Sleep is a really, really serious thing.
Seconded. I too have been going to a doctor for sleep/depression since my early teens. I was given all kinds of antidepressants and sleeping pills, most of which only made things worse. It was very frustrating because I was labeled with the lazy teen stereotype. I was told I need better sleep hygiene, and I was bombarded with all sorts of other new-agey platitudes. It wasn't until my early twenties that I was given a sleep study, which revealed, you guessed it, sleep apnea. Fast forward another 9 years and I had mma for sleep apnea, anyone keeping up with my situation knows that I am not completely satisfied with the results of the surgery, but my life have improved. My memory is better, my mood is better, I am a much calmer human being, and it has been only two and a half weeks.
I want to become a medical professional to prove to the world that it is not depression and anxiety that cause sleep problems. It is sleep problems that cause depression and anxiety.
Perhaps your existential crisis isn't based on the chaotic state of the world, or the inevitable fall of the universe into entropy. Perhaps you just really really need a good nights sleep, and there are physiological barriers to the much needed deep restorative sleep. What if Nietzsche just had a terrible case of sleep apnea? haha. I'm joking but kind of serious. I am mad that I am a year from 30 and I am just now starting to experience the benefits of a good nights sleep. I was the one who did the work to figure out this was my problem, and surgery was the solution, It wasn't the s**t head assuming doctors that drugged me for most of my adult life. f**k the healthcare system, and thank modernity for websites like this. It turns out I am not such a lazy piece of s**t after all.
There was a recent study published that proved that there are identifiable structural changes in the brain of sleep apnea suffer. GABA levels drop way down and glutamate levels skyrocket. You know what else causes high glutamate levels? Head injury and stroke. High levels of glutamate creates an environment for all kinds of diseases to proliferate. Chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Alzheimers, ALS. Glutamate toxicity kills your neurons. Would you like your friends without sleep apnea to know what you are going through? give them a brown paper bag and a can of spraypaint, and tell them to huff every night.
Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread. Im goin through some s**t right now. LOL
