Ditto.

My T said that there are many parallels to this pandemic and our past traumas, including feeling powerless.

In former psychological studies, I could see how such memory nodes are connected, and perhaps why our unconscious plays out in our dreams.

It's hard to stay asleep and return to sleep after a nightmare.

I have interrupted sleep from nightmares all the time.

Last night I, being a disabled veteran during this traumatic pandemic, dreamt that a few of us were at war with the Middle East, and we captured a few terrorists in our private homes. We were waiting on authorities to come pick them up and send them to Guantanamo or something. Meanwhile, they were largely unvaccinated and unmasked, and they decided to start coughing while we held them captive. Although we were all masked, we didn't have proper eye and ear coverings, so I think it worried me about being exposed. They tried to weaponize the virus and/or use fear to find some way of escape. We didn't allow them to escape, but I woke up feeling worried that they tried to kill us with the virus. This was my dream last night/this morning.

Mind you, I never served overseas, nor have I ever fought in a war. I was trained, and I am a veteran, but I never deployed. I have no idea why I had that dream.

I also felt bad because I have friends from all over, including Pakistan and other parts of that world, who I think are refugees here. They are peaceful people trying to escape the terror of their land, and some have even experienced warzones. I recall meeting my friends in college, as I had very little knowledge of what transpired back there, apart from some of the stories that fellow OEF/OIF veterans have told me. Perhaps vicarious trauma ensued after hearing their stories months back, but I have no idea why. I don't believe in torture, and I don't know much about how our laws work for suspected terrorists. At any rate, I had some strange nightmare about it. I feel somewhat racist for having that nightmare, too. I don't know why I would have such a nightmare, but it felt very real to me.

Also, given my OCD, I would never reside with other people. In this dream, however, I did. That was also an odd phenomenon.