I have C-PTSD and have nightmares on a regular basis. I'm talking about the kind where you wake up and are drenched in sweat with the sheets wet above and below you. Before my breakdown 13 years ago, I didn't have nightmares. But since then, it is a common occurrence.

I have nightmares most often when I am having a hard week and/or am emotionally dealing with a lot. But even when I think I'm doing fine during the day, I can sometimes have awful dreams at night (like last night).

My nightmares usually always carry the common theme of loss. I often dream about getting physically lost in some location. I don't know where I am or how I got there, or how to get home. Sometimes, I dream I have gotten separated from my parents or my husband and have no way to find or contact them. I also dream that I have lost important things, like my purse, or that I forget where I parked my car. I'll dream that I am in some scary situation and need to contact my husband, but I've lost my cell phone or it doesn't work, or if I borrow someone else's cell phone, I can't figure out how to use it, or I keep accidentally hitting the wrong buttons. In some dreams, I dream that I have done something terrible that I feel guilty and ashamed about, but I can't remember what I did. In my dreams, there is that feeling of high anxiety, confusion, and the feeling that something is really wrong with me because I lose things, get lost, or can't remember stuff.

My t suggested taking Prazosin for the nightmares, but I didn't really want to take another psychiatric medication since I am already on two of them (used to be on three of them). As awful as the nightmares on, I've kind of gotten used t them.

I think I understand why I have these repetitive dreams. Most of my psychological issues have something to do with being left alone as a child and being really scared, being ignored when I needed help, or not protected when I felt in danger. I had numerous separations from my mom as an infant and in early childhood, rejections by people I loved, and multiple moves all during my growing up years, where I left behind friends and pets. Things like that.