Yesterday, 04:31 PM
(This post was last modified: Yesterday, 04:33 PM by Mattmac1. Edited 1 time in total.)
Anxiety
I am new to the board and in the process of being diagnosed with Sleep Apnea…which I think is just a formality.
I have anxiety and struggling sleeping. Wondering if there are any safe type of medications to take for the anxiety without it impacting sleep apnea?
I was taking a sleep medication and it massively impacted my condition with a burning sensation. It seems like most anxiety medications cannot be used if you have sleep apnea.
Any ideas for a terribly struggling guy.
RE: Anxiety
I have taken lunesta (generic Eszopiclone) off and on for years and never had a problem, it is Rx. Benaryl is over the counter that I use daily.
RE: Anxiety
"I know your pain", or actually anxiety, and I take heavy doses of a popular anxiety medication. At night I take the previously mentioned Rx, plus one more Rx for chronic pain and sleep. I also take melatonin and magnesium. None of these medications have affected my SA or treatment of it. If I was you, I would continue your medications as you do now and start SA treatment and not worry about any of your meds. With the mess of stuff that I take every night does not affect my SA treatment I would be surprised if you will have any conflicts. BTW - - My AHI runs less than 1, most of the time less than .5 and I have what is known as severe SA.
From the very beginning of SA treatment with a CPAP machine, I never even considered that my anxiety meds and SA treatment would interfere with each other. Just jump in and not worry about your meds.
Good luck!
RE: Anxiety
Since I am waiting on the sleep study, I don’t have the CPAC yet. I think that is why the sleep med is adversely impacting me.
I so appreciate the Posts. I am desperate for advice.
RE: Anxiety
Alprazolam is a good prescription anti-anxiety med. It's also inexpensive.
Machine: ResMed AirCurve 10 Vauto
Mask: Bleep DreamPort Sleep Solution
RE: Anxiety
I'm just adding in one bit of wisdom. Talk with your doctor about the anxiety. They might have an answer to help.
While you're talking with the doc, request they issue a ResMed machine. Specifically it's called the ResMed AirSense 10 or 11 AutoSet. This is supposing you're going into a CPAP not a bilevel. Name this specifically, and ask for dispense as written on the script. ResMed is the gold standard for most. The DAW requirement is due to swapping for a cheaper to sell to you machine, which gets them the same money.
Mask Primer
Positional Apnea
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
RE: Anxiety
Matt.
Anxiety runs in my family.
And i have/am breaking free!
Breathwork, breathing exercises.
Natural and it works!
Please consider and check out Patrick McKeown.
Peace.
RE: Anxiety
"Alprazolam is a good prescription anti-anxiety med. It's also inexpensive
Be very careful if using this drug (alprazolam is the generic of Xanax). Benzo's as they are popularly known, and alprazolam is one of several, are very adicitive and nearly impossilbe to get off of unless a person is using a very low dose and and not regularly. Unfortunately for me, doctors got me hooked on 1 gram, 3 times a day and on the extended release version as a special bonus. Xanax is fast acting, but has a short half life so the owner of the brand decided to make an extended form called "XR" or "ER" for the generic. Even the extended version's half life is only a little longer than the standard release, making it necessary to take split doses (morning and again at bedtime). That was before I learned to check anything that is prescribed to me to make sure that a doctor is not putting me on med that is a one-way road to hell.
One other thing that your doctor will not tell you, or probably doesn't even know, is that Xanax/alprazolam can destroy a person's ability to get any "deep" sleep. I use to have a copy, and link to, a research paper written by a Canadian Doctor, that went into detail on excatly how benzo's destroy Deep Sleep. Unfortunately, I no longer have the paper or even a link to it. At the time I found the Paper, I was measuring my sleep each night with a device called a "Zeo". Using brainwaves, it measures and recordes all stages of sleep including deep sleep. I used this device for about 6 months and I seldom had more than 2-5 minutes of deep sleep for the entire night. The company that made the Zeo went bankrupt years ago and since the system required connection to their servers for complete data recording, I had to stop using the device.
Long story, but be careful what you wish for.
