anxiety with mask clearing and oral bc inflation

[scratchmyback]

And scratchmyback............ Coolest avatar ever.

Thanks...don't quite remember which avatar site I stole it from

 

[fisherdvm]

Since I was a kid, I always worried about drowning. My uncle died of drowning. My older brother died of drowning when I was 11. That anxiety carried over until this day. My mom told me since I was a kid, stay away from the water, as all the "men" in the family has been dying of drowning.

I think the more you do your skill, even in a bath tub, the less anxious you will be. Try to do it in a mixing bowl, or standing in the shower. I have not read over the other threads, but I think it comes to repeated experience. If you can borrow a BC from someone, wear it, and use it... Until you are perfectly familiar with its function. Then go in the shower and try to inflate it with full stream of water at your face...

If I can overcome my fear of drowning, I think you can too.... It took me two times to get through OW. The first time, I dropped out, as I feared that I was going to drown in the real OW environment. After reassurance from the instructor, I took it again about 3 months later.

 

[DiveMaven]

I wouldn't go out into the OW until I could do these basic skills in a controlled environment. Somehow I think once you do the skills correctly once that you'll have confidence and be able to repeat them without much (if any) anxiety. Everyone has given you great advice thus far.

 

[fisherdvm]

I had my son put his gears on, work the BC, drop the weight, etc... I'll probably flood his mask in the shower or pool... All of this well before he start his OW course. He has already seen the SSI OW dvd, and the padi one as well.... I just figure, the more he is exposed to it, the less anxiety he'll have when he gets in the pool.

 

[Walter]

This is not a difficult skill to master. Follow the link and do exactly what it says. It works.

 

[MaconBubbles]

I can sympathize. I had the same problem too and don't feel completely comfortable yet. Every time I've been diving (which is not much at this point), I start in the shallows and practice clearing my mask. Sounds like you begin to panick when you get the water in your nose. That's what I did too. What I do at that point is immediately pinch my nose closed and leave my mask full of water. I just take a few breaths through my mouth while I think about what I have to do. You can take all the time you need to do this. You could set there like that all day if you had to, even with a mask full of water. When I've worked the steps out in my mind and I've calmed down, I take one deep breath, think hard about breathing out through my nose, look up, press the top of my mask against my head and blow. If I fail and don't get all of the water out, pinch my nose again and go through the steps again. The first time I went diving after my OW cert, I practiced clearing my mask all of the time without the flooding part, just to get the practice of breathing out my nose and not my mouth. So many people have had this problem. Don't give up. I'm certainly no expert about anything, but I did have this problem and dealt with it, even if in an unusual way.

 

[tenashus]

I just took my classroom/pool instruction this past weekend. I thought I had the mask clearing task down, until the last day. I "freaked out" when we had to swim w/ our buddy without our masks on. From that point on, I was pretty much worthless the rest of the class.

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to practice before my lake dives to make sure I have it down pat.

 

[MaconBubbles]

Well...good luck to you. I really didn't figure out the nose-pinching trick until I was in OW, 20 ft down, and I got through it. If you get the chance, practice somewhere shallow and just keep taking your mask off and putting it back on. I started flooding my mask before every dive just to reassure myself that I could do it. You will probably want to do that too, and anything else that caused you anxiety. Hang in there!

 

[flstarfish44]

I am actually in the process of getting certified myself! I am okay with the mask-clearing skill, but I swear, if "I Love Lucy" had ever had an episode where Lucy learned to scuba dive, that would have been what I looked like. So, I'm actually glad to see other people had a bit of anxiety too! I thought I was the only one, and was feeling so embarrassed. It's comforting to see others had to get used to the new equipment/breathing/skills too!!

P.S. This is an awesome Board. I've learned SO much in the past couple of days!!!

 

[kalidor's8]

lots of very good advice and all I can add is if you feel yourself start to panic just stop, breath and relax. I am sure your first panic kinda put that feeling in your mind. We all have gone through something like that. If you need to just go to the pool with your mask and go through the task with your snorkel instead of your tank, and stay ing the shallow end so you can stand if you need to.

Let us know how it goes