TLDR; im a scientific diver turned mermaid who can't swim without plugging my nose and wonder if im the only one?
(You really should read it all though...)
Hi friends, my name is mermaid kurziana and I wanted to see if there were other mermaids or merman or merfolk out there who have the same problem as me;
not being able to hold your breath without physically plugging your nose in some way.
It seems silly that at 26 years old I STILL don't have great control over my soft palate and can't do what even babies can do! I've tried every single thing, and nothing has worked! It's just not 'knee-jerk' like other people have had since they were babies.
also I have a deviated septum so I don't feel like I'm ever going to be able to hold my breath underwater with no help ...
It turns out that when I put my face underwater my first reaction is to swallow for some reason, many times in quick succession.
This pulls water up my nose which then causes me to freak out and then bolt to the surface to cough up all the salt water out of my nasal cavity.
I decided last year after getting in my first tail that, instead of suffering and trying my hardest to fix Something that I don't know I'll be able to overcome, i would minimize the risk of having to emergency ascend when something goes wrong in a tail...
I bought a nose plug called the sinus saver which is for the inside of your nose and it is clear and hard to see.
I have a septum piercing and it fits perfectly right behind it, so I highly doubt that any kids will care or see it, being too bedazzled and starry eyed that a MERMAID is right in front of them, with full costume on and everything.
but I was wondering if I was the only one in the mer community that has this problem?
How many of us are still stuck with nose plugs, no matter what we do?
How many of us are left behind and judged for 'not being advanced enough to be a mermaid?'
How many of us are tired of trying to no avail?
I know that someday I will get hate from other mers about not looking real enough or not being able to do something that everybody else can do, not being 'authentic'.
How do I deal with somebody who tells me that I can't be a mermaid because I can't hold my breath underwater like everyone else?
... it might be helpful for me to mention that I am in fact a scientific research diver and a marine biologist, with a static breath-hold record of 5 minutes and a moving breath-hold record of 2 and 1/2 minutes.
I can make a tank of air last 1.5 hours, on a good day.
I am no stranger to the ins-and-outs of diving in general, and scientific diving has a lot more going on than a regular scuba diver.
Over the span of a year in my college I managed to rack up 150 Dives. I'm not new to the underwater game!
Which makes my dilemma so much more frustrating, because I can take my mask off underwater (like you're required to do) with my regulator still in and be perfectly fine not plugging my nose, even doing underwater puzzles for an AAUS certification, BUT the second you take the regulator away I end up snorting water.
I know it's most likely a psychological thing, but I don't have time to sit here and try to wreck my way through every single hang up my brain decided to have.
I would rather use my sinus saver nose plugs and get on with it and not have to worry about possibly drowning in a tank in front of a big group of people!
Any and all input (even haters!) Is welcome! The more we talk about it, the better I can try to make sense of it!
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