How Do You Experience Narcosis?

Well for me it usually hits around 140' to 150' on nitrox.
Darkness invades my mind and all I can do is find something to hold on to and stop moving
tunnel vision becomes prevalent and all I can think of is to get out.
Holding on to something allows these to dissipate and
euphoria creeps in. I can then proceed but my ability
to orient myself is impaired so wandering and exploring
even using a reel is almost a no go.
Once with a buddy we where down to 180' on nitrox
and euphoria was at a level where in my mind
I thought "what do I need this regulator in my mouth
for here fishy have a slug"
Clear head is nice GOD bless trimix!!!!

Gabe

It's kind of like mixing Peyote with Clam Dip and listening to "White Rabbit" backwards.

If you happen to run across an old timer that has done a lot (many) air dives below 150'-200' you will notice that some of them take a moment or two to respond to a question or make a statement. Deep air(and Nitrox) ong been known to affect the diver. I got into the deep stuff when Trimix was the norm but I did a fair share of deep air dives for certain reasons. Would I choose to do them again, no. I am 54 and do not do anymore deep dives, Trimix or not because I know that my physiology and age are a liability. Narcosis can be dealt with in a lot of conditions but has no place in caves or wreck penetrations. I like to think that I am a little bit slow and stupid on account of the many beers in my life , but it still makes me wonder how the deep air/nitrox dives contributed to that. I don't feel narced till 180' but that doesn't mean that I am not. Moral of the story is don't make a career of doing deep air/nitrox dives and getting buzzed on it cause can and will dull your brain over time. That is well proven.....

Stupified, perceptual narrowing, and unable to remember the fine points of the dive.

Im a non- narc kind of guy.
After my buddy asked me why I was pointing at a board on the bottom 155' 36º water I decided it was time for TriMix!
The board to me was a huge burbot "fish".
In the quarry Ive done a lot of 126'-130' on straight 21 or air it is as the consensus says impaired.
Being a drinker of adult beverages the depth narcosis is much like the impairment from alcohol only much easier to dispel.

My advice plan your dives well and execute them well.
Overhead is no place to suffer a "dark narc" Ive survived two such events in OW and it can be less than enjoyable!

JCG

I don't dive air much, since we discovered Helium :-D Back before Trimix, I remember some stuff. One of my first "deep" cave dives, we were looking for an entrance off a beach, at 130'. The combination of N2 and CO2 made narcosis worse. Same can happen swimming against the current inside a cave. Anyway, when we got back to the surface, my buddy said "I had trouble calculating thirds". Then I said "Oh, that is why I was staring at my SPG". We were really lucky the cave turned out to just be a cavern. My deepest air dive was 240' (NOAA max air depth at that time) in open water. I didn't feel bad, so I made some notes on my slate, and my buddy and I took each other's pictures. When I got to the surface, I looked at the slate, it was just gibberish :roll: When we got the pictures back, I had mis-aimed the camera, cutting off the top of my buddies head. Not a really good feeling.

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Originally Posted by FW

I don't dive air much, since we discovered Helium

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I learned in high school chemistry that helium was discovered in 1868. Things are starting to make sense now.

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Originally Posted by fno

...
Moral of the story is don't make a career of doing deep air/nitrox dives and getting buzzed on it cause can and will dull your brain over time. That is well proven.....

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I know this to be the case for saturation diving but know of no scientific evidence otherwise. If you know of references, I'd appreciate them. Personally, I tend to agree with you but it's anecdotal only.

My experience of nitrogen narcosis on air for 130-200 ft dives becomes stark when I look at gopro footage. The actual dive seems much more compressed in time whereas the gopro clip shows many more details, almost as if in slow mo. I don't get debilitated but remind myself during the dive that my reaction time's gonna be slower.

ive been buzzed as little as 30-40' in 5-40' viz in 37F water. other than that id stick to <130' in caves on Nitrox. In OC in reef/warm environments, been to 170-200 and was quite lucid (no current/statics environments/pre-planned dives). I wouldnt do that in Pompano wrecks, hot drop and mixed conditions. Other than that, ill be on mix

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Originally Posted by FW

. My deepest air dive was 240' .

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It wasn't air, it was 21/00. I have some faint recollection of doing dives that deep at EN,but I don't ever think I was narc'd ...at least I cant remember :-) :-)

Seriously, nobody has mentioned the "Wha..whas". Used to hear them all the time. There used to be an article floating around on the internet about them.