Hearing weird things when you wake up

[Lilac98]

@Sideways autism is not a mental health condition, it's a development disorder though it makes mental health problems more likely to happen. I don't have mental health professionals in my care. My autism support worker who I used to have has no mental health training. I am waiting to hear to see if the mental health team will see me. I'm just trying to make sense of my trauma and symptoms.

 

[Lilac98]

I think whether I just wasn't fully awake or it was a flashback, it's just my brain processing.

 

[Friday]

I think whether I just wasn't fully awake or it was a flashback, it's just my brain processing.

Very much this.

 

[barefoot]

Yes, I’ve woken up before saying something. For me, this wouldn’t feel particularly worrying or bothersome, though could feel mildly disorientating in the moment. I think it’s pretty common as we’re transitioning from sleeping states to waking states. Maybe more common for some people rather than others.

@Givrali i don't get why I heard something from a flashback that I had months ago when I woke up?

You keep writing about this flashback and the fact that you’re having assault nightmares in various threads here. You are giving it all a lot of headspace and energy. I understand your want to make sense of things (though, as plenty of people have said on different threads to you, that clarity and knowledge doesn’t, unfortunately, just come because we want it to!) With all the rumination, I imagine you are keeping it all very ‘alive’ for yourself. I say that not with criticism - I have certainly been there myself with things plenty of times.

So, to be honest, I don’t think there’s anything particularly surprising about this spilling over and coming out with saying ‘stop’ as you wake up.

Saying ‘Stop, just stop’ when you wake up…I don’t actually see that that’s necessarily you repeating something in your flashback in a really significant, meaningful way. Ok, yes, that phrase obviously came up in your flashback. But, I personally think you are attaching far too much weight and meaning linking it to that. Wondering why you’ve woken up hearing yourself say three words you said in a flashback months ago, I think is a bit of a red herring, which is sending you back down an unhelpful rabbit hole.

You are constantly here, giving energy to this flashback, these dreams, what may or may not have happened with your grandad etc.
And I think I really do get that drive. But I think it is probably keeping this all much more stressful, confusing and exhausting for you.

You posted again as I was writing:

I think whether I just wasn't fully awake or it was a flashback, it's just my brain processing.

Yes! This sounds most likely. You are going over and over this stuff…sounds like this is a very normal ‘leaking out.’

 

[whiteraven]

I get this, a lot. Hypnopompic hallucinations. Considered normal for most people. There is also hearing stuff on falling asleep--hypnagogic hallucinations.
I sometimes hear voices (usually my dad calling my name), but for a stretch I heard Russian music (no idea about that one - my neurologist thought it was pretty funny).

 

[Friday]

But I thought you could be on this site if you've had some sort of trauma even if you had no diagnosis.

Putting on my ModHat for a moment…

Not just people who are undiagnosed, or in the process of being diagnosed & are investigating likely options, but also; students, researchers, journalists, teachers, professors, therapists, healthcare workers / first responders / & others who are educating themselves in common conditions they see in their line of work, etc.

…And taking it back off, again!

Try rereading @Sideways posts about looking at things through an autism lens minus the idea that you’re wrong to be here.

LOTS of us are co-morbid in miscellaneous ways (like you, I have a neurodevelopmental disorder, just a different one, ADHD-c; meanwhile there are a double handful of people on the spectrum, every flavor of OCD, bipolar, list goes on. The most common ones you can find a prefix for in the “Other Disorders” tab, but as far as I know PTSD can tack itself onto absolutely any baseline neurology.).

It’s very nearly always the case that in the early days of learning about PTSD? Attempting to separate out what is PTSD, or trauma, and what is our other disorder? Is reeeeeeally freaking difficult.

Those of us who are co-morbid are far more likely to keep trying to ring that bell for people… As the temptation is often to start assigning everything, even totally normal things, to this new condition we’re trying to come to understand & manage… and we’ve been there. We’ve done that. The faster it can become knee jerk to look at things through different lenses? Without taking offense at being told that something doesn’t sound like PTSD, or sounds like something different is going on? The less difficult it becomes to parse what’s going on, and then be able to deal with it, most effectively.

((For Example : Both OCD+PTSD & pure O-OCD+PTSD people, & ADHD (I or C)+PTSD people will often start ruminating about trauma in ways that are faaaaar beyond the ruminating about trauma PTSD brings. And not only do the PTSD methods of dealing with rumination not work well or at all (because it’s the OCD or ADHD that’s driving this symptom) but the ways both of those disorders deal with rumination is different from each other.))

Similarly? Diagnosis is tricky. Diagnosis when there’s already a disorder or condition in play is even more tricky…. And many many members have been there, too.

Does this help explain why people keep bringing up that XYZ or ABC doesn’t sound like PTSD, or sounds more like autism, or sounds normal, or like there’s something else going on?

 

[Lilac98]

Slight problem though if the two things are mixing together autism professionals don't deal with mental health and the same with mental health. I saw someone on YouTube who said they developed did just from growing up autistic and struggling with it (not saying I have it just saying autism makes you more likely to have mental health problems and have trauma from things other people might look over)

 

[anthony]

But I thought you could be on this site if you've had some sort of trauma even if you had no diagnosis.

Yes and No! The site is for those with PTSD AND/OR those who have endured trauma that meets PTSD diagnosis, though may not have sought diagnosis OR may not meet all the criteria, BUT they did endure trauma of the severity for PTSD.

We are not a trauma first website, because trauma is a very large field, most of which has nothing to do with trauma that causes PTSD.

If you have endured trauma that meets PTSD diagnosis, then YES, you are on the right website. If not, then NO, you are not on the right website.

 

[Sideways]

Slight problem though if the two things are mixing together

No - that's exactly what co-morbid means. But, the experience you had which has given rise to this thread is amply explained in your own words:

I was awake but I guess not fully.

It was a perfectly normal human experience.

Your obsessive thoughts about everyday experiences is likely well-explained by your autism. It's unlikely to be a PTSD thing.

 

[Lilac98]

Yes and No! The site is for those with PTSD AND/OR those who have endured trauma that meets PTSD diagnosis, though may not have sought diagnosis OR may not meet all the criteria, BUT they did endure trauma of the severity for PTSD.

We are not a trauma first website, because trauma is a very large field, most of which has nothing to do with trauma that causes PTSD.

If you have endured trauma that meets PTSD diagnosis, then YES, you are on the right website. If not, then NO, you are not on the right website.

I've looked at the diagnosis criteria before when I kept being given PDFs and links about trauma and PTSD and I seem to meet most of it. The only thing I was unsure of was avoidance. I don't have a problem talking about things on here but it's more difficult in person, it makes me really uncomfortable and anxious. I won't say sexual abuse out loud and told my old autism worker to not say it which she didn't but then she started constantly saying it anyway which I hated but tried ignoring. I'm also uncomfortable with the word w the older version of girl cause of not wanting my body to become like that when I was seeing g. I have a severe social phobia and sometimes avoid people and although autism is part of that Im sure the anxiety around g made it much worse.

 

[Lilac98]

I've found out you can have flashbacks when you wake up, I thought you couldn't before. It's not like I heard the speaking literally as I was waking up so I wasn't talking in my sleep. I layed there for a couple of seconds after I woke up, I didn't feel at all groggy and then I heard it, so I'm thinking it was more likely a flashback but like I said it's just my brain processing.

 

[Jade-]

@Lilac98 I have a question for you. (Please don't get upset with me for it, it's just a question.)

In your reply to anthony you talked about your symptoms but you didn't talk about trauma that meets PTSD diagnosis.

Do you feel/ think the trauma you endured meets the level of trauma needed for the diagnosis?