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Nightmares which affect daily mental health

Marra

Hi everyone, I'm fairly new here & not great at communicating so here goes.. I'm 60yrs old, diagnosed autistic 8yrs ago and also diagnosed with Complex PTSD. I care for my two autistic adult children at home. I dream every time I sleep, even if I dose off for a moment I dream- it sounds impossible but it's a fact. At night when I sleep I have huge epic dreams which are complicated, emotional, distressing and when i wake up every morning I am distressed, shocked, frightened. It takes until mid afternoon or evening for these feelings to ease and then when I sleep again the dreams happen and it's like a reset' in my mind & on waking I'm back to being very distressed etc. This has been happening daily/nightly for as long as I can remember, decades. I've been seen by 2 psychiatrists and a psychologis have tried different therapy methods to try and control my sleep and 'influence' my dreaming, and have even tried prescribed Prazosin at various strenths to try and ease the dreams but nothing has had any effect. I understand why the dreams are happening- my mind has alot to pricess and this is happening while i sleep- but what i need is fir the dreams to ease off in intensity or even just stop. As you can imagine I'm beyond exhausted every day. Does any of this sound familiar to anyobe else? Does anyone have any advice? Thank you for reading this.

Parents

  • I do.

    My psychologist gave me this answer for my case:

    • past traumatic experiences
    • and unprocessed daily stuff that gives me very high anxiety.

    These would be causes of my daily nightmares *I wake up covered in sweat almost every night*.

    For me, it's been decades as well, no one has helped me that much to reduce it though. 

    I think it would require me to feel safe and understood, which does not happen.

Reply

  • I do.

    My psychologist gave me this answer for my case:

    • past traumatic experiences
    • and unprocessed daily stuff that gives me very high anxiety.

    These would be causes of my daily nightmares *I wake up covered in sweat almost every night*.

    For me, it's been decades as well, no one has helped me that much to reduce it though. 

    I think it would require me to feel safe and understood, which does not happen.

Children
  • in reply to Deleted User

    Thank you for replying, and I empathise with you- we've been told what is causing our nightmares and been offered some conventional 'self help' but not offered a solid or focused treatment, if that even exists. 

    I also wake up drenched in sweat, shaking, sometimes vocally calling out or grasping at something that isn't there. I can cope with those aspects of my dreaming/waking but it's the emotional affects that i can't cope with and which impact my mental health daily.