Poll Flashbacks vs Nightmares

[Obsidienne]

I know one of the key symptoms of PTSD is flashbacks. Personally, I have not had a flashback of the event in about 8 years. However, every other night or so I have nightmares involving being harmed physically or sexually, or losing control to another person. The nightmares can be relatively benign, but sometimes they cause severe disruption to my life.

So I am wondering how many PTSD sufferers experience flashbacks, how many suffer non-specific nightmares and how many suffer a mixture of both?

 

[hodge]

I didn't vote on this because I have flashbacks and specific nightmares (I take that to mean nightmares that in some way reenact traumatic experiences?). I also have non-specific nightmares. All of the above can haunt my days; I think this is what my therapist calls intrusive memories.

 

[cherryblossom]

I also have flashbacks and both specific and non-specific nightmares.

 

[Auburngirl]

I have occasional flashbacks, disturbing day dreams, and nightmares that are usually not something that actually happened to me but often related in some way.

 

[Deleted member 541]

I didn't vote, because I no longer have sever flashbacks or nightmares. I used too, and they were pretty bad, especially the nightmares. I would wake up my husband(when I was married), or boyfriends screaming, punching and fighting with whoever was in my nightmare.

What I have now for flashbacks are very mild, and not very upsetting anymore. Haven't had nightmares in probably 8 or 9 yrs.

 

[moog]

I don't suffer from either flashbacks or nightmares.

But I do suffer greatly from night terrors, which are significantly different than nightmares. I have suffered from them for years, I only noticed the symptoms and it wasn't until I was with my wife that we realized what was truly going on.

 

[FightingLily]

I experience the mixture of flashbacks, non-specific and reoccurring nightmares.

 

[catjudo]

I voted as having non-specific nightmares. This goes in phases for me. I can go a great deal of time without any nightmares but when they do happen they seem to happen in clusters and become quite disruptive. (Why else would I be sitting at my computer at 4:00 AM?) I say non-specific but I don't really have any recollection of what the nightmares are about. I wake up startled, scared, very unsettled and vulnerable feeling. I know that I've had a bad dream but don't know what it was about. My husband says that when these are happening I get very "twitchy" in my sleep...his way of describing how I move and thrash around a lot...and I talk in my sleep but not usually anything that he can understand.

 

[Obsidienne]

Hey Crockett,

That is basically what happens to me. I'm fine for weeks and then I start having a series of disturbing nightmares. I do remember what the nightmares are about, however.

 

[moog]

Crockett,

Sounds to me like you are having night terrors as opposed to nightmares.

Night Terrors
People who have night terrors are often misdiagnosed. The most common one is a simple nightmare. Any of you who have had a night terror can say they aren't even close! Another common misdiagnosis (especially among veterans) is PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For this reason I have included a description of the difference between nightmares and night terrors.

Night Terrors Symptoms: Sudden awakening from sleep, persistent fear or terror that occurs at night, screaming, sweating, confusion, rapid heart rate, inability to explain what happened, usually no recall of "bad dreams" or nightmares, may have a vague sense of frightening images. Many people see spiders, snakes, animals or people in the room, are unable to fully awake, difficult to comfort, with no memory of the event on awakening the next day.

Night Terror or Nightmare?: Nightmares occur during the dream phase of sleep known as REM sleep. Most people enter the REM stage of sleep sometime after 90 minutes of sleep. The circumstances of the nightmare will frighten the sleeper, who usually will wake up with a vivid memory of a long movie-like dream. Night terrors, on the other hand, occur during a phase of deep non-REM sleep usually within an hour after the subject goes to bed. This is also known as stage 4. (A link to a sleep stages chart can be found on the navigation bar to the left) During a night terror, which may last anywhere from five to twenty minutes, the person is still asleep, although the sleepers eyes may be open. When the subject does wake up, they usually have no recollection of the episode other than a sense of fear. This, however, is not always the case. Quite a few people interviewed can remember portions of the night terror, and some remember the whole thing.

nightterrors.org

 

[Seychelle]

When I first started working through the memories, my OH told me I had repeated nightmares for weeks. I'm thankful he never woke me up during the nightmares - I never remembered them the next day, but my mind was obviously working through some things. Once I'd worked through things a bit more, they stopped. These days I rarely have nightmares, but when I do, I'm usually too terrified to move or do anything, but if I can eventually make myself roll over and touch my OH, that's usually enough to calm me down and I go back to sleep.

I have a lot of flashbacks though. Sometimes I'm completely in the flashback and I don't know who or where I am. Others it's intrusive but I'm still concious of who I am and vaguely aware of where I am. So I voted that I just have flashbacks.

 

[gentlelady]

I have frequent flashbacks both night and day. When I am able to sleep and the nightmares come, I usually awaken and am soon hit with flashbacks in all their fury.