Anxiety disorder and want to learn scuba

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DeepZ

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Hi

Always wanted to learn scuba, I have general anxiety disorder and moderate depression and am on
medication sertraline and small dose of olanzapine have no symptoms for over two years.
Will I be allowed to take up scuba any advice appreciated

thanks
 
only your doctor can tell you..You need a medical form completed out before the start of class with a medical doctors sign off that can participate in the activity.
 
As far as the medications that is up to your Dr and instructor.

As for the anxiety that is "up to you". My GF gets anxiety about lots of stuff, but is not medicated. She loves diving and finds it very calming and peaceful.

Lots of times she gets worked up over "nothing" and once she does it then she is fine. One of our local dives is deep (112') and very dark here in the PNW in fresh water. She had some anxiety about the dive so we took it nice and slow. At the end of the dive she really liked it. Again she found it very calming just floating along in the quiet and looking around with her light.
 
Maybe a little light to the end of a dark tunnel...

I had a buddy that had some weird issues. He would just black out for no reason. He was even told he couldn't drive for almost a year because of it. He eventually got on the right diet, the right meds and had no issues for a couple years after. The doc even signed off on him doing OW and he's been enjoying diving ever since.

BUT... don't get your hopes too up.. this is just one instance... and results may vary depending on your conditions, meds, doctors, issues, etc.

Good luck! I hope it all works out for you!

Worst case... get in some good snorkeling!
 
Think about private lessons. Doing so may help minimize anxiety by knowing that you have 100 % of the instructors attention and knowing he/she is aware of your condition. Have them go at a pace that you are comfortable with.
 
I second the idea of private lessons. I don't have a diagnosed issue, but have a lot of anxiety over things. Many parts of my pool class were very frustrating, bordering on nightmarish. The pace was too fast for my comfort, though I had no actual issue with the skills. I just needed time to calm myself and steady nerves between things.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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