Orglethorp
Not Active
So, here's the situation. I'm sharing a house with five other young adults who I did not know before responding to the student room for rent ad last summer. I've been living here since the end of August, and I like it. I get along with my roommates and they seem very nice, though Gabriel seems a tad reclusive at times. Generally, though, we all get a long, and once in a while we even take half an hour or so out of our evenings and eat & chat together rather than having our meals at whatever times each individual decides they're hungry. On the main floor, the bedrooms belong to Alex, Megan, Gabriel and myself. Alex & Megan are a couple and Alex is the son of the landlord. I spend more time with these two than the others. In the basement, we have the other two roommates, engaged couple Janine & Steven, and Janine is Alex's sister/the landlord's daughter. I've never told any of them about my PTSD or the reasons behind it, but they may know now, because a post I made about PTSD on my blog last February has suddenly had a lot of views from Canada (too bad my stats aren't more specific!) in the last 2 weeks.
Last night (or early this morning, which ever way you prefer to word it) at roughly 4:30 AM, I woke up to the sound of my bedroom door handle turning. Thanks to the nature of having PTSD, I was completely awake and sitting up before the culprit had completely opened the door. The next thing I know, Gabriel is letting himself into my room. As he closed the door carefully behind him and then turned to face opposite the door and then pause as if confused, I said "uh, hey!" to get his attention. He looked at me and, as I've had him do many times in the hallway before, said "Oh Hi! Sorry, excuse me..." as if we were passing each other and he bumped into me. I said "get out," and he asked why. At this point I was pretty sure he was sleepwalking, because he either wasn't aware of what he was doing, or he's a sociopath who's slipped under my radar this long (unlikely). I either asked "Are you sleepwalking" or "Do you know you're sleepwalking" - not sure which, but either way I meant the same thing. He said no. I repeated "Get out!" and pointed this time. He didn't respond. I said a little louder "Now!" and then suddenly he turn back to the door, opened it, and let himself out, mumbling the whole time about sleepwalking. I had to get out of bed and shut the door behind him, and then promptly locked it.
He tried my door again twice within the next hour or so, but he also visited the washroom without actually using it, and opened the towel closet, several times during this period. There are 4 doors at the end of the hallway: Alex's room, the washroom, my room, and the closet, in that clockwise order starting from his side of the hallway. Alex was not woken up all night, but I believe he was sleeping in Megan's room with her, which is further up the hallway with the door directly across from Gabriel's room. I also noticed that while Gabriel opened & closed the washroom door and flushed the toilet on all of his visits to that room, he did not urinate, pull toilet paper from the roll, or turn on the light (which automatically turns on the fan) as I can hear all of these things from my room. (Pleasant, I know.)
I have yet to speak to Gabriel today (haven't seen him, not avoiding him), so I have no idea if he's aware of what went on or if he knows of a history of sleepwalking. I've encountered one other sleepwalker entering my room at night (a very young Korean girl on an exchange program when I was in high school), but she would come just inside the door, ask a question (usually "where's Mom?") and leave. She'd also only do it once per night. Gabriel took some convincing to leave, held a somewhat coherent conversation with me, and tried again.
Now, I'm normally a very good judge on whether or not someone is a potentially dnagerous person. I have an extremely accurate radar for "ick factor," as I like to call it. I've never not got the ick factor from someone before it was too late. I'm still not getting the ick factor from Gabriel, but that could change when I speak to him next. I don't know. At this point, I have no firm reason to believe that he was not simply sleepwalking. Whatever his unconscious goal for the night was, it clearly had someone to do with this end of the hallway, but as I said above there are four doors to choose from. 75% chance that my door was not the intended target, and being that he flushed the toilet every time he found himself in the washroom, I think he was probably just sleepwalking to the washroom that many times last night.
Now that I've seen Gabriel sleepwalking, I'm also quite sure that I've seen him sleepwalking before based on his interactions with me (or lack thereof) during these times. On all of these occasions, he was either headed to the washroom or the kitchen, and on all of these occasions he does say "hi" and "excuse me" and refuse offers to join the rest of us in the living room, but doesn't hold extensive conversations.
All of that being said, this has unsettled me! Needless to say, being that my PTSD stems from childhood abuse and incest, being startled awake to the sight of a young man in briefs standing at the foot of my bed = I've had no quality sleep to speak of despite attempting to sleep until noon, and I'm very, very jumpy today.
Last night (or early this morning, which ever way you prefer to word it) at roughly 4:30 AM, I woke up to the sound of my bedroom door handle turning. Thanks to the nature of having PTSD, I was completely awake and sitting up before the culprit had completely opened the door. The next thing I know, Gabriel is letting himself into my room. As he closed the door carefully behind him and then turned to face opposite the door and then pause as if confused, I said "uh, hey!" to get his attention. He looked at me and, as I've had him do many times in the hallway before, said "Oh Hi! Sorry, excuse me..." as if we were passing each other and he bumped into me. I said "get out," and he asked why. At this point I was pretty sure he was sleepwalking, because he either wasn't aware of what he was doing, or he's a sociopath who's slipped under my radar this long (unlikely). I either asked "Are you sleepwalking" or "Do you know you're sleepwalking" - not sure which, but either way I meant the same thing. He said no. I repeated "Get out!" and pointed this time. He didn't respond. I said a little louder "Now!" and then suddenly he turn back to the door, opened it, and let himself out, mumbling the whole time about sleepwalking. I had to get out of bed and shut the door behind him, and then promptly locked it.
He tried my door again twice within the next hour or so, but he also visited the washroom without actually using it, and opened the towel closet, several times during this period. There are 4 doors at the end of the hallway: Alex's room, the washroom, my room, and the closet, in that clockwise order starting from his side of the hallway. Alex was not woken up all night, but I believe he was sleeping in Megan's room with her, which is further up the hallway with the door directly across from Gabriel's room. I also noticed that while Gabriel opened & closed the washroom door and flushed the toilet on all of his visits to that room, he did not urinate, pull toilet paper from the roll, or turn on the light (which automatically turns on the fan) as I can hear all of these things from my room. (Pleasant, I know.)
I have yet to speak to Gabriel today (haven't seen him, not avoiding him), so I have no idea if he's aware of what went on or if he knows of a history of sleepwalking. I've encountered one other sleepwalker entering my room at night (a very young Korean girl on an exchange program when I was in high school), but she would come just inside the door, ask a question (usually "where's Mom?") and leave. She'd also only do it once per night. Gabriel took some convincing to leave, held a somewhat coherent conversation with me, and tried again.
Now, I'm normally a very good judge on whether or not someone is a potentially dnagerous person. I have an extremely accurate radar for "ick factor," as I like to call it. I've never not got the ick factor from someone before it was too late. I'm still not getting the ick factor from Gabriel, but that could change when I speak to him next. I don't know. At this point, I have no firm reason to believe that he was not simply sleepwalking. Whatever his unconscious goal for the night was, it clearly had someone to do with this end of the hallway, but as I said above there are four doors to choose from. 75% chance that my door was not the intended target, and being that he flushed the toilet every time he found himself in the washroom, I think he was probably just sleepwalking to the washroom that many times last night.
Now that I've seen Gabriel sleepwalking, I'm also quite sure that I've seen him sleepwalking before based on his interactions with me (or lack thereof) during these times. On all of these occasions, he was either headed to the washroom or the kitchen, and on all of these occasions he does say "hi" and "excuse me" and refuse offers to join the rest of us in the living room, but doesn't hold extensive conversations.
All of that being said, this has unsettled me! Needless to say, being that my PTSD stems from childhood abuse and incest, being startled awake to the sight of a young man in briefs standing at the foot of my bed = I've had no quality sleep to speak of despite attempting to sleep until noon, and I'm very, very jumpy today.
