Can CPAP cause depression/anxiety?

[chunkyfrog]

That's interesting, Black Shampoo. Caffeine is easily available, and we can use it when we "need" it.
I had a different pattern, though. My adrenaline levels were high all morning, and I needed caffeine
in the afternoon, when I was coming down from my morning adrenaline rush;
and needed to be awake to stay employed.
After starting cpap, I could enjoy coffee in the morning, or any old time, and it has little effect on me.
(Like alcohol, my use is quite light)

[nenecpap]

davecpap I am interested in how you are doing today. I have just started this journey and am about ready to throw off the mask due to a severe increase in depression. Thanks.

[davecpap]

davecpap I am interested in how you are doing today. I have just started this journey and am about ready to throw off the mask due to a severe increase in depression. Thanks.

Wow this thread is eight years old. I'm surprised by the words I wrote, I forgot how I was feeling at that point in my life. I made several positive changes over the years:

• I stopped taking my SSRI with doctor's help. Turns out this was making me tired all the time, I believe more than the sleep apnea. I did this and never started the Provigil/Nuvigil. It was after I started SSRI that I went to doctor about daytime sleepyness and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. But the daytime sleepyness for me didn't go away until I stopped the SSRI.
• I saw a psychologist for anxiety/depression. He diagnosed me with 'Cyberchondria' among other things, but I think this was his most important diagnosis. I already knew I had health anxiety, but didn't realize I was spending so much time online looking for solutions instead of doing what I knew I needed to do - sleep schedule/routine, routine exercise, improved diet, spending more time outside and less on the computer. You can find any terrible ailment, side effect, etc.. you want online - I make it a point not to lookup any medical/health information online - I went cold turkey. At first it was hard but my life is so much better for it. Maybe others can lookup medical info online, but my personality doesn't allow it without jumping to horrible conclusions
• Psychologist recommended David Burns' Feeling Good book among others - it really helped me.
• I saw a personal trainer and started exercising. I've discovered the only way I can exercise routinely is if I pay someone to watch me do it 3x a week.
• I found out I had "silent reflux" that was causing me to wake up startled at night. I really had no symptoms but when they scoped me, i had severe erosion of the esophagus. What is helping with this was substantial weight loss (30+ lbs - still more to go), a low acid diet, smaller meals, low fodmap foods. If I minimize pressure IN or ON my stomach I feel much better. I'm still working on this.
• Physical therapy for various aches and pains keeping me up. I have a desk job that is ruining my body.
• I took a class on mindfulness meditation - very enlightening, still a work in progress. Its too easy today to be distracted 24x7 with electronic gadgets instead of learning to be comfortable with your own thoughts.
• Staying hydrated. I'm terrible at remembering to drink water, some days I went entire day without a single glass of liquids until dinner time. I felt better once I started working on this.

As you can tell from my list, I did have to see various specialists, I got some useful info from each. It continues to be a work in progress, but I certainly feel FAR better from when I wrote the first post in this thread. And I can lift heavier things now!! It did take a while (months?) before I initially felt better, and i've been improving since then. I think my body/mind did require an extended adjustment period to CPAP therapy, but I think the most important factor was seeing psychologist who helped me deal with anxiety/depression that was always there - and encouraged me to stop scouring the internet for health info.

I can't imagine NOT using my CPAP machine now. Its been almost 8 years, I've only gone one night without it - the day my S8 Autoset II died. I had a spare machine, battery backups - but having that stuff at home does you no good while traveling

[nenecpap]

Thanks for your detailed response. I am happy to hear you are doing well. Sleep is so complicated. I do pretty well with the mindfulness, exercise, etc. having been diagnosed with anxiety/depression many years ago. My sleep doc wants me to go off of my SSRI (after 20 years on it) and do a sleep latency test. Not so sure about that. I was diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia about 8 years ago but the medications didn't help. I am confident that the extreme sleepiness I am having now is due to the shift in my sleep pattern with the cpap. Makes it extremely hard to work.

[jnk...]

CPAP often requires adjustment in depression/anxiety meds. For some, for example, CPAP now addresses what SSRI's used to address, so the doc adjusts dosage down or away over time. For other people, other adjustments need to be made in type of medication or, occasionally, an increase in dosage for some medications.

Allowing a doc to get a person off a medication in order to start with a clean slate once PAP is working can be a smart move if it is made safely, with full knowledge, and with good communication between a person and all members of his medical team. If CPAP is fixing someone's sleep, he may now be a new person with completely new circumstances, medically speaking.

[carbonman]

Allowing a doc to get a person off a medication in order to start with a clean slate once PAP is working can be a smart move if it is made safely, with full knowledge, and with good communication between a person and all members of his medical team. If CPAP is fixing someone's sleep, he may now be a new person with completely new circumstances, medically speaking.

Been there, done that, have the T shirt.
....but, I had a can do attitude,
great PP and
outstanding therapist to work with.
It can work.

[jnk...]

great PP

I'm afraid to ask.

[Lucyhere]

I saw a psychologist for anxiety/depression. He diagnosed me with 'Cyberchondria' among other things, but I think this was his most important diagnosis. I already knew I had health anxiety, but didn't realize I was spending so much time online looking for solutions instead of doing what I knew I needed to do - sleep schedule/routine, routine exercise, improved diet, spending more time outside and less on the computer. You can find any terrible ailment, side effect, etc.. you want online - I make it a point not to lookup any medical/health information online - I went cold turkey. At first it was hard but my life is so much better for it. Maybe others can lookup medical info online, but my personality doesn't allow it without jumping to horrible conclusions

I think this is true for many of us. It is for me. Every day I promise myself that I'm going to go "cold turkey", except it doesn't happen. I still look up medical conditions and always sorry that I did. I'm attempting to look up only my medical conditions... getting a little better at it. And just generally staying off the computer and spending more time out and about has helped a lot. I am better at that. A computer isn't a substitute for having a life. Life on the computer is not a life well spent.

[chunkyfrog]

+100, Lucy.
Too much information about health conditions can easily cause anxiety.
Sadly, much of what we find online is not always reliable--and can be alarming.
Good luck avoiding it.
I am often tempted, as well.
Carbonman, do you mean personal physician? (I hope)

[davecpap]

I think this is true for many of us. It is for me. Every day I promise myself that I'm going to go "cold turkey", except it doesn't happen. I still look up medical conditions and always sorry that I did.

I used parental controls on my WiFi router to break my facebook habit - I never go there now, doesn't even cross my mind. Maybe this technique would help you.

Initially I felt compelled to lookup stuff about health online, but eventually if I didn't give into compulsion - the obsession to look stuff up went away! And I gotta say, as helpful as this forum was - stopping checking in on here all the time was part of it.

[Rosa2]

I've been using the CPAP Dream station for 4 months and my trial ends this week. Then the sleep clinic will expect me to buy a machine, although for me, there's no advantage. Prior to CPAP I probably had sleep apnea, but I slept through the night, didn't even get up to use the washroom. I woke up feeling fine and was rarely sleepy during the day. Now with CPAP, I've tried 5 masks and one seems ok, NOT comfortable, but I can sleep, and Have tried several air pressures. They are all equally awful. The nights aren't too bad, although I usually wake up a couple times, but I don't think I have any quality of sleep, since I sleep 7-8 hours at night and then NAP for 2-4 hours during the day. When I NAP, I sleep very deeply, or so it seems. PLUS feeling very very TIRED all day. Before CPAP I used to walk with my walking sticks every day, but now with NO ENERGY, I never go walking. Before CPAP I wasn't on any prescription drugs, had normal blood pressure, and weigh104. I check the DreamMapper for stats every morning -- it was .9 AHI, 1 Apnea, 4 Hypopneas, Mask fit 100%. I think that I'm doing everything right, but I feel totally down, depressed, just awful. I can't focus at all. In ONE day I lost my glasses (found), keys (found) bank card (had to be replaced). After NOT driving into the fence in my driveway for 32 years, I drove right into it! When reading comments from CPAP users, they rarely mention how dreadful the days are, now that they are on CPAP. Yes, the quality of life for me, has sunk down, down. What should I do?

[chunkyfrog]

My life was dreadful BEFORE CPAP---but AMAZING after.
Maybe you are doing something wrong.
Stick around. Maybe we can steer you straight.

[zonker]

Yes, the quality of life for me, has sunk down, down. What should I do?

you should start your own thread rather than posting in someone else's years old thread.

once you start your own thread, you should tell us what machine and what mask. you should also tell us what your pressure settings are.

back on december 18 2020 forum member julie gave you some excellent advice-
"There's no one length of time for all to feel better, but you certainly could use some help. Download Oscar - https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/ - and follow directions to post results here so experts can interpret how you sleep, and advise what adjustments you might need to make to feel better. You shouldn't have to continue to feel so bad and obviously have not had good input from 'professionals' (all too common). Too many doctors just don't understand how the equipment works so don't know how to help."

please start a fresh thread. download oscar as julie suggested. without facts about what you are doing, we have no way to help you.

help us help you.