Nitrogen Narcosis may be called the ‘Martini Effect’ and might be compared to being ‘drunk’ or ‘high’ but at 100 feet or deeper underwater, it can spell disaster. And if you still think it can’t happen to you, let me tell you that if you dive to 100 feet on air, your chance of getting narced is almost 100 percent!! No one is immune to nitrogen narcosis, it’s effects just happen to vary from diver to diver.
You’ve probably been that deep or even deeper and never felt narced, right? and that’s exactly why it can be dangerous. The first symptoms of nitrogen narcosis are subtle and can make you feel silly, slightly excited, normal or even great. Chances are you’ve never even noticed the effects of narcosis cause not cause you haven’t been narced but rather you haven’t noticed. Most times when nitrogen narcosis hits, you haven’t had do anything but breathe normally through your regulator, which is almost second nature if you’ve been diving a while. It’s when and if you have react or deal with anything that requires some thoughtful response you’ll be in trouble. So while you must have heard about decompression Illness being the biggest risk of diving, some consider Nitrogen narcosis more dangerous as it attacks the most important piece of life-support diving equipment a diver has- their brain.
Symptoms of Nitrogen Narcosis
In some cases you’ll be able to see the effects of the narcosis right away. Divers have been known to do some pretty amusing things as if they were drunk on alcohol, like start to chase the pretty fishes, hear fish sing or talk, hump coral heads and so on while some behave in ways that cause more concern, like checking their octopus for air pressure instead of their gauge or in the case of the picture, almost kill their own dive buddy because they were hallucinating. Still think it’s pretty harmless? Think again. The effects of the nitrogen absorbed into the bloodstream causing a high nitrogen concentration and in turn slowing the nervous system and brain function does more than just messing with your mind.
It slows down your thinking process: Because of the depth and breathing compressed air, the nitrogen starts acting like an anesthetic and can reduce mental powers to those of a staggering drunk. As an advanced diver certification student, you probably remember your instructor making you do a puzzle or math problem on the surface and underwater at around 100 ft (30m). This was to test your response time and compare the two to test if you got narced.Needless to say incase of an emergency underwater a diver needs the ability to think quick and react according.
You can’t multitask: The increased pressure of nitrogen on the nervous system and the slowing down of the brain function makes it harder for a diver to think of multiple things at the same time. And since diving is a multitasking activity as you have several things to consider at once to make decisions like buoyancy, depth, tank pressure, your buddy etc, if a problem arises your brain limits your options for dealing with it which could lead to trouble.
Short-term memory loss: Narcosis often makes divers show signs of short-term memory loss. They can forget their most recent training or how to work their rental scuba gear and equipment (like BCDs) or even forget the task they were sent down to do. So, when you’re advised to practice your emergency skills over and over again even when not in need, you may want to pay heed as if you get narced it could very well save your life.
Luckily, ascending about 10 feet or so, depending on your depth can clear the effects of narcosis almost immediately and there’s no permanent damage or after-effects of it. The major problem faced by divers is recognizing the symptoms and or accepting that you’re narced to deal with it.
Learn How To Deal With Nitrogen Narcosis in our next post…
*Photo credits: photos by Daniel Kwok, Gagliardo_Daniel, Daniel Kwok on flickr.
