Narc'd for the first time

[Jayde323]

Saturday morning, hubby and I were in the Keys diving the Bibb. We had never dove this site before and prior to this our max depth was about 92 feet. We were excited about this dive since we had planned to hit 100' for the first time. My hubby was the leader on the dive, but I went down the mooring line first since I had some sinus issues a few days before and may need more time to clear my ears. As soon as we made it down 20' or so, the current picked up. We got to the bottom of the mooring line and dropped down behind the wreck to get out of the current and explore a bit. My computer started beeping letting me know I was getting close to my MOD since I was diving nitrox, and I let my husband know this. Everything was still in the limits of our dive plan and we continued to explore a little. At this time we were at 105 feet diving 32% EAN. All of a sudden, it hit me. My chest tightened, my breathing picked up and my mind started racing. It felt like a full blown anxiety attack. It took a few seconds to get my bearings, and before I knew it, I had dropped to 111', the MOD for 32% EAN. I kicked up a few feet and tried to calm myself down. In what seemed like an hour, but was more likely 15 seconds, the rational part of my brain instantly went to my rescue training. I knew I could start to panic any second and knew I had to get my husbands attention. As soon as my husband saw me, he knew I was having an issue. I signaled "up" to him, and he asked if I was OK. I signaled "up" to him again and we headed back to the mooring line. We grabbed onto the line and checked my air, 1800 psi. We started our way up the line facing each other, I started feeling better. I gave hubby the OK sign letting him know I was feeling better. We didn't do the pile stop at 50 feet like we had planned, but did a slow, safe ascent to 15 feet. We decided to do a full safey stop since I had plenty of air left, and I was feeling better. Back on the boat, we discussed what had happened and knew I had become narc'd. If it wasn't for our rescue training (and a fantastic instructor), I don't want to think about what might have happened. I am thankful that my husband was able to help me stay calm and knew exactly what we had to do.

We had 3 more dives planned that day, and after over an hour SIT time, we decided to do the rest of the dives. All happened without further issues. On Sunday, we had 2 dives planned, the Eagle and a reef. Everything was going great on the Eagle until I hit 97'. The anxiety started coming back again, but not nearly as strong. I signaled to my husband to go up. We went back to the mooring line and hung there for a few seconds and the feeling passed. We were able to spend a few more minutes on the dive, but hung close to the mooring line in case I had further issues. After the Eagle, we had a wonderful, relaxing, hour long dive on a reef just hangin with the fishies.

After we got home, we talked to our instructor, and a friend of ours who is also an instructor and both agreed I was narc'd. Overall, I am glad for the experience. What my husband and I learned from this is invaluable and I feel has made us better divers. Neither of us expected that one of us would have an issue. We never thought we would have to recall our rescue training at 111' in a strong current. But we did, and I think we handled it great.

To my hubby, thank you for being there when I needed you most. :kiss2:

 

[b1gcountry]

Quite a few people have this reaction. If you want to consider diving at this depth, a little rectriox course would do wonders for you. Nothing like being clear headed at depth. I am curious though, why push the next dive almost as deep when you had such bad narcosis on the Bibb?

Tom

 

[DiveBee]

110 MOD for 32% is at 1.4, very conservative. Most shops mark MOD @ 1.6

Do you think you could've had regular anxiety (panic attack), resulting from uncertainty of your deepest dive to date? Current was moving, so that didnt help either. Obviously your dive partners presence calmed you down quickly. Most of the narcosis symptoms at that depth include positive/happy thoughts, drunk euphoria and/or carelessness.

 

[ringmod65]

Sounds like a good old fashioned "get me the dickens outta here and pronto" panic attack, and not narcosis. I have experienced both.

A panic attack will rise up and shake you by your BCD. Narcosis sneaks up on you and is much more insidious.

My experience has been that narcosis is similar to alcohol in regard to overconfidence: "What's the problem? I'm fine to d(r)ive..."

Good for you for getting back in the water again. I had a bad panic experience and didn't dive for several years, until I decided to go back for Rescue training. I have been diving madly ever since.

Finally, there's nothing like an experienced, observant buddy.

 

[bletso]

Sounds like a good old fashioned "get me the dickens outta here and pronto" panic attack, and not narcosis. I have experienced both.

A panic attack will rise up and shake you by your BCD. Narcosis sneaks up on you and is much more insidious.

My experience has been that narcosis is similar to alcohol in regard to overconfidence: "What's the problem? I'm fine to d(r)ive..."

Good for you for getting back in the water again. I had a bad panic experience and didn't dive for several years, until I decided to go back for Rescue training. I have been diving madly ever since.

Finally, there's nothing like an experienced, observant buddy.

Hate to disagree but narcosis affects everyone differently. I have had the opportunity to experience narcosis many times over the years and in my case it is never a sneak up on you experience. I have learned to deal with it but as I dive a rebreather, I almost always have some helium in the mix. (Yup, I like to cheat a little).

There appear to have been two factors that may have contributed to the severity. One was your exertion level immediately prior to the onset. A CO2 build up due to a high exertion will usually worsen or bring on a narcosis hit. Most recreational regulators fall off in performance when asked to supply 4 or 5 times the volume of air required for each breath, especially when you are breathing heavier than normal.
Second, anxiety will make a hit seem more intense than it otherwise would be.

One of the tricks I do to humble the "I don't get narced diver syndrome" is to do a long hard surface swim and a quick descent to depth usually in cold water on a hot day. I've not had many who I couldn't induce narcosis, and none of them liked the experience.

Dale

 

[openmindOW]

Thank you for your post, JayDee.

The fact that you are giving this incident some reflection speaks well of you. I bet you'll be a super DM.

 

[deltablade]

i get anxiety attacks on land ,, they are scary things and the more you worry the worse they seem to get,,, i hope i don't experience one under water but if i do i hope i have someone as dependable as ur hubby to see me thru it,

 

[b1gcountry]

I've never been to a shop that recommends a MOD at 1.6 for non-deco mixes. With Oxygen Toxicity, being conservative is the only way to deal with things. There's really no point in pushing a mix that close to its MOD, anyway when you can just use a leaner mix.

This really doesn't sound like anxiety or a panic attack to me. It's narcosis. Now you know what it feels like and how to avoid it. Your experience, and the symptoms you report are rather common.

Tom

 

[TSandM]

I agree -- this sounds like narcosis, possibly aggravated by a bit of CO2 retention. I get exactly the same symptoms, which is why 100 fsw is my hard deck for non-helium gases. Sometimes I can be down there and feel fine -- but I'm sure I'm impaired, and my ability to react to an urgency or emergency would be slower and less precise than at shallower depths.

 

[Indian Valley Scuba]

Very interesting and descriptive write up on the event. I do think you may wish to consider how this will impact you as a future divemaster, or even more so, if you continue on to instructor as you indicate in your profile. Assuming your ambitions don't extend beyond the recreational level, you need to be very comfortable at any depth up to at least 130 feet if you are taking responsibility for students and other divers in either of those roles.