Insecure after recent PANIC on last two dives

[BlueTrin]

Don’t want to repeat what others said:

• Try it in a pool without scuba equipment where you can stand and try to clear. To get water in, break the seal gently with one finger to let the water drip slowly in
• In the pool you’ll be able to check if the seal holds
• As part of the buddy check ask if you have hair or things inside the seal of your mask. For a hood you normally try to get the fabric over the mask seal or close to the mask seal if the water is cold

 

[chillyinCanada]

My guess has already come up above.

Mask strap not on proper place on back of your head. Strap tightened too much.
Incorrectly applying pressure with fingers to let air release water from your mask.

 

[Nathan Doty]

Fun stuff! Mental panic for no good reason (not meaning to sound harsh so bear with me) is a trainable thing. I've done any number of dangerous hobbies and used to have a dangerous job. Every one of them has come with a unique type of OMG moments that I had to train myself out of. 90% of it is trusting your gear and that trust only comes with repeated use.

I'm not a claustrophobic person, as long as I can breath I'm good for the most part. But suit up in full fireman SCBA, turn off the lights and crawl through a tangle box and bam, panic starts setting in. I can't move, I can't see, I can't (I can) but my brain says I can't breath and I can't think. And you're in the exact same mode with the 1st post. Your mask is flooded, you think you can't see, you think you can't breath, panic. So your first step is a simple one, that will fix a complex one. Back to me

So I'm in a full dark room, massively tangled up in wires, heart rate is shooting up, I REALLY want to pull my mask off because it's not keeping up with my skyrocketing pulse and breathing rate, but I can't, because in the real world that = death. So I'm only the 1 billionth person the person training me has seen (he's got some night vision on) go through the exact same panic and he tells me how to fix it. "Close your eyes."

That's it, magic bullet. It sounds stupid, it's completely dark and I can't see, so how is closing my eyes going to do squat? But I listen, I close my eyes, I take a breath and bam. I can think. Heart rate drops, breathing drops, brain fires up, I work the problem an crawl out of the box. When your eyes are open but you can't see, your brain panics. Panic brings all those problems. But, close your eyes. You STILL can't see, but your brain says "Oh, eyes are closed, perfectly normal." Your brain works again, you can tell yourself I CAN BREATH because you can, and you work the problem. Simple step, complex fix, life is good. The same works under water.

Now here's the thing. Your mask is going to get water in it from time to time. It's possible you may lose your mask. And here's the 2nd thing. IT DOESN'T MATTER. As long as the reg is in your mouth, you're 100% fine. Close your eyes and tell yourself "I can breath" Take a few breathes, relax. Let it flood, it's annoying, nothing else. My eyes are tough, I spent years in pools with varying amounts of chlorine, I'm used to irritated eyes. I can (don't like to) swim in the ocean with no mask. That's all that saltwater is going to do. It's going to sting, it's going to irritate your eyes and that's all. When I did my drills to get cert I was one of the few that pulled/flooded with my eyes open. It hurt, but no big deal. Mask on, clear it, done. Anyone could have done the same, just most people worry more about stinging eyes than I do. And to be honest salt water sucks less when your mask is flooded than when it's just splashing.

Anyway, long story short, my advice would be to gear up and hop in the pool. Spend some time flooding, clearing, LETTING it happen in a controlled environment until your brain finally figures out IT DOESN'T MATTER. After that buddy up and hit the ocean. Do it again with someone right on your hip. Flood, clear etc, do it with your eyes closed until your brain knocks it off. Once that happens, you'll be 'cured' for life. And if in the beginning your panicking CLOSE YOUR EYES and do everything with your eyes closed. It works. It's stupid, but it works.

It's far less panicking than how I used to teach rock climbing. I made you climb until you took a few good falls. I *KNOW* I can drag a semi up a cliff with this rope. But until YOU'RE convinced, you're not going to trust the gear and you're going to freak out because you might fall. Trust me. You're GOING TO FALL, it's no big deal. You fall, you climb again. Ez peazy

 

[chillyinCanada]

@Nathan Doty, your story made me remember one of my own from the way back days.

I once panicked on the surface because I'd had my mask floodduring entry. The instructor just kept saying to me over and over and over again, "just look down". Finally, I heard him, put my face in the water. Even though my mask still had water in it, I could see that it was light below the surface and could make out a couple of fish swimming around. Suddenly, I could remember how to clear my mask and went on to have a very enjoyable dive.

After that, I began going to the pool with a tank, every chance that I got and swam around and around filling my mask, clearing my mask, swimming without my mask until it was as natural as having the mask on.

With every problem that arises since, whether mask related or otherwise, my first response is as trained. Stop, think and act. "Do I have air? Yes, I'm breathing, then I have time to figure this out."

Of course, that didn't work the time my mask was fine but my reg wasn't in my mouth. Lol
That time my thoughts went like this "hmm, something is odd here. Oh! My reg is not in my mouth!" So I reached around, caught it, put it in my mouth, purged the second and carried on laughing into my reg. From that dive I learned not to do the stride while I was still talking. Doh!

 

[Schwob]

As important as it is to become able to properly clear your mask, I completely agree with the prior posts about panic avoidance. Can't panic. So, become a mask clearing pro, but always be able to tolerate water in your mask at above nose level, fully filled, no mask... it does not matter. Become tolerant to it (ypu don't need to like it, but you need to panic proof yourself against it (imho***). Practise that in as small steps (with a helpfull buddy or DM or instructor at the ready (as works for you starting in a very controlled setting at very low depth (pool, or over sand...). You need to get it in your head that you are in fact 100% fine underwater as long as your regulator is in your mouth.

Once you are there and also mastered mask clearing, you should not stop. You should (imho***) take it two steps further at least (again, gaining comfort and thus panic avoidance us the important side effect,not that the skill itself doesn't matter), maybe starting again with help:
Buddy breathing (mask on at first) with your buddy. Maybe do this in a pool first. This is to get you used to temporarily not have a regulator in your mouth and still know it's ok as long as you have access to a working one to put into your mouth. It is not to suggest should practise that so you can plan on relying on it. But putting yourself in the position to be comfortable doing it... even swimming around with the buddy is good practise. (In reality, when reduced to buddy breathing you are already 1 step beyond having had to ascend... but if you were there, you still have to ascend safely of course).

Second step further: Add a flooded or removed mask to buddy breathing. When you are good with all that, I would say you accomplished some panic proofing...

*** about the imho part:
I am not an instructor. Far from it mayve. Buddy breathing may not really be taught much anymore. But with a at one point extremely water panicy, now diver in the family I claim to have a workable idea about the worth of "panic proofing" in small, manageable, non scary, safe steps... The size of those steps may need to be tuned to the person. And they may need to be re-practised once in a while, because it seems to me that an old panic or a phobie is sort of hard to forget and easy to remember...