Rage, Depression - Changes with CPAP?

[Red70]

I have severe SA. Started CPAP 2.5 wks ago. Pressure is 20. I don't feel any relief from my rage and depression I fell into over the past few years of not sleeping. Does it get better??? (I sleep like a rock now since Day 1 of CPAP)

[jnk...]

Getting effective sleep never makes problems worse over the long haul. Good sleep can make greater clarity of purpose possible in a way that improves our decisions and gives us greater control of what we choose to think about.

And hopefully, the energy we derive from better sleep can be put into other things, such as dietary changes and increasing activity, to the point that our moods can be somewhat improved.

That said, some rage and depression, especially if experienced for many years, can require other treatments beyond PAP therapy. So keeping medical professionals informed of our progress, or lack of progress, with our moods is generally a very, very good idea in the case of anyone fighting serious rage and medical depression.

In my opinion. I am not a medical professional.

[Red70]

I have gotten to the point of zero tolerance and patience. My dad said CPAP therapy changed his whole outlook. Maybe I just need more time and restful sleep before I notice a change.

[BlackSpinner]

At 2 weeks you are barely starting to see recovery. The damage to your organs (including your brain) needs repairing.
Start by keeping a journal. A lot of early signs are very subtle and unless you look back at your journal you won't see them.

[jnk...]

Good sleep, over time, helped my moods and tolerance levels quite a bit. I would have to say that it changed my outlook, too. But it did take time. And it also took my doing other things along with the PAP therapy.

For some, bad sleep over the years made them numb to some pain in their life, so the clarity that came with good sleep temporarily made life seem a little more painful, in their experience. When the lenses of your glasses get cleaned, you better see the stuff you want to look at, but the stuff you would prefer not to see becomes just as clear. The answer to that, of course, isn't simply to choose to live life numb and with dirty lenses. But it can take greater focus to see what steps are productive and positive on the road to better moods and a better life. It takes a while for all the bruises to heal that came from bumping into furniture all day while sleep-walking through life.

[Red70]

What great things to ponder! I'm so glad to hear that I have just started this journey. I thought it would be a miracle cure. Patience! And a journal.

I wonder if I did become numb over the years. I'm such a different person than I used to be. I'd almost given up but now I'm starting to see what's around me and I don't want to accept it. These are bad things. My neighborhood has turned into a ghetto in the past 10 yrs and now I see it and want to move in the worst way. When I get home from work, I'm going to write all this out.

Thank you both so much!!!!

[chunkyfrog]

And here is a big wet, froggy HUG
to help you feel a little better.

[IDontSnoreISwear]

You're very early in your therapy. Before CPAP, I had massive desaturations and woke up many mornings with a blinding headache. Was falling asleep at the wheel on the regular, and was an emotional mess. It took a couple months to really feel like my emotional state had changed, and now I feel like a new person. It's pretty amazing.

[Red70]

Thank you for the hug!

I've actually slept soundly, all night, for the past 2.5 weeks. This is the first time in many years.

My dad is a whole new person with his CPAP but he said he thinks it was about a month until he started feeling better.

I'm glad I posted here because I had expected to feel better within a week and it's just not happening. The most I can say at this point is that I haven't fallen asleep at my desk in a couple weeks. My body MUST be healing on the inside. It's just not noticeable to me yet.

[chunkyfrog]

It sneaks up on you.
Keep a journal.

[Red70]

I'm trying to do a journal on my computer. I realized that I don't know how to do one. Can someone help me get started?

[archangle]

Some people get overnight cures. Some get improvement slowly, weeks to months. Some get worse at first, then get better.

Apnea is a bit like a drug. It affects a lot of things in your body and brain. You get low oxygen, stress, sleep disturbance, etc. Your body and brain adjust. When you stop it, your chemistry may be "unbalanced" until your body and brain adjust. It's a bit like stopping drinking, smoking, drugs, etc.

A few people never feel "better," but stop getting worse.

There's an extra risk with mental problems. The problems with your body may lead your brain into "tired, depressed, stressed" ways of thinking. When I fixed my CPAP settings, I found I was stuck in "too tired to do anything" mode for a while. Even though my body felt better, my brain was stuck. You may need to consciously retrain yourself into a "healthy" mode of thinking.

[Red70]

I've recently started seeing a therapist. We're working on changing my negative thoughts. It's funny, I used to be so happy and positive thinking. I think I got too tired and stressed that my brain gave up. Hopefully this will turn around with lots of restful sleep and therapy.

[Holden4th]

While I still feel tired at times during the day my whole approach to everything has become rather mellow and I'm sure my CPAP therapy is the reason. I drive at a slightly slower speed, listen more carefully to the kids I teach and look at some behaviours as just being part of the norm where before they would have riled me. I can remember being like this many years ago and worry about my gradual decline into being a 'grumpy old barstard'. Now, I just don't sweat the small stuff (or much of the big stuff for that matter) and look benignly on as other rage against the machine as I used to do. I'm sure that my work colleagues are worried about me but somewhat relieved as well.

Thank you CPAP.

[robysue]

I'm trying to do a journal on my computer. I realized that I don't know how to do one. Can someone help me get started?

The log doesn't have to be very extensive and you might want to use a spread sheet to organize it.

I've recently started seeing a therapist. We're working on changing my negative thoughts. It's funny, I used to be so happy and positive thinking. I think I got too tired and stressed that my brain gave up. Hopefully this will turn around with lots of restful sleep and therapy.

Your therapist may have some suggestions on how to keep a log. Part of your log should be tracking the work you are doing on changing your negative thoughts.

At any rate, since you asked for advice about logs, I thought I'd tell you a bit about my experience when I was keeping a log to track my insomnia issues:

I first of all had to pick the things I wanted to track (the variables so to speak). And then I decided to use a simple 0-5 scale to rate each variable in the log. I had the variables split between things I needed to fill in right after I got up in morning and ones that I filled in at the end of the day. I created a spreadsheet that had a line for each day and a column for each of my variables. There was also a column to make verbal comments.

My choice of variables is not really relevant in your case. But if we reread parts of your posts on this thread, it's relatively easy to pick out what some of your variables might be:

I have severe SA. Started CPAP 2.5 wks ago. Pressure is 20. I don't feel any relief from my rage and depression I fell into over the past few years of not sleeping. Does it get better??? (I sleep like a rock now since Day 1 of CPAP)

I have gotten to the point of zero tolerance and patience. My dad said CPAP therapy changed his whole outlook. Maybe I just need more time and restful sleep before I notice a change.

I've actually slept soundly, all night, for the past 2.5 weeks. This is the first time in many years.
...
The most I can say at this point is that I haven't fallen asleep at my desk in a couple weeks. My body MUST be healing on the inside. It's just not noticeable to me yet.

I've recently started seeing a therapist. We're working on changing my negative thoughts. It's funny, I used to be so happy and positive thinking. I think I got too tired and stressed that my brain gave up. Hopefully this will turn around with lots of restful sleep and therapy.

Seems to me that the variables you may want to track are mainly mood related:

• Rage and/or depression. You may want to lump them together or you may need to separate.
• Patience and tolerance. This might be part of "rage" or not. Only you can decide.
• Positive vs negative thoughts. Get some help from the therapist about how to accurately track the progress you are making on changing your negative thoughts. This one is important!
• Overall assessment of how well you slept during the night. This could be done in the morning right after you get up. If sleep hygiene has been a problem in the past, you may need to track bedtime and wake up time. But keep this simple since the results you want to see are an improved mood and a better ability to tolerate irritations.
• Overal assessment of how tired or energetic you feel during the daytime. Not falling asleep at your desk is a plus.
• Verbal comments on any of the above to note things that are unusual is some way.