Mammalian Dive Reflex

[HillSlugger]

Cold water on the face tends to stimulate a gasp reflex that can make it hard to breathe and easy to panic. I've dealt with that, and it's something you can get used to. Splashing cold water on the face, dunking the head, etc can prepare the body and reduce the reaction.

Something else I've dealt with is "freak out on go" syndrome Starting out too fast, getting out of breathe, and then panicking.

[Catrin]

This is why I never learned how to swim, outside of the back stroke Part of me would like to, but I just can't put my face in the water without panicking...

[Biciclista]

This is why I never learned how to swim, outside of the back stroke Part of me would like to, but I just can't put my face in the water without panicking...

Catrin, I won't ask how you wash your face...

[lph]

I'm curious if those of you who have this strong reflex have ever tried swimming with a diving mask? I ask because I used to be a bad swimmer and didn't like deep water, much the way people are afraid of heights. I was also unable to be under water without holding my nose, sooner or later I'd do the gasp-in thing. This all changed when I tried snorkeling in shallow water with a mask (I could SEE what was down there!), and in recent years I've become a passable swimmer too. I still have to wear a mask or goggles and nose clip, though. The really great thing about snorkelling with a mask and snorkel was having so much time, I learned I could just relax and look around and still breathe all the time.

[Catrin]

Catrin, I won't ask how you wash your face...

LOL, of course it isn't the same thing

[Crankin]

I can't put my face in the water for more than 2 seconds. Nor can I use a mask. It's a feeling of of total claustrophobia, panic, and feeling like I am going to die.
I can swim, but obviously not really fast, because I don't like the breathing part. I also wear contacts, so that's another reason for not putting my face totally in the water. I can't use goggles, either. Anything that takes away the feeling of having all of my senses, i.e. breathing the normal way, seeing totally clearly, freaks me out.
I didn't learn to swim until I was 7 or 8 because of this, even though I spent all summer at the beach and 2 years in day camp. I also won't swim in water where I can't stand up, except in a pool, but then I have to be very near the edge, so I can grab ahold of something.
I have a real fear of drowning, not being able to swim the distance, even though I know I have cardio endurance. Many years ago, I had a stress fracture in my foot, from teaching too many aerobics classes on a concrete floor. The only thing I could do was swim. It was September in AZ, so I got up a 4:30 AM to swim for 30 minutes in my own backyard pool. But even that freaked me out. I had to put on all of the floodlights and put the radio on, or else I felt like I was being enveloped in something that was going to do me in.
It's amazing that both of my kids are excellent swimmers and my younger son has the highest swim classification that you can get in the military.

[lph]

I can't put my face in the water for more than 2 seconds. Nor can I use a mask. It's a feeling of of total claustrophobia, panic, and feeling like I am going to die.

I can understand that, it's not a great feeling wearing a mask and breathing through a snorkel, it feels a bit constrained. I just mention it because to me the mask took away a lot of the feeling of having my face in water at all, it felt "protective". So once I got somewhat comfortable with wearing a mask and breathing through a snorkel on dry land, putting my face under water didn't make much difference.

[hulagirl]

Over the past few days I've done a lot of testing!

1. I ran 1.5 miles from my house to the beach before I got in. I expected the ocean to be calm that day as the winds were down. I didn't check the surf report. Duh. This dork swam in 2' waves and chop. Turns out the wind was blowing at the beach, just not my house!

I fully expected to freak out. Chop/waves are not my friend and I avoid them when I can. However, I did not have any panic, breathing issues. The water felt warm and oh so wonderful to me! Yes, I had some fun free-falling and a face full of water numerous times. But I just laughed and tried not to get sea sick! No gasping, no racing heart. It wasn't an easy swim, and when I turned around and headed into the wind/waves it was much harder and I had to stop.

+ 1 for elevating my heart rate with a hard run before getting into the water. Seems to help.

2. On Saturday I swam at a lagoon on the other side of the island. Calm, flat, no wind. Ran 1 mile before the swim, got nice and hot, high heart rate. But the water felt much colder and I started to get chills and began to shiver before I could get my chest in the water. Head in and I was doing the gasping thing. Keep in mind that this is FLAT water that I can stand up in. There is no panic here. There is no fear of the water. It is a response my body is kicking up due to cold water temps.

I swam with my coach and she had me do controlled breathing exercises for 100m. At 100m I did more stroke work and had horrible issues with inhaling water. I can't control the gasping underwater so I suck up water before I can come up for air. At 200m I continued to do more stroke work, concentrating on breathing every 2 strokes, then switching sides. At 300m I began to be able to control my breathing better. At 500m I was better. And was able to swim another 500 only having to stop for breath twice. (not because I was gasping, but because I was just tired!)

Of the 2 swim sessions my body was MUCH colder on Saturday. The water in the lagoon is probably a colder temp and it was early in the day.

I do not believe it is panic related. If I was going to panic it would have been on Friday in the 2' waves and chop. Not calm, flat and only 5' deep.

And I do get this when I snorkel for the first 15-20 min. It's so not fun!