What exactly is a ptsd nightmare?

[shimmerz]

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.

Most of my bad dreams (mostly night terrors at the time), served a useful purpose of identifying and processing a feeling that I
A. Didn't remember I had had
B. Didn't have words for and the dream allowed me yet another chance of finding the words so I could work with it with my higher brain
C. Were flashing me back to help me figure out theme related traumas

So for me it was more than being about emotions. It was situations, it was feelings, people and events that led to my being able to sort out what was happening to me.

 

[katz]

Mine have always been of "things" that represent feelings. It usually takes me a few days to figure out what it was referring to. I just wake up sweating and can't fall back asleep. A lot of mine are about spiders. Yuck!

 

[Ahhlia]

I get strange dreams with some where I am trying to run but don't gain any distance while the figure is hunting for me. Or I get the dreams that I can't breath because the walls are closing in.None are related to my trauma except I felt trapped.

 

[Stephernovas]

I hate how complicated and intertwined this PTSD is

 

[user27357]

I get strange dreams with some where I am trying to run but don't gain any distance

thats one I have had. Nobody chasing, just an awareness that I need to move and just aren't able to do it effectively. That one and having to fight an unseen enemy and having no idea how, or actually fighting but having nothing but the sense that it isn't going well. Pulling the last bit of me into it and still losing...something.

 

[Ahhlia]

Hey enough.. in those chasing and fighting dreams doesn't it seem like sow motion buy you are all anxious to fight or run?

 

[user27357]

OK ...swallow the pride and male ego bullshit......yeah. Like I have no strength or just less than whatever opponent I am faced with, although unseen. Like I am running in water, like I am moving half speed. Then waking up knowing 100% that I am weak and inferior and hopeless.

The only real trauma connection comes from serious traumatic injuries and the knowledge each time that I can't get to a trauma center by myself, i cant fix this, I have to fight for my life but don't even know whats required, don't know if it's futile anyway, don't know if I am strong enough to get through this.

Therapist says we carry body memories from surgery with us, even though we can't remember anything after "count down from one hundred for me". I do know that I am combative after surgery, like being woke up interrupts my fight. But I don't remember an enemy or a fight.

I don't know how common this dream style is but my therapist seems well versed in it, as have others before her.

 

[Whirlwind]

I find it weird that I don't overtly identify as having PTSD nightmares. Maybe I do and I'm just naming them wrong?

I did not classify my dreams as PTSD but I have since come to believe they were just that.

My dreams were heinous, but I was used to them. Sometime they "carried over" a feeling throughout the day, but usually I remembered them but I was fine after waking up.
I think the key was I had BAD dreams and virtually never an inane or pleasant dream. Some of these dreams were repeats that I had for decades.
My dreams varied but the themes always centered on fear, physical pain and either running from something, physical battles and witnessing a lot of torture. They were ugly. Close friends used to joke I needed to write horror novels.

I did think these dreams were my peculiar way of sorting things out, and they probably stemmed from my childhood but they didn't really bother me. Well, until the daytime flashbacks started, LOL

Later after some therapy my dreams started "changing".

For example, I had some where the theme was not so bad, but they disturbed me like I kept dreaming about a shirt I had as a kid. I didn't remember until the dream it had been so long ago. After awhile these started to fill in the blanks on missing memories. Today I absolutely know why the shirt was important to me. The dreams began bothering me more during the day, leaving me feeling uneasy and nauseous sometimes. I did have bouts of insomnia and then my PTSD really flared.

In conclusion I did not consider these PTSD but given the fact my 40+ years of multiple nightly heinous dreams is now maybe a bad dream every few weeks. Yea, I would say they were PTSD trauma dreams.

This sounds strange but I had such an active dream life...I joked I had 2 lives going on. I sort of miss the dreams, its hard to explain. But I still find if something is bothering me, my dreams pick up in frequency/content. It helps me realize now I am under stress or need to deal with something.

Hope something helps,

Whirlwind

 

[Lionheart]

I think that anytime we are triggered in a dream, the adrenaline kicks in and we have PTSD nightmares. I used to have the same dream of being chased and trapped, over and over again.

The anxiety I felt I believe made it a PTSD nightmare or dream. But the worst ones are when something in a dream triggers the adrenaline rush and I dream of being horribly tortured or of dark, sick things that I can't even go into for fear of causing undue distress.

I take 5 mg of Prazosin before bed and I seldom even dream or have PTSD nightmares anymore. Ask your Pdoc about medicines like Prazosin.

 

[katz]

When I dream, my nightmares are usually representations of my traumas. It stays with me for days, till I can figure out what it stands for. I often write them down so that I can go back later.

I have also woke up with my heart beating so hard that I panic. Then I have to either get out of bed and go to the other room or I just lay there looking around the room and assuring myself it was just a nightmare.

I just lay there thinking over and over again. "I'm okay. It was just a dream. The danger is over. I'm home and safe. I'm a grown-up now."

 

[Stephernovas]

I'm noticing a recent dream about torture. It's usually going on around me (almost like I'm a ghost and no one knows I'm there), or I'm embodying another character in my dream (who I don't recognize) and they are getting tortured. If it's not that, I'm stuck somewhere and outside threats are all around. For example, last night I was stuck in some corner store that was filled to the max with stock and I was spending the night on a pull out couch in there? There were super big windows and outside it was like there were these zombie killer animals that attacked/chased people. I was able to sleep some, but in my dream I'd wake up to see one of the animals slaughtering another (lots of splashing blood). Then I was able to escape, and there was a group of us trying to continue running but we had to be quiet so they couldn't hear us (it all happened at night). It was very similar to the walking dead.

The other night I had a dream someone was telling me that an ex-friend of mine (who did something sh*tty to me without explanation), was the most depressed she'd ever been in her life. It's weird because I have given up on that friend and overall have been decreasing thinking about her, yet she's been appearing, if not starring in my dreams lately. It's so weird, cause it's almost like the dream message was trying to tell my conscious self that this is actually what's happening in real life. Or, it could just be my brain making stuff up. Either way I'm getting more and more surprised over the dreams that are coming up. I wasn't having so many before, but that's the third PTSD related dream in a row.

 

[katz]

I'm noticing a recent dream about torture. It's usually going on around me (almost like I'm a ghos...

My suggestion is to write them down in a journal. Then come back to them in a day or so. You might have some ideas on what they represent to you. You might even be able to add to them as you remember more details about the dream or what happened.

Be as descriptive as you can. Write down colors and feelings and shapes or sizes. These can help you in the future when you read them. (Example: it took me years to finally understand why I don't like the color yellow)