Hi everyone,
New here. I'm 26 years old, female. To the best of my knowledge I don't have any PTSD (that I know of) but lately, out of nowhere, I have begun experiencing pretty severe night terrors. Even worse, they are starting to become a chronic thing.
I was diagnosed with minor depression two years ago, but I lost my job and was unable to afford medication or continue treatment, so I stopped seeing a therapist. Granted, I only went about three times and they were barely able to diagnose me before I turned 26 and was kicked off of my parents insurance.
I have been under a lot of stress and anxiety lately due to a job I accepted which, among other things, involves a daily four hour commute. 2 hours there, 2 hours back home. This in effect has cancelled my social and personal life during the week. On the weekends I just sleep and run errands I don't have time to do during the week. It's a very high-stress job, low paying job.
I notice that I have been having night terrors. I have NEVER had terrors before, never. Not as a child, not in my teenage years, and not as an adult. They have only started to occur in the seven months I have been working at this place.
I had one the night before I began the job, and I had another one two months later. In total, I have had six, with the latest one occuring just last night.
Believe me when I say they are nothing short of terrifying.
I don't remember any dreams before or during the terror, just a feeling of horror and incredible fear that seems to build and build until it reaches a pitch where I 'black out' in my sleep. The next thing I know, I'm sitting bolt upright in bed, screaming as though someone is murdering me. I also know that on more than one occasion I have run out of my bed and try to get down the stairs, still screaming the entire time.
Usually the feeling is like that of an evil voice whispering over and over in my ear that my grandfather (who I am very close to) has died. The feeling is just a terrible sense of loss, horror and terror. It quite literally feels like I'm dropping into hell. I've had other terrors where I think we're having a major earthquake and I can hear the sound (it's horrific) and feeling the incredible terror that goes along with them. I can also remember thinking right before I start to scream that i can repeatedly hear my mother screaming my name when she is incredibly angry with me, and the sound of my name just invokes this......fear. I can't explain it. It's never about a specific dream or an image, what scares me is the intensity of the feelings I'm experiencing.
After they are over, I notice that i'm drenched in sweat and usually breathing really hard. I can fall back to sleep rather quickly after one of these, but my sleep pattern is definitely disturbed.
Like I said, i've been having them for seven months, and I noticed that they were coming in a pattern of one every three months or so. In the last month, I have had three, and two of them were back to back, one night after the other. I'm terrified this is going to become a chronic problem.
I wake up my parents (especially my dad, who has to be at work by 4:00) and my neighbors with my blood-curdling screams. My mothers only comment is 'go to church'. My dad doesn't seem too bothered, he just wants them to stop so he can start sleeping through the night again. I'm scared to sleep because I don't know what will trigger one, and I don't know when they are going to happen.
Can night terrors ever come on so quickly, and with almost no reason behind them? Has anyone else ever had ones that are this bad as a young adult?
New here. I'm 26 years old, female. To the best of my knowledge I don't have any PTSD (that I know of) but lately, out of nowhere, I have begun experiencing pretty severe night terrors. Even worse, they are starting to become a chronic thing.
I was diagnosed with minor depression two years ago, but I lost my job and was unable to afford medication or continue treatment, so I stopped seeing a therapist. Granted, I only went about three times and they were barely able to diagnose me before I turned 26 and was kicked off of my parents insurance.
I have been under a lot of stress and anxiety lately due to a job I accepted which, among other things, involves a daily four hour commute. 2 hours there, 2 hours back home. This in effect has cancelled my social and personal life during the week. On the weekends I just sleep and run errands I don't have time to do during the week. It's a very high-stress job, low paying job.
I notice that I have been having night terrors. I have NEVER had terrors before, never. Not as a child, not in my teenage years, and not as an adult. They have only started to occur in the seven months I have been working at this place.
I had one the night before I began the job, and I had another one two months later. In total, I have had six, with the latest one occuring just last night.
Believe me when I say they are nothing short of terrifying.
I don't remember any dreams before or during the terror, just a feeling of horror and incredible fear that seems to build and build until it reaches a pitch where I 'black out' in my sleep. The next thing I know, I'm sitting bolt upright in bed, screaming as though someone is murdering me. I also know that on more than one occasion I have run out of my bed and try to get down the stairs, still screaming the entire time.
Usually the feeling is like that of an evil voice whispering over and over in my ear that my grandfather (who I am very close to) has died. The feeling is just a terrible sense of loss, horror and terror. It quite literally feels like I'm dropping into hell. I've had other terrors where I think we're having a major earthquake and I can hear the sound (it's horrific) and feeling the incredible terror that goes along with them. I can also remember thinking right before I start to scream that i can repeatedly hear my mother screaming my name when she is incredibly angry with me, and the sound of my name just invokes this......fear. I can't explain it. It's never about a specific dream or an image, what scares me is the intensity of the feelings I'm experiencing.
After they are over, I notice that i'm drenched in sweat and usually breathing really hard. I can fall back to sleep rather quickly after one of these, but my sleep pattern is definitely disturbed.
Like I said, i've been having them for seven months, and I noticed that they were coming in a pattern of one every three months or so. In the last month, I have had three, and two of them were back to back, one night after the other. I'm terrified this is going to become a chronic problem.
I wake up my parents (especially my dad, who has to be at work by 4:00) and my neighbors with my blood-curdling screams. My mothers only comment is 'go to church'. My dad doesn't seem too bothered, he just wants them to stop so he can start sleeping through the night again. I'm scared to sleep because I don't know what will trigger one, and I don't know when they are going to happen.
Can night terrors ever come on so quickly, and with almost no reason behind them? Has anyone else ever had ones that are this bad as a young adult?
