Anyone else ever delt with this?

A few nights ago my Dr put us on a natural sleep med and it works great and everything. We have slept very deeply and have done well on the med. The only thing that is new is that We are dreaming more (or at least remembering the dreams). The problem is it is like snapshots, or bits and pieces of many many many different dreams. All ages.

Our first thought is that we are seeing the dreams of others inside, then later thinking about it maybe we am seeing others inside in thier lives, or maybe seeing snapshots of thier life or things they remember.

The dreams jump around and we may start out at like the roller rink, then be at the park, then at a lake, back to the roller rink, and so on there is no rime or reason to the ages but it's always the same person in the dreams.

None of these dreams do I really remember happening. The thing that gets me is when we wake up we have no idea what really has happened or what or if we were dreaming.

I am just scared and this is new.

Am I alone in this?????

Thanks

A Doll's World

I'm scared too, Doll. Not for the same reason, but related. I have absolutely no recollection of where I've been or what I've done, the day after a medically induced sleep. I take my pills at 10:30.......and go back onto PC for another couple of hours or so. Last night I forgot to take them until midnight. My hubby had come down at 12:00 to take something for his allergies. I told him I would be up to bed soon........I had taken my pills late. I wanted to let them partially kick in. I came down this morning, looked at my laptop, and saw a message that I was in the middle of writing. The last few words were absolutely senseless. Today, after hubby got home from work, I got an account of what happened during the night.
He gets up at 3:45 am to leave for his very early job. He told me he found me on the couch, sound asleep, holding an open container of antipasto in my hands. When he tried to steer my to bed, I told him I wanted to eat more antipasto first. Somehow he got me upstairs before he left. I fell asleep right away and had absolutely no recollection of any of this.
I'm horrified and frightened beyond words. Now I realize what my son has been saying (about finding me on the couch and helping me to get up the stairs) is absolutely true. We're both mentally ill, but he is not diagnosed. You couldn't have convinced me he wasn't hallucinating. Now I find out this from my husband.

So to answer your question "Am I alone in this?" I think I can say no, and relate to you in the same, but different, ways. I hope you find your answers soon, so that you can get a restful, relaxing sleep. I don't know where I'm headed with this.......I guess time is going to tell me. Best wishes to you..........grey

To clerify for Doll, she knows that she is not alone in having DID. She is being specific about the occurence of these kinds of dreams that are linked to her alters.

dreaming in sections about things isnt a DID problem it happens to completely normal people and people who have all kinds of mental and physical problems too.

the brain is a very complex thing that stores memories in pieces anyway then when we dream sometimes those memories come to us in dream together or separate. I have one client who within the same dream is in paris on the Eiffel tower, in Germany on an air force base and in this city attending her classes with instructors showing up for classes in their underpants LOL she was an air force brat. they were stationed in France when she was 8, in Germany when she was 10 and now takes classes at the state college here in town, one of her instructors is in her words is "a hunk that she would love to see more of " all those elements just happened to appear in one dream.

another client of mine has dreams about talking to animals one second and washing her clothes the next and playing guitar in a local bar. all within the same dream. Shes never owned any pets, abhors doing laundry and does play the guitar but has horrible stage fright.

dreams can be anything. our fears, our wishes, traumatic things we have gone through, things we have done before and things we have never done before.

I cant tell you why, how or what you are dreaming or even what is causing you to dream what ever you are dreaming. those answers about your dreams can only come from with in yourself.

suggestion talk with your treatment providers they can help you work through your past, present, future, your fears, trauma's happy times by doing that you will understand yourself better and your life so that you can discover why what you are dreaming is what you are dreaming and all other questions you may have about your dreams.

if your treatment providers dont work with analysing the past and present and dream interpretation / dream problems your medical doctor and your mental health providers can refer you to sleep specialists that can help you discover your answers regarding your sleep problems and dreaming how you do.

you can also research on line how the brain works, stores memories and how what we do and think about affects our dreams. that could get a start on you understanding how dreaming happens and everything else with your dreams.

there is also a forum board here on psych central where members can talk about dreaming and sleep problems. maybe someone has posted information there about how dreaming happens and what causes a person to dream what they dream.

another idea if you are living near an agecy that does sleep studies they too can explain to you about the brain, how it works, about dreaming and what causes people to dream.

one thing I can say about your situation is that since perfectly normal people dream in sections within the same dream it stands to reason even those with DID or any other mental disorder would also naturally dream in sections with in the same dream.

((((Doll))))

How great you were able to get some sleep.

Recently, I had to take Tylenol 3 (with codeine) for a couple of days for a tooth. Since (gratefully) there are no other medications in 'our' life, what happened is, the dreams were really 'out there'! Just an thought, from my perspective. It was a little disconcerting needless to say. Maybe they can modify the quantity or something.

Sorry about this we just didn't know. We appoligize.

Since alternate personalities can have their own speech, way or writing, feelings, way they act- why wouldnt they be able to dream as well....not saying this is a "DID problem" but with so much unknown about the brain- there has to be the posibility that these kinds of dreams can be DID related. A host can sit in the back seat and watch an alt as they control the body- i dont see why a host could not expereince what their alters dream about iether in the right circumstances

Hi, I'm not sure if this is what you're talking about, but we often see each other's dreams, and we often have our own dreams (like the 6 year old has a dream about something; I have a dream about something related to work; the 17 year old has a dream about something that happened to her a long time ago, etc). I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to. But I can assure you you're not alone, I'm sorry you're feeling scared.

Hi Doll
If I'm understanding you correctly, "you " are dreaming but nothing is coming together in them? That happened to me a lot at first. I started keeping a dream journal and was able to see how they actually did make sense. Try not to be scared. They can't hurt you, but may help you sort out periods of your life.

I experienced something similar when I first began to become aware of the other parts.

Meds can make dreams more vivid.

But this was also like a story, a sort of explanation for it all.

But at the time it just seemed like dreaming, be it more than usual.

I used to keep a dream journal and over time some of it began to make sense but so much of it didn’t.

That’s when I decided to just go with the flow because something inside of me was constantly working to make everything okay. I just knew this to be true.

What I found most helpful over the years was to go with the flow and to trust my instincts and my intuition. I just knew some part of me was quite able to cope with it all and everything would be okay.

Thanks I will look into doing some kind of journal.

It’s not easy. If you’re parts are anything like mine, you’ll find stuff you don’t remember writing, and you may even find pages missing. It can be a struggle. I found explaining to all the parts of me what I was doing and why helped a bit. But it still took time for it to work. I didn’t keep it up though because it became too much of a struggle.

We can try it just scary for us. we want to come out we want to tell story, doll not sure of us, she very scared of us. Thanks for listening to us.

I was just told by Candi, Dolls 19 year old alter that what Doll saw in that dream was in fact what her Alters were doing- Doll was able to see tid bits of her alters world.

question - are you part of doll or doll part of you? reason I ask is that you seem to know what doll is trying to say when she posts. usually unless a member is part of that person who is posting they dont know what the poster is trying to say and we all have to not assume or guess what each member is trying to say. we wait and let each member tell us their self what they are feeling and what they want us to know about.

but I have noticed that sometimes an alter will register for their own account and try to tell everyone here what the host of their system is thinking and doing. Most times when someone has posted what another member is doing its because their alter/ insiders/parts/ego states are talking/posting.

it is very confusing to me when another member is posting what another member is doing. kind of makes me wonder 1. why the member being talked about isnt posting that information their self if they want us to know about it, and 2. whether the person being talked about gave permission to post the postings about their self.

I guess maybe this is part of why we are not supposed to be posting with separate accounts for each of our alters and why we arent supposed to post about other members.

it could lead to this feeling of members being very confused as to whats really going on. very confusing indeed.

I am not an alter, I am one of Dolls friends that has been a great friend to her and to her alters for the last 3 years. I have learned a lot about doll and have been helping her. For instance the Guided Imagry that I created for her in the creative corner: http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=116095

It can be tough lately to talk to dolls alters and I was given a great chance to talk to 2 of them, one being Candi. I always enjoy talking to Candi and she knew what doll experienced and there was no reason I should not let others, especially doll know what happened. I may know some things about dolls system that she may not know, but that is only because her alters trust me and have talked with me.

thank you for clarifying that for me.

reasons for not telling hosts and others outside the hosts what happened -

here the mental health community believes that if the host does not know something it is because they have separated that memory from their self because it was too emotionally charged /or too traumatic for them to deal with at that moment.

The alters protect that information from the host until the host is in a place where they are able to handle knowing what was going on. sometimes if we move too fast sharing with the host what the alters tell us, that can cause more harm than good.

therefore here we allow the host to become aware of what is going on with their system in a more natural way through therapy and therapy activities (journaling for instance) that can bring the information to them at a rate their body and system are able to handle.

Telling others things the host does not know can also cause the host to feel self conscious /paranoid and untrusting of their friends. it could give them the equivalent feeling of someone talking /whispering about them behind their backs. you know that feeling when you walk into a room and suddenly all conversation stops and you feel like you are under a microscope, everyone is staring at me, they stopped talking I bet they were talking about me, they are judging me kind of feeling.

the same feelings you would get if you walked into a room and found your therapist talking to someone else about you, saying things you weren't aware of yet.

that happens to hosts when you tell people things they themselves don't know.

you seem to be a great and caring friend for Doll, but speaking for only me about information about Doll and her system (and anyone else here on Psych central) I would rather the members tell us what they want us to know about their self instead of other members running around the boards telling/ informing / talking / tattling about each other.

I'm assuming there is that rule that we don't talk about each other on the boards for a reason.

maybe it would help if the moderators would clarify that rule for us.

I would agree that if this was a memory that was being repressed that she needs to find out on her own and that I would not say anything. This was not the case.This was a scary new experience and finding an explanation as to what occured was the intire reason for making this topic and when I found out what it was-I was going tell.

Doll and I's friendship is strong and we do not have trust issues. I will also add that in chat I told doll about what I learned as soon as she came back so you cant say that I am talking behind her back.

I do not regret anything I did in this topic. This topic was made by Doll about Doll. I do not go around talking about Doll in this forum, that would be rude and I know that.

There are still a lot of unanwered questions and I think for me there will be a lot of the time at least for a while. Thanks for everyones concerns and helpful tips.

We got some ideas out of asking here and do not want to push things any farther.

Thanks all for listening.

Doll

( ( ( DOLL ) ) )
You are not alone and yes alters can have their own dreams. It can also feel like a dream when alters are starting to time share with each other.
journaling may help you find out which it is.
We are so glad to hear that your friends are so surportive.

I found that a particular part can help another part with something they are trying to say. Like an older part helping a younger part. Rose (our collective name) consists of around half a dozen parts. Not sure which is the original part. Just all work together now in order to survive.

Hi Doll ~ My experience with dreams like yours, has come out of my trauma memories. My trauma memories will surface through my dreams. I will dream about one specific trauma over and over and over again and get more information as the dreams progress. Oftentimes, my abuser would admit that this did in fact happen to me, so I have come to rely upon these types of dreams as part of my trauma memory that is surfacing and are valid memories.

Thanks for the info.