dreaming *potential trig*

does anyone else get strange dreams? i get them a lot but esp when i'm in a not quite stable phase. i rarely get nightmares but my dreams are intense and vivid and i almost always remember them in detail. they are so weird, they really freak me out - if not outright scare me. my ex t was a dream analyser and he worked through some for me, he said that if you go downstairs it's the subconscious coming into play.

i think dreams are a filing cabinet system - ie every random thought you've had that day/week are sitting in a disordered pile in your mind and your brain needs to tidy up and file them. which explains why seemingly random things go together in dreams.

but sometimes my dreams really freak me -*trigger* -


i had one the other day where i was an 8yr old boy who was desperate to kill myself and i had this spirit following me but i wasn't sure what and then i hung myself and it turned out the thing was my dad who blamed me for my little brother's death! weird huh? esp since i'm a girl of 28 whose brothers are both alive and well...

I know that in the past particular meds have given me some horrid nightmares. You might want to look at your dreams with your pdoc and/or T from this angle. For example, lithium, especially when I first began it, gave me some of the most exhausting, complex and absolutely gruesome brain movies I've ever had. A too-abrupt cut-off of benzos also usually leads to nightmares. If this isn't too personal a question, what's your med cocktail at the moment? PCers who are on the same things may have had similar experiences and be able to help you cope with the dreams. Just a thought. Ta. Cheshire Cat

no worries about the question - i'm on lithium (being re-titrated), amitriptyline, seroquel and ... that's it! which is a low amount!!

i was on benzos for a while until fairly recently, but the dreams thing has been going on since i can remember - years and years. i don't know whether it's a feature of mental illness/bipolar, but i know my "sane" friends don't have the same problem!

Hi. I posted something similar shortly after joining here. I have experienced extremely vivid dreams since I was quite young. Mind you, mine are as likely to be fun and lucid as not, but sometimes they are just plain "crazy". Not the best word but it gives you some idea. Sorry I don't have much to give in terms of advice. Just wanted you to know I hear ya.

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I have experienced extremely vivid dreams since I was quite young. Mind you, mine are as likely to be fun and lucid as not, but sometimes they are just plain "crazy".

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mine are the same - have had them for as long as i can remember and they are just so strange! but always lucid. does anyone know whether it's a part of bp?

fliippin eck that's mad! sorry i don't mean that in an offensive way just that it's so random and strange.... i will try it though, it intrigues me. thanks for the idea

Holy Hell I get unrelenting dreams! Like you I have gotten them since I was a kid. At times they are stronger then usual. I am kinda surprised you brought it up, cause everyone I try to tell about them thinks I am crazy, cause they never remember their dreams... Mine are also Vivid, long, complex, drawn out and I NEVER forget them. I get long consuming dream after dream after dream all night every night. And I remember them all day (and remember the dreams I have had for years and years). So I feel constantly plagued by them. Sometimes I wake up exhausted from having them. Not a good considering I can rarely get to sleep in the first place.
Do you all dream about people you know? I very seldom dream about people I know in my real life (& I, ashamed as I am to say it, am in no way a creative or inventive person: so its odd that I have so many characters in my head). Anyways I would be interested to know more about a possible connection between dreams and bp. I always think that if I could just forget some of my dreams I could free up some serious space in my head for functional information!!!
I feel your frusteration. In fact in college I had dream after dream after dream every night all night and they were all about water. It was a bloody nuicance (call them my water dreams): you know I would be getting swept away, out to sea, in a town that was flooding or in a town when a tidal wave hit (this was way before the asia disaster), or in a house that was flooding etc. You get the picture, but needless to say it was seriously distracting at a time when I needed to be focusing on my school work...
Oooh and now that I think about it I haven't had any dreams these last 3 month (so odd) which correlates with this new & super intense cycle I am in...I only dream if I take some Trazopone and then I get the dreams again: talk about having to decide between the lesser of two evils...