Increase In Nightmares Again

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

@Mim28 , my system wouldn't allow me to do even that yet. It's my biggest goal in therapy right now to be able to do some of that kind of work so that's a great idea for the future. I think I could use general terms for now though like the type of trauma that was involved in the dream.

 

[Mim28]

@Mim28 , my system wouldn't allow me to do even that yet. It's my bigg...

That makes sense. You do what works for you in the time that works for you. You are strong and I applaud you for taking all these steps. I'll never forget the day my daughter told me what happened. She has a very hard time watching sexually violent scenes in movies. She is my hero. So strong and tries so hard and has made a great life for herself. A nice job close to home and married to a wonderful man. She sees a counselor and exercises and does meditation. All the right things. I hope I can get there again.

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

Hypnotherapy and EMDR can be tricky for me. I haven't tried either because I have dissociative identity disorder and for some people that makes things worse so I haven't been willing to try that approach yet. I may look into it more.

I had DID for many years - most of my life. My alters have been integrated.

Hypnotherapy never worked for me. My defenses were too strong.

EMDR was fantastic, but I had to find the right EMDR therapist to get results. There are two levels of EMDR training. Those with only first-level EMDR training are advised not to worth with multiples at all. Even amongst those with the advanced training, some are better than others. Plus, to be effective, you need to be on-board, you need to want to do it. It only took me two sessions with an EMDR therapist, but she was the second EMDR therapist I saw.

I take meds to help me sleep and to help with nightmares, but I don't think they're working. I take others, too, but they haven't seemed to be interfering

Sleep meds - psych meds of any sort - never helped me. In fact, with Ambien, which is so highly touted, I just laid in bed in a trance with my eyes open for hours, sometimes hallucinating about a hole opening up in the wall at the light switch! No good. Now, if I need something for sleep, I take Benadryl, a simple OTC antihistamine. It is very safe, non-addictive, and doesn't lead to sleep problems.

A dream journal is a very good idea except that I have a very strict DID system and so some of what I dream isn't allowed to go on paper,

Have you talked this all out internally? Do you know why the internal rules are what they are? Can you all meet internally at a round-table discussion so you can present this idea and then talk it all out?

Ben

 

[Mim28]

I had DID for many years - most of my life. My alters have been integrated.

Hypnotherapy never...

I couldn't even take prescription Benedryl to sleep. Dr. prescribed it and I thought I was having seizures in my sleep. I was so terrified. He didn't believe.

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

I take Benadryl, a simple OTC antihistamine. It is very safe, non-addictive, and doesn't lead to sleep problems.

I get manic if I take Benadryl so not an option there! Though it's been suggested many times!.

Do you know why the internal rules are what they are?

Mostly, I do. Still working on figuring it all out. I meet via writing in the journal and have been working on that. Got to keep plugging away at it I guess!

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

Your internal defenses are very high.

In the meetings, perhaps you can work to convince the others that journaling - actively working - on the nightmares would be highly beneficial.

Also, I wonder if you all share the power equally? If someone is 'sitting shotgun' over the rest of you, that's not healthy.

Ben

 

[JEKBreatheandBelieve]

Your internal defenses are very high.

That's almost an understatement! It's very frustrating. Power is definitely not shared equally, but I've made progress with some of that work in the last year.

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

It's difficult for me to address the issues, as your defenses are too strong for you to really give much detail, but it would be worth explaining to the Powers That Be that the idea of insiders 'Riding Shotgun' over others is just as wrong as the idea of a multiple with a primary 'out' personality who chooses to keep his alters locked up inside. It's unhealthy and unkind.

Chances are, the Powerful Insiders are internal projections of the very perpetrators they despise so very much. I wonder how they would cotton to that notion?

If you suspect the latter is the case, you might bring to your meetings comparison sketches of your childhood perpetrators and your Powerful Ones.

Ben

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

Hope I didn't just open a Pandora's Box for you. :)

Ben