I just wanted to know if you all get really bad nightmares.. I thought that everyone did... until well I asked my best friend and my son.. and they do once in awhile..

So I have "wake up screaming" nightmares every night... not just the "odd" dreams ...

I mean the kind where you wake up your heart pounding.. and you try to figure out if you are OK.. and whether it was really a dream.. for a few seconds..

[Sabrina]

I suffer from terrible nightmares as well as night terrors and occasional sleep paralysis.

Sometimes the nightmares might be related to past trauma but more often than not, the dreams are so evil and gory and quite bizzare! I often wake up screaming.

[bipolar_bear]

I have nightmares/night terrors all the time.

BB

[salukigirl]

i have nightmares but theyre very specific. its either my ex boyfriend is chasing me and trying to kill me. im standing outside and someone comes up and tries to kidnap me. or one time i had a nightmare that my ex boyfriend was making me stand there and watch him kill my dog. its the same every time. however, when i first started having them i would wake up screaming and crying and have to wake my boyfriend up to have him comfort me. now in my dreams i fight back. im not sure if that means anything but now if my ex is trying to hurt me i beat the ever loving %#@&#! out of him. i still wake up scared but not as bad now cause usually i hurt him pretty bad lol

[silentlyscreaming]

I have nightmares all the time. They are usually pretty graphic.
Nightmares are supposed to be a way of exposing thoughts and feelings that you keep supressed during your waking hours...........i dont know how true that is though

[salukigirl]

most psychologists agree dreams are your mind trying to put together thoughts from the day. your brain has this need to sort all of your thoughts. and all the random thoughts you have during the day, or in your subconscious, need somewhere to go. thats what dreams seem so random when theyre really not. which lets me know that the nightmares i have mean that my ex is still on my mind. plus i think there is some significance in the fact that now in my nightmares im fighting back. your mind is just trying to work through the trauma. you shouldnt try and fight them. its helping you, trust me.

I rarely have nightmares. Maybe once every few weeks. I have vivid dreams of being chased, but I wouldnt say thats a nightmare i guess.

[tsha]

I used to have a few nightmares each night when my depression was at its worst. They typically revolved around what I was going through at the time.
But they were also tied to the ADs I were on at the time. I changed ADs for a different reason, but my nightmares decreased. I still have them but not as frequently or as severely as they were.

[Sabrina]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
silentlyscreaming said:
I have nightmares all the time. They are usually pretty graphic.
Nightmares are supposed to be a way of exposing thoughts and feelings that you keep supressed during your waking hours...........i dont know how true that is though

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

I wonder about that too. I cannot imagine some of my bizzare nightmares have anything to do with absolutely anything of my life. I mean, some of these nightmares are so far out and so grizzly, I am often more bewildered than afraid. What could I possibly be surpressing that manifests itself in these nightmares? I know dreams and nightmares are seldom realistic (well, at least mine aren't) but my dreams and nightmares are so freaky and so totally unrealistic. I wish I understood.

[whiteymswcuts]

ALWAYS!!!!!!!

[Cyran0]

I have nightmares every night. But then, I have a strange relationship with sleep. I have sleep apnea for one thing so I have to wear a machine called a cpap (sort of like a respirator). But I also have restless leg syndrome which is a way of saying that I do a lot of twitching in my sleep. But my favorite is that whenever I'm trying to go to sleep I hit one point where my whole body jerks and I'm sitting upright clutching at my chest. It's like being hit with a hammer.

So, in light of all of that, I guess I'm not surprised that I have nightmares. They are usually not trauma related.

Cyran0

[tsha]

Have you googled dream interpretations? You can find out some interesting things. You may even find a connection.

The last few weeks my dreams have included a snake. I was trying to protect the snake but it kept biting me. No matter how much it hurt I wouldn't let go.

You may be thinking what I was and wondering where that came from since there could be nothing further from my mind...and I was happy to find out I was wrong. Snakes can represent transformation - they can appear in dreams when one is fighting for their life or facing a psychological or spiritual trial.

So now my dream made sense...

[obsids]

Nightmares are the norm for me. The only time I don't have nightmares is when I am really sick, running a fever, on antibiotics.

I used to wake up thrashing, screaming, yelling. Punched the wall or my pillow or whatever was in my way in reaction to whatever was happening in my dream. I had sleep paralysis issues, and full-blown panic attacks.

My Pdoc put me on Prazosin. It is an alpha-blocker that is used as a hypertension drug. However, it has also shown effectiveness in treating PTSD-related nightmare disorders in combat veterans. They are doing a study right now on non-combat PTSD. I didn't qualify for the study because I am on other meds too. But I can say, without a doubt, that it made a HUGE difference for me. I still have nightmares, but I don't usually react to them physically.

[Kiya]

yeah - not so much any more, but every now and again. I used to have them constantly as a kid and continued even up to just a few years ago. Sometimes I still get one that i physically battle in my sleep, but at least I seem to have stopped sleep walking - that's a relief. Sometimes I find myself sitting up, flailing against something that's not there. Or sometimes (like this morning) i only find the proof that i had one - but i can't remember the dream.
kiya

[darkpurplesecrets]

yes, I have nightmares a lot. I awake laying there shaking, heart pounding, trying to figure out where I am and if I am really there. I feel like the dream is so real and I feel parellized for what seems like forever. I cry and try to not move or make any noise so no one knows I am there. It feels so real.

camilionwords1truth

[DePressMe]

Every now and then I will get one...not very often. I guess I am one of the lucky ones. At one point in time I had them every night...several times a night.

I don't have them too often, but they always are worse in the winter.

[Kiya]

i don't need to - i'm living one.