Why do some folks take to cpap so quickly and others do not?

Sleepy Taz wrote:....

I think that adapting to Cpap starts with acceptance. For most the thought of sleeping with a mask on their face and air blowing up their nose makes them uneasy at best. Add to that the fact that each person is responsible for putting on that mask every night leaves room for many to either just use it part time or not at all. Once there is acceptance, there needs to be a desire to make the therapy work. ....... I have always believed that a good attitude is essential towards successful therapy.

Taz

I think that you hit the nail perfectly.... +1 with your answer

I was struggling with actually wearing my mask for months. I used it just a few hours a night. The mask and strap just drove me insane.

Then one day i watched a video on Sleep Apnea. The video compared Sleep Apnea with someone being suffocated all night long. For some reason, that did it for me. In the couple of years since then, I have only gone a few days without it. Does fear of suffocation play a role? You bet!

However, as i started to comply, I ran into an issue with the mask strap. The tightness around my neck drove me crazy. So I took a pair of scissors and cut the strap (I might have even turned the strap upside down so the neck was free, too).

I don't know. I'm just glad I didn't have to struggle. I don't think I could have done it if I had.
I just strapped on the mask, prepared for the worst, hoped for the best and went to sleep. I know I've been blessed.
Shar

Mild apnea; but I was going silly from lack of sleep.
I was grouchy, miserable, and a total pain to be around.
My bizarre nightmares were leaving me shaky and a bit unsure of my sanity.
CPAP gave me my life back.

I am one of those annoying people who took to it easily without many problems. My only complaint is that sometimes the nasal masks makes my teeth hurt, but I've been using a FFM lately and haven't had that problem.

I am a heavy sleeper. I do have allergies, however, the FFM mask takes care of that for me, as well. I do not have GERD and I am not claustrophobic. My pressure is pretty high. I think mainly I was just lucky.

I was going through a lot of huge life changes when I got my machine, and honestly, masking up was the least of my problems. Had that not been the case, who knows, it could have been totally different for me.

Just curious what the board would consider a "quick" success. I have been on my machine for a month. I won't even nap without it. I'm averaging 7 hrs/night. Not great, but my son doesn't sleep through the night yet. My AHI has been less than one for 3 1/2 of the four weeks. I don't know my leak rate, but the tech who did my last download said I wasn't having any issues with the mask that she could see.

I was extremely hopeful that this latest diagnosis was the answer to over 3 years of symptoms. I'm being told that I should feel "normal" again. I feel worse than ever. As far as I know I'm doing everything I can (given life's demands), but I still suffer.

Desperate_in_DM wrote:Just curious what the board would consider a "quick" success. I have been on my machine for a month. I won't even nap without it. I'm averaging 7 hrs/night. Not great, but my son doesn't sleep through the night yet. My AHI has been less than one for 3 1/2 of the four weeks. I don't know my leak rate, but the tech who did my last download said I wasn't having any issues with the mask that she could see.

I was extremely hopeful that this latest diagnosis was the answer to over 3 years of symptoms. I'm being told that I should feel "normal" again. I feel worse than ever. As far as I know I'm doing everything I can (given life's demands), but I still suffer.

It took a few months before I felt better. Maybe you have a lot of sleep debt to pay off. When I first started I slept a lot more than I do now. I could still sleep for 10 hours. Now I wake up naturally. It just took a while to get to that point.

Desperate_in_DM, Did you say your son is 21 months old? If you could get him sleeping through the night, your sleep will improve too. Is there a reason he is not sleeping through the night? If there is no good reason why he is not, I could recommend some books that might help.

needsomezees wrote:Attitude, patience, attitude, luck, attitude, support, and attitude!!!

Oh, and attitude.

My son wakes up 2-3 times a night still at 21 months. He has silent acid reflux that the doctors are having trouble controlling with medication. In the next month or so he will have a GI scan or whatever to determine if it's physiological or if they think he'll eventually outgrow it.

Being a newbie I am finding this discussion interesting. I am seeing two things that are being wrapped up into one. There is compliance and then there is tolerance.

While some of the tolerance problems are psychological, there are other factors as well. And just because something is psychological, doesn't mean that having an explanation cures the problem. I worked with myself on the claustrophobia thing, not from the standpoint that OK I have a psychological problem, and now I am going to apply a good attitude, which will solve my psychological problem. Instead, I worked with knowledge of how to overcome phobias. A good attitude without this information on overcoming phobias works less well. Which makes achieving tolerance more difficult, makes the road quite a bit more rocky. So it is lack of knowledge that makes tolerance harder to achieve in this case, not attitude.

Compliance, however, is something totally different. When we talk about compliance, it is 100% attitude. I have a really good attitude towards compliance--- come hell or high water, I AM going to do this, I will let nothing stop me. As many times as I am thrown off the horse, I will get back up again. I bitch and whine, yes, but I keep on trucking no matter how I feel. People use tolerance problems as an excuse to not comply, which has to do with attitude.

I find it a bit confusing when I have physical problems adjusting, and have 100% compliance. Do I have a good enough attitude? Is attitude making me wake up every two hours? I don't think so. Is attitude making me keep going back and trying again DESPITE tolerance problems? Yes, completely.

snuginarug wrote: I find it a bit confusing when I have physical problems adjusting, and have 100% compliance. Do I have a good enough attitude? Is attitude making me wake up every two hours? I don't think so. Is attitude making me keep going back and trying again DESPITE tolerance problems? Yes, completely.

Things get really tangled up - it can be a mind/body thing. You mind has for years been waking you up to keep you alive - it is conditioned to do that now and it is hard to reprogram that conditioning.

There is also the comparison thing. the irritating itch just isn't noticed if your head really hurts. You can learn to "tune out" all sorts of things when you learn pain control.

Attitude is your conscious mind and it influences your unconscious and can have both a positive and negative effect. Some times the "determination to over come " can be a disadvantage, some times you just have to accept and go with the flow. I learned this when I was "determined to conquer my fear" and get back on to the horse = wrong attitude - horse knew the moment I got on it. So sometimes you just have to embrace your difficulties and love your self more.

You have a great attitude and you will succeed. I am just pointing out that the mind is a tricky beast, rather like working with a temperamental 2 year old at times.

Desperate_in_DM wrote:My son wakes up 2-3 times a night still at 21 months. He has silent acid reflux that the doctors are having trouble controlling with medication. In the next month or so he will have a GI scan or whatever to determine if it's physiological or if they think he'll eventually outgrow it.

So the doctors think this is why he's waking up? No wonder you're tired. Well, if you get to the point where you feel it's just a habit he's gotten into, I can recommend some books.

In our case it was a quality of life issue. My husband was sleeping most of the day and his nights were terrible with snoring,cessation of breathing, gasping all night. We were relieved to hear that there was a reason for his symptoms and a treatment for it when we thought he was nearing the end. Although we had a rocky start with some resistance and I had to learn everything for both of us, it's been so worth it to have my companion back. He now reads books again, plays games and puzzles on the computer , we watch TV together at night and always try to plan something for the weekend. What could be better than that?

OT to Desperate, has he been tested for food allergies?

I'm one of the lucky ones also.

I say first off is a positive attitude going in and learning what cpap is all about including what to expect (This is where forums come in ).

The next most important item after attitude is the mask, you need to find the proper one for you and fit it to your face properly. This is probably the hardest part of pap therapy to make work, but it can be done.