This month's prompt "Sleep and Health" my personal journey

Some background.

I am a (almost) 67 yr old man, a disabled Veteran, slightly over weight.
in 2003 I saw a tv ad for "Zoloft" where the questions were asked:
"Do you have racing thoughts, especially at night? Do you find it hard to disconnect so you can sleep? Do your thoughts go in circles?"
And I thought to myself "MY GOD! They are talking about MEEEEEEeeee!"
So I contacted the VA, which at the time (and until 2016) was my only health care alternative.
I was diagnosed with "Major Clinical Depression" and was started on Zoloft (Sertraline HCL)
Now, I will say this, when I started down this road, I was in the depths of alcohol and drug addiction, and I personally believe that had I NOT started treatment for my Depression I would be dead by now.
Nov 23d 2006 I weighed 123 lbs. Everything I made income wise, I spent on alcohol and CRACK cocaine. This morning I weighed 186, more than I would like, but far more healthy.
3.in 2007 I put myself into the Veterans Homeless Domiciliary Program, wherein you LIVE IN the hospital for 6 months in a dormitory situation.
This began my road to recovery.
In the meantime, because of the numerous side effects of Zoloft (and as it turns out) nearly every Anti-Depressant, I've been on a rollercoaster of MH drugs.

So, I've been a basic insomniac most of my life (that is how I got started drinking booze, at first it helped me get to sleep)
Most of my family has this problem as well.
The last Psycho-active MH drug I was on (and the longest) was Mirtazapine, which worked quite well in that it was taken at bedtime, and had STRONG "Sedative" properties.
Prior to this, that was pronounced exclusively as 'SED-a-tive', but the Dr pronounced this as 'sed-A-tive' as it was a verb, rather than an adjective (this has been your two sentence grammar lesson for today 🤣)
I got better sleep than I'd had all my life, but the MAIN negative side effect of this and most Anti depressants was weight gain (second only to erectile dysfunction/delayed orgasm)
Having been on the drug for years, and being in a far better place in my MH and off drugs and alcohol, with my MH professional's awareness, I stopped taking all MH drugs, and within a month dropped 20 lbs.
Just like that.

Fast forward to 2020 when I was having video consults with VA MH, the young lady (who I liked a lot) was asking me if I snored (How do I know? I live alone, I have no sexual partners, there is no one here to tell me)
I told her that I frequently took afternoon naps. She said "I bet you have sleep apnea, I can tell by looking at your neck" (umm, WHAT? 😕)
So they sent me a home sleep study test thingy. (a Watchpat device)

source
You wear this overnight, with an electrode connected to the device taped to your chest, the readings are sent wirelessly to the DR.
My results were (first report) inconclusive, and the VA people said they wanted me to come in to the Hospital for an IN CLINIC overnight stay sleep study.
I told them that I thought there was no way I would be able to fall asleep in a strange room with all manner of things connected to me and unfamiliar noises.
This was at the beginning of all the lockdowns, and they almost immediately came back and said that "that message was in error, it was NOT inconclusive, you DO have sleep apnea.
Here, take this machine and figure out how to use it!!!!"

In all this time, I had NEVER seen a "Sleep Doctor" I had NEVER been evaluated, other than the Watchpat

They sent me SIX different masks for the CPAP machine, no one showed me how to set it up, how to adjust it etc...
That was one of the most miserable experiences in my life.
I tried for nearly a year to use that bloody machine, trying different masks.
more background, I have severely deviated septum and for the most part cannot breathe through my nose
I was constantly breaking the seal on the mask, which caused it to make a LOT of noise right up against my face, making it impossible to sleep.
I would FLING the damned thing across the room, and get to sleep.

My mask.jpg
↑Of all the masks, this one did the best, as far as it went, although I ended up with a LARGE↑

The VA has been unrelenting, wanting me to keep trying to use the bloody CPAP, and I have periodically tried.

Always the issue was that I couldn't breathe through my nose, no matter that I've had 3 plastic surgeries on my nose, and I take daily antihistamines.
ALWAYS at night my nose would 'snot up' UNTIL recently, I ran out of my Blood Pressure med.
During the period where I was waiting for my refill, I did NOT SNOT UP at night. (this med was taken at night due to an unsafe drop in Blood Pressure, you needed to be IN or NEAR your bed)
I checked and sinus drainage/secretion was one of the LISTED side effects!
The upshot of that is that I have now restarted this process and am scheduled for an in-clinic sleep study on Aug 3d.
I don't hold out high hopes as now my COPD is a major issue, I cough a lot at night and other times, but as far as I know once I am settled and falling asleep, I do not cough.
Also I now have a Smart Watch, that records my sleep, over night O² levels.