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Very difficult post to reply to. Do I think CPAP in itself caused depression? No. Do I think getting the blues at some point after starting treatment can happen? Absolutely. But a temporary case of the blues while you adapt to treatment is NOT clinical depression. It is just the stage of accepting that your life has now changed, and dealing with that change. I believe treatment can have many effects. I don't need or tolerate caffeine like I used to. I don't need as many naps. But for several years before diagnosis my fatigue was getting worse and worse. I thought I had chronic fatigue syndrome. Things that once mattered greatly to me......a clean house, socializing with friends, having a beautiful yard.....just kind of fell by the wayside because I was too tired to keep up my end of the bargain. I had to lower my standards just to get through the day without driving myself batshit crazy. So now, although my treatment is not yet optimized, I have a lot more energy. I am noticing all of the things I need to do to get my life back in order and frankly, it is overwhelming. So I am a bit stressed about having so much to do and where to start. And that is kind of depressing. And I'm also still kind of in the mode that "I don't want to do too much early in the day, because I'll be too tired to do anything later". I am slowly working out of that mindset.

Now in your case you say this has been going on for three years. I believe if you stopped therapy your depression would be worse. Because then you would probably have severe fatigue on top of your depression. But if you have been on medications for three years and still don't feel better, it might be time to talk to your doctor about shaking up your medicine to see if another drug or combination of drugs might work better for you. My wife went through a couple of medicines before her depression was brought under control. Of course going off of, or changing, this type of medicine is a big deal. And you need to have a frank discussion with your doctor as to what might better help you if what you are on is not getting the job done.

I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FOUND YOUR POST BECAUSE I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT I AM DEPRESSED WHEN USING MY CPAP. I TAKE MYSELF OFF OF IT FOR WEEKS BECAUSE I CAN'T DEAL WITH THE DEPRESSION AND I FEEL FINE FOR SEVERAL WEEKS UNTIL I GO BACK ON CPAP BECAUSE I WORRY ABOUT MY APNEA. THEN THE DEPRESSION BEGINS A FEW DAYS IN. I VALIDATE YOU. I DON'T KNOW THE REASON FOR IT, AND I KNOW PEOPLE ARE WELL MEANING. BUT I HEAR YOU. I EXPERIENCE THE EXACT SAME THING!!!!!!!!!

"Am I the only one who developed depression after starting cpap? Started about 3 months after starting cpap . Fixed my daytime sleepiness immediately and that's still true. But now on meds for anxiety and depression and wake up severely depressed."
I consider my self happy and optimistic guy, I have been experiancying anxiety and depression after waking up from sleeps but more so after naps. I had never considered a corrolation or a side affect to a cpap mechanical devise that emmits a low level air pressure on my face! What caused me to search for this topic and to search for others with similar experiences is that I have noticed or more accurately, I discovered that as I'm starting to gain contiouness but still half asleep, the continuous air pressure and pulsating rhythmic effects on my mouth area from my full face mask gets interpreted in my sleep as feelings of unhappiness and wisper like crying. As I am waking up and starting to gain contiouness I get this overwhelming feeling of sadness and sorrow as if I just waken up from a very depressing dream.
My plan now is to pay attention to the rhythmic pulsating effects on my face and the types of noise the machine makes as I inhale and as I exhale. Please share your feelings, thoughts and ideas about this point that I'm raising.
I hesitated to share this feeling with anyone who is not feeling this type of side effects from the usage of a cpap machine. My sharing of what I noticed is for anyone who wakes up with a feeling of depression, increased heart rate and anxiety.

LINDAACKM wrote:I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I FOUND YOUR POST BECAUSE I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT I AM DEPRESSED WHEN USING MY CPAP. I TAKE MYSELF OFF OF IT FOR WEEKS BECAUSE I CAN'T DEAL WITH THE DEPRESSION AND I FEEL FINE FOR SEVERAL WEEKS UNTIL I GO BACK ON CPAP BECAUSE I WORRY ABOUT MY APNEA. THEN THE DEPRESSION BEGINS A FEW DAYS IN. I VALIDATE YOU. I DON'T KNOW THE REASON FOR IT, AND I KNOW PEOPLE ARE WELL MEANING. BUT I HEAR YOU. I EXPERIENCE THE EXACT SAME THING!!!!!!!!!

I don't think XPAP treatment can be blamed for your brain chemistry change. However it may help you realize you are depressed, it won't unstick your cap lock key either. Jim

Jim, the comment you quote was posted nearly a year ago.
It's the post AFTER that which revived the zombie thread.
Of course, both posters, as well as the OP, are looking in the wrong place for the cause of their depression.
It is too bad we cannot help people who have already made up their minds, as depression is devastating.

Hi Terih

"Am I the only one who developed depression after starting cpap? Started about 3 months after starting cpap . Fixed my daytime sleepiness immediately and that's still true. But now on meds for anxiety and depression and wake up severely depressed."

I consider my self happy and optimistic guy, I have been experiancying anxiety and depression after waking up from sleeps but more so after naps. I had never considered a corrolation or a side affect to a cpap mechanical devise that emmits a low level air pressure on my face! What caused me to search for this topic and to search for others with similar experiences is that I have noticed or more accurately, I discovered that as I'm starting to gain contiouness but still half asleep, the continuous air pressure and pulsating rhythmic effects on my mouth area from my full face mask gets interpreted in my sleep as feelings of unhappiness and wisper like crying. As I am waking up and starting to gain contiouness I get this overwhelming feeling of sadness and sorrow as if I just waken up from a very depressing dream.
My plan now is to pay attention to the rhythmic pulsating effects on my face and the types of noise the machine makes as I inhale and as I exhale. Please share your feelings, thoughts and ideas about this point that I'm raising.
I hesitated to share this feeling with anyone who is not feeling this type of side effects from the usage of a cpap machine. My sharing of what I noticed is for anyone who wakes up with a feeling of depression, increased heart rate and anxiety.

JMax-cpapUser wrote:Hi Terih

"Am I the only one who developed depression after starting cpap? Started about 3 months after starting cpap . Fixed my daytime sleepiness immediately and that's still true. But now on meds for anxiety and depression and wake up severely depressed."

I consider my self happy and optimistic guy, I have been experiancying anxiety and depression after waking up from sleeps but more so after naps. I had never considered a corrolation or a side affect to a cpap mechanical devise that emmits a low level air pressure on my face! What caused me to search for this topic and to search for others with similar experiences is that I have noticed or more accurately, I discovered that as I'm starting to gain contiouness but still half asleep, the continuous air pressure and pulsating rhythmic effects on my mouth area from my full face mask gets interpreted in my sleep as feelings of unhappiness and wisper like crying. As I am waking up and starting to gain contiouness I get this overwhelming feeling of sadness and sorrow as if I just waken up from a very depressing dream.
My plan now is to pay attention to the rhythmic pulsating effects on my face and the types of noise the machine makes as I inhale and as I exhale. Please share your feelings, thoughts and ideas about this point that I'm raising.
I hesitated to share this feeling with anyone who is not feeling this type of side effects from the usage of a cpap machine. My sharing of what I noticed is for anyone who wakes up with a feeling of depression, increased heart rate and anxiety.

FYI..JMax....Terih posted this over a year ago and has not been heard from since...He probably will not see your post.

chunkyfrog wrote:Jim, the comment you quote was posted nearly a year ago.
It's the post AFTER that which revived the zombie thread.
Of course, both posters, as well as the OP, are looking in the wrong place for the cause of their depression.
It is too bad we cannot help people who have already made up their minds, as depression is devastating.

I too am aware of depression, been dealing around it for over 50 years, these two zombie posters have De+Nile, not depression! Jim Finally I got first hand experience with it after being in the hospital after the by-pass, kind of common reaction. Too much time to think, let the pity party begin, I adjusted my thinking by day 5. Sometimes you have to look at yourself, if you don't see what you like, you must change.

It's a good topic.

Sometimes when a med gets rid of numbness, it improves the perception of pain.

Similarly, a person can go through life too tired and sleepy to experience it. Once they start experiencing it, it can be scary enough to cause anxiety and disturbing enough to cause underlying depression to come to the foreground.

When the road ahead looks scary, the answer isn't to paint over the windshield to keep from seeing through it. The answer is to hone our driving skills to navigate better and to keep our eyes on the road. We may need help with that from others. Or from meds.

PAP clarifies, and that can be tough if we have grown used to brain fog.

jnk... wrote:It's a good topic.

Sometimes when a med gets rid of numbness, it improves the perception of pain.

Similarly, a person can go through life too tired and sleepy to experience it. Once they start experiencing it, it can be scary enough to cause anxiety and disturbing enough to cause underlying depression to come to the foreground.

When the road ahead looks scary, the answer isn't to paint over the windshield to keep from seeing through it. The answer is to hone our driving skills to navigate better and to keep our eyes on the road. We may need help with that from others. Or from meds.

PAP clarifies, and that can be tough if we have grown used to brain fog.

Well Said +1 Jim

Terih wrote:Sorry no one believes me. I was fine before and know cpap is a good thing but there is no other common denominator. Anyone else?

Might I offer an alternative explanation. I haven't read all the replies so forgive me if I am repeating something someone else has already said.

First off I am so sorry for how you are feeling.. I am only 2 days into my CPAP and I had depression before I started, but I believe(HOPE) that it was related to lack of sleep versus clinical depression, which you might very well have..

My alternative explanation would be this. As a computer network engineer we often run into issue that mask each other.. Where you have 2 issues lying on top of each other which causes pure confusion because they can give conflicting signals as to what the problem might be.. Only when you fix one of the issues, does the 2nd issue become apparent..

Might I suggest that you've had depression all along, but the lack of sleep and other issues caused by your sleep apnea was masking the signs of depression.. Once you cleared up your sleep apnea your underlying depression was clearly revealed to you...

Just a thought and not meant to demean your pain. Depression is no joke and should be taken as serious as your apnea..

Robert

Kind of like your right knee hurts a little, then you step on a fail barefoot with your left foot, it hurts really bad, you no longer feel the pain in your right knee. The bigger problem overrides the smaller problem. Jim

Depression has medical solutions, but formal diagnosis is absolutely necessary.
Too many folks self diagnose "depression", "migraine", "claustrophobia", etc.,
when what they really have is a big case of self pity.
Get diagnosed, or stop whining.

Not sure if recent posters fit this scenario, but I'll throw it out there in case they or a viewer might benefit. I've seen on here several times reports of those who were taking prescribed meds for mood disorders and the dosage needs changed dramatically after going on CPAP. Our complex mix of hormones and chemicals can change with proper sleep. For one thing, if on meds I wouldn't suggest going on and off and on and off CPAP. How could the needed doasge ever be figured out if there's not some consistency? One forum member said she was on meds for mild bipolar disorder and after starting CPAP went into a full fledged episode. They adjusted her meds and she eventually went off them. Turned out she wasn't bipolar when her mind and body was properly rested. I would suggest diligence to using CPAP while sorting through things. Give yourself a baseline from which to figure things out. Ideally one could work closely with a well qualified doctor to wean the dosage of the meds and see what things are like with their sleep apnea under control and having had a period of time for healing and recovery of what you've been through with untreated apnea. One can always increase the dose or add meds back in if there's a need. DISCLAIMER: If your depression is incapacitating or causes suicidal thoughts, ignore everything I say and listen to your doctors. I am not a medical professional. Just a patient who has been through some stuff that may or may not be relatable.

Very sage advice. Professionals are still trying to learn the complexities of our mind and body, On top of that, each of us reacts slightly differently to changes.