Sleep Apnea & Mental Health

[Rabbit54]

I pick up my first cpap on Tuesday and found these forums while researching this new change. It seemed the perfect place to sort out my feelings, so if you'll oblige me a bit I will tell you my story.

I have been in treatment for several years for depression, anxiety & PTSD stemming from child abuse. Running the gambit of counseling, group therapy and medication, I have made great strides in improving my state of mind and sense of well being. However I have struggled with chronic fatigue, excessive sleeping, sleepwalking, snoring and teeth grinding my entire life and no amount of mental health treatment seem to relieve those symptoms (which, up until this point, was always attributed to PTSD). I have also gained approx 50lbs, and for 6 months kept a food journal and saw a personal trainer 3x/week, yet I still continued to gain. I expressed frustration to my PCP that I never get the energy boost people claim to have after working out - instead I leave the gym and go to bed. He referred me to a sleep lab.... you can guess the rest.... moderate sleep apnea for probably my entire life. Childhood symptoms like the sleepwalking, teeth grinding, etc as well as a malformed jaw that is too small to accommodate the correct number of teeth so I should not be surprised that my airway is insufficient. My initial sleep test showed 13 apnea/hour and oxygen levels down to 73%.

At my overnight sleep test with the cpap I conked out for 8 hours, woke up on my own and felt better than I have in years. I was rested, alert, and totally flummoxed by what I could do in the hours that I would normally be sleeping! I was awake for 15 hours straight that day! Now in the week waiting for my own machine I am making several realizations....maybe my PTSD treatment wasn't working like a charm because this sleep disorder was sabatoging my efforts?

Don't worry, I am not going to stop my treatment for mental illness. That is something I will work on for the rest of my life. However, it is tremendously reassuring to realize that there is a physical explanation for these symptoms and not just that I must be lazy or unwilling to work hard. The similarity of symptoms between depression and sleep apnea was something I totally missed and wish I had realized years ago. I can only hope that having the machine at home night after night will yield the same results as that first sleep test. Solve the physical for the benefit of the mental!

So here I am, ready to keep calm & breathe deep.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Hi Rabbit, welcome to the forum.

If you do a little Googling, I think you'll find a number of studies linking sleep apnea and depression and even PTSD. Unfortunately, I don't think any prove a casual relationship and there's no clear indication which comes first, depression or apnea - kind of a chicken and egg thing, but I think it makes perfect sense that inadequate sleep could contribute to mental infirmity and prevent treatments from being as effective as possible.

I wish you the best with your upcoming cpap therapy. You may find that it takes some adjustment period and you might not immediately get the results that you experienced with your sleep test, but I'm pretty sure that over time you will feel better. If you need any help or just want to share your progress, be sure to come back here. There's lot's of folks here willing to help and listen.

[JohnTK]

I am very curious about this myself and am in a similar situation as far as waiting on the machine. I had about 4 hours on the machine at the sleep lab and was still amazed at how I felt the next day.

I have been tired during the day most of my adult life (I'm 46) and always attributed it to allergies, which I have fairly heavily. Well, a lot of it may have been allergies but now I am starting to really wonder if it was mostly due to sleep apnea.

I've fought depression on and off a lot, although I don't think it was major depression for the most part.

Nice to see this post here. Can't wait for my machine, either.

[BlackSpinner]

Do some googling on sleep deprivation and you will find all sorts of mental health issues associated with that. There has been a lot of study on that by the military and the results are quite fascinating.

[JohnTK]

There certainly are. Thank you.

[OSAdude76]

There definitely is an association between sleep apnea and mental health issues, but as others pointed out, it's hard to determine causality. Like most things, it's probably a combination of both and they work together in a cycle. Sleep deprivation causes a host of problems!

I also suffer from depression and I'm thinking my sleep apnea is at least part of the cause. I've been on CPAP therapy for about a month and while I'm still getting used to the machine, I can already tell my mood has noticeably improved. The nights where I sleep mostly through the night with the CPAP I just feel so, so much better. It really is life changing. Glad you are also getting treatment and are feeling better! Welcome to the forum.

[grayghost4]

treating the sleep apnea reduces the depression and that in turn allows for better sleep which reduces the depression ... it is a vicious circle
I have noticed that I have less periods of depression since I started cpap

[Heart Jumping]

Welcome to the forum!

[Captain Neon]

I've never been diagnosed with a mental health problem, but have seen a dramatic improvement in my mood since starting xPAP almost 4 months ago. I had forgotten how much I like music! For years, music had become little more than a tool to keep myself alert while driving. Without xPAP, there is no way that I could work a full-time management job, and then work a part-time retail job another 20+ hrs/wk. There is no way that I could deal with the unreasonableness and rudeness of some customers were it not for xPAP. I didn't realize just how much of a difference xPAP has made on my mood until one of my co-workers referred to me as "perky." No one has described me as "perky" my entire life. Gloomy, moody, and negative are words I am much more acquainted with.

[SleepyEyes21]

Welcome to the forum, Rabbit54. Yes - mind and body go hand in hand; our physical health affects our mental health and vice versa.

Chances are that you have already learned many skills in counseling that will help you with adapting to cpap, which is wonderful

Please let us know how you are progressing; everyone is here to help.

[kteague]

Congratulations on this new start. Once you get settled in and are getting consistent effective treatment it will be interesting to see how the problems you've dealt with respond. I've been on this forum for over 9 years and seen so many on here (including myself) report improvement in areas you mentioned. During this time stay in tune to your own body and in close communication with the doctors who prescribe your meds. Some have found that the dosage required to treat a sleep and oxygen deprived brain changes when the brain is healthier - different chemical and hormone makeup I guess. I do hope you'll keep us informed of your progress. Good luck going forward. I think you have every reason to be optimistic that this will effect positive change in your life over time. Welcome.

[BlackSpinner]

Since you will be trying to track feelings and such, which are tricky to remember, you may want to start a daily journal. Start with a long description of all your current issues and feelings. Then track each day. Don't show it to anyone, don't "write for publication", don't pull punches (it is ok to cover the page in large four letter words). Whenever you feel that nothing is happening dip into the early pages, but other wise just write.

[Rabbit54]

Thank you for the warm welcome and encouragement! I love the journaling idea and will start this weekend for sure. I had not thought about prescriptions being affected either so i will discuss this with my physician and therapist on my next visits.

As with any new treatment i am excited just by the prospect of hope. I was not a fan of this idea at first but after the sleep study I feel acceptance and my spouse is thrilled that I'm going for it. The poor man has had a terrible bed mate for 20 years!

I will update when i know what kind of machine I'm getting. It's coming from the sleep lab and i plan on following the suggested course of treatment until i get used to things.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Before accepting a machine, make sure it is "data capable" so that you and your doctor can properly track your progress and adjust your therapy accordingly. Some machines only report hours of use and overall leak and AHI. You will want and need a machine that provides detailed data as to the time and type of events that have occurred. Don't take the DME or Lab's word that a machine is data capable. Know beforehand. Your insurance will allow the same amount, regardless of data capability. See the links below provided by member Archangle for specific machines.


http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... ne_Choices
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... ngle:Links