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Nitrogen narcosis is a phenomenon that occurs at depth, especially when diving deeper then 30 meters. The exact mechanism is not known, but when you breath air under pressure it influences your central nervous system. The main symptoms of nitrogen narcosis are impaired judgment, altered state of consciousness and slower reaction speed. Nitrogen narcosis causes many scuba diving "accidents", just like driving while drunk causes many traffic "accidents". The idea that you can get used to nitrogen narcosis by diving deep on a regular basis is one of the most dangerous idea's about diving, responsible for more deaths then any other myth. You do not get used to nitrogen narcosis, just like you do not get used to driving drunk. Every time you dive below 30 meters, on air or Nitrox, you increase the risk of "accidents", regardless of how often you do this. The "old school" way of coping with nitrogen narcosis was training your skills over and over again at shallow depths, until they became second nature, and then to perform these skills slower at depth. There is some evidence that suggests that you can partially compensate for nitrogen narcosis by training this way. The "new school" way of coping with nitrogen narcosis is far better and easier: you avoid nitrogen narcosis, by either diving shallow or by adding helium to your diving mix when you dive below 30 meter. You take nitrogen narcosis out of the equation. A very simple and elegant solution to solve the problems you could have during your dives if you allowed nitrogen narcosis to play a role. If every scuba diver would either stop diving below 30 meter, or use helium-enriched mixtures to do these deep dives, the amount of scuba diving "accidents" would drop with at least 50%.
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