Panic - how close we are

[billt4sf]

Last weekend I tried a new rig and was quite disoriented. I didn't have the trim right and ended up rolling around side-to-side. It was very disorienting and I took on a bit of water in my mask, could not stabilize myself and had a bit of panic. Depth was around 15 feet. In retrospect I recall that during my brief moments of panic I had an urge to spit out the reg. My brain and my training intervened and I heard myself say "Breathe, breathe you silly fool, and you'll be OK no matter what else happens".

I did not go into any sort of continued distress but I am now wondering why would I have the urge to spit out the reg from this little bit of panic? Are there any known explanations? I believe there have been a number of deaths from people with plenty of air and the reg out. I wonder if my small experience may have familiarized myself with that situation ? Or maybe it was a one-off.

- Bill

 

[fisheater]

That's an easy question.

Before you took your OW class, you'd never had a reg in your mouth. You'd never been able to breath underwater. Thus, your forays into the underwater world involved holding your breath and diving down until you felt the need for a breath. Then, it was "go to the surface now to live."

Your mind is still "hard wired" for that. If something goes wrong, your brain says "GO UP NOW!"

It takes a while to "rewire" your brain for "I'm still breathing, so I can just relax and work this out."

 

[PinkInkScuba]

Panic can cause us to do stupid things.

Panic and Basic Instincts, Scuba Diving, Medical FAQ ? DAN | Divers Alert Network

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Your natural instinct is to take a huge breath, plant your feet firmly on the bottom, spit the reg (which is an unnatural device), kick like hell and use your arms too and no matter how much your lungs burn, do not exhale until you hit the surface... If you have not recognized that your natural survival instincts will kill you when scuba diving.... now is the time to come to this realization....

 

[windapp]

This is exactly why it is important to know when to call a dive. I had an incident once where I had some great anxiety of unknown source. I couldn't slow my breathing. I decided that I would rather abort the dive then and there when I was still in control of myself, rather than wait for the feeling to grow into a full blown panic.

 

[TMHeimer]

Those reasons make sense to me. Anyway, good job for letting your "brain kick in". I have not experienced any panic (yet--I feel we all will panic at some point given the right circumstances). But I have been in an uncomfortable situation or two, mainly due to cramps and currents. Always remembering to stop, think and act is the key, and you did that. Kept breathing.

 

[mark01]

Students try to spit out regs during mask drills quite often and occasionally at other inopportune moments. It a learned behavior to keep the thing in your mouth.

 

[Bob DBF]

Panic - how close we are

Closer than we think.


Bob
---------------------
I may be old,but I'm not dead yet.

The future is uncertain and the end is always near
Jim Morrison

 

[TSandM]

One of the things my mentor, NW Grateful Diver, told me early in my career, was that virtually all of our instinctive behaviors are maladaptive underwater. What works on land just doesn't work there. On land, if you feel as though you can't breathe because you have something in your mouth or over your nose, you tear it off (believe me, I've seen patients do it over and over again!). Underwater, if you do the same thing, you've thrown away your life support.

One of my early dives was one where I confronted the panic beast. I had sailed over the edge of a wall into dark water, smiled too widely, and flooded my mask. I couldn't get it cleared, and I got vertigo. I didn't know how deep the bottom of the wall was, and I was afraid it might be way too deep. I couldn't see, I couldn't get the mask to clear, and the world was spinning wildly. I hit a point where my brain said, "I'm outta here . . . " and I had to choke that back.

That day, I learned that panic is not very far from any of us. If you KNOW you have a weak point -- you don't like a wet mask, or being without a regulator in your mouth for a little while, or being unable to see -- it's imperative that you confront yourself with that issue again and again and again, until it's no longer a "rattle" Because the ocean will find all the rattles you have, eventually, and shake them.

 

[Ben Prusinski]

Always keep the reg in mouth and breathe and try to stay calm in tough situations. You can practice so that it becomes natural. I've had 2 things happen to me and fortunately kept the reg in my mouth which saved my life.