• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

Bad Dreams Increasing After Starting Therapy. Anyone Else?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Emi

Learning
So I started DBT a couple weeks ago and ever since then I've been having more dreams about my mom. She has NPD and I've suffered Narcissitic/emotional abuse all my life. These dreams seem to reflect that abuse. I can't remember specifics but I remember the feelings of coercion, manipulation, and her anger toward me because I wasn't conforming to her wants. In my dreams my dad beats me because I'm not conforming - he didn't beat me in real life physically. He did verbally in such a way as to make me constantly feel like a terrible person and to have so much guilt and shame for "making mom upset" or being selfish, inconsiderate, spiteful, etc.

It's ridiculous to me that I'm 29, married with 2 kids, and I still feel so powerless against them. Has anyone else ever had an increase in bad dreams related to their trauma after starting therapy?
 
yes , very much so. It will decrease over time, you just have to be aware when your mind is going into thoughts about the past , and use self talk to keep direction and use grounding techniques if need be. I also felt powerless as well and mine went physical as well , but over time and with work, you will notice a difference
 
Yes, I have them. But, what's plagued me more than the nightmares...flashbacks. The flashbacks have gotten particularly nasty, as if their venom has more poison compared to the past. If I dream, they are nightmares. The doctor prescribed Prazosin yesterday, for the nightmares.
 
If I dream, they are nightmares. The doctor prescribed Prazosin yesterday, for the nightmares.
I've had horrid, vivid, gruesome, and often demoic nightmares since I was six. I was on Prazosin but it made my blood pressure drop so low I was dizzy and nearly passed out a few times. So I'm on Terazosin now. It doesn't help much, I still dream and I can recall the feelings/jist of the dream, just not minute specifics like before.
 
When I first started going to therapy, my dreams and nightmares, very much symbolic and scary would haunt me every night.

Now many, many years later, I still get the occasional nightmare but nothing like they were in the beginning so I believe you are perfectly normal for what you are experiencing in therapy right now.

Have courage and hope. I used to take my nightmares into therapy to help me process them.

I am sad for all the of the abuse you endured and suffered.

I believe you are on the right path to healing but never forget that it takes time to untangle the mess of traumas and integrate these experiences to move on to a better life.

I am on Risperdone to help me to forget my nightmares and so when I get them I remember the feelings but not the nightmares. I am not saying you should do this but you do need some help with being flooded by nightmares. I wish you the best.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Emi
I would agree that therapy forces one to confront the events in question. When it's bottled down, everything seems normal. But in bottling down, events can re-emerge in more unhealthy ways.

I would say that it's important to continue therapy. It may not seem like it but you are confronting issues in doing so you are making their impact on you less intrusive in the long run.

Best Wishes!
 
Yes I definitely noticed the same thing. And not just that but my insomnia that I haven't had to deal with in almost 20 years started again off and on too.

It might be a good idea to mention the dreams to your therapist. Maybe even the parts that really stick with you through the day.

And try to be gentle with yourself. You're doing some really hard work and it's having an effect on you. Whenever you pick a scab to clean a wound it's usually raw and it stings. That's an understatement. It does get hard to do this stuff but I think the alternative is harder. Hugs if you're comfortable accepting them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Emi
Thanks everyone for the replies. It's reassuring to know other people have experienced the same kind of thing. I had to miss my therapy appt this week because work threw a curve ball at me and messed my schedule up. I'm really missing it this week and can't wait to get back next week. I've never said that about therapy before!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top