Family Members Contributing To Ptsd Nightmares

[cdinwv]

When my brother visits, it never fails that I have nightmares of horrible dreams I remember vividly upon wakening or it wakes me in heart racing, not being able to rest and in fear, causing complete exhaustion and afraid to sleep. It is not my brother's fault as he never abused me in anyway and is the only person in my immediate family that I chose to have in my life now.

His tone of voice, laughter, and general use of words at times reminds me of my dad who did abuse me or things families members use to say. My dad, mother, and grandparents were my abusers that contributed to my PTSD and a family of dyfunctional religious demands and lies of denial about child abuse, Incest, and horrible human abuse.

I have not talked to my brother about this nor a therapist yet. I am becoming more aware of what triggers my PTSD symptoms and do try to avoid them. I have a horrible sleep erratic disorder and have nonepileptic seizures also. This doesn't help either disorder and more days than not I am sleep deprived even when trying to capture sleep in what I call a comatose state of sleeping 10-12-14 hours at a time.

I have a nightmare and wake up trying to soothe me back to sleep and make up for the bad sleep of horrors. Any help or if anyone else notice family members contributing to their nightmares would be supportive to me. Thank you. My therapist is not PTSD certified and we primarily do talk therapy and ERMD as I can not afford to go to a PTSD specialist.

 

[Keith Shannon]

While my family members don't contribute to my nightmares there are definitely sounds, people, or images that contribute to causing me nightmares. Some of the people that I actually experienced combat with will trigger more panic attacks and nightmares as it brings back memories. The worst was when I watched Generation Kill it caused worse nightmares for a long time.

My parents were abusive as well but I think because of some of the more traumatic experiences I had that never really causes me trouble anymore. However, it makes a lot of sense that your brother or other family members would trigger it. It's bringing memories that you try to repress to the front of your mind. The times when I went to therapy and talked about things causing nightmares my nightmares would be even more often and intense. The doctor said that's a perfectly normal thing as you are dwelling on it more. However, after talking about it for a while you will become more used to the subject and possibly slightly desensitized. My doctor was trying desensitization therapy where they use sounds, feelings, and other stimuli to randomly stimulate one side of your brain at a time while you're talking about things. I'm not 100% sure what that does, but I guess it's one of their methods. They would sometimes use a tape & headphones where it would beep on one side, then the other to use both sides of the brain. Or they would have me hold onto handles that would vibrate from side to side...

I can't explain it well but here's an article published by the VA on it if you search for desensitization therapy for ptsd on Google it will be the third link down or so just look for the VA site.

I'm definitely available to talk more outside of the website or via PM if you want.

Good Luck!!

 

[The Albatross]

I came here with intense nightmares, and they have subsided (for now) these last 4-5 months. I, like you, don't have access to a trauma or PTSD specialist in my area. But writing in my diary and attempting to process them myself, it helped me to remember my conscious decision to keep my mother and husband in my life. I let go of the rest of my family. It can be a struggle for a while, to separate the nightmares from the present... or at least it was for me. On waking from a nightmare, I'd isolate a bit til I could ground, use some stress reduction and affirm my conscious choice and remind myself that it's not a danger or threat -- right now, today. An important distinction was that it was not the people that were contributing. They were only being themselves.... it was my brain being hypervigilant looking for threats, that was connecting them to my nightmares, memory retrievals and trauma. I was taking something - a look, a tone, a smell, a situation... and dragging them into my past. I hope this helps you.

 

[cdinwv]

Thank you both for your heartfelt feedback. I wish you both restful nights of sleep too.

I try not to ever allow current day situations to strike up nightmares or increase my PTSD symptoms I have and nonepileptic seizures but it's very hard. I have had smells, tones of voices, scenaries, sounds and current day situations and everything around me that has contributed to the nightmares even when I try to be aware and take extra precautions in eating right, resting right, and de-stressing before bedtime so it does not capture me in my sleep. Sometimes, it does help and sometimes it doesn't. It does sneak attack me.

For 16 years I was misdiagnosed with epilepsy and treated with medications that never ceased the seizures. This past year, I was officially diagnosed with nonepileptic seizures and all medications ceased. My therapist that I can afford tries to help me with ERMD therapy, neurofeedback and the re-programming of the brain if you will. However, without having the means to financially seek appropiate treatment or insurance to cover the treatment I need, it is very difficult with both disorders of PTSD and nonepileptic seizures to pursue consistent therapy and effective therapy.

I figured and assumed that I was not the only one who felt triggers could contribute to nightmares. Thank you for taking the time to provide more awareness to me. I do the best I can every day to try to overcome anything that makes PTSD or nonepileptic seizures worse on me. No one said life would ever be a bed of roses without thorns but I do feel confident that removing thorns one at a time, eventually, the splinters will be removed and I can effectively have the medical resources available to me to heal from all of this and self-awareness is still the best medicine. Best of wishes to you.