# Nightmares



## rainboteers (Apr 5, 2005)

Do any of you have nightmares constant nightmares? Almost like a flashback or something that happened in your life? It is really making sleep something I do not want to do. I was just wondering if I am alone with this.


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## M A R S (Jun 24, 2005)

My last and current bout of DR/DP and panic started with a dream.

I woke up half drunk and was kinda stuck in a crazy nightmare that i was killing people. I had one of the worst panic attacks that morning and i have been feeling crazy since then.

I'm terrified that it might happen again, i have been wondering if I'm still in a dream.

I have been having obsessive fears and constant freak outs for the past week. Its scary...


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## Guest (Jun 29, 2005)

I have several recurring nightmares:

1. Being crucified and immolated by people I know.

2. Being raped by multiple men.

3. Being chained to a pyramid and tortured (see "The Book of Hate" for details).

4. Finding "myself" in a "normal" situation, like school, and ripping my doppelganger to shreds with a sword.

5. Being betrayed by people I know (after it actually happens).

6. Being hunted down by a Death Knight down a rainbow colored tunnel, only to run headlong into a grandfather clock that has the face of my grandfather, and both kill me.

7. Being in a rose garden made entirely of ice. (Sometimes it's a nightmare, sometimes it's just a surreal dream, I suppose circumstances cause me to react differently to it).

8. Being in a terrible, war-torn wasteland, with people starving, wounded, and dying all around me, and my body is slowly turning into a giant emerald.

9. Running/driving through the cityscape, trying to avoid the Men In Black

Yours truly,
XEPER

P.S. Those were the only ones off the top of my head, I may come up with more.

P.P.S. If anyone decides to look at "The Book of Hate," (warning: not for the faint of heart) please read the entirety of the text...it's there for a reason.


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## mcsiegs (Apr 27, 2005)

Rainbo -

Even though my DP has subsided these days, I still get recurring nightmares that I talk to my therapist about. They all revolve around my dad growing up.

Nightmares are scary, but just know that they happen to all of us, and they can definitely ruin the next day!

Here is some advice:

1. Avoid all food 3 hours before bed.
2. Avoid all beverages (except some water) 2 hours before bed (esp caffeine). And a side note on caffeine - it has a long half life in the body, so a caffeinated drink from 4pm can linger into the night.
3. Do something active at night (take a walk, run, clean, etc)
4. Read something uplifting before bed.
5. Try and sleep without the TV on (if this is something you do)
6. Make love before you sleep.

Just some advice...hope these nightmares subside soon. Here's a hug your way for a no-nightmare night. <>


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## Guest (Jun 29, 2005)

Do NOT make love before you go to bed...

For that matter, do not have sex at all!

Tch, bloody hedonists...

Yours truly,
XEPER

P.S. Why is it called making love? You're not actually making love, you're engaging in the bestial, plebian, savage act of rubbing your genitals against someone else's. (See my second post in "The Agony of Loving" for details)


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## Universal (May 30, 2005)

hey siegs, since your dp has subsided do you have normal thought/feeling patterns again?

sorry i'm kinda intruding on a post but this is something i've been thinking about


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## Ben (Apr 21, 2005)

Hey rainboteers,

Yes, nightmares still get me from time to time; however, I have found that irregular sleep patterns seem to bring them out mostly. Also drinking caffeine before going to bed has a tendency to wack me out more - at least making things a bit more vivid. Missing paxil for a couple days in a row really screws me up when I get back on it....

....I really feel you're fine and you don't have anything serious to worry about - it's just a natural reaction to your body chemistry and your life patterns at the time.

Do you take naps now and then? The odd thing is, I have found that I sleep better at night (or, at least, have fewer weird dreams, etc.) when I take a nap every so often (a half an hour long, etc.). Don't ask me why....I have no idea, it just seems to work for me.....

....Hope this helps.


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## rainboteers (Apr 5, 2005)

Thanks for the advice. I will give it a try.


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## Guest (Jun 29, 2005)

XEPER if you are honestly dreaming stuff like that on a regular basis, you NEED to see someone, now. It won't go away on it's own.

I couldn't put up with it for even...well, once. I don't know how long you've been dreaming like this, but I couldn't handle it.

The thing that struck me was being raped by multiple men, your grandfathers face, and your obvious disgust for anything relating to sex.

But hey, I'm just playing join the dots, and going for the easiest, most peddled option, so just ignore me. I'd really seek help though - why would you choose to keep putting yourself through that?


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## mcsiegs (Apr 27, 2005)

Universal said:


> hey siegs, since your dp has subsided do you have normal thought/feeling patterns again?


Fortunately, my feeling patterns were never compromised by DP

My thought patterns are back to normal. I am no longer scared to be away from home, on an airplane, out at night, etc. I have my concentration back at work, and am very productive.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

rainboteers said:


> Do any of you have nightmares constant nightmares? Almost like a flashback or something that happened in your life?


Yes. Somethin will happen to me, like say i go to a party and get a bit tipsy, then i will have increadibly real nightmares where i relive that party only in the dream i black out and can't remember what i did there. When i wake up i start wondering if i really did black out when i was at the party in real life. Anyway, you are not alone.


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## Milan (May 29, 2005)

Yes I get them and I believe that the SSRI's I'm taking has made the dreams a little more vivid. I get stalked alot in my nightmares and the creature is DP/DR. Very scary especially when you wake up just after one.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

10. Alien Abduction (I've also had one instance of psychosis when I would experience similar and related phenomenon when I was awake; and no, it wasn't due to sleep apnea)

11. Going to my parents' place of worship and being beaten to a bloody pulp.

12. Having someone break my heart.

13. Falling off of a cliff.

14. Going to school naked (yeah, that's original...).

15. Being in a really HUGE war and killing people brutally and with great ease (despite the latter detail, I still find it horrifying).

Yours truly,
XEPER

P.S. Every time I have a nightmare, I wake up with blood all over my pillow, blanket/comforter, and sometimes on my face. Does anyone else experience this phenomenon, or even heard of it?


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## Shadow Cat (May 3, 2005)

> P.S. Every time I have a nightmare, I wake up with blood all over my pillow, blanket/comforter, and sometimes on my face. Does anyone else experience this phenomenon, or even heard of it?


I've heard of people cutting themselves in their sleep, which would cause bleeding.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

Really? I've never heard of that. Thank you.

Yours truly,
XEPER

P.S. You know, that would make sense in my case, now that I think about it...


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

Shadow Cat said:


> > P.S. Every time I have a nightmare, I wake up with blood all over my pillow, blanket/comforter, and sometimes on my face. Does anyone else experience this phenomenon, or even heard of it?
> 
> 
> I've heard of people cutting themselves in their sleep, which would cause bleeding.


I've heard of nosebleeds...


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

I don't suffer from nosebleeds; I would have noticed THOSE...


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

XEPER said:


> I don't suffer from nosebleeds; I would have noticed THOSE...


Oh yeah.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

Was that sarcastic?


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

XEPER said:


> Was that sarcastic?


Does mouse sh*t roll?

Where was this blood coming from then?


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

I'm sorry, I haven't studied the mobility of the fecal matter of _musca domestica_.

Whenever there is dried blood on my face, it's usually on my forehead or around my lips and mouth.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

XEPER said:


> I'm sorry, I haven't studied the mobility of the fecal matter of _musca domestica_.
> 
> Whenever there is dried blood on my face, it's usually on my forehead or around my lips and mouth.


I have, fascinating subject.

Sorry, I still reckon it's a nosebleed. Have you had your adenoids checked?


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

Yes, I just had them checked last week, actually.


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

XEPER said:


> Yes, I just had them checked last week, actually.


And?


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

Nothing. I even brought up the bloody episodes, and the doctor didn't know what to say (which is why I brought it up in the first place). Btw, I also had to get a Meningitis vaccine injection. I HATE injections. I also hate blood tests. Did I ever tell you about the time I had to get a blood test and I had so much anxiety that the nurse had to wrestle me to that stupid table thing with the paper on it and squeeze the blood up through the entire length of my arm?

Yours truly,
XEPER

P.S. ...eh...I got nothin'...


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## Guest (Jun 30, 2005)

I think it's still able to be explained logically.

Got to be from either your mouth or possibly ears... :?


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

Xeper,
If you go into psychoanalytical therapy, those dreams can be a doorway into your unconscious. You have wonderful material to work with.


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2005)

Yet MORE nightmares:

16. Being in Barnes & Noble and having someone (presumably a family member, though upon waking it becomes clear that the person is not a member of my family) confront me and tell me that I told so-and-so that he/she is adopted (which is odd because no one in my extended family is adopted).

17. Having a sister who dies slowly of an incurable disease (breaks my heart every time...but I've always been an only child...)

18. Being hunted down and killed by the ancient Egyptian god Horus.

19. Drowning slowly with my cellphone ringing. Eventually, I pick it up and my father says on the other end that he hates me. (The second part actually happened in real life recently)

Yours truly,
XEPER

P.S. How do you like THEM apples, Sojourner?


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2005)

XEPER hasn't it ever occured to you that your family are the ones that are evil and not you? They sound like a bunch of complete retards to me.

If my Dad said that, he'd get a barrage of expletives down the phone, and a crowbar to the kneecaps.

Then, I'd start to get a bit nasty.


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2005)

Mr. Mole, it would make more sense from a logical point of view that my parents are the ones who are "evil." However, I just can't shake this feeling...I guess I've just accepted it for so long...

Yours truly,
XEPER

P.S. Pretty quiet today, huh?


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2005)

XEPER said:


> Mr. Mole, it would make more sense from a logical point of view that my parents are the ones who are "evil." However, I just can't shake this feeling...I guess I've just accepted it for so long...
> 
> Yours truly,
> XEPER
> ...


You don't have to the trouble of typing my username like that. My name isn't Mr. Mole, it's just a username. (Not even the one I use normally, but I can do without various people reading my posts by Googling for my usual alias), Less keyboard work for you!

Of course your parents are the ones that are evil! It's more obvious that Pavarotti hiding behind a bamboo shoot.

So all you've got to do is break your own beliefs. Funnily enough, the same I'm trying to do, so fully appreciate how hard it is.


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## mcsiegs (Apr 27, 2005)

XEPER said:


> P.S. Pretty quiet today, huh?


I have noticed that Fridays are the quietest day of the week on this board. It gives me hope that DP have lives too


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2005)

I'm barely employed otherwise I'd love to be out 

Got plenty of money in the bank but it has to last me for the foreseeable future...


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## Monkeydust (Jan 12, 2005)

XEPER, I know you have 22 disorders - and this admittedly is not much of a consolation - but like Sojourner said, you _do_ have a discernable root for many of these symptoms, stemming from, say, abusive parents, a nasty childhood, and expressing itself in self-loathing.

That wouldn't be a good thing, but you definitely have something to work with if you were to try some depth-therapy. If you ever have the money to try some, I really think you should - since you're intelligent you have a good chance at making progress if you're shown how to do so.


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## person3 (Aug 10, 2004)

I'm Jewish, so of course my nightmares are based on money.

I actually woke up screaming once because I had a nighmare that my dad accused me of stealing money and decided to disown me.


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## Martinelv (Aug 10, 2004)

Strange, because thinking about it don't think I've had a proper nightmare since I was a kid - now they are usually just banal or bizarre. I once had a dream about a horse. That was it. Just a horse standing in a field. It was so boring I woke up. Oh and I also had a memorable cracker amount going downstairs to make a cup of tea, only to find - SHOCK HORROR - that I hadn't put any water in the kettle. My bizarre ones are really quite bizarre though....not including Sleep Paralysis.

I do, however, have a weekly (sometimes more) dream that I've just murdered someone and I am trying to escape the authorities. The dream content is never the same, but the theme is. I'm almost certain I know what the analysts will say about that type of dream, so don't bother telling me. :wink:


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## Monkeydust (Jan 12, 2005)

I recently had the "i've just murdered someone let's leg it" dream, come to think about it.

I have no idea what it means though.


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## Martinelv (Aug 10, 2004)

I think it's meant to mean that you are feeling guilty about something - usually a seperation fom someone or something that was important to you. In my case - my life.

The worrying thing is, during the dream I have no feelings of guilt at all about the 'murder', just a terrible urge to escape, get away.


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

I think the urge to murder is *anger*, not guilt.


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## Monkeydust (Jan 12, 2005)

I don't think either me or Martin have an urge to murder - well, perhaps Martin does :wink: .

Such dreams aren't about wanting to kill anybody, they're about you already having done something and running away from it, hence guilt, not anger. Although I'm equally ready to believe that they have no meaning at all.


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

Only the dreamer knows what the dream means, that's true. One of the classic ideas, though, is that dreams are wishes. Another is that for every character in a dream, we are actually dreaming of part of ourselves, not necessarily the other actual characters.


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## enigma (Feb 18, 2005)

I had a very bizarre dream experience as a teenager that made such an impression on me that I recall it vividly to this day.

It was so real that at the time I believed it to have been an alien abduction (though in hindsight I recognize that it was only a very lucid dream.)

It wasn't really a nightmare, it was just strange.

It occurred during an early evening nap, as I was just dozing on my bed.

In it, I found myself lying paralyzed on my back staring straight up.

It was a basket ball court type setting, or a school gymnasium.

Above me were these clusters of floodlights shining down on me that actually hurt my eyes, and felt uncomfortably hot.

Stranger still, there was a giant man (about the size of King Kong) staring down at me from above.

He looked like a scientist, or a doctor (50'ish, white coat, black plastic-framed glasses).

He was just staring down at me studying me dispassionately.

Also, I noticed that the surface I was lying on was actually a clear acryllic polymer type material, which reflected the light from above (I later thought that it might've been a glass microscopic slide, though I don't recall actually seeing a giant microscope above me).

It felt as real as anything ever did in my entire life, and I just presumed I was wide awake and it was really happening at the time (though it's normal to do so in dreams, this was different somehow).

I have no recollection of the ending, but I still recall clearly how the whole thing felt at the time.

The point to this?

None.

I've just always wanted to share that, and this thread seemed as appropriate a venue as any for it.

e


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

Enigma,

So how _did_ you feel after/during the dream?


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## enigma (Feb 18, 2005)

Sojourner said:


> Enigma,
> 
> So how _did_ you feel after/during the dream?


During it I felt wide awake, It was like I had just been transported to another place.

After it, I felt no different (if something higher and superior really did have me, they obviously did nothing to help me, because I was just as f*cked up afterwards as I was before).

e


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## Ben (Apr 21, 2005)

> if something higher and superior really did have me, they obviously did nothing to help me


In other words, you didn't wake up the next morning farting fire and complaining about a giant probe coming out of your ass....


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## Sojourner (May 21, 2005)

Enigma,

I am asking more about the _affect_ or _feeling_ or _emotion_ than about reality vs. unreality.


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## enigma (Feb 18, 2005)

Sojourner said:


> Enigma,
> 
> I am asking more about the _affect_ or _feeling_ or _emotion_ than about reality vs. unreality.


As far as emotion was concerned, I didn't really feel anything except intense confusion (I wasn't even all that afraid, actually).

Afterward, there was just a sense of mystification.

e


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