Nightmares As A Warning?

[Marianne]

I am really scared, because I had several vivid dreams and nightmares that actually came true. F.e. I had an unplanned pregnancy and when only a couple of days over time (i did not notice yet) I had a vivid dream of giving birth to a little boy. I dreamt something seemed wrong physically initiately, but it all came to be alright. All these things happened.

Now, I have made some failures I feel very guilty about. And because of meds I need and PTSD I have lost all my feelings of joy and love. It feels like I have lost my soul.

I dream about this very often. Whenever I pray whether there is still hope of recovery, I get these horrible dreams. Dreams of losing my soul, dreams of losing Jesus, dreams of going to hell for my mistakes, dreams of killing my child. Often they are really symbolic.

It frightens me enormously. They are so realistic that I'm scared for days after. I'm scared that there is somehow truth in them.

Does anyone have these weird realistic symbolic nightmares that seem to reflect their deepest fears? And get frightened of them?

 

[HappyJock]

Marianne, welcome to the community! That's definitely stressful, isn't it? When something we dream about becomes reality. There is some subconscious reasoning behind why our dreams come true; sometimes our bodies know what is going to happen before our brain does. When you're a mother, you have a special bond with life growing inside you. You can't explain it, but you know. You are somehow connected with the child before it's even born. So I don't think you should worry or think too much into it.

PTSD is definitely like that for lots of people and I feel like that too. It's hard to love, feel joy, etc. I can't speak for anyone else with PTSD, but I do know that some people feel lost, feel different, changed, without emotion when PTSD occurs. This is a sign that we really do need to bring about our emotions and try to seek therapy to resolve the conflict.

I'm personally not religious, so no -- I don't have dreams like that. But I do have nightmares and vivid ones, too. It makes it hard for me to sleep and sometimes because of them I don't want to. But try talking to someone about it -- maybe your mind and body, what with all the stress, are producing these results as a sign that means you need to talk to someone and get some rest? Truly open up to someone about all of this.

I wish you luck!

 

[Whirlwind]

I'm sorry you are having these, its awful and not something you can get away from....

Yes, I have had long term nightmares, very vivid and disturbing. Sometimes I do believe they were a subconscious warning to me/self. My therapist and I discussed them often...he helped re-frame their meaning. For example, I was often so caught up on the violence, I didn't consider my position in the dream, as in why was I in some of them...because I believed I had to be, or they were a mirror of my position in a former powerless past.

In my case, they were absolutely related to my early abuse, when the flashbacks came, the dreams intensified and even though the theme didn't seem to match they were often gateways to recovered memories.

Do you have a T to discuss your dreams with? fyi I'd be a little wary of non-professional opinions on your dreams...I say this only because some well meaning folks made me feel awful - completely unintentionally.

Take care, Whirlwind