Poll Ptsd Nightmares?

[Hatshepsut]

What kind of nightmares are most common for you? Are most abstract and general or specific and obvious in relation to your trauma history? Also what's the worst dream you've ever had and why? Explain below.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

You left out one of the most common nightmare categories....SCHOOL!

Other than those, my nightmares, when I would have them, were very random, never about the trauma itself. School was a common theme though.

LMAO My last school dream involved me being tested on my origami skills. YES, origami! I hate origami.... I think I had to make frogs over and over again....

 

[Hatshepsut]

You left out one of the most common nightmare categories....SCHOOL!

Other than those, my nightmares,...

Yeh, didn't think of that one. I think most school dreams could fall into the "losing control" category as they are usually about loss of control or not being as in control as one would like over a situation or if the dream had a teacher telling you to do something it could also be seen as an "authority figure" dream about not meeting up to societal standards/pressures. It definitely depends on the context of each individual dream though.

 

[Changing4Best]

Falling was the one I checked off. I hate those the worst. Also, often I am awakened and cannot go back to sleep (maybe 2-3 times a week). I cannot recall what I dreamed those times, but for sure it was upsetting.

 

[Gadgie]

My nightmares are past real events that bring me right back in time. The therapist I spoke to couldn't believe that my nightmares are in full colour, with every detail being correct, including heat, sweat, cold wind, even smell, like petrol, oil, steam and even blood.

It's like being back there all over again, they are so scary that I can't go back to sleep again, in case I have another one, (which has happened in the past)

When I wake up, my brain is so confused, it's takes a while to realise where I am, and that's the time which is the worst part!

 

[Deleted member 29920]

Mostly the abuse my mother subjected me to, I wake in absolute terror and end up crying like a small child for a while and can't go back to sleep.

 

[Changing4Best]

PS. Yes, I have woken in terror too. Heart beating a mile a minute and fear of going back to sleep is something I deal with to.

 

[ground crew]

I have no memory of any dream, one that wakes me or not, so the context of my night mare eludes me. I got the cool complex kind of ptsd, so that makes it possible for night mares to come from many memories. I asked my therapist if I should try to piece together the dreams for analysis, she said it seemed like it might be a can of worms best left for another day....

On welabutrin, i could remember the dreams. there were lost in an old mansion dreams and I woke up laughing. A lot. More than the startle awake thing. So that didn't help me sleep and I stopped taking the pills.

 

[InvisibleSun]

My nightmares mostly mimic my traumas, however, I do have the all too common falling dreams or startle awake. There's one in particular where I'm trapped in a maze, the walls are screens that keep replaying the traumas like movie scenes..and I keep running but the images don't go away. I freak out and that's what wakes me up. I also have recurring nightmares from childhood as well..One where I'm tied to a bed and snakes are crawling all over me (I have an extreme phobia of snakes) and biting me..but their fangs feel like needles. Very strange..

 

[Deleted member 19804]

Mine are often about elements of my trauma (sexual abuse), running away from someone who's trying to hurt me. Often I'm trying to call the police but my phone won't work.

 

[Chava]

No exact replays of anything...much more gruesome. Symbolism stuff and I'm usually watching the dream as an outsider, like through a window or the side of the room and not seen. A little girl is stabbed, molested, or tortured. Unknown people gutted, cut up, murdered. Blood everywhere. Somehow much better off of hormone pills.

 

[RockChick]

For me nightmares are usually 'normal' enough that I wake up not being 100% sure it was a dream. So I guess they are all subtlety wrong, like in a Stephen King book. But usually something bad happens to people I know and I'm unable to save them.