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Unexpected Positive from CPAP
#11
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
Sorry to hear of your troubles Peter and I hope you get some significant improvement.

I think your doctor made the classic mistake ' are you depressed '? Depression is an illness in itself, and I would hazard a guess that you aren't depressed but totally "P*ssed off, and fed up"with the situation you are in, and quite justifiably so.

Wishing you well
Failure is NOT an option.
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#12
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
Hehe - those are but some of the words I've used lately. Life as a whole *is* getting better. But honestly, Apnea, OSA - this is just part of my daily life, like taking meds. CPAP itself really does work, for some they see results overnight, for others it takes time - while I saw overnight results, the heart issues caused by my OSA took years to resolve.

There is just so much I could say on the entire 'depression' topic, but none of it is good. Am sorry, I shouldn't have jumped in here.

Stick with it, you too will get to the point that you WANT your mask, and that sleeping without it will feel wrong - most of us - some of us think of our machines like a security blanket, mine is my dream machine.
*I* am not a DOCTOR or any type of Health Care Professional.  My thoughts/suggestions/ideas are strictly only my opinions.

"Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you. Jesus Christ and the American Soldier. One died for your Soul, the other for your Freedom."
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#13
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
(11-22-2014, 04:02 PM)Peter_C Wrote: Just getting it out there?

I have many "issues", apnea being just one of them.

I was at my Pain Doc's the other day, and was asked "Are you depressed?" - and I do not even know how to begin to answer that question?

I find it 'depressing' that at 52 years old, I have multiple different meds that I will literally die if I stop taking within months.

I've had two different joint surgeries within 4 months of each other, and my pain changes depending on if I am sitting, standing, etc.

If I am 'depressed', I am doing what I can to make stuff/life better, but it's not an overnight process (which is depressing) - so what good is it to talk about whether or not I am depressed?

I hear you! I *always* tell them I am not depressed no matter how I have been feeling... saying you are just gets you signed up for a chemical lobotomy of dubious positive effect and an endless list of negative side-effects!!!

I also live on a cocktail of meds without which my life will be very short and unpleasant enough to wish it shorter, but I sill have a sense of humor, a keen love of research, a good family and a decent job Smile
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#14
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
I don't know if it's part of a bedding ritual, but I find a great deal of comfort putting on the mask before going to sleep. It kind of feels like a reward. When I had an S8, the noise it made blanketed the bed area in white noise. The S9 not so much.

OMM
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#15
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
(11-22-2014, 08:35 PM)OMyMyOHellYes Wrote: I don't know if it's part of a bedding ritual, but I fin a great deal of comfort putting on the mask before going to sleep. It kind of feels like a reward. When I had an S8, the noise it made blanketed the bed area in white noise. The S9 not so much.

OMM

I am beginning to feel that way too, and I really love the open pipe feeling and have from the first moment. I sleep so well with the cpap and even the S9 makes a gentle whooshing noise that sounds like the beach. Now if i can get the puffy eyes and the "sanded sinus" feeling to subside....
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#16
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
After years of crap sleep ( I really wanted to get that word in somewhere ) I'm now getting Cpap sleep, which is good, in fact very good!

I really feel for you Peter but from what you say it appears that you are on the mend, albeit slowly, try and count everyday as another step on the road to recovery.

Perhaps we should ask the all powerful and extremely helpful board administrators to set up a 'humour' section that is restricted to 18 plus, so that we can all use some black, blue or whatever jokes and experiences to brighten up those days when a good laugh is what we really need, purely for mental therapy of course.
Failure is NOT an option.
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#17
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
I meant to say that if I'm feeling 'down' I listen to the song from Monty Pythons, Life of Brian, Always look on the bright side of life, and it never fails to make me smile. And a smile is a good start to feeling better.
Failure is NOT an option.
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#18
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
(11-22-2014, 04:02 PM)Peter_C Wrote: Just getting it out there?

I have many "issues", apnea being just one of them.

I was at my Pain Doc's the other day, and was asked "Are you depressed?" - and I do not even know how to begin to answer that question?

I find it 'depressing' that at 52 years old, I have multiple different meds that I will literally die if I stop taking within months.

I've had two different joint surgeries within 4 months of each other, and my pain changes depending on if I am sitting, standing, etc.

If I am 'depressed', I am doing what I can to make stuff/life better, but it's not an overnight process (which is depressing) - so what good is it to talk about whether or not I am depressed?

As someone who actually suffered from depression (and beat it and have been depression-free for 15 years) I can feel your pain.

But depression is not just feeling blue. Lots of things can happen that can make you feel blue, including some of the things you are going through.

And while that may feel similar, there is an important distinction, which is that clinical depression is defined as feeling blue but NOT HAVING A GOOD REASON TO. IOW, it is not a reaction to negative life conditions, it is an inability to process chemicals in your dopamine receptors properly. It is not about what is going on in your life, it is about what is not going properly in your blood chemistry. Its a medical issue, and not a situational one.

You have to understand that and know that before you can treat it and get better. My advice is to first read that last paragraph over and over until you do; really think about it, because feeling bad about having bad stuff happen is usually something out of your control, but feeling bad because of no tangible reason is something definitely in your control, and you can fight to recover from that.

Being depressed can feel like you were just fired, your girlfriend cheated on you, your dog died, your stereo got stolen, you had a fender-bender, and your family disowned you, all at once. It is a feeling of deep discontent. Every little thing seems like a major catastrophe. But it is just a feeling that is not valid, and one that you can make go away.

The difference between someone who is depressed and someone who all of those things happened to in the same day, is that the normal person will see things get slowly better day by day going forward, while the depressed person wakes up to feeling that bad and that out of control every day, and sometimes worse every day, day after day. That 's the bad news.

The other difference is that the depressed person can take control of the situation, while the situational bad luck person, can't. That's the good news.

So it can actually be better to have all of that misfortune than to be depressed. That is just the tip of the iceberg illustrating how bad things can get.

But the depressed person also did not have any of those things happen; he just feels like they all did.

What your doctor should have told you, rather than simply asking if you feel depressed, is to take a diagnostic test to see if you are depressed. There are at least two very-well-regarded tests for depression available on the internet.

Start there.

If it turns out that you are clinically depressed, get help. You have enough troubles already, and you don't need that, so find a way to deal with curing your depression, if you have it, because being clinically depressed will just make dealing with everything else much more difficult.

One of the most sinister things about clinical depression: if you are sitting on one side of the room, and on a counter on the other side of the room is a magic elixir that possibly could cure your depression, your depression may just cause you to continue to sit there thinking "what's the use?". You have to shake that off, and fight to get better.

Regarding all of those hypothetical woes I was speaking about, you don't have control over them. It would be difficult to un-break up with your girlfriend, get un-fired, unbend that fender, or bring your dog back to life. You just have to deal and wait for things to get better. But depression is something you do have control over, and that is the glass-half-full way to look at it, which, having that attitude, is the first step. I beat it, and so can anyone else who is motivated to.

So, if clinically depressed, fight to be cured. You have a fighting chance, so take it. Fight, and that alone will start to help make you feel better.

Good luck. PM me if you need to talk.

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#19
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
I didn't want to get to deep into the whole depression thing, but I am clinically depressed, and there are many reasons for the condition.

As you say it's the brains inability to process dopamine and serotonin correctly.

This can be as a result of a genetic predisposition and can be turned on by life events, there are many causative events that can create this chemical imbalance in the brain, and Sleep Apnea is one of them. It's such a complicated illness and the treatment is still in the very early stages of development, and I'm sure future research will find better ways of dealing with this disease.


The best I have been looking at is to control the illness with medication, not the zombie forming type, but carefully controlled doses of the correct medications, and this may have to change over time.

Back to the positives of Sleep Apnea........ Since treatment, I no longer get acid reflux, and that is a real plus.

Why doesn't someone start a thread where all the contributors list the benefits they have experienced, and a clever Apnear border can make a league table. This I believe would be a good positive thing for us all to see, especially people new to the treatment, or considering treatment.

Now that's a good idea Dancing
Failure is NOT an option.
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#20
RE: Unexpected Positive from CPAP
(11-25-2014, 03:14 AM)Eurika Wrote: Back to the positives of Sleep Apnea........ Since treatment, I no longer get acid reflux, and that is a real plus.

Why doesn't someone start a thread where all the contributors list the benefits they have experienced, and a clever Apnear border can make a league table. This I believe would be a good positive thing for us all to see, especially people new to the treatment, or considering treatment.

Now that's a good idea Dancing

Yep, I hear you on the acid reflux thingy. Prilosec lost a good customer when I started CPAP. In fact, I think I may have paid for my machine with Prilosec, Tums, late night hot-water and cracker treatments, etc.

A table of possible benefits would be nice, because sometimes we get a benefit and we really don't even know we got it. That happened to me with the elimination of my weather-change headaches going away. It took nearly a year for me to remember that I forgot that they had gone away.
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