can anxiety ruin your therapy?

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
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vaderboi
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can anxiety ruin your therapy?

Post by vaderboi » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:49 am

I have another thread on here about doing well initially on cpap and then back sliding since. I'm wondering if anxiety has anything to do with it. I'm back at work today, and I've only been here a few hours, but I'm ready to leave. I'm trying very hard to curb my anxiety.

Initially when I started cpap, I was on buspirone, but thought it made my chest hurt. I stopped taking it. Since I haven't had it the past 3 weeks or so, I've felt horrible and still have the chest pain on occassion (heart and lungs okay after extensive medical tests- all anxiety related), and I'm wondering if the buspirone is what helped me feel better.

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Wulfman
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Re: can anxiety ruin your therapy?

Post by Wulfman » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:41 am

vaderboi wrote:I have another thread on here about doing well initially on cpap and then back sliding since. I'm wondering if anxiety has anything to do with it. I'm back at work today, and I've only been here a few hours, but I'm ready to leave. I'm trying very hard to curb my anxiety.

Initially when I started cpap, I was on buspirone, but thought it made my chest hurt. I stopped taking it. Since I haven't had it the past 3 weeks or so, I've felt horrible and still have the chest pain on occassion (heart and lungs okay after extensive medical tests- all anxiety related), and I'm wondering if the buspirone is what helped me feel better.
I frequently have days like that.

http://www.drugs.com/buspirone.html

I don't know what to tell you, other than to talk to your doctor.


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Uncle_Bob
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Re: can anxiety ruin your therapy?

Post by Uncle_Bob » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:10 am

vaderboi wrote:I have another thread on here about doing well initially on cpap and then back sliding since. I'm wondering if anxiety has anything to do with it. I'm back at work today, and I've only been here a few hours, but I'm ready to leave. I'm trying very hard to curb my anxiety.

Initially when I started cpap, I was on buspirone, but thought it made my chest hurt. I stopped taking it. Since I haven't had it the past 3 weeks or so, I've felt horrible and still have the chest pain on occassion (heart and lungs okay after extensive medical tests- all anxiety related), and I'm wondering if the buspirone is what helped me feel better.
I think my anxiety and therapy are totally related. Bad night sleep = anxiety the next day. You need to tell yourself you are going to have bad days and try and accept it. However I don't think having to fight anxiety ever works so I have some Alprazolam (xanax) on standby for bad days. I have no side effects with that at all, however if i take a whole pill i feel zoned out so i break my pills into quarters and need one quarter maybe once or twice a week. Its not addictive at that low dose. If anxiety is moderate then I take St Johns wort which is over the counter, that can help too.

When you say back sliding what do you mean? Are your numbers get worse? or you just feeling worse in general?

I would recommend working on your numbers and dealing with leaks etc. Like i said every time i get a good nights sleep with improved numbers i feel less anxious. Its not the anxiety interfering with the sleep. Its the bad sleep causing the anxiety. In my opinion.

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vaderboi
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Re: can anxiety ruin your therapy?

Post by vaderboi » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:34 am

[quote="Uncle_BobWhen you say back sliding what do you mean? Are your numbers get worse? or you just feeling worse in general?[/quote]

Feeling worse in general. There was a little bit of time after my first week's success that I tried a different mask, but I've since gone back to the quattro and have been putting up good numbers. My numbers have been good lately. For the past 5 days, I've been <2 AHI total with no more than a .42 L/s leak (usually .18 or less, one day was .42, but I kept fiddling with my mask that night).

I took part of a buspirone mid morning and I'm starting to feel a bit less anxious. I'm waiting to hear what my doctor says. I think I'm going to ask if I can take my dose in the evening so I don't get the lightheaded and dizziness side effects from it.

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tattooyu
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Re: can anxiety ruin your therapy?

Post by tattooyu » Mon Mar 16, 2009 5:53 pm

For me, the therapy is cumulative--negatively or postively.

There was a time a week ago(?) I had 3 bad nights in a row (before my new chinstrap) and boy, did I feel anxious the next day with pre-CPAP symptoms. However, now that I'm getting more good nights in a row, I find that if I have a bad night (like I did last night), I'm "okay" the next day and don't feel like I'm crawling out of my skin.
Sleep well and live better!