Stress Dreams

[BeautifulBlue]

I'll make this brief,

I've been having really disturbing reoccuring stress dreams for about four months. I believe they were triggered by my recent visit to see my family back in Idaho (which happened in May.)

Now... my stress dreams usually involve one of three things:

- College
- My medication
- My abuse as a child

Examples of college dreams are: I can't get help from various sources because I haven't 'filled out the proper paperwork,' I'm stuck in classes in which my psychology teacher is ranting about anti-medication treatments (which triggered me horribly,) or I'm trapped in my English class with my psycho English professor. Some of these dreams also deal with paying them back or the inability to pay them back.

Examples of medication dreams: Inability to get my medication for one reason or another, them trying to put me on medications that make me miserable, telling me there's 'nothing they can do for me' or telling me I need to check myself into a psychiatric hospital because I 'obviously need help.' (I'm Bipolar and have been in an emergency psychiatric clinic three separate times in the past yea.r)

Examples of abuse dreams: I have dreams in which my father and I are getting into physical confrontations (the most recent one resulted in a physical jerking reaction which made me hit the wall and tear a gash in my shoulder open from where my sunburn was,) where he's carrying guns around the house, yelling at the top of his lungs, calling me names, telling me I'll never be worth anything/make it anywhere/accusing me of being a 'dirty faggot,' that sort of thing, or him beating on my mother. I will also sometimes have stress dreams about the emotional abuse my mother put me through in which she tells me I can't go anywhere, I can't do something for a particular reason, she 'cries' as she tries to tell me she's been a good mother, or the worst: a play-by-play repeat of the day she told me she was 'only keeping herself alive because of my little brother and I' when I was twelve.

The two I just had (that woke me up and inspired me to make this post) were not being able to pay my student loans and another in which my mother had died from a heart attack and at the hearing (I think that's where you call it) the priest/pastor was completely disrespecting her memory by going off about his personal life, aliens and 'sperm' particles.

The most obvious explanation would be to talk to my therapist about this. I plan on doing that specifically, but my only problem is I only see my therapist every other week and I see him on the 21rst the next time.

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with stress dreams? Any experience/techniques? My roommate (who's a lucid dreamer) suggested I try to learn how to lucid dream in order to control the outcomes of my dreams, but I'm not sure I can influence my brain enough to do that due to the antipsychotics/depressants I am on.

Let me know if you have any advice.

Thanks,

- Blue

[LateBloomer]

The problem with recurring dreams is that they won't stop until you have resolved the issue that is bringing that "anxiety" to the surface.

You seem to have issues with "helplessness", "feeling stuck", "shame/worth" and "indebtedness".

Obviously, yeah, you need to discuss this stuff with your therapist but in the meantime you can try journaling your dreams. Just the act of writing them down is helpful to kind of distill the common themes. One technique taught to me is to write out an ending to the dream that YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE.

You can try lucid dreaming, but it's very difficult. If you can't manage to control your dreams in a lucid manner then writing them down and composing an "alternative" ending might be an effective substitute.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[ChadCoxRox]

Your experience is well described but I'd need more information before I could give any useful feedback. I suppose I could suggest taking down some notes to help you be productive in your sessions. Twice monthly should be sufficient for counseling as long as you are otherwise stable. Again, I'd need more info, especially about your recovery over the past couple years or so and any components of your recovery program that you follow with consistency. Journaling can be a HUGE key in therapy and recovery because that helps clarify and pin down patterns and clues to any weakness in recovery strategies. The harder you work on recovery now the sooner it becomes less like work and more like satisfying life. Please stay connected on your progress because I have KEEN interest in your journey. Hope you're feeling some relief soon.

[matty7]

thought u were makin it brief ??? ,,,im gonna have to read all that in stages mate b4 i rply

[fenris]

On every stress symptomatology I advice at first Basil-Tea .... 1 Teaspoon / cup boiling water.... 2 - 3 cups a day ... the last 20 minutes before bedtime. The Tea has a very good relaxing effect and clears and calm down your mind.

A second possibility is Rosemary Wine .... fill a bottle half with rosemary herbs .. fill up with a simple white Wine ... let stand warm for 14 Days ... shake every day twice.... filter ... and drink 2 - 5 cl. if you feel stressed. Be careful... alcohol !

Important is to talk about things you are stressed by ..... I always say a good friend has the job to be there and hear your sorrows.

[zeon]

Helo there,
By the sounds of it you got a lot of things subconciously worrying you on your mind... Dreams are a way we indentify the differences we see and dont see in life... What i want you to do is write in the middle of a page the word STRESS and then circle it not once or twice but three times continuously enhancing the boldness.. Now draw arrows off it and write on this bit of paper EVERYTHING in life which could be causing stress to you and from there draw arrows to explain to yourself what you are willing to do to try to change it. Stressing over some things silly can cause this as well and if you need to chat about anything getting to you feel free to inbox me mister xx

Kindest regards

Aunty Zeon

[Pix]

I used to be plagued by nightmares that often involved elements of past abuse & trauma, especially in October when many of these things happened in the past (it was a vicious circle, I'd go without sleep because of nightmares of past trauma and thus be stressed out and more confrontational as well as less prepared to avoid future abuse & trauma as I was so worn out and dazed leading to more nightmare material to haunt me next October). Of course I had these nightmares throughout the year, but most were focused right about October.

A common theme was that I was helpless again. For example, doors couldn't lock (just as I couldn't use locked doors to protect myself as a child), I was slow & weak and thus unable to resist physical aggression, and even if I had a gun (which I never did as a child) it wouldn't work (either wouldn't fire or had no effect). So I started to use self-hypnosis to find my "inner child" and tutor her in all the ways of taking care of herself and envisioned her growing up into me who had all kinds of ways to take care of herself. I did this frequently for about a year and it changed. Doors started staying locked in my dreams, I was able to resist, and if I had a gun it worked. This made them less nightmares (distressing still, but an improvement) and I also started having less of these nightmares. I believe this contributed to why my October nightmares are almost nonexistent now.

Another thing I would do is use self-hypnosis to rewrite the dreams. Again, it takes awhile, but within a year the repeating dreams did start to change to conform to the new model.

I even got a little creative. For example, I get plagued by vampire & zombie dreams so I programmed a little pyrokinesis and ability to fly into me, and even years later when the hungry undead show up I automatically start burning them and say levitating to a roof (though oddly I can only do it a few times before I have to recharge...so it's more of an emergency measure to get away).

Where it's most effective is when I try programming good dream elements into the nightmares. For some reason Giles (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) often showed up as a father figure in my dream (in one dream he was my dad and my real dad wasn't and when it was time for me to go home I left with Giles instead of either of my real parents who were also in the dream) so I visualized him as "Good lord, she needs help," and he's shown up in more than one nightmare since then...and sometimes he even brings Buffy (in other dreams I become Buffy). Those are some cool dreams. mile:

[BeautifulBlue]

Your guys' advice is excellent, thank you. I think a lot of my stress also has to come from my living situation. My roommates pretty much treat me like crap 75% of the time, I've been financially supporting them even though the one makes more money than me (buying them groceries, etc.,) I've been doing work for her CONSTANTLY but she claims she 'does all the work around here' (when I'm formatting her books, doing her websites, promo, etc., that sort of thing.) Her husband's lazy as fuck so I'm usually doing all the house chores... it just sucks. -_- Not much I can do about the situation because as I said in my other thread, I can't go back home to my abusive parents.

[LateBloomer]

Your guys' advice is excellent, thank you. I think a lot of my stress also has to come from my living situation. My roommates pretty much treat me like crap 75% of the time, I've been financially supporting them even though the one makes more money than me (buying them groceries, etc.,) I've been doing work for her CONSTANTLY but she claims she 'does all the work around here' (when I'm formatting her books, doing her websites, promo, etc., that sort of thing.) Her husband's lazy as fuck so I'm usually doing all the house chores... it just sucks. -_- Not much I can do about the situation because as I said in my other thread, I can't go back home to my abusive parents.

Just a suggestion because I don't really TRULY know your living arrangement...

But rather than spending all your free time and money "working" for your roommate and buying THEIR food, how about you quit being her "bitch" and spend your time working a "real job" then find a different roommate, one who is willing to carry their fair share of the load and move in with him/her?

Austin is a college town. There are probably hundreds of students your age looking for a roommate. And I know the economy is tough but if you were earning your money bagging groceries rather than buying groceries you would have some self respect and independence.

How does that sound?

[72jay]

Lucid dreaming can let you control/modify dreams, and even turn a nightmare into a good dream (known from experience ) And its a totally awesome feeling when it happens.
But even the when you know 'this is a dream' (but have no control) its pretty cool and can have a similar effect
Its also possible to have some control/modify ability without being lucid.

That said, ofcourse you can't 'catch' every nightmare. Getting to the point of being able to lucid dream also takes time and effort...
* You'd deff need to keep a dream log/journal
* Be able to get more than 8 hours of sleep at night (or at least 8+ hours rest even if u don't sleep the whole time)
* Can't say on the meds, but stress will for sure work against you here.

I got to the point of being 'ok' at it ... but I think it took a couple years practice, and was best one winter when I was able to get 8-to-10 hours in bed every night.
Aside from tons of 'normal' dreams, Sometimes I'd get true lucid dreams, sometimes they'd be semi-lucid, and sometimes I'd have bits of control without being lucid.
One time I even had a "lucid...but no dream"