I got totally loopey narc'ed!!

[babs13]

It was a class dive on Saturday afternoon and I got totally happy loopey narc'ed. REALLY, REALLY LOOPEY, narc'ed. The feeling of uber good drunkedness. I started feeling it about 114'. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have kept going deeper or staying deeper for another few minutes since it seemed to have intensified the happy loopeyness. I felt as if I was driving while really, really drunk, but instead I was diving. DUI on N2.

Textbook says to go up a bit and the feeling will go away. Since I didn't fully realize why I was feeling the way I was feeling, I didn't quite do that.

Curious how folks have reacted or have done while being happy loopey narc'ed for the first time. :suicidepills: :roll:

[Joshua Smith]

Aside from checking my guages a lot, I always enjoyed a nice happy narc. I kind of miss that feeling.

[lamont]

swam down (didn't have scooters) to the i-beams a week ago for the first time in a long while and got kind of narc'd. was down there thinking that those i-beam really come at you fast and you gotta be pretty quick to dodge them...

[defied]

Was running pipe at around 130, couldn't get the damn wrenches on to the flange bolts to tighten them down.
Finally got it done, after dropping my wrenches a few times.

When I got to about 70 I realized that I had been using the wrong set of wrenches (I had two down there), until the last time I dropped them. At that point I had pulled them back up, and began using the proper wrench, not realizing that they were any different.

Talk about feeling like a smacktard. Usually I get the mellow happy. Sometimes the paranoia, but I quickly shove that down, and away.

D(B)

[LCF]

I've never had a happy narc. Mine have always been the anxiety-ridden kind.

[CaptnJack]

No happy with me - I get rigidly plan focused (and check my gauge alot without remembering the psi from only 5secs ago)

[Nwbrewer]

I've never gotten the happy, loopy, Narc, but I've never gotten the dark, "something's gonna get me", narc either. (I've had that feeling when diving, usually in the weird 30-60' zone in Lake Washington)

When I go deep, below 100', my peripheral vision kind of narrows, and time seems to warp a little. Things will happen in slo-mo. I wind up checking my gauges a little more often, which is probably a good thing. I do know that I get a little clumsy, clipping off is a bit more of a task than it normally is, attention to detail when shooting pics isn't there. All in all, narcosis doesn't bother me a whole lot, but enough so that I want to get me some He.

[Grateful Diver]

No happy with me - I get rigidly plan focused (and check my gauge alot without remembering the psi from only 5secs ago)

That would be me, too ... then again, I have trouble remembering things on the surface ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Kalatin]

Alas, I also have no happy narc. I turn into a paranoid, forgetful gauge checking maniac at about 110'.

[dwashbur]

I likewise get the terrors, and have never had a happy narc. I no longer go below 100' if I can help it for that reason, because I know I could become dangerous to my buddies and/or myself in that state.

[Pez7378]

My first experience with narcosis was around 120' or so on air. It was the check gauge, forget, check, don't comprehend, get me out of here kind of narcosis. It cleared right up at about 100'.

When I'm diving air vs. nitrox, I get that anxious feeling. I become more focused on my buddy, and my gauges. I'll offer the okay signal way more frequently, even if I can see my buddies light. I become way more focused on my breathing and try to take deep even inhalations and exhalations.

I've noticed that the more often I dive deeper than 100' or so, the more relaxed I become at those depths. Part of that ability for me lies in the fact that I know my limits, I know I've got plenty of gas, and I trust my buddy.

Diving down to 130' with HE is amazing. It's nice to be able to concentrate on the dive, rather than being focused on suppressing narcosis.

[airsix]

I typically get the "rigid plan focus" narc. But once I did an I-beams night dive that gave me the euphoric Alice in Wonderland narc. I don't like either one. I don't trust an impaired diver, myself included.

Although I have to say the I thoroughly enjoyed and will never forget the Alice in the I-beams dive.

-Ben

[spatman]

a couple of times at 100' or so on air, i got a little anxious and my breathing was erratic. but generally speaking, i get a slight happy feeling and forgetful.

if you ever see me checking my gauges often and talking to the fish through my reg ("oh, hello, little fishes!"), i'm probably a little narced.

[Sounder]

I'm warm and fuzzy at about 90 fsw, and I'm "feeling it" at 100fsw (both on EAN32). I'm pretty firm at 100 without helium and I can tell that my narc would be an OCD mission-narc and hyperactive watch-my-buddies narc.

[airsix]

My point was that at least for myself the narc is not always the same. I think it's kind of an Ando effect where it amplifies an existing condition. Focused = more focused*. Happy = more happy. Nervous = more nervous.

*by "more focused" I mean the diver thinks they're more focused, but in reality probably just an attentive idiot.

-Ben

[spatman]

*by "more focused" I mean the diver thinks they're more focused, but in reality probably just an attentive idiot.

and that's any different from my usual state when i dive how, exactly?

[Aquanautchuck]

All but one time I get the "Get Me Out of Here" freak out It can be just 10' or so that makes it come on. Really don't like it at all. Now the one time I got that "Very Happy, Happy" feeling was great. Started at 115' and was so warm and comfortable, it took till 134' before I realized that "Hey wake up Stupid" turn around you are narced dude.

Of the two I would rather have the Freak out. But the warm and fuzzy feeling still was great.

[Burntchef]

happy narc, gage checker, then i just focus on the narc for a bit and it seems to go away.

[Dusty2]

a couple of times at 100' or so on air, i got a little anxious and my breathing was erratic. but generally speaking, i get a slight happy feeling and forgetful.

if you ever see me checking my gauges often and talking to the fish through my reg ("oh, hello, little fishes!"), i'm probably a little narced.

Hey! I talk to the fishies all the time. Some times they even listen :roll: :roll: Course if they start answering back I'll get really freaked!

[gcbryan]

I've only had the happy narc a few times. Usually it's the focus and check gauges variety. The happy narc bother's me the most however. It happened once on a rather deep dive and I realized that if I didn't focus I would be just fine staying down there forever...which could easily be the case!

Down to 130 fsw I don't notice either particularly. I do notice a slight impairment and I'm sure it's actually worse than I notice but I've never had a drunk out of control feeling. Really deep on air I've on one or two occasions felt like I was just coming out of surgery the numbing narcotic effect was so strong.

[airsix]

The more aware of it I become the shallower I have started to recognize it. I can feel it at 90ft now, whereas I used to not recognize it until 110' or so. I don't think anything has changed other than awareness. But I also recognize it's probably different for everybody.

-Ben

[Tom Nic]

At 130fsw I did my deep dive skills better that at the back of the car.

I've gotten the anxiety narc a couple times (really CO2 amplified if not actually CO2 caused) but dealt with it by breathing slower, deeper, exhaling completely, and talking myself through.

My narcosis generally makes everything start slowing WAY down.

No happy narc however. Some people have all the luck...

[Stu]

At 130fsw I did my deep dive skills better that at the back of the car.

Sounds like me with a cocktail and a pool stick...

Anyway, I'm not often below 100 feet, but I can tell you from filling out REEF surveys and doing my deep diver specialty that my hand writing gets way worse when I am deep, but generally I just become more paranoid about checking my gauges. The only time I got the euphoric narc was when I was doing my deep class and we were actually ascending, from 130 to maybe 100 feet or so, and I said to my self "My buoyancy is awesome!!!"...I knew I was narced, I normally don't say the word awesome or talk to myself like that unless Ive tossed one back.

[ljjames]

I can 'taste'/feel narcosis at 68 feet. I don't get happy narc or warm fuzzy narc. I go from, 'wow, gear is comfortable, I'm nice and warm', directly to - "I know what this is, and taste it and don't like it and wish I had some helium'. I've had the numb-narc on deep air dives, the tunnel vision, and the 'drunk spins -blink blink blink/super focused on not slurring/super focused on just getting home in one piece' not fun feeling.

I've been diving helium so long that when I recently experienced a narc with some CO2 retention I'd basically forgotten what it was. "I don't feel right and I don't like it".

Gone are the days of bombing down to 200+ on air to build 'tolerance'. Its like sayin' "hey, lets go do power shots and drive home, so we can practice driving drunk so we'll be better at it".

When someone videos you at 80-100' on air, you'll see that even though you _think_ you are fine, you're really not. Hell, being behind the camera, doing stuff that actually takes some kind of competence as opposed to just swimmy swimmy you notice how 'not'. Stupid shit like plugging your E/O cables on your light heads into each other and wondering why they don't turn on when you flick the switch...

I'm sure there are still people who go out for the 'drunk' though, but very few will likely admit it here. we used to... ..do it and admit it. It was the legal drunk that didn't leave you with a hangover (I was under 21). But back to the driving drunk analogy, you're probably fine till you need to do something, like recognize your buddy in distress or deal with a problem.

The day I dove helium and realized how impaired i'd been diving, i never went back.

[LCF]

I'm with you, Laura. Stupid underwater is neither good nor fun.