What exactly is a ptsd nightmare?

[shatter eyes]

My reoccuring theme is usually being hit or chased by cars. Like a crazy tow truck chasing me in a parking lot and i keep tripping over curbs.

Anthony posted something about prasozin study at VA. I read a bit. Its new findings and i wonder how it will affect my perception of prasozin.

I know if i dont take... i get very intense scary dreams.

 

[Bibine]

In my dreams, I often go near the fear, as far as I can bare. Most of the time (for years now), it is about 'someone being at the door', and me knowing it's bad, I'm trapped, I want them to go away, leave me alone, I need to call the cops but can't, I'm watching through the bull's eye but can't really see them, they seem to have all the power over me because they can easily just break the door and get in... and I'm standing behind the door, shaking, and actually nothing happens, ever. Nobody comes in, and there's no violence. I wake up before anything can happen.

 

[Chelcea]

Me too. I feel stuck. No one will come to get me out of the situation. Its alone, exhausting, and takes me away from my life, that im thankful for. Thanks it makes me feel better knowing im not alone

 

[T2L]

I tend to either have nightmares based on true fears and anxiety I have... Some I can tell were dreams but others feel so real I have to convince myself it didn't happen. Other times I experience flashbacks in my dreams. I don't know if that's considered a PTSD dream or not. I know flashbacks occur I guess when you're awake, but these nightmares are exact recollections with the same real details, etc. If I don't have either of those, I have really odd dreams filled with anxiety.

 

[user27357]

I know flashbacks occur I guess when you're awake, but these nightmares are exact recollections with the same real details, etc. If I don't have either of those, I have really odd dreams filled with anxiety.

Although this isn't my normal nightmare, it has happened to me also. I would add that it has the added feature of being able to know that it is a dream when it is happening, where my daylight flashbacks are so very complete that there doesn't seem to be a part of my conciousness left grounded in the real world until I am startled back to reality by someone speaking to me in a loud voice or shaking me or (horrors) honking at me while I sit through a green light or whatever (not while in motion behind the wheel, thanks).

It is as if I am allowing it to happen in my dream, knowing it is a dream but curious to see if there is a detail that will come to the surface in my dream that will be a missing part of the puzzle, if that makes sense. I can have entire episodes play back, entire days sometimes.

I think when I was young and pre PTSD I had pretty close to a complete memory, approaching what would be called "photographic' that went away as I acquired more things to forget and more help from chemical agents in achieving that goal. now I am decades sober and my memory is still less than I know it was back then, but my recall from those times can surprise me and I guess I find myself exploring that in dreams. it is, as i said earlier, not my norm, but it does happen.

 

[Freida]

I very rarely remember my dreams but I've been prone to nightmares since I was a kid so moving up a notch to ptsd dreams wasnt' a big jump
.
Regular nightmare --- I wake up with a start in bed, reaching for the light to ground me, understand I had a bad dream, go back to sleep
PTSD nightmare -- I wake up standing in the kitchen with a knife in my hand and I have no idea how I got there or why. I'm just full on adrenaline and looking for the threat. Or I wake up standing in the middle of the bedroom getting ready to fight because hubby calling my name. He learned really quick not to touch me until he was sure I was awake because otherwise I will knock him on his ass. Poor guy

 

[Ahhlia]

I get bad dreams but I don't walk up screaming, just Ahhh! and look around the room after the dreams.. sometimes I sweat
or I freeze. The dreams themselves are full of anxiety. He is back and wants to kill us. I am weak and cannot fight back. And no matter where I hiide he finds me.

 

[katz]

I can hear/feel my heart beating hard. My eyes pop open, then I have to look around the room quickly to reassure myself that it was just a dream. I have to lay there telling myself over and over again, "it was just a dream. you're all right, you're all right". Then sometimes I get up to just walk around, before I come back to bed.

I don't usually remember exactly what I was dreaming at that time. But, sometimes I remember it a few days later. Then I can either write it down or try to figure it out since my dreams are usually about symbolisms (different things that represent other things)