New CPAP user with increased daytime anxiety

[Pupcake]

Hi!

I'm a little over a week using c-pap. I was very excited to get it as I had weird but nasty symptoms.

I was never tired during the day, actually took Clonazapam twice a day to control anxiety. Usually pretty hyper. BUT my memory is horrible, I have trouble word finding, pretty nasty insomnia. I wanted to take a Photoshop class but was not sure I would have the "brains" to do it. I had a sleep study in '08 tha said I was fine (they didn't say that a REM% of 6% wasn't the best. This sleep study I had no REM 0%! no pure apneas but 42 Hypopneas with dec sat to 76%.

OK finally got CPAP. No problems wearing it, had pretty bad headaches but I increased the humidity (as someone said on here) & headaches are gone.

My complaint is increased anxiety esp in the evenings, but a general sense of doom all day. No an anxiety of "OMG I have to use the CPAP" Just GAD type doom. I wonder if I was so sleep deprived before I didn't feel the anxiety'cause I had no energy & now that I am awake the anxiety has appeared.

Any suggestions?

Pupcake

[BlackSpinner]

By wearing the cpap and getting treatment you have acknowledged that you have some sort of chronic illness. This is a major change in life and for many people it is traumatic.
Accept it, go talk to someone, start working out or running (working out changes the chemistry in your body and can be as effective as taking anti depressants but you need to work up a sweat), keep a journal.
Getting your brains functioning again can take months. It took me 3 months when I realized I was suddenly learning new complicated security software without difficulty.

ETA: Also your chest muscles may feel stiff from the exercise of breathing against the new air pressure which may feel like the tightness you get with anxiety.

[nanwilson]

Try wearing the mask during the day or evening just to get used to the alien on your face. Its not uncommon to have a panic attack with all this new gear to use... your brain is telling you to get this thing away from me now. We usually suggest that you try wearing it when you are reading or watching tv when things are quiet in the house.... relax and persevere it will come to you in no time. Good luck
Nan

[Julie]

Hi - another possibiilty is that you in fact are having symptoms of other problems, whether depression, cardiac trouble (the sense of doom thing is known to be a factor there), or something else. Not everything is related to Cpap, or maybe only incidentally in that starting Cpap provoked something, but the answer is not necessarily to fix any 'Cpap' feature, but to look at other potential causes of the new symptoms, though it is more likely that your new awareness of apnea is causing them.

[Pupcake]

Thank you for your responses- lots of suggestions.

I thinks it could have been I was going through my days so tired (though I didn't feel tired) everything was dulled. Now that I am getting enough O2 and REM things are SO sharp and &'m not used to that.

I'm still a klutz though- hoping that will fade over time.

Thanks again

Pupcake

[archangle]

Be careful about what I call "CPAP blindness." That's where you blame all your problems on CPAP or apnea. Don't forget us apneacs get all the problems that plague the rest of mankind. Even doctors tend to get CPAP blindness.

Your problems might actually be a good sign. Untreated apnea does a lot of things to our bodies. We get stress hormones, poor sleep, oxygen deprivation, damage to the brain and other organs, changes in metabolism and body chemistry. Your body adjusts to these things. I think that sometimes, when you remove the apnea, your body and brain are out of "balance" because they're still doing the same adjustments. It's a bit like what happens if you stop smoking, drinking, or taking drugs (legal or illegal.)

Hopefully, it's just "apnea withdrawal" and you'll be over it soon.

Good luck.