What exactly is a ptsd nightmare?

[Stephernovas]

When I was assessed I was told that not only do I have PTSD, but I suffer severe symptoms. In saying that, I can't help but wonder if any of my sleep issues/bad dreams come anywhere close to someone who struggles a lot with this particular symptom. I find it weird that I don't overtly identify as having PTSD nightmares. Maybe I do and I'm just naming them wrong? Usually my sleep is pretty awful though. If I'm not waking up because of physical pains, I'm constantly waking up because of my overactive brain. I start getting anxiety because I let my brain worry about things going on during waking hours - i.e. paying a bill, handing something in before a deadline, worrying if worker's comp is going to approve my therapy or cause problems. From then it often fans out until I have to scold myself into ending my thought process and working on going back to sleep. Whew.

I don't always dream (from what I can remember) but what I can recall they usually have one of a few overall themes. For example, one will be upsetting my parents (my mother in particularly) and it will go from us having a shouting match to me having to flee the house/town/etc., because she went and told everybody that I was a bad person and needed to be found and dealt with. So I would spend the entire dream running and hiding in fear, while being innocent the whole time, but felt nobody believed me because of what she told them (pretty well what happened throughout my childhood). If it wasn't her, then it could be anyone else telling others I am a bad person that needs to be found.

Oh I should also note that I can only remember one time specifically that I felt like I was back in the crash. I felt the same feelings/seeing as though I was back in the driver's seat immediately after impact.

There was another night closer to when my accident happened and I dreamed of a young girl being held hostage in a young boy and grandmother's apartment. Long story short, she was on the couch hiding under the covers, and for some reason my brain chose to display the grandmother sitting on the couch with the girl and asking for her wrists. The young girl has no choice but to comply, and then my brain allows me to watch as the grandmother begins slicing up her wrists. I can see the blood and hear her scream. I wake up and I'm not screaming or anything but I am very puzzled as to why my brain didn't stop that awful scenario. In the accident I was covered in blood, so I can understand that, but everything else about that dream was awful.

Another common one is that I will find a special connection with someone, and we will hold hands, or stay connected in some say. The person will choose me over everyone else and there is no other way to explain it but 100% true love. But then, something always happens and suddenly I lose that person. They deeply care about me, we both know it to be true, but the go on with someone else or for some reason tell me they can't be with me. *I'm really not sure if this one is, or can be related to my trauma, but I thought I'd mention it cause it's come up a few times.

Anyways, just wondering if any of this sounds similar to what you experience, or did I just luck out and this is one symptom that I get to avoid?

 

[LuckiLee]

I don't have any advice as I'm a supporter. But I like to use dream interpretation. Just google dream interpretations. And you can look up different symbols like grandmas, blood, couches etc. Good luck. Someone will come along with better information for you.

 

[Fadeaway]

Sounds like PTSD nightmares to me. Most of my dreams have the same underlying theme as my traumas but the details are different.

So for example, I have experienced child loss and while they died in the hospital, in my reoccurring nightmares it is a locked dryer. I had a pet that used to love to climb in the dryer when I was loading it with clothes and always feared one day I would accidentally start the dryer with them in it despite checking and double checking before closing the door. Perceived fear + actual trauma resulted in reoccurring nightmares of my child dying in a dryer because I couldn't get the door open or the dryer to stop.

 

[Sideways]

I have what I’d call “bad dreams” rather than nightmares. The content of my dreams is usually incredibly disturbing, but it’s normal for me, and when I wake up they pass pretty quickly. So I don’t often get particularly distressed by them. I also taught myself as a kid how to recognise when I’m having a dream, so that I have an awareness that “I’m just dreaming” which also makes it easier to deal with.

My dreams usually involve people being horrifically and brutally tortured, or the end of the world (in some pretty mind-blowing and horrifying ways). Neither of those are directly reminiscent of my trauma. But I think the themes are pretty consistent. End of the world, people being hurt and I can only watch and not help. Running away from an invisible enemy features a lot.

The themes are definitely about anxiety and control and personal safety. And in that respect, it makes them dreams that are (indirectly) about my trauma, but directly about the fears and anxieties that I have as a result of my trauma - if that makes sense?

 

[Stephernovas]

Yeah, that’s where I believed I didn’t have these “terrifying dreams” where some people report waking up screaming or sweating. For me it’s very “wow, I’m, that was f*cked up, but okay”, or “that’s typical considering my messed up brain” - negative thoughts after living with my abusive mother for so long.

As well, it has been noted that I don’t identify distress. I will let things continue and endure the discomfort even though I am struggling. So that likely may be the reason I haven’t noticed it as distress. I’ve choked so much down that what many people consider to be extremely awful things are everyday things to me. Ugh. Life is totally not fair.

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

The themes of the dreams more than the dream and what’s actually happening in the dream is I think what you should be looking at. Loss of control, seeing something terrible is going to happen and not being able to do anything, loss.

My bad dreams aren’t always the trauma but themes like yours. loosing control, being afraid and other suchlike things. It’s all trauma related even if it isn’t the trauma that I’m dreaming about.

 

[Nessa7]

When talking to medical professionals, I usually describe my nightmares as being related to PTSD if I can draw a connection to my trauma. For some reason, they are actually much more symbolic than dreams that have no connection to trauma. I think it might be because my memory of some of the most traumatic aspects of the event is still jumbled up and confused. Approaching it symbolically is actually less confusing for me than a literal recreation would be.

For example, my dreams love to have my father be on fire. My trauma doesn't involve him being on fire, but the dreams are reflective of aspects of my trauma.

 

[Stephernovas]

When talking to medical professionals, I usually describe my nightmares as being related to PTSD if I ca...

don't you find that you can attach almost anything in a dream to your trauma though? I mean I had THE ODDEST dream the other night that I won't bother to explain and I could likely pull out a few emotions, but near the end there was something dead pulled out of the water, and it had the exact same expression (or at least the one my brain recalls) of the animal that died during my accident. So, I mean pretty clear connection there, but if that wasn't there....? I'm getting to the point where now its it's a negative dream, it's a PTSD nightmare.

 

[Abstract]

I have had dreams which are near to things that have happened and even where I wake up and it is still happening, but mostly its on a theme like others have said. Lots of scenarios of parents and emotionally horrible interactions, some that are about other things, some graphic, some recurring dreams that have been repeated many times. One with a short and long version and about repeated assaults where the people in it aren't directly identifiable. Dreams where perpetrators star in some way or other. Some with symbolism of the trauma rather than direct playing out of it. When my fullblown PTSD first started spilling over it was almost all symbolic.

What you describe is PTSD related in my opinion. Its your brain hanging onto the trauma and having it or concepts around it pop into your dream. I don't think every single part of your dream has to be related either.

 

[Stephernovas]

oh well that is just wonderful...lol thank you for your feedback everyone. I'm interested to hear everyone's perspective, but empathize with you all for going through it

 

[Nessa7]

I think that labeling all negative dreams as a PTSD nightmare is a more efficient way of seeing things. I'll occasionally have a nightmare from playing a horror video game that doesn't wander around to be about a trauma.

 

[user27357]

I sometimes have horrible nightmares directly related to traumas but thankfully I wake up quickly. Probably the most common is just sleeping along, not really dreaming, sometimes not even very long after I went to bed, I will wake to the sound of a car crash. I know it too well. I have screamed and even found myself on the floor or standing up after the crash a few times in 40 years of it, but mostly I just wake up with a full load of adrenaline cooking.
The worst sleep problems I have are when I wake up and don't know where I am for sure. My earliest traumas involved the hopelessness of waking up in my parents house and knowing that it was going to be another day spent following the rules of their cult like religion. I still feel the hopelessness at waking, sometimes it is related to things that are happening now with no associated loss of sense of place and time and sometimes I have to open my eyes and see my alarm clock or smell my wifes hair or look at my surroundings for a minute or two to get the hell out of my parents basement again.
I find that having a radio playing and a light or something that is a constant in the room like an alarm clock or the light from an outdoor floodlight that always comes through my window the same way helps me get grounded more quickly.