Nightmares/someone chasing me

I have been having nightmares almost every night for several months now. My doctor thought it was one of the medicines that I was on so she changed it. The nightmares subsided for about a month and have since returned. I am usually being chased by someone/something and a few times, I have seen my own dead body in the dreams. Not sure what this could mean? I've also seen demons. One recently, I was running from a woman and it was like I was on a timed course and in my dream, I kept doing the "course" to get a better time, and not get caught by her. This is becoming very frustrating! Another was someone had subdued me on a table and was going to inject me with something that was going to make me sleepy and I didn't want them to.

Hello notyouraverage15,

Can you say something about how this medication affects you, to the extent you are consciously aware of it? I mean how it affects you while you are awake. Both the previous one, and the new one. Were you on a similar medication before these, or are these new?

It's very likely that the dream is speaking of patterns in your life that are true independently of the medication, but perhaps the medication is exacerbating them. Being chased and fleeing suggests that there is some feeling or part of yourself that you are scared of and you are dealing with this by running from it. Do you have any awareness of who is chasing you and what qualities they have?

Repeating a timed course over and over makes me think of obsessive-compulsive disorder. I have OCD myself and have had similar nightmares in the past, particularly in my childhood. But I don't mean to suggest you have OCD. Nevertheless, there may be some compulsive quality in you, something about this attempt to flee from the feelings which has a compulsive or ritualistic quality to it.

There's an attempt to inject something in you, which may be the medication you are taking. Does this medication make you sleepy? Why do you think you don't want to be sleepy? One thought comes to my mind, that you feel a need to stay on guard, perhaps to prevent the undesirable feelings from catching up to you.

I hope this helps, and feel free to ask more questions or give your associations.

Mike

This dream could relate to how you are feeling in a real life situation. You may be feeling stuck in the situation, keep repeating the same course in it.

I like Thunder Bow's interpretation. It's simpler than saying it's OCD. However, I will note that the idea of timing the course makes me think of "watching yourself like a hawk," this fixated attention that occurs with obsessive or compulsion or perfectionism.

I do feel like I'm stuck. The first medicine I was on gave me energy ( I took it during the day). The one I'm on now makes me sleepy so I take it right before bed.

Ask you doctor about getting off meds. for awhile, and see how you feel

There is no way I could get off meds right now, if ever.

When I have these dreams, I typically have real life stressors such as bills or uncomfortable obligations. Sounds like an anxiety related dream. Perhaps something is going on in your life recently that you are having a hard time coping with? If you are taking the paxil to help with anxiety (I'm about to start it to counter the anxiety induced by wellbutrin) maybe ask for something else like xanax?

I've taken Xanax before. Can't take it now because of the Seroquel.