Dealing With a Partner With Depression and Sleep Apnea
How to cope with sleep apnea and depression?
Just knowing you have a deadly sleep disorder that you can't control it without a proper treatment, it makes you feel depressed.
Many questions will depress you, such as: what will my partner think about me? I am still attractive to her/him? Why can't I focus on anything? Why am I so sleepy all the time?
People with sleep apnea tend to become social isolated from their partners and children because of their fatigue and sleepiness.
They will tend to stay less with their family and relationships and to spend more time sleeping.
Family or friends will be for him more like a burden than a source of support.
From your inactivity in the social life of the family to negative attitude, all this will affect your home life and social life. These problems may contribute to marital conflict and divorce.
In this case, the solution is to start the treatment of sleep apnea before all this problems arise. You need all the support of the family and friends to continue the therapy.
Family support is very important for you, when you have sleep apnea and depression.
The severity and duration of the person's depression depends on family support and on the individual. And you need lot's of positive thoughts to continue sleep apnea therapy.
The main symptoms of depression are :
pessimism
fatigue
decreased energy
loss of interest
poor sexual functioning
poor self-esteem
Believe it or not, depression can appear when sleep apnea is successfully treated. But why a person would become depressed after successful therapy?
This type of depression can happen when a person experience a big change in his life in a very short time, from sleepy and lonely to awake and active.
Former sleep apnea patients may be pushed too fast into the active life, and he may feel strange about how to deal with this changes.
Another common reason to be depressed after a successful sleep apnea treatment is when you realize that you have lost many good years of your life in a state of somnolence.
It this situation is better to allow you some time to grieve before you can let go of those years and get on with your life.
Just remember that your are not alone in having problems with sleep apnea and depression. It may help to talk with others who have been through similar experiences. Attend to group meetings and forums to find people who were in the same situation.
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