[Jill326]

For years now, I've been getting these frightening, uncontrollable episodes where I visualize something horrible happening. I call them daymares.

They are always connected to what is happening or my surroundings at the moment. So it's different from PTSD where people have flashbacks.

I never know when I will get hem, but there are certain particular things that trigger me. One is paper shredders. When I see one being used I picture the person's hand going through it. When I have to use one I picture my hand going through it. Also, paper triggers me too. Whenever someone is waving a paper around or holding it near my face I get a daymare of the paper going across my eyeball and giving me a papercut there. Also, in my old school, girls would often put their pen in one of the button holes of their collar. I would get a daymare of them walking in the hallway, tripping, falling, causing the pen to go right through their neck.

I am 18 and still do not drive because of this. While practicing driving, I would see myself running over people or getting into accidents in my daymares. My parents have been bugging me about getting my license, but I have been avoiding it due to this. I feel like I am a danger to myself and others behind the wheel.Sometimes, these daymares are scary enough to stop me in my tracks. Behind the wheel this can be fatal.

Another detail, sometimes i hear screaming in accompianment with the daymare. It is always a woman, not sure if it's me or not.

I have talked to my Ts about this and it puzzled them. I would really appreciate some feedback on this. Maybe someone here or someone they know has had similar experiences? Or ways of coping with this?

[Miracle1986]

I have daymares too.
They are no fun, that's for sure.

[Jill326]

Originally Posted by Manda86

I have daymares too.
They are no fun, that's for sure.

Really? Do you know anything about them, such as maybe a name? I would feel better I think if I learned more about it.

Also, how do you deal with them (if you do that is)?

And, it's good to know I'm not the only one.

[Miracle1986]

Nightmares occur at a certain cycle in your sleep. It has nothing to do with being night or day.
Everyone has nightmares. The best thing to do, and to lessen them, is to embrace them.

[Jill326]

Originally Posted by Manda86

Nightmares occur at a certain cycle in your sleep. It has nothing to do with being night or day.
Everyone has nightmares. The best thing to do, and to lessen them, is to embrace them.

I'm sorry, I don't quite get it. People have dreams (and nightmares) in the REM stage of sleep. In the middle of the day, while awake, I can't possibly be in REM (or at least I don't think I can).

[thunderbear]

I have those too. I think it has more to do with obsessive thoughts though.

I hear voices in my head, and have visions too. The visions are playing out future scenarios. They are not always bad.I think of these visions like a movie playing in my head.
I think it should be called daydreams. Everyone has them, just not always scary one's.
I think of the visions as a gift. It sounds like your visions are for the purpose of protecting you. It's good that you are aware of potential danger. The only way I have found to deal with them is to distract myself, or just simply let it play out, but don't dwell on it.
Distractions could be reading, watching tv, or exercising.Well anyway, good luck with dealing with the awful daydreams. Big hugs from over here....

[jerrymichele]

It sounds like you might have a phobia. It might be a good idea to talk to someone about this.

[Elysium]

I experience these too. I like the term "daymare", it makes sense to me.

I agree with T-Bear. These sound like obsessive thoughts and that's what I've always considered them. Two important ways to work through them is to keep talking with your therapist about them and have your therapist work with you to build your "this is only a thought" skill.

When you have these daymares, focus on telling yourself "it is just a thought and thoughts can't hurt people. Only actions can hurt them."

Also, the more energy you give to these thoughts, i.e the more you agonize over them, the bigger and worse they will become. If you can get to a point where you can say "okay...that's not a nice thought, but it IS only a thought and it can't hurt anyone", you are no longer giving it the energy to cause you harm.

It took me some time to learn to work with this, but it takes practice and you really need to work at it every time.

Keep us posted on how it's going.

[SilverNeurotic]

I would suggest redirecting your thought to something more pleasant-or at least neutral. It would be something to bring up with your T, perhaps they would be able to help you with redirection techniques.

[Chompers]

i do the same thing, even the paper across the eyeball. now that you've even mentioned it, i can feel it happening. i hate having obsessive thoughts, but i have since i was a child.

[perpetuallysad]

According to my pdoc this is one of my ocd traits (obsessive thoughts). I will get this bad idea and cannot stop thinking about it. Especially things that I "shouldn't" be thinking about. What really sucks is I will get stuck on whatever for days on end, just running on a loop in my head. I do the whole driving and having a terrible wreck thing, I think of hurting people in ways I would never hurt someone. Its totally uncontrollable for me. I have noticed that my anti-psychotics seem to curb them to some degree.

[ugala5777]

I have daymares too!! It's not fun at all. It makes me feel all nervous for the rest of the day (if it's possible that I get anymore nervous during the day)... I know exactly how you feel about this.

[daytimedreamer]

I do this too. Sometimes, when my fiance and I are driving places, I get these visions about getting into a horrible car accident and my fiance dying. I think about what the police would say to me, the trip in the ambulance, finding out he was dead, having to tell his Mom, how she would react, etc. I just make myself bawl thinking about it but I can't stop doing it.

I also think a lot about being attacked by sea creatures and being unable to escape because I am not a strong swimmer. When I think about that, it is so hard to breathe because I can not breathe underwater. (well, no one can but you get the idea)

Those are just two examples, but I have quite a few thoughts like these, strangely enough including the paper cuts on the eyeballs one.

I just sort of chalked it up to me being an incredibly morbid person who likes to upset myself and always assumes the worst. Never really considered that it could be a symptom of something.

[nbkyqks]

I experience these symptoms....I experience an episode from time to time..I believe that the wake episode is someway related to a recurring nightmare.

While they are extreme and cause discomfort I find myself wanting to experience them rather than pushing them away.

Originally Posted by Elysium

I experience these too. I like the term "daymare", it makes sense to me.

I agree with T-Bear. These sound like obsessive thoughts and that's what I've always considered them. Two important ways to work through them is to keep talking with your therapist about them and have your therapist work with you to build your "this is only a thought" skill.

When you have these daymares, focus on telling yourself "it is just a thought and thoughts can't hurt people. Only actions can hurt them."

Also, the more energy you give to these thoughts, i.e the more you agonize over them, the bigger and worse they will become. If you can get to a point where you can say "okay...that's not a nice thought, but it IS only a thought and it can't hurt anyone", you are no longer giving it the energy to cause you harm.

It took me some time to learn to work with this, but it takes practice and you really need to work at it every time.

Keep us posted on how it's going.

[coffee_lover_91]

I have had daymares too. I used to also call them dayscreams, because my actual emotional state would be affected (including crying on the way out). And i kindof just deal with them. They play out, take over for a few minutes and at some point i shake myself out, usually while gasping sharply, and actually shaking my head. I get them at random points of the day, and they are always related to my immediate surroundings. sometimes i will detail the [events] in a journal entry, to distance myself from it. Sometimes I will ask myself what i can learn from the events. I'm constantly gathering information on stress and anxiety, and i assume theyre related to that. In all my gathering I have never found anything conclusive on the subject of daymares though.

They are probably related to panic, anxiety, depression, and stress.
They are possibly a problem-sorting mechanism, like dreams.
They are possibly a venting mechanism, especially if you come out of them crying. I have read things in the past that basically say that the purpose of crying is to release toxins from your body that build up from stress.

As for making them go away, it may very well require that a specified portion of each day is dedicated to various coping mechanisms. In my experience, they become duller while i listen to music. Hope this helps.

[warlocksdotz]

Thanks for sharing. I have them too. Driving off the side of the road, and into the canal, watching as people stood in horror as they see my car sinking to the bottom of the canal.

Taking a knife and stabbing my spouse or my daughter. Taking a knife to my dogs..

Placing a fork in an electrical socket and watching my fingers turn black