given an excellent example of what I believe are very common elements in the panic process: increased exertion and anxiety. Both can create fast breathing and a pounding heart, which can set one excessively on edge or on alert and bring one closer to the threshold of panicking. This normal "feedback loop" type of process usually has survival value, but not underwater where "flight" can kill us.
I'll bet your reaction to the shark would have been quite calm had your heart rate and breathing rate been close to normal before the encounter.
I make a conscious effort to avoid excessive exertion underwater primarily to improve my ability to manage contingencies and avoid panic.
Again, nice job and great post!
Dave C
You've given an excellent example of what I believe are very common elements in the panic process: increased exertion and anxiety. Both can create fast breathing and a pounding heart, which can set one excessively on edge or on alert and bring one closer to the threshold of panicking. This normal "feedback loop" type of process usually has survival value, but not underwater where "flight" can kill us.
I'll bet your reaction to the shark would have been quite calm had your heart rate and breathing rate been close to normal before the encounter.
I make a conscious effort to avoid excessive exertion underwater primarily to improve my ability to manage contingencies and avoid panic.
Again, nice job and great post!
Dave C
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Super job, Diver. Thank you for sharing your story with this Forum. This Forum si really terrific for that reason; we can all learn from reading posts such as yours. Thanks also to ScubaBoard for running this Forum.
Blowin' Bubbles
Contributor
Great job! I've never experienced anything like that while diving (and hopefully I never will), but it sounds like you did a really good job at resisting the impulse to shoot to the surface. Way to go!
Breathing is the key.
You've had a very valuable experience, because now you know what that "I want out of here" feeling is like, AND you know you can control it.
Freerolling
Registered
I really like reading posts like this, because I'm prone to those panic feelings. I too have had a lot of life-experiences that would suggest I not get these types of anxious feelings underwater, but I've found these feelings completely unpreventable. However, I do find them controllable now.
When I first started OW diving, I used to really freak out just trying to get underwater for the first dive in a series. When I got to the bottom of the first dive, I was fine. On subsequent dives in a series I'd be fine too. It was always just that first dive that would trigger some primitive reminder in my brain that my species stopped breathing underwater millions of years ago.
These close-to-the-surface feelings have since gone away for the most part. When I feel them creeping into my head, I usually just float face down in the water for a minute with my reg in my mouth and just breath easily with my eyes closed. That usually gets me calm enough to make all those panic feelings go away completely. I'll just "visualize" being calm by thinking about floating in the sky. I now use the same visualization in underwater anxiety situations, and I've gotten the same improved results. If I start getting a little winded, I stop what I'm doing completely and just float neutrally bouyant at whatever depth and I usually am recovered within a minute. It also gives me time to process what's really going on.
Anyway, thanks for the post. It's the kind of thing that helps people like me who are prone to those feelings.
When I first started OW diving, I used to really freak out just trying to get underwater for the first dive in a series. When I got to the bottom of the first dive, I was fine. On subsequent dives in a series I'd be fine too. It was always just that first dive that would trigger some primitive reminder in my brain that my species stopped breathing underwater millions of years ago.
These close-to-the-surface feelings have since gone away for the most part. When I feel them creeping into my head, I usually just float face down in the water for a minute with my reg in my mouth and just breath easily with my eyes closed. That usually gets me calm enough to make all those panic feelings go away completely. I'll just "visualize" being calm by thinking about floating in the sky. I now use the same visualization in underwater anxiety situations, and I've gotten the same improved results. If I start getting a little winded, I stop what I'm doing completely and just float neutrally bouyant at whatever depth and I usually am recovered within a minute. It also gives me time to process what's really going on.
Anyway, thanks for the post. It's the kind of thing that helps people like me who are prone to those feelings.
sporket
Contributor
Good work of staying in control.
RogerAGrimes
Contributor
Thanks for posting this experience. Sadly, years ago I thought panicking was only for "whimps and those mentally challenged" individuals that shouldn't be doing extra risky sports. I was wrong, and I think I've become a better scuba diver...possibly a better human being...for it.
I have over 200 skydives and over 140 scuba dives. Previously, I'd had never been close to panicking, even in situations (e.g, skydive reserve ride, BASE jumping incident, scuba equipment failure while deep diving, etc.) where others may have panicked or not acted calmly. Well, that was before I was unexpectedly hit by my first panic attack at 130ft.
I was diving with my wife on a normal deep shipwreck/shark dive, with my regular dive club. Things couldn't have been better...almost. Water was warm, clear (vis 100+). I was taking underwater photos. The wreck had a strong current that day and the boat captain warned us to stay on the down line till we got to the wreck. Still, while descending, my wife and I saw a big sea turtle and headed off the line just above the wreck (around 100ft) to take those "once in a lifetime" shots. In under 1 minute I realized that we were about 150ft down current, and it took everything physically we could do to make the wreck, where the current died down. Once there, I was very winded. My wife took the lead and began poking around the wreck (around 120-130ft). I however, was still hot and out of breath.
At some point my mind began to tell me that I was not getting good air. I told myself to calm down, and took some long deep breaths. Still, I felt like I was not getting air. I then told myself that if I was not getting air, or good air, that I would have passed out by now...so I was just having a panic attack and I should try to relax. I'm a rational guy and I could reason my way out of being concerned...or so I thought.
No dice. My panic attack was not going to listen to anything my head was saying. Every fiber in my body wanted to head to the surface as fast as I could, rip off the regulator and mask, and breath fresh air. The only thing I wanted to do was to live! I was in a full blown panic attack.
I had to swim a bit more to catch my wife as she was exploring...I barely caught her fin tip and gave it a yank. She turned around and I gave her the thumb's up signal. She responded back with a smile and a cheery OK sign. She hadn't gotten it. She was used to me being the one that was her diving "rock". I hit her again with the thumbs up sign, and this time, looking in my wide open eyes, she got it.
We got close together, held each other's harness, and began to free ascend off the wreck, slowly, just as slowly as we would during a normal ascent. The current carried us off a bit, and the dive boat's DM saw us in the water column and brought out a wreck reel line which he tied off to the down line so we could float freely.
Once I was up to 70ft, I felt great. The panic attack was gone. I motioned to my wife that I was now alright and we could go back down. She wisely said no and we ascended the rest of the way including the normal safety stop. Back on the boat I was super embarassed (for lots of reasons...for my deflated macho manhood, for getting off the wreck on the way down and the way up, and for panicking...all stupid reasons, but I was embarassed just the same).
On the next deep dive an hour later, I was fine. Not even a hint of panic. I'm not a 100% why it happened, but yes, the information in this thread, is pretty consistent. Being anxious and overworked seem to be the common threads. I was worried about being down current, and I was exerting myself beyond the normal dive limits.
Some say I didn't really have a full blown panic attack, because I didn't shoot to the surface...but if not, it was as close as I would ever want to come. I certainly understand all these reports I read about new and experienced divers shooting to the surface even though they know they shouldn't. I'm convinced that our dive training played the largest role in preventing this dive from becoming an even worse event.
Even so, this was not an insignifcant event for me or my wife. I had to come to terms with the fact that "even I" can panic if the circumstances are right. Second, my wife, who use to think of me as the scuba "god" that would never panic, had to learn that I was human, and she improved her skills to compensate (a good thing). This one event actually shook our love of scuba diving, and we didn't scuba dive much for many years, perhaps taking 5 years off, or only diving once per year. Over the last two years we are back into it as much as we can, and we love it just as much as we did when we first joined...maybe more. But we think differently now. And we hang together as buddies a bit closer than before, and check each other out with OK signs just a bit more than we did before, especially if the workload increases.
Since then, over the years, I've had probably a half-dozen other dive situations where I've felt a panic attack coming on. I've learned to recognize it. Like the original and subsequent posters have said, it is almost always happens when I'm anxious about one or more other events (e.g. down current, deep, chasing a DM through vis, buddy not staying close, not 100% sure about my mix, flooded dive camera...whatever), and I'm working harder (sometimes only slightly) than normally underwater. I get that slight overheated feeling and then I feel the air panic starting to build.
I've learned to let some cool water into my wet suit, and to stop working hard...to relax. I've found great help in focusing on some minute detail for 30 seconds. Like on a shipwreck, I'll focus on a small soft coral in the wreck. I hook a finger to rest and just concentrate for a short while. On drift dives where I can't stay locked to a single object, I'll focus on something insignificant floating in the water column with me. That has always gotten rid of the panic attack before it had a chance to build.
It's interesting. Before I had the first panic attack, I had never had one before (underwater or above the surface). Since then, I seem to get the beginnings of one about every 10 or 20 dives. Don't know why...but I do know that thinking rationally, relaxing, removing the current workload, always helps. I've also learned to empathize with those who do have panic attacks. I recognize that panicked look and fast ascent in others more easily underwater, and I try to help the anxious diver to relax, and explain topside that it happens to a lot more of us than you read about.
I've found a few things that also help:
-Never be worried about air quality, gear, or medication. When that anxiety comes on...the less you have to worry about the better. This means always trust your gas filler and measure and re-measure any mixes. Know how to handle gear breaking...something will break every now and then, so expect it and handle it accordingly. Research any medications and their affects on diving, and when in doubt stop taking the medication appropriately or don't dive.
-Practice OOA skills frequently
-Stay close enough to your buddy that if something goes wrong, you don't have to make a big swim for them
-The better in shape I am the less I feel overworked.
I want to thank the original poster for posting this message. I brought out a flood of feelings that I haven't spoken of to anyone besides maybe my wife before.
Roger
I have over 200 skydives and over 140 scuba dives. Previously, I'd had never been close to panicking, even in situations (e.g, skydive reserve ride, BASE jumping incident, scuba equipment failure while deep diving, etc.) where others may have panicked or not acted calmly. Well, that was before I was unexpectedly hit by my first panic attack at 130ft.
I was diving with my wife on a normal deep shipwreck/shark dive, with my regular dive club. Things couldn't have been better...almost. Water was warm, clear (vis 100+). I was taking underwater photos. The wreck had a strong current that day and the boat captain warned us to stay on the down line till we got to the wreck. Still, while descending, my wife and I saw a big sea turtle and headed off the line just above the wreck (around 100ft) to take those "once in a lifetime" shots. In under 1 minute I realized that we were about 150ft down current, and it took everything physically we could do to make the wreck, where the current died down. Once there, I was very winded. My wife took the lead and began poking around the wreck (around 120-130ft). I however, was still hot and out of breath.
At some point my mind began to tell me that I was not getting good air. I told myself to calm down, and took some long deep breaths. Still, I felt like I was not getting air. I then told myself that if I was not getting air, or good air, that I would have passed out by now...so I was just having a panic attack and I should try to relax. I'm a rational guy and I could reason my way out of being concerned...or so I thought.
No dice. My panic attack was not going to listen to anything my head was saying. Every fiber in my body wanted to head to the surface as fast as I could, rip off the regulator and mask, and breath fresh air. The only thing I wanted to do was to live! I was in a full blown panic attack.
I had to swim a bit more to catch my wife as she was exploring...I barely caught her fin tip and gave it a yank. She turned around and I gave her the thumb's up signal. She responded back with a smile and a cheery OK sign. She hadn't gotten it. She was used to me being the one that was her diving "rock". I hit her again with the thumbs up sign, and this time, looking in my wide open eyes, she got it.
We got close together, held each other's harness, and began to free ascend off the wreck, slowly, just as slowly as we would during a normal ascent. The current carried us off a bit, and the dive boat's DM saw us in the water column and brought out a wreck reel line which he tied off to the down line so we could float freely.
Once I was up to 70ft, I felt great. The panic attack was gone. I motioned to my wife that I was now alright and we could go back down. She wisely said no and we ascended the rest of the way including the normal safety stop. Back on the boat I was super embarassed (for lots of reasons...for my deflated macho manhood, for getting off the wreck on the way down and the way up, and for panicking...all stupid reasons, but I was embarassed just the same).
On the next deep dive an hour later, I was fine. Not even a hint of panic. I'm not a 100% why it happened, but yes, the information in this thread, is pretty consistent. Being anxious and overworked seem to be the common threads. I was worried about being down current, and I was exerting myself beyond the normal dive limits.
Some say I didn't really have a full blown panic attack, because I didn't shoot to the surface...but if not, it was as close as I would ever want to come. I certainly understand all these reports I read about new and experienced divers shooting to the surface even though they know they shouldn't. I'm convinced that our dive training played the largest role in preventing this dive from becoming an even worse event.
Even so, this was not an insignifcant event for me or my wife. I had to come to terms with the fact that "even I" can panic if the circumstances are right. Second, my wife, who use to think of me as the scuba "god" that would never panic, had to learn that I was human, and she improved her skills to compensate (a good thing). This one event actually shook our love of scuba diving, and we didn't scuba dive much for many years, perhaps taking 5 years off, or only diving once per year. Over the last two years we are back into it as much as we can, and we love it just as much as we did when we first joined...maybe more. But we think differently now. And we hang together as buddies a bit closer than before, and check each other out with OK signs just a bit more than we did before, especially if the workload increases.
Since then, over the years, I've had probably a half-dozen other dive situations where I've felt a panic attack coming on. I've learned to recognize it. Like the original and subsequent posters have said, it is almost always happens when I'm anxious about one or more other events (e.g. down current, deep, chasing a DM through vis, buddy not staying close, not 100% sure about my mix, flooded dive camera...whatever), and I'm working harder (sometimes only slightly) than normally underwater. I get that slight overheated feeling and then I feel the air panic starting to build.
I've learned to let some cool water into my wet suit, and to stop working hard...to relax. I've found great help in focusing on some minute detail for 30 seconds. Like on a shipwreck, I'll focus on a small soft coral in the wreck. I hook a finger to rest and just concentrate for a short while. On drift dives where I can't stay locked to a single object, I'll focus on something insignificant floating in the water column with me. That has always gotten rid of the panic attack before it had a chance to build.
It's interesting. Before I had the first panic attack, I had never had one before (underwater or above the surface). Since then, I seem to get the beginnings of one about every 10 or 20 dives. Don't know why...but I do know that thinking rationally, relaxing, removing the current workload, always helps. I've also learned to empathize with those who do have panic attacks. I recognize that panicked look and fast ascent in others more easily underwater, and I try to help the anxious diver to relax, and explain topside that it happens to a lot more of us than you read about.
I've found a few things that also help:
-Never be worried about air quality, gear, or medication. When that anxiety comes on...the less you have to worry about the better. This means always trust your gas filler and measure and re-measure any mixes. Know how to handle gear breaking...something will break every now and then, so expect it and handle it accordingly. Research any medications and their affects on diving, and when in doubt stop taking the medication appropriately or don't dive.
-Practice OOA skills frequently
-Stay close enough to your buddy that if something goes wrong, you don't have to make a big swim for them
-The better in shape I am the less I feel overworked.
I want to thank the original poster for posting this message. I brought out a flood of feelings that I haven't spoken of to anyone besides maybe my wife before.
Roger
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Roger, thank you for posting your experience.
My reaction when reading it is that something which was probably playing a significant role in your original event was narcosis. Although people in warm, clear water often feel euphoric or relaxed when they are narced, those of us who dive cold, murky water know the "dark narc". I've actually had an episode very much like yours (although not as severe) on one of my first dives to 100 feet in Puget Sound. I became convinced my regulator was not functioning normally; I felt as though I just couldn't get a good breath, and it seemed hard to pull air out of the regulator. Luckily, I had had a prior narcosis episode where I thought I was initiating an uncontrolled ascent and dumped everything out of my suit and wing, and ended up floundering in the silt, so I was able to keep telling myself that I was imagining things.
In your case, you probably had CO2 buildup which was magnified by the disinhibiting effect of narcosis at 100 feet. One of the things that makes me think that is that, at 70 feet, you were fine. Of course, you'd also stopped working hard, so your CO2 had dropped, but the biggest thing in my mind is the reduction in narcosis.
It's a good reminder for all of us -- nitrogen lurks in warm, clear water, too.
My reaction when reading it is that something which was probably playing a significant role in your original event was narcosis. Although people in warm, clear water often feel euphoric or relaxed when they are narced, those of us who dive cold, murky water know the "dark narc". I've actually had an episode very much like yours (although not as severe) on one of my first dives to 100 feet in Puget Sound. I became convinced my regulator was not functioning normally; I felt as though I just couldn't get a good breath, and it seemed hard to pull air out of the regulator. Luckily, I had had a prior narcosis episode where I thought I was initiating an uncontrolled ascent and dumped everything out of my suit and wing, and ended up floundering in the silt, so I was able to keep telling myself that I was imagining things.
In your case, you probably had CO2 buildup which was magnified by the disinhibiting effect of narcosis at 100 feet. One of the things that makes me think that is that, at 70 feet, you were fine. Of course, you'd also stopped working hard, so your CO2 had dropped, but the biggest thing in my mind is the reduction in narcosis.
It's a good reminder for all of us -- nitrogen lurks in warm, clear water, too.
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