CPAP and Depression

[FeelingAwake]

I am responding to someone who posted several weeks ago regarding how depressed they were after CPAP. I believe the person had been on CPAP for quite awhile, so my anecdotal information might not be helpful...

I have been on CPAP for a little over 3 weeks I believe. My initial reaction was GREAT.. I wasn't sleeping anymore during the day at work. I didn't get the 2 oclock sleepies, and I generally felt pretty good. But starting about 2 weeks ago maybe less I started to get VERY depressed.. Even though I was awake and felt physically good, my mind started to go off of a cliff. I was becoming very irritable and my feelings were getting hurt very easily. I felt incredibly anxious one moment and then very depressed the next.. I had felt that way for nearly 2 weeks.. I stopped going to my Martial Arts almost completely. I was eating like shit again.. Only thing that was better was that I was sleeping and not falling asleep during the day. Oh and the headaches went away ...


I have no idea what happened over the weekend, but something changed. Today I feel awake AND rejuvenated. The only thing I did different was that I was camping for 2 days and forgot my machine.. Last night was the first day back on the machine and woke up after 7.5 hours on the machine and I feel great today.. I don't feel any depression..


I have some ideas about why one might feel depressed after going on CPAP, especially if you were really bad before the treatment(like myself).. I believe when you "wake up" you finally see the extent of just how screwed up your life became while you were sleep walking through life. all the shit that built up, like house work, and lack of calling friends and keeping in touch.. EVERYTHING is there waiting for you.. And you have two choices.. Fall deep into a depression or try and deal with it.

I feel like i turned a corner with the "dealing with it " Option..... I hope this continues because this is the best I've felt in a long time. I am actually brimming with energy and want to do stuff again.. I am going over lists in my head of things I've just completely ignored for years in some cases..... Knock them off one at a time, that's all I can do.

And this is not to denigrate people with REAL depression, as in chemically induced Depression.. You can't just "shake out of it" if you are clinically depressed.. It's like shaking off a burst appendix. Not gonna happen.. In my case I believe I was overwhelmed by the totality of the SHIT my life had become while I was sleeping my waking life away...

[ChicagoGranny]

Julie and 49er - of very little value to this forum. Cause more confusion than help.

[ChicagoGranny]

7.5 hours on the machine

BTW, you had some earlier discussions here about the effectiveness of your CPAP therapy. Did you ever figure out how to see your AHI and leak level in your machine's display? A CPAP system that is not providing consistently good therapy over many nights can really screw with your emotional health.

[Julie]

Actually there was a thread a few wks or so ago referencing depression and OSA etc... but I don't remember the name of it tho' I did respond and suppose I could go way back in my posts to find it... but will not just now. But it definitely was there.

[ChicagoGranny]

Actually there was a thread a few wks or so ago referencing depression and OSA etc... but I don't remember the name of it tho' I did respond and suppose I could go way back in my posts to find it... but will not just now. But it definitely was there.

Definitely. Duh-huh. He's referring to the old thread that he posted in a couple of weeks ago. When he posted there, he didn't look to see it's an old thread by a person who hasn't been here in over a year. Duh-huh, Julie.

[FeelingAwake]

I guess you told me... Way to go..

[49er]

Feeling Awake,

CG has a history of being nasty to posters for no reason at all as evidenced in her response to you and Julie. In a previous thread, she was nasty to RobySue whom I consider one of the premier experts on this board as she has always patiently explained issues without the need to put someone down.

A few weeks ago, she decided to be a grammar nazi with one of my posts.

I thought you made excellent points. During the rare times pap therapy has worked for me, while I was ecstatic because of the rare good feeling, I was depressed at all the things that I had let slide. So yeah, I could definitely see how someone could develop depression.

49er

[M3T4LLik4]

I can attest to this. It has been hard for me to accept that this is part of my life. I am a big guy, but not super overweight. I see other people that appear to have worse health than me, and it makes me feel bad that at only age 27, I need to have a cpap. the truth is, there are million of people that remain undiagnosed and may not have developed symptoms. I was one of them. I don't know how long I had apnea (hypopneas in my case) because I didn't feel the body fatigue until recently and it could have been affecting me since my early 20's considering my snoring. The good news is I am taking control of my health at a young age and as I continue to eat healthier, drink less alcohol (outta college mode mindset) and work out, my body is thanking me. I continue to dwell on not feeling like a million bucks most days, but I am coming to terms with the patience that therapy requires to work. I don't compare myself to other these days, but rather try to be grateful I have been given an opportunity to become healthier and happier. It takes time. I hope you continue to stay positive, as I try to remain positive about my new life routine with CPAP. The nice thing is knowing this forum exists, with knowledgeable people who care about others in their shoes.

[Wulfman...]

I can attest to this. It has been hard for me to accept that this is part of my life. I am a big guy, but not super overweight. I see other people that appear to have worse health than me, and it makes me feel bad that at only age 27, I need to have a cpap. the truth is, there are million of people that remain undiagnosed and may not have developed symptoms. I was one of them. I don't know how long I had apnea (hypopneas in my case) because I didn't feel the body fatigue until recently and it could have been affecting me since my early 20's considering my snoring. The good news is I am taking control of my health at a young age and as I continue to eat healthier, drink less alcohol (outta college mode mindset) and work out, my body is thanking me. I continue to dwell on not feeling like a million bucks most days, but I am coming to terms with the patience that therapy requires to work. I don't compare myself to other these days, but rather try to be grateful I have been given an opportunity to become healthier and happier. It takes time. I hope you continue to stay positive, as I try to remain positive about my new life routine with CPAP. The nice thing is knowing this forum exists, with knowledgeable people who care about others in their shoes.

Good attitude and good luck with your therapy.

There are many of us who have suspected that we've had Sleep Apnea to some degree for most of our lives.
Unfortunately, out of those millions of people who have undiagnosed or even diagnosed Sleep Apnea, far too many are in denial and will suffer for it (along with their relatives who have to endure their snoring and falling asleep at inappropriate times).


Den

.

[ChicagoGranny]

A few weeks ago, she decided to be a grammar nazi with one of my posts.

49er

I told you it had nothing to do with your grammar. It was your logic fail.

BTW, you wouldn't understand, but using that word to describe grammar is very offensive to many people.

[Julie]

CG - YOU might not understand this - 49er and I both are people for whom such refs would be major problems but that doesn't mean a little comment like she made is something to go crazy over... there's enough of that out there these days so we should pick our battles and not knee-jerk.

[ChicagoGranny]

She should discipline herself not to use that expression.

[Julie]

And you should discipline yourself not to be such a cop!

[ChicagoGranny]

And you should discipline yourself not to be such a cop!

That post had nothing to do with being a cop. A totally wrong impression of the effectiveness of Inspire therapy was posted, and 49er interfered with the correction of the bad information. Do the two of you want someone to go through the expense and difficulty of having one of those devices implanted only to find out it doesn't work for them, and that they relied on bad information in this forum??

[Julie]

No, no, no. But as you know very well I wasn't talking about Inspire, but your affinity for telling others how to think, what to do, etc. etc. So you disagree, fine, but it doesn't mean you have to go after every single person whose post you don't like and tell them how to behave... I don't know if you're following PR here, you do sound less rabid than you've been in the past - it may even become nice to discuss things with you on occaison, but I was supporting a friend and that's all. Sue me.