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PTSD, Sleeping, and Keeping my Wife Safe from Me?

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Hey All,

Unfortunately I've been diagnosed with PTSD, and either resultant or concurrent severe depression and anxiety. I'm on a huge stack of medications right now - and they've made a world of difference but haven't really come close to bringing me back to my 'old self' (I understand that I need to stop looking at it in those terms and focus on how far I've come vs what I was etc. etc.)

My question and concern is - what do others suffering from PTSD do to keep their spouses safe?

While some of the night-time / sleep related issues have been significantly reduced - mostly the waking up screaming in the middle of the night while asleep (or half?) asleep with my wife yelling and shaking me in bed to wake me up and the dog on the bed barking in my face, I still have issues.

Poorest of sleep quality, night sweats that drench the bed every night - having to change clothes, sheets, covers, towels, pillows sometimes multiple times a night etc.

Recently I actually woke my significant other up by biting them while in my sleep. I didn't draw blood, and was able to be woken up - but no one should have to live like this / with this type of behaviour.

What concerns me is that in looking into the issue, there appear to be numerous cases of suffers of PTSD doing things like suffocating their S.O.'s while asleep in bed.

How do you live with the fear of something like that happening? What can be done to prevent it? I'm doing my best with medication, counseling, etc. I wouldn't say things have been escalating - actually there was a huge descalation due to medication but I've leveled off and still aren't 'right'.

My significant other is incredible understanding, my rock, and the only reason I'm here. I don't want anything to happen to them, and even the screaming / biting kills me. I'm at the point where I'm thinking I need to get a stun gun for her to keep in her nightstand just in case I can't be woken.

Do I need to sleep in another room alone? Behind a locked door?

I have zero thoughts of hurting others or myself, but this shit just comes up at night - and I feel like I have zero control over it and I'm scared to death.
 
Same idea as Friday.
Sleep in a different room. On a couch. Basement. Did this when I lived with my wife. Also put an object in the way of where i slept. Something thats not normally there that I wouldn't be used to walking around.

Sometimes still I go to bed and repeatedly think to myself "remember your kids will wake you up- its nothing bad" before i fall asleep and basically pray that i wont accidentally hurt them if they come to my room in the middle of the night.

So far so good and its been years.
Something about my brain can differentiate between my kids and other noises.
 
Unfortunately like so many....my wife and I sleep in different rooms. This is not all that uncommon amongst couples where one battles PTSD.
 
I have been raped 4 times and nearly killed. It started as a Gang rape when I was 15. Since then I have been roofied/drugged (don't know how to spell it), etc.. always a different way. Now I am 67 and have chronic PTSD. I have extreme death sexual attack nightmares. My husband of44 years, is very loving and understanding. He saved me. Now he wakes me up and tells me I am okay, everything's okay. But, I feel bad about waking him up, also effecting his sleep. I was on Prazosin 2 mg. It wasn't enough. I went up to 5 mg. But, the side effects were that I had no energy, just wasn't myself. I stopped suddenly then I was so, so dizzy that I could barely walk. I started back with 2 mg, then 2 hours later took 2 mg. more. Maybe I can wean off of it. I don't know what to do. 52 years of desperate nightmares. I need to have a good night sleep. I can't afford therapy. So now what do I do?
 
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