Summer of 07, I was diving in Lake Travis (Austin, TX). My buddy and I decided to dive the pecan grove which is a stand of pecan trees at about 100’. Our plan included what to do if we got silted out. We would search for 2 minutes then surface. We entered the grove and within a few minutes were silted out. I began searching and 2 minutes later, began my ascent. At the time I was using gauges. While I began to asend, I was watching my depth gauge. I wasn’t moving. I first checked to make sure I wasn’t hooked on a branch. I was clear. I popped a little air in my bc but still was not ascending. I popped a little bit more air. No change. At this point, I’m getting a bit concerned. I was just about to ditch one of my weights when I see that according to my gauge, I’m now at 45’. I’d gone from 100 to 45 way too fast. I immediately dumped all the air out of the bc and began to desend again. I stopped at 85’ and began a very slow ascent finishing up with a 5 min safety stop at 15’. What had happened was while watching my depth gauge during my initial ascent attempt, I was fixated on the max. depth needle and not the actual depth needle. I was narced. All my other thought processes were clear, ie. checking to see if I was hung up, ready to drop some weight. It was definitely the scarriest moment I’ve had but at the same time, an excellent learning experience. Narced doesn’t necessarily mean you become a total idiot. In my case, just partial. I now use a computer and have ditched the gauges.