heebie geebies

**glynneco** · 07-03-2006, 03:12 AM

I don't know any one who hasn't gotten the heebie geebies at some point while diving. Even experienced divers can run into it on occasion. How do you deal with it? Has it caused you problems or have you been able to deal with it at depth?

Soledad · 07-05-2006, 09:05 AM

yes heebie-jeebies does seem to be a common condition amongst us divers.
I don't know all that much about the condition myself if not that you can feel very anxious and that it can be pretty bad

**glynneco** · 07-05-2006, 07:53 PM

My brother and I were diving in a quarry we dive almost weekly. We went over the lip and down to the bottom at 90ft. We had never gone that direction before and had to work to handle what we were feeling. We both focused on getting our breathing under control. Once we accomplished that we were good to go. We finished what turned out to be a great dive.
I was with another diver who slipped into full panic, rejected their equipment and mine. I had donated both octo and primary. They had torn the mouthpiece off the octo and had it clenched in their teeth. When I gave them my primary they couldn't put it in their mouth because of the mouth piece. My octo at that point was free flowing and we were in a world of disorienting bubbles. We were on the second dive of the day and were coming up from 70ft. The mishap took place at 50ft. She took off for the surface. I had to get oriented and recover my primary. My octo was pumping out gas so I followed her up although in a more liesurely pace. Fearing for her condition at the surface I did NOT do a safety stop. At the surface I found her afloat on her back with the mouth piece from my octo still firmly clenched in her mouth. I was fearful of DCS. She was concious and responsive. I towed her to shore and we both got on oxygen right away. No problems resulted. She went from heebie geebies to full blown panic claiming her reg was breathing wet. Upon examination no problem was found.
I posed the question because too many divers don't recognize the signs of their own potential panic and then don't react until it's too late.
Thinking it could never happen to me can set you up for injury or worse.

scuba jerm · 07-06-2006, 04:36 PM

This is a great post for saftey... and your right, we divers sometimes think we're always ok, and when panic occurs we don't really recongnize how dangerous it can be, or even that we are, if fact, panicing.

I personally haven't had a panic attack or been with anyone that has yet. I guess the closest I've been to panic was on my first open water dive during my cert class. As we descended, I felt very anxious, which if I didn't keep in check.... could've turned into panic I guess. My excitement shortly took over and I was smilling.... so it was all good after that. But note taken from your experiance.... always have oxygen on hand for DCS, and I think communicate really well before the dive? So everyone is on the same page for the what ifs.

The Frog · 07-18-2006, 11:26 AM

this seems to affect anyone, experienced or not, i've never experienced it myself but have heard many stories related to it. You suddenly feel somehow confused no?