[wotchermuggle]

For anyone with a CSA history, after you've shared it or started sharing it in therapy, how long after did your nightmares stop? I'm literally scared to go to bed at night because they are so bad.

[pbutton]

Do they stop? I have had them my entire life. I hadn't considered the fact that they could ever stop. How weird is that??

[wotchermuggle]

Originally Posted by pbutton

Do they stop? I have had them my entire life. I hadn't considered the fact that they could ever stop. How weird is that??

My therapist said they would

[FourRedheads]

I don't know. I have them too.

[stopdog]

Mine have never stopped. They go through periods of intensity and then they wane, but they always come back. When they do, I get so I am afraid to sleep too.

[skeksi]

I am not saying I will never get them again, but they are pretty rare for me now. It took several years with T to get to that point. One thing that helped was we did work with rehearsing different endings to them.

[anilam]

I'm in my seventh year of T and nobody ever told me they would stop. (but I have them since I was 4 years old and I'm 29 now so I'm kind of used to them (i.e. they don't bother me that much). TBH if I could pick what to change about me/my behaviour they wouldn't even make top 10- so not that big a deal for me)
As Stopdog said sometimes I get them every night (so I go few days without sleep- no point in trying) but they are times when I have no dreams or even good dreams too.

Maybe yours will stop maybe they wont but you'll learn how to live with them so it does get easier.

[trdleblue]

I don't know if this will be much help, but for the most part I stopped having nightmares when I started studying lucid dreaming. Each night as I started to fall asleep I would tell myself "I will remember it's just a dream" over and over again. Eventually I did start to realize that I'm dreaming. I still have bad, vivid dreams, but they rarely frighten me because at some point during them I realize that none of it is really happening at the time.
I started doing this well before I ever entered therapy.

[anilam]

Forgot to add that you CAN learn to wake up BEFORE it gets too bad.

[mixedup_emotions]

I have found that once I am able to make meaning of the nightmares (not to be confused with flashbacks, although sometimes they intertwine), they tend to dissipate for me. Sometimes the meaning has very little to do with the bad stuff, and it's really valuable to explore in therapy.

As far as flashbacks go, I relate to the idea that it comes and goes....There will be months that go by when I haven't had a single one....and then all of a sudden, I'm struck with them every night and avoid sleeping. During those times, I try to pay attention to what else is going on in my life to see what may be triggering it....or, if it's a matter of just being reminded by talking about it in therapy, grounding myself in the present can sometimes help.

My nightmares sort of wax and wane. They get worse, building up as my brain just INSISTS I tell T something. Then they sometimes get better right after, but then get worse again as I freak out about feeling exposed. T has given me some "grounding" exercises to do several hours before bed each night and that helps.

[Luce]

For me the nightmares ended when I was no longer focusing on the CSA. Dreams are a way for the brain to process and sort information, so when the emotions, memories and need to deal with the CSA are part of the waking life that becomes the material that the brain needs to process during sleep. I think it can be a vicious cycle, too - when you think about during waking hours, it then becomes part of dream life, and when the dreams are disturbing it produces more 'fodder' to think about during the waking hours (which in turn feeds the nightmares again).
My nightmares about it didn't completely stop until I finished therapy, but towards the end they were infrequent. Dreams about it now are rare, and usually only occur when something has stirred up the issue for me during the day time.

[WikidPissah]

Many of the women in the trauma program I did took Prazosin for nightmares, with really good results. I didn't try it myself, but it may be something you want to talk to a pdoc about. It isn't a sleep aid, as far as I know.

Personally, my nightmares ebb and flow. If I am under a lot of stress or feeling vulnerable they get really bad. I do have periods where I dream well though. It's been several years of therapy for me.

[Anne2.0]

I did what I thought was a completion of my trauma work, 15 years ago (5 years of therapy). I actually didn't start having nightmares until I was a ways into therapy, and they stopped somewhere before the end of it. I occasionally have dreams now with some kind of more creepy content, but no nightmares.

I'm sure you know, they are a symptom of PTSD. Although I find some of the other symptoms of PTSD flare for me from time to time (especially flashbacks), they haven't come back for me.

[wotchermuggle]

I read online that if you try to pick a different ending of your dream before you go to bed, you might be able to change your dream while you're having it. It hasn't worked yet for me, though.

[Brightheart]

If the nightmares you're referring to are flashbacks due to past trauma, they are a whole different kind of thing than regular dreams. In PTSD, memories aren't processed in the same way and the associated nightmares may cause you to feel as if you are reliving past trauma. In my studies, I did also read about Prazosin and how this can help with flashbacks and nightmares.

I hope your nightmares lessen, wotchermuggle.

Take care.

[wotchermuggle]

Originally Posted by Brightheart

If the nightmares you're referring to are flashbacks due to past trauma, they are a whole different kind of thing than regular dreams. In PTSD, memories aren't processed in the same way and the associated nightmares may cause you to feel as if you are reliving past trauma. In my studies, I did also read about Prazosin and how this can help with flashbacks and nightmares.

I hope your nightmares lessen, wotchermuggle.

Take care.

I didn't know there was a difference between nightmares and flashbacks as nightmares. BUGGER. What do I do?

[roads]

My most successful therapy work over the past 40 years has been Jungian-based, meaning out of Carl Jung's approach that involves dream work. This says a nightmare or any dream repeats until you "get it"--Get the message your subconscious is trying to remind youth at you already know and need to remember, start employing.

Once you understand this repeating dream so that you can use it in life, you won't have it again.
this worked for me recently after a bad experience at work had me unsure I even could return. I had nightmares, anxiety attracts. My T, who didn't believe in dream work, did missed my nightmares & I was a wreck.

Finally I tracked down the old dream leader. She made meat aware that I was still going to a part time library job and fight for the college students as I had done when I was a professor. I'm no longer a professor--but every time I acted as if I were, I cause myself all sorts of woes. I could have lost my job, been sued, lost retirement benefits ... all because I was fighting a fight that was no longer mine. The dream made it so clear!! And I got it, the clear way she explained. It.

Dreams never give up trying to get your attention, and once you learn their language, their message, that is pretty clear.

[Brightheart]

I don't know if you're having PTSD-associated nightmares/flashbacks or typical nightmares... Do they happen only at night or during the day too? I would say to keep working with your therapist. If you do have PTSD, reading the literature about it might be helpful too. Hopefully knowledge can offer a means of empowering yourself.

I hope you feel better.