Sleep Apnea and Thyroid

roster · Post by **roster** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:45 pm

Mikejr wrote:....... I guess my anxiety from sleep apnea has been building up for the past month causing my problems.

......... I thought I was the only one and was going crazy. I am going to the Psych tomorrow to get more Lexapro. I wonder if this is something I will have to take the rest of my life. ........

I am convinced that my anxiety was caused solely by sleep apnea. Maybe it was some combination of sleep deprivation, low oxygen levels and excess levels of adrenalin? I don't see how an antidepressant can help with this. We need sleep, oxygen in the blood stream and only normal levels of adrenalin. No drug provides this.

Good luck.

Mikejr · Post by **Mikejr** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:37 pm

Rooster wrote:
I am convinced that my anxiety was caused solely by sleep apnea. Maybe it was some combination of sleep deprivation, low oxygen levels and excess levels of adrenalin? I don't see how an antidepressant can help with this. We need sleep, oxygen in the blood stream and only normal levels of adrenalin. No drug provides this.

Lexapro is also an anti-anxiety drug. I now realize it helped me tremendously now that I stopped taking it and my symptoms have reoccurred. Sleep Apnea has a profound effect on the brain that may result in a chemical imbalance. Lexapro restores that balance resulting in less anxiety. It doesn't really help sleep apnea, but it helps to calm the emotional side effects such as panic attacks from fear of not breathing.

Just my opinion based on my experience.
Thanks.[/quote]

travismcgee · Post by **travismcgee** » Thu May 01, 2008 6:53 am

Hi again Mikejr. First off I misspoke about my doseage of Remeron, it is 15mg. Now back to your question about its effectiveness. It has helped me tremendously. One of the side effects is sleepiness so I take it about 2 hours before bedtime. Like I stated earlier I have only been taking it for about a month and I have a follow up appt. with my dr. tomorrow.

My sleep pattern isn't perfect yet but it has greatly improved since taking the Remeron and my AHI numbers are very good. They have ranged between 3.0 - 0.5 over this time period.

The reason I am not taking a SSRI like Lexapro is I couldn't handle the side effects. I tried 3 different ones. Remeron primarally targets the reuptake of norepenephrine and to a small degree serotonin.

This next comment is directed toward Rooster. Anxiety, like depression, indicates an unbalance in the suite of neurotransmitters in the brain. When anxiety isn't controlled normally it can trigger the sympathetic nervous system [fight or flight response] and supress the parasympathetic nervous system [calming down]. In my case my sympathetic nervous system had been switched on and wasn't shutting off. This led to a variety of problems including full blown panic attacks and a loss of quality sleep.

Good luck Mikejr. It took me a year to find the right combination in therapies and I am hoping my progress will continue to a state of "normalcy".

Cheers.