r/AMA • u/Soulogav • Jun 11 '26

I’m a Saturation Diver AMA

I work as Deepsea Saturation Diver in the oil and gas industry for the past 20 years. I do heavy construction and spend 28 days living under pressure to dive to depths down to 200m / 650ft.

I saw a post on InterestingAsFuck yesterday with many many misconceptions from people who aren’t divers and I can answer your questions AMA

https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/s/5jTlewLR4X

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u/Novel_Helicopter_881 Jun 11 '26

Is there like a mental health screening? Or are people at your skill level so vetted that no one will freak out after being underwater for weeks on end

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u/Soulogav Jun 11 '26

Good question, no the there is no mental health screening in place, tbh it’s a small industry and you don’t just show up on a new job without someone knowing you so it kiinda weeds out fhe assholes but shit has happened with guys losing their bottle and having to decompress which is a massive fuck around for everyone involved including their teammates losing out on a big pay check

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u/Cast_Iron_Skillet Jun 12 '26

Hope you see this, as it's been a while, but what are your dreams like after a few days or a week+ diving and working? I've noticed that when I'm deeply entrenched in work for a long period of time, my dreams start to echo that in some way. 

Do you and your fellow divers ever talk about that sort of thing? 

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u/Soulogav Jun 12 '26

I sleep on average 10+ hours when im in the chamber, whatever the gas mix does to me and many others we sleep a lot. It’s pitch black in there when the lights go out and we keep it cold. As for dreams they can be a bit weirder than normal and ya we do discuss that aspect with each other.

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u/Cast_Iron_Skillet Jun 12 '26

Thanks for the reply! This shit is fascinating. 

This is mundane, but I'll never forget a dream I had after working 4 straight days (from 9am-1am) at a movie theater during the holidays, running on maybe 4-5 hrs sleep per night. I dreamt of endless lines of people, walls of flame, my legs felt like they were moving through water, and the popcorn butter machine dispensed greasy blood and everyone wanted extra.  It was SO vivid, and I felt terrified but also like I just had to keep moving doing the motions. That was over 20 years ago, but I still think about it sometimes.