New Article on Fear and Diving

[klausi]

What happens in your brain when you are afraid during a scuba dive? Which brain regions are representing the very useful emotion "fear"? Fear can serve both to keep a person from doing something unduly dangerous, or it can decrease enjoyment of an activity which is actually safe, or it can escalate into panic, causing danger by itself.

How does nitrogen narcosis affect the processing of fear? There are some studies out which looked at this question. The effects are subtle. In divers who are anxious to begin with, fear interferes most with cognitive processing, for example.

<Mod edit: removed link to article, unfortunately multiple mods received virus warnings. Please see the DAN Europe Alert Diver page for the article. Apologies for any inconvenience to the OP or to readers.>

 

[Still Kicking]

What happens in your brain when you are afraid during a scuba dive? Which brain regions are representing the very useful emotion "fear"? Fear can serve both to keep a person from doing something unduly dangerous, or it can decrease enjoyment of an activity which is actually safe, or it can escalate into panic, causing danger by itself.

How does nitrogen narcosis affect the processing of fear? There are some studies out which looked at this question. The effects are subtle. In divers who are anxious to begin with, fear interferes most with cognitive processing, for example.

For a more in-depth discussion heck out my new article for DAN on the topic please!

Any consensus of successful strategies for overcoming unreasonable fears in diving?

From personal experience, I have found that focusing on something very small helps me "put the toothpaste back in the tube."

 

[klausi]

That's a good topic for a follow-up article. I will read up on the psychological literature. I am guessing that human minds are so different, that different things will work for different people. Controlling breathing works for many.

 

[heftysmurf]

Any consensus of successful strategies for overcoming unreasonable fears in diving?

From personal experience, I have found that focusing on something very small helps me "put the toothpaste back in the tube."

As someone with a lifelong anxiety disorder (Doc signed off on diving!), I found that diving helps me achieve my most mindful state. I also agree that a small task helps chill me out. Doing my wreck specialty, I was nervous and not feeling groovy BUT...once I pulled out my reel and started tying off to various points, my focus went to that and eased my dumb brain!

 

[klausi]

As someone with a lifelong anxiety disorder (Doc signed off on diving!), I found that diving helps me achieve my most mindful state. I also agree that a small task helps chill me out. Doing my wreck specialty, I was nervous and not feeling groovy BUT...once I pulled out my reel and started tying off to various points, my focus went to that and eased my dumb brain!

I think anyone needs to work on anxiety control when wreck diving. It would be a good idea to compile a list of mental tricks which divers use. I'll talk to the folks at DAN if they are interested in a follow-up article.

 

[happy-diver]

And for my first mental trick the suggestion of learning to cope with a reduction of mind altering poisons intake

starting perhaps with coffee

 

[klausi]

And for my first mental trick the suggestion of learning to cope with a reduction of mind altering poisons intake

starting perhaps with coffee

Interesting take, I think this is highly individual. I am not prone to anxiety at all, but coffee makes me alert/happy, not anxious.

 

[rmssetc]

What happens in your brain when you are afraid during a scuba dive? Which brain regions are representing the very useful emotion "fear"?

I'd really like to see the study protocol for doing fMRI on novice vs experienced SCUBA divers during the course of a dive.

 

[happy-diver]

And for my next mental trick the suggestion of learning to cope with a reduction of mind altering poisons intake

continuing with alcohol


I'm surprised by your surprise chief considering dark narc

 

[klausi]

And for my next mental trick the suggestion of learning to cope with a reduction of mind altering poisons intake

continuing with alcohol


I'm surprised by your surprise chief considering dark narc

Alcohol is highly discouraged, of course. Very different substances, alcohol and caffeine. Caffeine is a performance enhancer. Ever try these bodybuilding pre-workouts? They add 10 kgs to your squat. The problem in scuba is dehydration and lowered O2 seizure threshold with caffeine, imo, not anxiety, in most ppl.