First Narc. scared the crap out of me.

[Drewpy]

Thanks for posting that..I will try to keep that in mind if it ever happens to me?
It seems like it happened rather quickly huh..?

I have never experienced any symptoms of narcage..I know it effects everyone differently, but I have not felt the effects of it yet? I purposely tried on a deep air dive in Bonaire to 140ft but to no avail.Many other deep dives in the tropics as well as Monterey..

Thanks,
Drew

 

[Jayde323]

Chris, I had the same thing happen to me. My husband and I were in the Keys diving the Bibb. I was at 111' and it felt like a full blown panic attack that came on so quick it took me a few seconds to realize what was going on. I tried to compose myself, but it was getting worse so I got my husbands attention and we made a very slow, safe ascent to the suface. Just like with you, I started feeling better at about 60' or so, but I also think it took me that long to calm down after experiencing that at 100'. My husband and I learned so much on that dive.

It was not until after we had gotten home and I started researching "dark narc" on DAN's website that I realized the Afrin I had taken before the dive probably played a big role in my getting narc'd. From what I found on DAN's website, it may have been a small CNS hit as well. CNS hit or not, it scared me to the point I will take NO meds other than my sea-sickness meds before diving as well as I worked with my doctor to manage my allergies med-free.

Chris, I don't know if you had taken any meds prior to diving, but it may be worth a look. I am glad you were able to keep yourself composed enough to keep yourself safe and make it back to the surface.

Safe and happy diving!

 

[Davemohio]

Thanks for the very useful post. I experienced my first "narc" last week in over 10 years of primarily "vacation" diving. I was at around 90 ft...I started feeling a little light headed. I guess that is the happy narc. I did not like the feeling and felt "mildly" panicky. Due to my training, I figured out what is was and acsended 10 to fifteen feet and it calmed down. It was not a pleasant feeling and came out of nowhere. My deepest dive has been 105 ft and among other similar deep dives, I never had a problem.You handled it well. Dave.

 

[Karel26]

When i got narked the first time i was only 78 feet
( was a bit irresponsible the evening before). . Lucky i
didn't get the freak out feeling, i just felt very happy and
in my own world with the fishes and just me, i then went
and just sat on the ground staring at all the fishes and
forgeting about the dive group. . They all carried on (even
my dive buddy because she thought i was myself just
sitting and observe). . So the dm asked her where your buddy
and she said she dont know, he turned the group back and
came to fetch me. . After that i never used her as a dive buddy,
worst of all she was my girlfriend by that time (ex now luckilly). .

I never got narked or noticed that i got narked and went twice
to the depth of 100feet and did quite a few dives deeper then
78feet after my narcd experience. .

Lesson that i learned, never dive when you had a hard party the
evening before, it could have turned any moment into something
worse and cost my life or worse somebody elses. .

Live to dive and dive to live. . . . :burnout:

 

[TSandM]

As far as I am aware, there is no evidence that Afrin or Sudafed contribute to narcosis. However, pseudoephedrine CAN make one feel jittery and anxious, even on land, and could definitely contribute to making a "dark narc" more intense and harder to manage.

CO2 can play a definite role in this process. Increased gas density leads to less effective alveolar ventilation at depth, and especially if coupled with heavy exertion and/or a poorly adjusted regulator, the end result can be CO2 retention. Elevated CO2 is a powerful stimulus for anxiety, adrenaline release, and panic.

The bottom line is to be very aware of exertion at depth (I'll call that 100 feet or deeper) and use easy-breathing regulators for deeper dives. Helium helps, too, both by decreasing narcosis and by improving gas kinetics through the lungs.

 

[jonathon50]

well done for thinking thru the narks! only once been narked and was only minor in turkey, remember looking at my SPG and thinking why am i looking at it? then realised! DM came over, gave the "ok", i gave "narked", up we went a few mtres, all ok. my buddie was someone i was teamed up with as was on my AOW. in fairness to her i dont think she realised, its only because i am an anorak when it comes to reading things that i realised that everything was not ticketyboo! personally speaking i think PADI should include in the training signs to look out for, i.e buddy not responding or just being errant in their behaviour!

 

[AfterDark]

Thanks for posting that..I will try to keep that in mind if it ever happens to me?
It seems like it happened rather quickly huh..?

I have never experienced any symptoms of narcage..I know it effects everyone differently, but I have not felt the effects of it yet? I purposely tried on a deep air dive in Bonaire to 140ft but to no avail.Many other deep dives in the tropics as well as Monterey..

Thanks,
Drew

Sometimes we're narced and we don't know until we try to do something different than we usually do on a dive. The first time it happened to me was at 110'. I felt fine even stayed longer at depth than I'd planned on purpose. That's were I ran into a problem. I tried to re-figure my deco on the fly and simple math eluded me. Had I stuck to my original plan I never would have known I was narced.

Next time you dive deep write a column of numbers on your slate before your descent. After being at depth for a while add'em up. See how that goes. Narcosis is an insidious enemy, it creeps up on us and sometimes doesn't give us a warning until we need our wits. Then we find we have only half our wits.

 

[tinao]

I have been lucky enough to never feel this but I am sure as much as I dive my day is coming. I am grateful for you insight to understand what to expect and better some good advice as to what to do, three deep breaths and slowly acend slightly and focus on one thing- it is what were taught but not with such detail. Thanks!

 

[johnhuntga]

thanks for sharing ... spooky

 

[lauragaudet]

Nice to hear other peoples experiences and advice on the subject.

My boyfriend and I are doing our Advanced open water dives today and tomorrow. We started today off with the deep dive. We just bought new BCD's and we are also new to dry suits which is what we were wearing. I must have not noticed any signs of narcosis ( if there were any) because I was fiddling around with my buoyancy, but when we stopped at 75ft to do some skills I was instantly narked. I signaled to our instructor to end the dive because I knew something was wrong but I wasn't sure it was narcosis because of how over whelming and frightening I was feeling. I felt like I didn't really have very much control over my motor skills and my movement. I kept it together (I hope ) to follow my boyfriend and instructor (hand in hand death grip) up to the surface, but mentally I was done for (never watch the youtube vid of the diver in Dahab!)

All in all it was an extremely frightening experience and I'm not sure I could have held it together on my own like CSHoler did, so props to my instructor Annie for helping me out of that sticky situation :| !!!