Not knowing who/ where you are when you wake up in the morning

[Justmehere]

There are lots of ways to ground. One way is to find safe strong sensations. So yeah, going from warm to cold might do it!

 

[ILoveLife]

I have this. I go to the window for some fresh air, make some strong hot coffee, walk barefoot. Takes about half an hour to ground, but works.
Without these things I can go all day in a haze.

 

[Innordinate]

This happens to me, not always but often enough to be frustratin.
I'll wake up thinking I'm a kid or a teenager- the fear and panic are the same and my body will be achy.
Takes a few minutes to settle down my breathing and heatrate, it's confusing as hell for awhile because part of me knows who I am and where I am but they feel like background memories and don't connect to what I'm seeing or feeling.
The sooner I get out of bed the sooner I reconnect with myself I find, but I usually wake up feom this slowly and groggily, so I just kinda assumed it was probably remnants left from a nightmare I woke up in the middle of but can't remember. I don't startle awake though, like I usually do, so it feels more like waking up from sleep a more natural way.
Anyways, i like what other people said about the dissociative state, sounds right.... maybe, so grounding should help.
Maybe it would be worth trying to track what the thoughts were before going to bed and if theres some kind of coorolation between them and waking up this way
Glad i'm not the only one though, thanks for posting this

 

[PiggyBack]

Is this a common PTSD thing and if so, how do you deal with it?

With me, my dreams are so vivid and lifelike that I have my own personal Narnia or Narnias that I visit on a nightly basis. The dreams often build on each other,so every night like is an installment in a mini-series which can go on for years. It's great when I like the dream, but terrifying when it's from an abusive episode.

However, it can be really disorienting when I wake up and find myself in my plain old me life. I've learned to just be gentle with myself and give myself time to wake up. Fortunately, I have a flexible job, so no need for an alarm clock and I can lay in bed and extra 10 or so minutes to get some footing in reality.

 

[chipman]

Hi :)
I just posted this in my trauma diary...And am now wondering whether others get this too....

Sometimes I feel out of place. Most of the time I feel out of when. It is hard to square with what the world calls reality and what that is my place in it. When I wake up I have to look at digital clocks with date and day of week displayed. Maybe in 20 minutes or so this disappears. In the minutes that intervene I sit down and concentrate on what my eyes see. Sometimes saying when it is aloud can reset my brain.