Narcosis

[JDostal]

Me, I'm a baaad diver. I like the feeling of narcosis I've not experienced a bad feeling when narced, just pleasant ones. I want to stay forever and always get bummed when I have to go.

 

[BDSC]

Me, I'm a baaad diver. I like the feeling of narcosis I've not experienced a bad feeling when narced, just pleasant ones. I want to stay forever and always get bummed when I have to go.

Then you and Mr. Cousteau would have been a good team. He liked the way it made him feel also!

 

[Crowley]

okay so - gonna agree with Walter

Narcosis happens. The current theory is this
your nerves are sheathed with a protien called Myelin. The increased partial pressure of Nitrogen causes that gas to be dissolved in the protein sheath and it therefore interferes with the chemical reactions between the axons and dendrons that exist in your synapses... effectively it's like being stoned underwater

It happens to everyone, but with experience it can be overcome.

I've seen some peole do some random stuff down threre - it happens. Thebest thing it to realise it's there and deal with it

 

[JDostal]

Then you and Mr. Cousteau would have been a good team. He liked the way it made him feel also!

I tell ya, diving mix is almost a let down some days

 

[Jmarsland]

Wow, thanks for all the responses so far. When I use the term 'Narc'd" I mean feeling the symptoms of narcosis. I acknowledge that everyone experiences the physiological aspect of narcosis when diving. Thank you again! I look forward to reading more responses.

 

[Dive1Dennis]

Hi Jenn, my 2 PSI worth....

I would have always said that I did not feel narced until relatively deep, maybe somewhere around 110ft. on air give or take. However, more than ever I realize that there is a certain amount of narcosis that we all get accustomed to, to the point that we don't even realize that it is there. At that level I think it is common to say that we are not narced, even though to a certain small degree we are. I agree with this and other comments like it;

I can't let this pass
Everyone gets narc'd, no-one is immune

You may not notice any symptoms at the rec depths you mention; that doesn't mean they aren't there

My case in point;
This past summer I took my TDI trimix certification classes. It was by the way a great experience. On one day of the training we did our first dive to 180ft on a 20/30 mix. We did a second dive, using the remaining 20/30 mix in our cyclinders on a 75 ft. deep wreck. This is a wreck that I dive all of the time, so I have a good baseline of what it is like to dive it on air. At 75 ft. on air I don't feel narced....at all. What really surprised me was that I was able to feel a difference. Nothing significant, not even really something I can describe. However I could tell that something was different, maybe my head was clearer, maybe things just seemed a little sharper or I was more aware of peripheral things. It is hard to say just what was different, but it was. That difference was the narcosis that I don't even notice on a typical dive to 75 ft. on air.

So, I think Walter said it best;

Narcosis is not a problem if you are aware of how it affects us all and take that into account in your plan. Narcosis is a huge problem when we think it's nothing to worry about.

Have fun......it is a great sport isn't it!

 

[Tortuga68]

Good posts guys

I'll give my example from my AOW course:

My instructor wrote some simple math poblems on a slate, and handed it to me at ~30m. I didn't feel narc'd at all, and had done several dives to similar depths before

The problems were something like this:

23 + 12 + 34 =
27 + 34 + 11 =
18 + 27 + 39 =
41 + 13 + 28 =
16 + 15 + 29 =

Then I had to total the results

Oh, and I also had to write my name backwards

It took me longer than it would've on the surface, but after double checking, I handed the slate back to my instructor, feeling confident I had 'passed' the test

Back on the surface, my instructor gave the slate back to me. I noticed immdiately that I'd gotten one of the sums wrong by a fairly large margin, and also the total was out

So although I felt 'normal' I was in fact narc'd

Since then I've done a dozen or so dives in the 40-60m range, and have experienced various noticeable symptoms of narcosis, ranging from the pleasant (euphoria) through mild (jungle drums, short attention span) to the not so pleasant (visual hallucinations, paranoia, confusion)

Certainly with experience you can control your reactions to the symptoms - that's part of the fun and mental skill of deep diving - but you can't avoid narcosis

 

[keyshunter]

Just because you don't feel it doesn't mean it is not there. Using simple math problems, I demonstrated the the effects of narcosis in my advanced students in depths as shallow as 75 feet.

 

[dave4868]

Just because you don't feel it doesn't mean it is not there. Using simple math problems, I demonstrated the the effects of narcosis in my advanced students in depths as shallow as 75 feet.

Makes sense to me.

It would also be interesting to evaluate the effect on math performance simply from the multi-tasking of scuba diving itself.
In other words, testing of timed math performance could be done:

• On the surface, prior to gearing up, in a relaxed, quiet environment
• At 10', while kneeling on the bottom
• At 75', while kneeling on the bottom
• At deeper depths, while kneeling at the bottom

I think I'll run some personal tests this summer. That might be very revealing, provided the stopwatch timing and record keeping can be managed successfully....

Dave C

 

[ligersandtions]

Makes sense to me.

It would also be interesting to evaluate the effect on math performance simply from the multi-tasking of scuba diving itself.
In other words, testing of timed math performance could be done:

• On the surface, prior to gearing up, in a relaxed, quiet environment
• At 10', while kneeling on the bottom
• At 75', while kneeling on the bottom
• At deeper depths, while kneeling at the bottom

I think I'll run some personal tests this summer. That might be very revealing, provided the stopwatch timing and record keeping can be managed successfully....

Dave C

I would suggest having different math problems, albeit just as simple as the ones you use at other depths....if you're anything like me, you can generally remember the numbers to an extent, so when you do it on the surface and figure it out for the first time, it could realistically be the one that takes the longest.

Whereas, if you were to use different numbers for each of the sets you were going to do, and never have worked them out until you're at the specified depth, it would be a more telling test.