[bruegger84]

I've just recently had some "attacks" or what you would call night terrors or vivid nightmares in my sleep. these nightmares were so vivid, that when i got up it was almost like I felt an aftershock of this horrific nightmare, nerves were shot, and i felt like i just got blasted in the face, shot by something or blasted by a grenade of some sort.

Granted I have no history of trauma. but has anyone ever had trauma induced nightmares?? i am under a lot of stress much of the time, most of it self-inflicted-meaning caused by me or my way of thinking, or naturally by the way my body tenses up in reaction to situations.

these nightmares are so intense, that i feel like something is missing when i get up, like a part of my body has been blown off, destroyed or ripped apart. Maybe it is just psychologically induced, but it feels like a permanent change in my psychological state.

the first was where a dog came up and crunched down on my right eye. and ever since then my right side of my face wasn't the same. the second which happened the other night, was where a shark bit down on my chest, a crushing feeling.

the two things these have in common are that they both were under the influence of seroquel, which is a potent histamine blocker known to cause nightmares. in fact anything that block histamine causes these type of nightmares.

[Perna]

It does sound like drug-induced nightmares. Can you back off on how much you take?

[SilverNeurotic]

Would it be possible to change medications to something that wouldn't cause nightmares?

[bruegger84]

Originally Posted by SilverNeurotic

Would it be possible to change medications to something that wouldn't cause nightmares?

it is possible, but seroquel is the only thing combined with lexapro that is helping me sleep. if i switched it could possibly only be to a similar antihistamine non anti-psych med, either hydroxyzine or geodon. cause i did try risperdal, but that just made me depressed.

[bruegger84]

yes it would be possible.

i need to take seroquel in combination with lexapro to sleep. so it'd be hard to switch to something else. so something similar i could switch to would be a antihistamine non anti-psych med like hydroxyzine. people sad that that helps. or something like geodon. or maybe adding prazosin would help. it's supposed to help with nightmares, so maybe taking that in combo with seroquel would work.

ive tried the run of the mill anti-psych meds for sleep like zyprexa, trilafon, abilify, you name it. and the only thing that consistently works for me is seroquel.

[stupidsminkle]

Yes I had a dream that I was extracting screws from my chest and I suddenly woke up from it and was unable to breathe, it felt like a panic attack. Sometimes these just come from extreme stress and anxiety in your waking life. If you are dealing with lots of stress when these dreams seem to occur, try to write down what the dream was, the feelings, and what was going on in your life at the time. This might help you figure out if it's something specific causing these nightmares. On the other hand, it may not relate to your life, in which case I would think medication could solve this (perhaps you have a chemical imbalance that is causing you to have such extreme dreams).

[BashfullOne]

I was on seroquel and I had horrible reactions to it and had to be taken off of it. It left me scared - arms, chest, and face... And I had nightmares and would wake up, afraid to fall back to sleep. Since I've been on Abilify I have only had a very few nightmares (due to thinking about where I use to work...). I sleep great now - in fact I sleep hard and feel rested when I get up in the mornings. It has caused me to sleep longer than I use to sleep - but I have to take two benadryl with my abilify at night along with one Xanax - otherwise I don't sleep at all for days... But I would definately tell your doctor about your nightmares. Heres wishing you the best and a great nights sleep!!