Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, Psychological impact of accidents and incidents, TRAUMA, Uncategorized

Scuba diving PTSD: how common is it, why does it matter and what may be done?

Experiencing some lingering distress , mental or emotional issues after a traumatic experience is relatively common. Mostly, the person heals and the problem resolves naturally. However, for a proportion of people this reaction may develop into psychological stress injury or post-traumatic stress (disorder, i.e. PTSD). Divers do occasionally face challenging incidents or circumstances, such as decompression illness, barotrauma, entrapment/entanglement, lost gas events and rapid ascents. … Continue reading Scuba diving PTSD: how common is it, why does it matter and what may be done?

Dr Laura Walton
Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, NEWS, Personal reflections and guest posts, Psychological impact of accidents and incidents, TRAUMA, Uncategorized

Review of 2022

In December 2021 I asked: …is it okay if we talk about what happens when dives go wrong? Is that something you would talk about with your buddies, or instructors?  The rest of the newsletter read: Diving Psychology can help scuba divers in all sorts of ways, but there’s only one of me so next year I’m focusing on psychological trauma in diving.  That’s stress injuries, or post-traumatic stress … Continue reading Review of 2022

Dr Laura Walton
decompression stop
Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, HEALTH, Mental health issues and scuba diving, Psychological impact of accidents and incidents, TRAUMA

Distress decompression to recover from a bad dive experience

Stress (or more accurately distress) is strangely similar to nitrogen. As divers we protect ourselves from injury because we understand the way that nitrogen build up in the body while breathing compressed gas/air during a dive. Being aware of the way that distress can be stored in the body can help to recover from a bad dive experience. That experience may be anything along a … Continue reading Distress decompression to recover from a bad dive experience

Dr Laura Walton
Standing outside DDRC
Events, NEWS

Presenting at the British Hyperbaric Association Annual Conference 2022

This month I was honored to be invited to the British Hyperbaric Association (BHA) annual meeting, and conference hosted by DDRC Healthcare (was Diving Diseases Research Centre). I was delighted to have the opportunity to talk about my work and share the ways that Diving Psychology can help divers. I presented a recent case, where the diver was helped to recover from a distressing diving experience … Continue reading Presenting at the British Hyperbaric Association Annual Conference 2022

Dr Laura Walton
Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, TRAUMA, Uncategorized

PTSD after diving accident: when to seek help?

When someone is physically harmed in an accident, we tend to have a rough understanding of the urgency of medical help. If the person has severe bleeding, broken bones, respiratory distress or other obvious signs of physical trauma, immediate healthcare is required. Some diving-related injuries are less obvious, particularly decompression illness, where symptoms can be mild. Yet, the advice is clear: if the person has … Continue reading PTSD after diving accident: when to seek help?

Dr Laura Walton
Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, NEWS, TRAUMA

New page to inform divers of support and self-help when a dive goes badly wrong

Do you think there is enough information and support for scuba divers after diving goes wrong? Not the immediate rescue, aftermath and medical assistance, but resources for mental and emotional impact. What about when there was no need for rescue and support, yet the diver is struggling to make sense of what happened or experiencing post-trauma issues. Would you be aware of options in this … Continue reading New page to inform divers of support and self-help when a dive goes badly wrong

Dr Laura Walton
NEWS

Diver Panic: new survey & in depth article

If you’ve been following my work in diving psychology, you’ll know one of the topics of interest is panic and anxiety in scuba diving. You may also have noticed that the handful of surveys I tend to quote are rather old! That’s not because I do not look, it’s because there just is not a lot of research on this issue. Something to also note: … Continue reading Diver Panic: new survey & in depth article

Dr Laura Walton
reflect on diving trauma
Approaches to support divers following an incident in scuba diving, Psychological impact of accidents and incidents, TRAUMA

Psychological Trauma in Diving

Diving is not always easy and sometimes things go wrong. The physical impacts of diving-related trauma are the realm of dive medicine, where we are making developments all the time in treating decompression illness and barotrauma. But what about the psychological aspects? Are we talking enough about trauma in diving, and developing support for those who need it? In the UK (for example) our healthcare … Continue reading Psychological Trauma in Diving

Dr Laura Walton
scuba diving
HEALTH, Lifestyle and activities to help in staying fit to dive, Psychological skills for scuba divers, SKILLS

Ways to make scuba diving easier

Diving can be challenging & exhilarating or a relaxing escape from everyday life. Whichever sort of diving you are looking for, have you tried these ways to make scuba diving easier? Stay shallow & stick within limits Obvious, but frequently overlooked. Deeper and more challenging diving comes with more risks and increased stress, particularly when done before the diver is ready. Limits of depth and … Continue reading Ways to make scuba diving easier

Dr Laura Walton