Nightmares

[NIKI]

I also get repetitive nightmares that all my teeth are falling out. I'm always amazed to wake up and find I still have teeth!

Oh Wow, I have that nightmare too! I thought I was the only one. I hate that nightmare, very disturbing when it happens.

 

[angel2write]

I cannot figure this out. The thing which may be benign to most people, but which became malignant to me in real life has become benign again in my dream and even my friend in the dream .

But I wake up mad, very upset, very unnerved because, of course, it is not benign in real life.

I remember reading somewhere, in one of the articles, about a way to deal with nightmares by re-writing the endings. You were supposed to tell someone about the dream, and then you were supposed to visualize a better way for the dream to go. And this was supposed, eventually, to help the dreams be less horrible.

I don't remember it exactly... What you were talking about just reminded me of that article, and I was wondering if you were spontaneously doing something like this. Reframing the dreams to make them better. Of course, it doesn't change the reality of what happened, but it might help you sleep better!

 

[OKRADLAK]

Hi Angel........no I did not do it intentionally. It just happened. I still woke up mad, though. I guess I wanted it to be real so it's darned if you do , and darned if you don't.

So if it is a horrible nightmare it makes me upset and a when it changes it makes me mad. If the trauma stuff is in my dream, no matter what, it makes me mad.

In fact, the bad nightmares I can deal with better. I do not know why.

My best dreams are when they having nothing to do with the trauma at all.

 

[Perdido]

In the past, I had 10 to 15 nightmares a night. And one way I coped was to write them down in a dream journal. Doing so ultimately helped me understand the psychology driving the content of my dreams. And this helped me better understand how to cope in general with my trauma.

Today, twenty years later, though many symptoms of PTSD remain prevalent, my nightmares have waned, minus one or two a week.

Best of luck to you - sorry that you're experiencing nightmares.

 

[Amy Jo]

yeah I thought seroquel was supposed to help with nightmares? Well it's not for me either. These last three months I keep having the same nightmare of driving an uncontrollable car around corners and I either fly out and picture my life and death as I fly through the air and I wake up when I crash, or i flip off a bridge into water and all I remember is utter panic and despair and I wake up. I'm terrified in the car now, especially road trips. Why the repitition? I honestly start thinking someone is trying to tell me something.

 

[CurliQ]

Its been 2 years since i've experienced the trama and i'm still have the worst nightmares as well. I dont dream about the trama that occured in my life, but in my dreams it is 100x worse (which I didnt think was possible). They are gruesome, raw and so realistic. I cry so hard in my dreams that my eyelids hurt from sobbing so hard and wake up crying. Not sure how to get rid of these. Its so fustrating!

 

[femaleveteran]

hey I am also worried right now about night mares as my fiance is coming to visit me in August and I have nightmares almost nightly since returning from Iraq and I do not know what to do about them..I am afraid of what might happen when we are in bed together (Hope that is not too graphic but I mean just when we are sleeping together...SLEEPING) I have woken up many times and I do not even realize I am at home now. I will wake up some morning under the bed with one or two of the many weapons i do own even now. They are never far away from my bed. Anyawy I am a little concerned even though he has told me not to worry at all.. So what does anyone oout there think? of course the VA will not give me anything for sleep or nightmares. Guess maybe i have not complained about them enough

 

[Gamereign555]

I had an odd and scary dream probably the worst I've had. like a dark shrouded or cloudy figure said something to me that was very clear and understandable and the voice sounded very threatning. I quickly opened my eyes and felt as if something was holding my chest down, though everything was very dark in the room with a bluish tint to it . I felt as if I was above myself and that I was far away even though I was visually close. I don't exactly know what happened but I finally woke up in a heap of sweat and then I realized that the hall light was still on from the night before and the room door was open, just like I left it. In my dream I had 'woken up' from the voice and the feeling of a very evil presence and even experienced the disconnection from myself, I had chose to go back to sleep in my dream and later woke up.

It seems like some of my dreams and nightmares have little content in them, only that the way they make me feel is terrible or terrifying.

It also seems that some of my more disturbing dreams, like being impaled and walking around town or jumping off a cliff into darkness, hitting the rocks and getting up to walk around with disfigured limbs seems to not make me all that stressed out.

Some of my dreams make no sense as to why It would be a nightmare, like being in space feeling myself orbit around a huge black sphere, but it was a nightmare.

Dreams and nightmares in my experience can obviously reflect what is happening to you. When I had strep throat I was bedridden for 2 weeks, getting only every hour of sleep, I would wake every hour or so. I experienced a reoccuring nightmare which would continue its progression each time I went back to sleep.

The dream consisted of loggers cutting down trees and I was observing them from probably a couple hundred yards. As the trees were being cut I would feel the intense pain and anguish I was feeling from the strep and that continued for a week. I tried to alter my dream since I was experiencing it over and over and it did start to change. I found myself as a blue orb or something floating above the canopy. The trees started fighting back in my dream, their branches were acting like tentacles and picking up the loggers and tearing them apart! There was also a fire or something raging through the forest, the trees were unaffected it seemed but the people were definetly not. I actually woke up smiling because I didn't feel any pain in my dream and it didn't feel like a nightmare.

Amazingly I felt as the orb that I was in complete control over the forces in my dream it was practically euphoric.

That part of the dream went on for the last week, and progressed as my illness did. I was waking up feeling better and better and sleeping for longer, soon I was eating again and back to my normal life, the dream was gone just as fast.

 

[Kb3]

yeah I thought seroquel was supposed to help with nightmares?

Hi Amy Jo, I just wanted to say that Seroquel does help suppress my nightmares, but only at a certain dose. I have gone lower recently and have had break through nightmares after not having them for close to a year. The last time I had them like this I had also lowered my dose and eventually had to go back up because it was driving me back into a deep depression. Maybe you can raise your dose? Apologies if this is not relevant to your situation, these drugs affect us all differently.

 

[melgrendell]

One of my most vivid dreams started out as a nightmare I was upstairs in my room. I had just woken up, because there was a sound coming from downstairs and a strange light. I went downstairs and found my whole family encased in ice though the room wasn't cold. It was the t.v. making the sound and the light. I walked around looking at all of them frozen. As I got closer to the window there was a sound of running water. Not sure why but it scared me but I slowly opened up the curtains. Everything was black outside, and the sound of running water got louder and louder. I took a step back from the window because i was filled with dread. I watched as a disembodied head slowly came out of the glass it just hovered there for a minute. It then opened up its eyes they were glowing white. When it looked at me the dread came back. It then spoke to me telling me that I had been split in two and must be made whole. It told me I was coming and must do what I was told. The head slowly retreated back into the glass. As soon as it had disappeared there was a knock on the door. I opened it up to find a black blob standing there. I wasn't afraid of it. It was almost like looking in a mirror when I moved so did he. We reached out and touched, there was a blinding flash and the shadow form had disappeared. It is hard to describe the feeling but I felt whole. This is where I think it gets really strange. I lifted my feet off the ground and was just floating there. I looked up at the sky dark reddish clouds were forming. I raised my hands up and in one quick motion brought them down. Lightning came down and started burning symbols in the ground. They glowed for a few seconds and it seemed the world shook. They had formed a circle on the ground and as I watched the ground began to fall away, revealing a dark hole. This dark brought fear and dread, but I called it forth to face it. (This is where it gets religious) Standing in front of me was the devil in all his dark and evil glory. A fight between us ensued and I ended up binding him with a light so bright. I floated toward him and reached out to touch him there was a hard yanking feeling and the next thing I know am at Stonehenge. He was bound to the center stone, I slowly walked the circle touching and whispering to each stone there. Wind began to whip around me and the devil began to tell me he could give everything back to me. I turned my back on him, blue white glowing orbs started coming out of the stones. He began to scream obsenity after obsenity, I ignored him. I began to whisper to the orbs and they began to swirl around the circle of stones. They all came together right above him and a light like a laser came down and blasted into his chest. He screamed and begged for it to stop, I stood there cold to his pleas. I watched as this light began to burn him and as it burned the dark began to melt away literally melt away from him. It fell to the ground like black oil it was then that a light exploded out and he stood before me. No longer the devil but the angel that he was in the beginning. He looked at me smiled and mouthed thank you and flew up to disappear in the sky. I woke up crying that morning. Understand these types of dreams are the norm for me, I am learning to recognize them for what they are for. These began when I was in my early teens. I think it was me trying to get me to remember, but instead of really facing what it meant... It was my lost childhood to my uncle who molested me on many occasions between 6 and 8 years old. Yes I fought in the dream but I fought the wrong guy should have been my uncle.

 

[femaleveteran]

i keep having a stupid fantaasy that this finace I have is somehwo going to stop all the ghosts as soon as I am in his arms and we both know that is total BS> Anyway, I am scared of the night mares while he is here visiting in August. I feel little anxiety at all over meeting him or seeing himn or spending time with him in August and possibly just going back to AUstralia with him as soon as his flight leaves.

But I have had nightmares every night, lately, and am functioning on about 4 hours sleep over a 6 day period. I am a little nervous because I have been known to go much longer with no sleep and it never has turned out well.

So any suggestions as to what could be causing this is welcomed as long as it is done qith a little tact and someone does not respond to me "G'gam girl, you're just crazy like the rest of us" And I have a very likely TBI related headache.

 

[Frankie Coffeecake]

Hi Matt,
I'm new to this forum too! I suffered from an awful trauma too that put me over the edge. I lost my brother to a violent crime. I had nightmares night after night. Woke up crying in my sleep. Very very vivid dreams. I tried Melatonin and Valerian root since I don't like taking prescribed medication. It helped a little but I ended up going to the Doctor and she gave me an Alpha-blocker which has stopped my nightmares. Plus reading, or taking a walk to clear your head will always help. :sleep: