Panicked, afraid it will happen again

[michael-fisch]

If you are nervous, you're stressed.
My way of reducing stress is to stop swimming, grab ahold of something and spend a minute or 2 doing absolutely nothing but breathing, eventually you find that breathing doesn't hurt, works file and your mentals demons have quieted down, now you can slowly check your gear and reestablish boyancy. When your head tells you that it's safe to continue, now it's time to slowly continue your dive.
Remember diving is not a sport, carrying dive gear is a sport, underwater you should move slowly enough to relax and enjoy the dive. If after teaching your buddies that you stress out underwater, they continue to stress you out, it's time to find new buddies that can relax you.
Michael

 

[Snoweman]

You might try rinsing your mouth with Biotine, or using a "breath strip" right before you dive. I know the dry air causes me to gag during my descent, if I don't use something to excite my salivary glands just before I put the reg in my mouth. The coughing and gagging usually goes away in a few minutes for me, but I like to not start with it in the first place.

 

[scrane]

Wow. I am having trouble understanding why a dry mouth sent you into full panic mode.
Some people are not cut out for diving. I would reevaluate why you want to dive vs. your ability to safely do so. If you decide you want to continue I would book some time one on one with a dive master under controlled conditions until you have a better understanding of what's going on. You were really lucky you came out of the situation you describe without injury.

 

[Geobound]

The lack of understanding why someone would panic due to dry mouth, is likely because you've never experienced it to the extent some of us have.

I am not a nervous person at all and frequently spend my days talking to groups of people, but I too sometimes experience the "panic" feeling of dry mouth when underwater.

The inability to swallow seems to restrict your breathing, which cause the gag reflex to kick in, which then intern cause the need to surface to breathe properly again. I totally understand where the OP is coming from.

The sipping of water (if it's fresh) usually helps me get past this too, but perhaps your air mixture is just a little too dry. Ask your LDS how dry it is, and perhaps try a different shop that is a bit moister.

Candy in the mouth is probably not the best thing to do as it could cause an altogether new problem in terms of choking on it, but hydrating before hand or even the breath strips is something to give a go.

Maybe a full mask instead of the traditional setup is something that would work better for you, I know that I may consider that at some point too.

Get back to the pool and try again with the same air supplier that you have been using and see if the problem replicates itself. If it does in a shallow water dive, then perhaps it's not anxiety at all?

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

John

 

[Steelyeyes]

This isn't a dry mouth issue. It's an anxiety or panic issue. If addressed as such, with an appropriate coach/counselor it can be effectively dealt with. Trying to work through it underwater may or may not work. Just my two cents.

 

[caruso]

Wow. I am having trouble understanding why a dry mouth sent you into full panic mode.

Because it didn't. Just like the chicken came after the egg.

 

[Dan]

Sometimes I feel my mouth dry while diving, especially after a long dive, inhaling the dry air from the tank. I wonder about carrying a water bottle to drink underwater with a nozzle tip that you can pull it open with your teeth and squeeze the bottle to squirt the water directly to your mouth without contaminating the bottle water with the ambient water. Has anyone ever done it?

 

[scrane]

Because it didn't. Just like the chicken came after the egg.

That's kind of my point.. This fellow, unfortunately, has serious issues when it comes to diving.

 

[Geobound]

I should clarify that my issues of dry mouth are not restricted to just descending, but can happen after being underwater for 30, 40, 50 min. If I can wet my whistle it makes the problem go away, but it also somehow triggers my yawn mechanism.

 

[Ana]

Like others , I don't think this is a dry mouth issue.

With that said, I don't see a reason to dive with uncomfortably dry mouth. It doesn't happen to me but if it did, I'd eat grapes or drink water or juice, maybe cherries?