Panic attack first time on open water dive...

[The Kraken]

At your stage of diving and you CONTROLLED all of this?!?!?!?!?! You're good to go!

While many state that diving makes them claustrophobic, often times when going to open water, the student has a completely opposite reaction due to the fact that there are no physical boundaries present.

It's a mindset thing.

I think you will be an excellent diver. Carry on, Macduff . . . .

Safe dives . . . . . .
. . . safer ascents !

the K

 

[geko21]

Although I have been diving for 30 years I have experienced panic underwater on several occasions, and although I could overcome it it is not pleasant at all. I see that in my students as well and sometimes it can not be controlled. Currently on Facebook is circulating a very interesting article on the topic written by a person I highly respect. Although I have not tried it yet the friend who forwarded me the link and who is a very experienced diver himself says that this advice works. Check it out: https://www.facebook.com/DivingMexicoCenter/posts/1593826550879058

 

[jscott83]

Interesting thread, I'm very new at diving 1 month. Each time I've been i seem to have a panic/hyperventilate once during testing was trying to even get under water took 30lb. Really love it when I'm down just having troubles slowing my breathing and with the poor viability in the www quarries that adds to my freak out. But I'm so ready to go again if it ever stops raining.

 

[The Laconic]

Something like that happened to me on one of my first OW certification dives, on the descent. It wasn't a full-blown panic attack, with the wide staring eyes and the unresponsiveness, but I was hyperventilating. The instructor could tell I wasn't comfortable, and called off the mask drill, which was the right decision.

Since then, I've been fine. I think you'll be fine too. It's probably good to have a little scare like that; it'll help ward against complacency for a while.

[Added] In retrospect, I wonder if it wasn't acrophobia. I don't like heights at all. And what are depths in crystal-clear water, but heights?

---------- Post added July 13th, 2015 at 06:32 PM ----------

But I'm so ready to go again if it ever stops raining.

You know, you can dive in the rain...

 

[jjjjeremy]

Haven't read the whole thread, so this may have been mentioned. You may want to take some freediving classes. After only 10 dives post-cert, I kept off tanks for a few years, but put in around 100 hours of bottom time on my lungs. One day I strapped on a tank to explore a new reef with a buddy, and everything was peachy-keen. Knowing I had dove twice as deep on lungs made me extremely comfortable at a relatively shallow 45'. Given my apnea experience, if I ran into an OOA situation, sans buddy, I knew I had at least 2 minutes to meander to the surface before I was in any serious trouble.

 

[dmaziuk]

Given my apnea experience, if I ran into an OOA situation, sans buddy, I knew I had at least 2 minutes to meander to the surface before I was in any serious trouble.

Actually, you should have more after breathing compressed air. As I recall a healthy non-smoker would normally have enough oxygen in their blood and tissues to keep the muscles working for a minute at least -- that's without hypoxic training and not counting the air in their lungs.

 

[jjjjeremy]

Actually, you should have more after breathing compressed air. As I recall a healthy non-smoker would normally have enough oxygen in their blood and tissues to keep the muscles working for a minute at least -- that's without hypoxic training and not counting the air in their lungs.

And..... I'm diving nitrox

 

[JarrodS]

Kind of - in the first 30 seconds of my certification dive. We are in the water gathered around the instructor who is telling us the dive plan. Everything is fine although I'm naturally excited and a bit anxious being in 50 ft of water for the first time, first time off a boat, etc. We all signal to descend so I deflate my BCD and start sinking. Someone taps me on the shoulder and points down and to the left of me. I turn around to see a big animal coming up from the deep, making a beeline straight for me at about 15MPH. He gets about four feet away from my mask and darts to the left. I nearly lost my s**t (literally). Only after I saw it from the side did I realize it was a California sea lion, playing with us. It took me a couple minutes regain my composure and continue the dive. I wasn't prepared for that given my total lack of experience and with everything else that was going on.