I’ve been living with my husband since I was 19 and been completely no contact.
After being diagnosed with CPTSD and dealing with everything following moving out, the one thing I cannot escape is these dang nightmares .
I wake up, screaming, hitting the bed and nearly my partner ( in my sleep) I’ve screamed in his face in a dead sleep, . It’s not only stressful mentally but it’s been a physical issue as well due to the lash out in my dreams, once I had punched the bed three times in a row woke myself up from that, and by the grace of everything I had happened to be turned away from him.
We don’t have many other sleeping arrangements so this is just so stressful. Thankfully, in the last month or so the physical lash outs have gotten better but the dreams still persist. As well as the screaming, yelling and cussing in my dreams ( I often only verbalize when I’m “fighting” or arguing them in my dreams. It’s like emotions can’t contain themselves and fabricate outside of my dream )
Furthermore, I take medication, Seroquel, which makes my dreams incredibly immersive, which makes the issue even more troublesome. These dreams don’t feel like dreams, but like actual reliving the abuse and can completely make or break my day, as I basically wake up to a trigger.
I’m on another medication such as clonazepam, which helps my anxiety, but I try not to rely on those to heavily and only use them for emergency purposes. And because the dreams are such consistencies, it’s hard to even deem them as emergencies at this point. Also I am in therapy, but there’s only so much that can help seemingly.
Does anyone else experience this and any advice?
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That's terrible. I'm so sorry. The stress of that is so real.
Please get trauma therapy if you can. It's worth it.
That’s horrible, but unfortunately I can relate. I was diagnosed with PTSD about 1,5 years ago, and it took a while but therapy has done a lot for me. Especially EMDR helped a lot, I can absolutely recommend it. I used to have a lot of nightmares too, and I still have the occasional one, but they’re not as intense as yours. I understand drugs may help getting through the day, but they aren’t going to solve anything, only therapy can. Please keep at it, things will get better at some point!
I take Prazosin for nightmares. When I was on another prescription that causes vivid nightmares I didn’t have many. Maybe prazosin can help you while you are in therapy.
I have been struggling with the same issue after recently being diagnosed with c-PTSD. I have talked to my therapist about it, and they said that it's not surprising to them since my subconscious is currently flooded with my traumatic experiences and doesn't have anywhere for my thoughts to go when I'm awake so they show up in my dreams. According to them the dreams should become vivid and stressful as my trauma therapy progresses.
The Clonazepam is making your PTSD worse. Benzos are contraindicated for PTSD. Your medication is not working for you. You also need a good therapist and frequent therapy so that your processing has a contained space and doesn't have to come out only in dreams. Prazosin and THC can help with nightmares and should be discussed with your psychiatrist since nightmares are a main symptom for you.