[quietincrowd]

Within the past year I was diagnosed with ptsd and all the symptoms associated and was in treatment. The diagnosis makes sense and I have been dealing with the hyper-vigilance and anxiety for over a decade or more.

The therapist says the anxiety may be rooted in my childhood (emotionally distant, authoritarian mother, emotional, verbal, and psychological abuse with the occasional physical outburts). I ended up in a marriage with a man that had substance abuse issue and the same types of abuse persisted.

I am have been recently shocked by my fear of being abandoned (because I spent decades isolating myself so I could hide the fact of what was occurring).

My big question is related to my dreams. The dreams have been increasing in frequency. They are not usually the occurrence of a specific memory but a new event that is similar something I endured. Is that common for others? I also have dreams that are very reminiscence of my safety being at risk and there is no one there to support me. When i read about ptsd, the articles reference dreams as flashbacks.

Thanks for the advice!

[Skeezyks]

Hello quietincrowd: I read your post. I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question. It has occurred to me that I may have some PTSD although I've never been diagnosed as having it. (Actually I've never received any kind of formal diagnosis...) My thinking, with regard to dreams, is that they simply reflect what is on a person's mind, except that they develop without the benefit (or lack thereof) of the conscious mind.

I actually seldom remember my dreams. And when I do, they rarely seem to make much sense. Allot of the ones I do recall seem to have something to do with escape in some way or another. This makes a certain amount of sense since I often imagine what it would be like to simply walk away from everything. My dreams seldom, if ever, relate to a new event, since my day-to-day life is pretty mundane & there are seldom new events in it.

My best wishes to you...

[WibblyWobbly]

In my dreams I don't re-live the experience but I re-live the feelings associated with my trauma. Trapped, controlled, ashamed, etc. they have increased in frequency since my PTSD symptoms have gotten worse.

[czarina1984]

I have problems with reliving the experiences from my childhood in my dreams. Sometimes it is dealing with events and situations that are current and other times it is reliving situations from then. But in all of them I end up cowering, scared, and definetly helpless. Kind of like changing the background picture but they all have the same story. Mine have been bad the last few nights so I understand. I take prozasin and propranolol with a sleeping med to help but sometimes it bleeds thru. Thats when we let our guard down I guess.

[quietincrowd]

Originally Posted by WibblyWobbly

In my dreams I don't re-live the experience but I re-live the feelings associated with my trauma. Trapped, controlled, ashamed, etc. they have increased in frequency since my PTSD symptoms have gotten worse.

That is exactly what mine are, with or without the abusive ex. Thank you for sharing. I have not been able to sleep without meds for a few weeks and even then I wake up exhausted and typically remembering the end of a dream. You are correct when my symptoms are worse during the day the dreams are so much worse.

I am sorry you are going through this and thank you for sharing.

[quietincrowd]

Originally Posted by czarina1984

I have problems with reliving the experiences from my childhood in my dreams. Sometimes it is dealing with events and situations that are current and other times it is reliving situations from then. But in all of them I end up cowering, scared, and definetly helpless. Kind of like changing the background picture but they all have the same story. Mine have been bad the last few nights so I understand. I take prozasin and propranolol with a sleeping med to help but sometimes it bleeds thru. Thats when we let our guard down I guess.

That makes perfect sense to me, changing the background picture! It is all the same type of dream with little changes. Thank you for sharing and I am so sorry you are dealing with this. I was just given prozasin and hope it helps.