[ejayy78]

Does anyone else have really bad nightmares from PTSD?

I was abused for a long time (15 years) an I got away from my abuser a couple years ago when I moved away for college. I feel like I never sleep. Sometimes my nightmares last for a more than a week and it's usually the same thing repeatedly. There are also nights when I know I'm starting to fall asleep and I hear or even smell my abuser and I wake up. It's so scary and a lot of nights it takes a lot out of me to even close my eyes. I have exercises that my T gave me to do when I'm having bad dreams. They help a little, but obviously they're not like, magic or anything to take the dreams completely away. I know that I don't sleep enough and that causes me to struggle daily as I tend to be more on edge and anxious if I'm tired. So it's kind of a vicious cycle--I don't sleep because of the dreams then I think about them all the next day then that night I can't sleep again because I'm anxious and scared of the things I've been thinking about all day.

If you have nightmares related to your PTSD (or even just in general), how do you manage the anxiety/fear that comes from them?

[Shaly78]

Read some where nightmares are a reflection of anxiety during our wakefulness. I have reoccurring nightmares now more people theme. Rarely they get really scary....More often than not sexual i am not needed in that area, so I wonder what all that means nightmares/dreams. I have PTSD/DID. A therapist told me get a ritual each night that is safe and happy like you do a newborn baby..Shower prayer visualization of something peaceful make it a routine. Eating habits make sure food or tv isnt hampering sleep. Get a night light try keep television off. Seek sleep meds if your symptomatic, sleep is very important! For me anyway lol

[RavensPOE]

Originally Posted by ejayy78

Does anyone else have really bad nightmares from PTSD?

I was abused for a long time (15 years) an I got away from my abuser a couple years ago when I moved away for college. I feel like I never sleep. Sometimes my nightmares last for a more than a week and it's usually the same thing repeatedly. There are also nights when I know I'm starting to fall asleep and I hear or even smell my abuser and I wake up. It's so scary and a lot of nights it takes a lot out of me to even close my eyes. I have exercises that my T gave me to do when I'm having bad dreams. They help a little, but obviously they're not like, magic or anything to take the dreams completely away. I know that I don't sleep enough and that causes me to struggle daily as I tend to be more on edge and anxious if I'm tired. So it's kind of a vicious cycle--I don't sleep because of the dreams then I think about them all the next day then that night I can't sleep again because I'm anxious and scared of the things I've been thinking about all day.

If you have nightmares related to your PTSD (or even just in general), how do you manage the anxiety/fear that comes from them?

I was molested as a child for 7 years by a doctor.
3 years later I started having Holocaust nightmares.
They have lasted for 30 years.

By 2010, I would be delivering a lecture
to my students in class & would look
up to see them flickering back and forth
from concentration camp victim to student...

my PTSD would go off like a bomb in class.
O...Only to be chased by 4-5 different
Holocaust nightmares each eve.

I am a Professor of Art, so my biggest
coping technique is my creativity.
Also, people innocently trigger my PTSD
attacks...so I am not really into socializing
with large crowds.

It helps a lot to also talk to my T about
my nightmares. I always feel like I am
the only person who has these attacks--
when I am actually having them.

As much as I hate medication at the moment, prazosin put a stop to my ptsd nightmares

A nightlight to help me orientate when I wake up.

[peaches100]

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.

[peaches100]

Here is an example of my nightmare from last night:

The dream started out where I was at work. Workers were changing my countertop and had pushed my old office furniture out in to the hallway, along with boxes full of my stuff. I was worried about whether there was anything personal in the boxes that people at would would discover that could embarrass me.

A short time later, I noticed the clock and thought I had missed by therapy appointment. This struck fear in my heart because I need my session, and also because my husband goes with me, and I am supposed to pick him up at a certain time, and I think I am late. Then I realize I am not late after all. I had 30 minutes to spare. So I decided to wander around.

After talking to a couple of people, I am suddenly driving a motor scooter/motorcycle down the road. It isn't running right. The steering keeps locking up, and I almost get in a wreck. So I stopat a service station. The man there offered to fix it, but I realize I can't leave it there. I need to get home to pick up my husband and go to my session. So I take off again in the motorcycle, hoping I don't get in an accident.

The next thing I know, I am walking down the road with two other women. I don't know where we are. My motorcycle is gone too. I don't remember what happened to it, or where it is. I look at the time and realize that I AM late now for my session. I realize my husband is going to be worried about me and angry when he realizes I lost the motorcycle.

I decide I'd better call him, but realize that my purse is missing too! Again, I can't remember what happened to it! So, no cell phone to call my husband. I ask one of the women if I can borrow hers and she hands it to me. But instead of the regular telephone keypad, the phone is covered with pictures of candy such as lemon drops, Hershey's kisses, etc. I can't figure out how to dial the numbers. I finally figure out that I need to first identify what kind of candy it is. Then whatever the first letter is, that's the letter that would be on the telephone keypad. For example, I see lemon drops, so it's an "L," which corresponds to the #5 button on a phone keypad. I decide it's too hard to figure out how to dial home that way.

I ask to use the other lady's cell phone. She hands it to me, but every time I dial my number, I hit the wrong button somewhere along the way. This happens 3 or 4 times in a row. So frustrating! I feel such anxiety and wonder what is wrong with me.

And on and on, until I wake up drenched in sweat and feeling terrible anxiety.

[Seqoya]

The medication Prazosin has helped a lot although it hasn't completely eliminated the night mares.

I hope this helps.

[WibblyWobbly]

I was put on prazosin (Minipress) for nightmares. I had to come off it because of my blood pressure but my doctor swore by it.

[Open Eyes]

Oh peaches, you have such busy dreams moving from one upset to another. Your brain is putting you in different scenarios like this because you have so much unresolve from your past or whatever has traumatized you.

How about taking these dreams and seeing what questions they keep asking?

For example, when people try to help you it's never the right help, or fit for your needs at the time, do you see that?

You seem to lose things, they are just gone alot do you see that? That is sudden loss that your brain never figured out how to process and deal with so you learned to help yourself with that.

How old are you? Because if you are pre, or in, of through menopause you could be having night sweets. Sometimes if a woman is using birth control that can cause night swets too because that affects a woman's hormonal balance. (I hope you are a woman right?). Also, you may need to have a blood test to check your hormonal levels. See if the medications you are on are affecting your hormonal levels too. AD's like Zoloft can affect hormonal levels.

I am sorry you are struggling with sleep, I have that challenge too. I do what they say not to do, I sleep with the TV on. My brain is so active at night, especially if I experience a trigger or activity is happening in my never ending lawsuit. I don't get the swets, I tend to get bad post traumatic chills and I have to sleep with a heating pad as that often keeps them at bay, but not always.

I have not read of many who struggle with PTSD that have a problem with chills like I do. Reminders of my trauma can bring them on and the worse the reminder the more severe they get. A lot of trauma happened on my farm where I live so I live with a lot of triggers all around me.

Anyway, enough about me, keep writing your dreams out and see what questions they are asking, your brain is trying to answer these while you sleep. As far as being late is concerned, work on making a daily decision that you do your best and if you are late so be it, it isn't the end of the world.

[Werewoman]

I am far enough in my recovery that I don't have nightmares as much as I used to. The worst ones were sleep paralysis nightmares. I remember one where a masked executioner was standing over me with a large axe. I managed to force myself to wake up before the axe actually fell, but I flew out of bed and crashed into a wall so hard I bloodied my nose.

A frequent reoccurring nightmare I would be in a large house and I was looking for someone - usually my husband - and I couldn't find them. I would go into a full out panic attack and sometimes screamed in my sleep.

Another one that really got to me was being in some sort of building and trying to find my way out. I would turn a corner and find myself face to face with my mother (my abuser) and scream in my sleep.

Eventually, I began to recognize the warning sign that I was about to have a nightmare. There would be this loud 'thunking' sound in my head, like a giant iron gate slamming down. It took some effort, but if that happened, I would force myself awake, get up and go sit in the livingroom, and calm myself before I attempted to go back to sleep.

We all have different ways of coping, and unfortunately, it's up to each of us to find our own way. It's not easy, but determination pays off. It always does.

WW

[SunnyRae]

I am sorry to hear that you are having bad dreams. I suffered from nightmares for many years, and I can vividly remember many of them because they were so realistic and painful. My therapist recommended that I keep a journal on my bed side table and when I wake up in the middle of the night after having a bad dream, to write it down. Then I could bring my journal into our therapy sessions and we could discuss dreams that I was having and talk through them. This did help a bit because it allowed me to get out what I had just experienced and then relax enough to go back to sleep. The thing that eventually helped with alleviating my dreams were participating in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy. When I started EMDR my dreams became very vivid and horrible, but as I continued working through some of my traumatic experiences with the help of EMDR I was able to minimize the amount of dreams that I was having. Now I rarely have those icky dreams anymore, and it is such a relief. EMDR is something that you may want to look in to. I've heard mixed reviews, but it helped me a lot. I hope that you find something that works for you and helps to reduce these stressful dreams that you are having. Best Wishes, SunnyRae