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On Thu, 5 May 1994, Nick Simicich wrote: > Am I the only person in this group who notices some (quite minimal) > narcosis symptoms at 60'? At that depth, there is a slightly > unwarranted feeling of well being, like when you gape at the 12' > hammerhead shark. By 80', they are really noticable, typically as > irrational nervousness and paranoia. This is pretty consistent. At > 120' or so, noticable impairment, and at 170, vertigo and serious > light-headedness. At 200', on air (once) silly behavior, > misinterpretation of other diver's actions, and paranoid fantasies. > Also laughing at silly things. I strongly suspect that you are one of the very few individuals who notice symptoms at that depth, which is certainly not the same as saying you are the only person who experiences symptoms at that depth. > Personally, with some very rare exceptions, I believe that divers fall > into two groups: Those who know that they are starting to get > impaired at 60'-80', and those that are not well enough in touch with > themselves to realize it. > > Whether those that know admit it is a different story. My opinion is that you are generally right about this. But I'm not sure that it's as simple a statement as "most people get subtle narcosis symptoms at 60-80'". While this may be true, in my experience symptoms of narcosis are contingent upon an extremely wide variety of factors, not the least of which is the elusive "acquired narcosis tolerance" which seems to come with repeated exposures. I could flood the bandwidth with anecdotes (I got lots of 'em, and most folks have probably noticed my fondness for sharing them....) about this phenomenon, but because I leave for a month-long trip next week, I just don't have the time to relay them. Perhaps a future topic of discussion? At any rate, it seems that "narcosis tolerance" may have something to do with how "narked" one is prior to the dive. I don't mean non-nitrogen narcotics, I mean "residual" narcosis from prior dives. If someone is feeling an "80' buzz" on the surface, which, of course, is usually very subtle and barely detectable by all but the most self-observant, then that person may not notice any change at 80'. Gotta run... Aloha, Rich
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