Sleep Apnea--comments?

[learnteach]

Sleep apnea--last night, the third person in recent times asked me if I had gone and checked for sleep apnea.  Sigh.  Time to stop being a martyr and go fight the system to see a doctor.  Of course, the fact that I'm waking up several times a night to urinate (when I don't need to urinate as much during the day), the spells of sleepyness and irritability (which I attribute to school based depression) and the excess weight I have and lack of exercise, combined with the fact that one of my brothers has a CPAP for his apnea...hmm.

Any help/notes any of my friends can give me?

Comments

[kawgirl.livejournal.com]

So, what everyone else said and... What was not said is that a lot of people who get tested and get a CPAP, resist actually using their CPAP (your friends seem to be exceptions to this). So, if you get tested and find out you have apnea, then I would also recommend some counselling, perhaps from someone who does motivational interviewing (which deals with how to make behavior changes).

Good luck!

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Exactly. My SO still sometimes wants to do without it, and certainly resisted even getting it, because he felt is was giving in to a "weakness" or somehow becoming a sick person -- he has been healthy his whole life.

And as someone alluded to elsewhere, doing this benefits you, and also everyone who sleeps near you or interacts with you during the day.

[kawgirl.livejournal.com]

In fact, resistance to using the machine is so common that helping clients accept and use the CPAP is covered in trainings for mental health care providers at the county I work for. Because the CPAP provides such a huge benefit, all efforts are made to help people who need CPAPs to make a habit out of using them.

[shutt3rg33k.livejournal.com]

There are other treatments that may also be options. The CPAP is not the only possible answer.