DIVER STRESS

In most dive emergencies, you'll find stress an underlying direct cause or a significant contributor. Stress is anything that creates physical and/or mental tension in the diver, resulting in physical, emotional and chemical changes in the body. To some degree, stress exists on every dive, but unrestricted, elevated stress is undesirable be­cause it causes or complicates accidents.

Divers face two types of stress: physical stress and psychological stress. Furthermore, physical stress can lead to psychological stress, and vice versa. This can create a vicious cycle, which left un­-checked, may lead to panic (more about this later). How stress affects a diver depends on the initial cause of the stress, the diver's ability to cope with that cause, and the diver's manner of dealing with stress. Furthermore, stress can build over a period before the diver reacts, or it can immediately trigger a sudden, extreme re­sponse. It's usually difficult to predict how a diver will handle stress, so it's important to recog­nize both stress causes and symptoms.