Normal person breathing through CPAP

So Well wrote:Although I don't like the term "psychologically addictive", the officials you very loosely cite are correct that cocaine is not addictive.

The current government/medical dogma is that cocaine is highly addictive and that they were wrong before.

I suggest we stop using terms that have different meanings to different people (whether they should or not), such as "addiction", "dependence", etc. In plain English, what is the fear? For example, "I am afraid that the longer I'm on CPAP, the higher the pressure I will need, so that by 10 years from now, I'm going to require a pressure much greater than I would if I didn't use CPAP and started using it in 10 years". Then of course we'll say that no studies have been done that would speak to question ...but at least we'd have some idea of what the question is. Or maybe the question is, "I'm not sure I really need CPAP at all, but I'm afraid that if I use it, I will create a need where there is none". Or whatever.

SleepingUgly wrote:I suggest we stop using terms that have different meanings to different people (whether they should or not), such as "addiction", "dependence", etc. In plain English, what is the fear? For example, "I am afraid that the longer I'm on CPAP, the higher the pressure I will need, so that by 10 years from now, I'm going to require a pressure much greater than I would if I didn't use CPAP and started using it in 10 years". Then of course we'll say that no studies have been done that would speak to question ...but at least we'd have some idea of what the question is. Or maybe the question is, "I'm not sure I really need CPAP at all, but I'm afraid that if I use it, I will create a need where there is none". Or whatever.

It is my understanding, from everything I have read or heard about it, that CPAP is not addictive in the sense of building up tolerance. It is certainly not been my experience - quite the opposite: I had been for years on 20cm H2O and now I've been very happy at 15 cm in the last three years. However, my personal experience does reveal the second component of addiction: withdrawal. While (obviously) I was able to go to sleep without a CPAP before, I certainly cannot do it now. I've had a couple of instances where power went out and I could not go back to sleep. If I doze off watching TV, I end up invariably waking up. This might not be everyone else's experience but it appears to be quite prevalent.

You need to put that in perspective. If one has untreated OSA, even though they can go to sleep, they are not really sleeping much. Hence, the addiction to CPAP might be rooted in the fact that CPAP allows them to truly sleep. That's a rather good reason for experiencing withdrawal symptoms. That is certainly my case. But if a person doesn't have OSA (there are many other sleep disorders that cannot be treated with CPAP), then getting used to CPAP (if that is possible in that case), would be a bad idea. But, again, it may very well be that the withdrawal is only exhibited by people who truly need CPAP, so in this case it might be safe for a "normal" person to attempt breathing through CPAP. And that concludes our cycle - we are back to the very original topic of this thread!
McSleepy