Having nightmares

[Faith No More]

I am aware of the events and people who caused them and I have always been a person who has been somewhat proud of the things that he has accomplished by himself despite the hardships I have encountered. Therapy of such a thing always means to reencounter and go through such events in a painfull detail. I would considere that to be surrender to the people who treated me so badly.

But the reality of the situation is quite the opposite. As of now, these past events and the people behind them are holding your subconscious mind hostage, and talking about them and working through them would free you of their grip, as you would lessen, or even eliminate, their effect on you. By refusing to work through this and simply repressing it all, you are surrendering to them, as you are allowing them to have control over you.

[Walking Void]

I found that all the shit in the world falls on me and gets in my ears and mouth when I become stressed.

I always had nightmares after I was tense. I always had muscle spasms and nerve impulses when I am stressed.

Sometimes You need to let that stress out like the pressure in a heating kettle would allow.

[NoraBrimstone]

My sister suffers from regular nightmares and night terrors. So does my Grandfather. My mother did too, come to think of it. I wonder if there is a genetic factor?

Anyway, my sister usually sleeps in my room when she's had a one, poor thing. Sometimes she gets scared to go to sleep and sleeps in my room anyway because I apparently "protect" her from them. Do you still get them when there's another person close to you? Maybe you could ask your doctor if there is any kind of medication that can stop you dreaming anything?

[kılıç_mehmet]

You might be stalked by the Slenderman!

[Angrboda]

You don't have to go into details, but why is it that you are not interested in treating the underlying issues? As far as I know, managing night terrors means just trying not to let them bother you.

I am aware of the events and people who caused them and I have always been a person who has been somewhat proud of the things that he has accomplished by himself despite the hardships I have encountered. Therapy of such a thing always means to reencounter and go through such events in a painfull detail. I would considere that to be surrender to the people who treated me so badly.

I don't know anything about night terrors off the top of my head, but I think you're letting your imagination get ahead of you. I don't know what the treatment for night terrors is, but that you imagine it to be a process of revisitation through talk therapy, and what that experience would mean to you and feel like, is putting the cart before the horse -- you haven't even been offered that as a treatment yet, and you're concluding that whatever treatment they offer will be that, and that it will be experienced that way by you. I remember when I first presented to the hospital with psychiatric symptoms after having suffered through a couple hour long panic attack (mine were unusually long), the psychiatrist who examined me indicated that she didn't feel the need to hospitalize me. When she started to explain why (I was no danger to myself, etc) I jumped the gun and inserted something about "because it would be kinda creepy" or some such nonsense. Knowing the reality of hospitalization now, I just want to fold up and die for shame over what I'd said. Anyway, you can always stop treatment at any point. It seems silly to stop before you start because of what you "imagine it would be like." I just recently returned to therapy: group therapy for depression, individual for depression and stuff. I expect less results from individual therapy than group, and after a lifetime of depression (and stuff), I'm not anticipating great changes from group. But I am keeping myself open to the possibility. The hockey player Wayne Gretzsky once commented, "You miss 100% of the shots you never take." In a similar vein, the success rate of therapies you never try is zero. I, like my sisters and my mom, suffered migraines most of my life. By late life, I had just gotten used to being incapacitated many days of each month with headaches. I didn't really think of treating them because I was just so used to living with them. However about 10-15 years back, I started reading up on them, and found out that a medication that was used to treat mood disorders was also used to treat migraines. I figured I might kill two birds with one stone, so I had my doctor prescribe it. It was very effective. It wasn't 100%, but the days a month that I would be knocked out dwindled to a handful. I had to discontinue that medication a few years ago due to some metabolism problems. With the return of my migraines, I finally did what I should have done originally, and went to see a neurologist. He prescribed a half dose of a blood pressure medication, which I didn't even know was a treatment for migraines. I got partial relief, but my other doctor was adding blood pressure meds as well, and the combined effect eliminated them. I have been for the most part migraine free for about two years. I've become rather non-compliant, and rarely take my medications these days, but after a few weeks of not taking my medication, the migraines start to come back; so I start taking my medication again, for a while......

[Walking Void]

Oh dee lawd! Look at the top answer in this Yahoo! Answers question.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...611AAthPHz

[Mystical]

I have night terrors. I can go weeks of little to no sleep.. When Im able to talk about them to someone I trust intensely, that particular dream hasn't reappeared since. Mind you I'd never told a living soul what I told them, so it felt like I was releasing secrets I'd held for too long. I recently found a treatment called EMDR therapy. Apparently its where you say what happened while hypnotized and they make your eyes move in a way that causes your brain to restore the memories in a more benign manner. I'll let you know how it goes when I do it

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lol walking void I used to have night terrors about demons whom I could not rebuke with the name of the lord. I would have life altering fear for the entire day afterwards.. And my brother claimed to be choked by demons regularly. I also felt like I was being watched constantly by spirits.. The worst was when I concluded I was seeing a demon shadow haunting my house. I hated it, it was very prevalent in my life! Since I gave up my beliefs in such things, I am happy to report I've been incident free

[Rahul]

From my understanding Night Terrors are something that you believe to be real even after fully awake. Night Terrors usually occur when you are in a partially conscious state but other sections of your brain are switched off in hibernation mode.

A nightmare you realize was just a dream after coming completely awake.

I've read of Night Terrors of past centuries when people believed they were attacked by demons or witches. One person had a Night Terror that a large black dog had come into their bedroom, hopped upright, placed their front paws on their chest, and pushed down preventing them from breathing. I believe it was blamed on a witch and some old woman was executed for it.

These days Night Terrors are often of the Alien Abduction type. Anal probes are our century's version of witchcraft.

I've never experienced a Night Terror. And I slept walked quite a bit as a kid. I never remembered anything from them.

[Angrboda]

From my understanding Night Terrors are something that you believe to be real even after fully awake. Night Terrors usually occur when you are in a partially conscious state but other sections of your brain are switched off in hibernation mode.

I believe you are thinking of sleep paralysis, not night terrors. (Apparently there's another parasomnial disorder known as confusional arousal ["Confusional arousal is a condition when an individual awakens from sleep and remains in a confused state. It is characterized by the individual's partial awakening and sitting up to look around. They usually remain in bed and then return back to sleep."])

Sleep paralysis is a phenomenon in which people, either when falling asleep or wakening, temporarily experience an inability to move. More formally, it is a transition state between wakefulness and rest characterized by complete muscle atonia (muscle weakness). It can occur at sleep onset or upon awakening, and it is often associated with terrifying visions (e.g., an intruder in the room), to which one is unable to react due to paralysis. It is believed to be a result of disrupted REM sleep, which is normally characterized by complete muscle atonia that prevents individuals from acting out their dreams.

[Rahul]

I believe you are thinking of sleep paralysis, not night terrors. (Apparently there's another parasomnial disorder known as confusional arousal ["Confusional arousal is a condition when an individual awakens from sleep and remains in a confused state. It is characterized by the individual's partial awakening and sitting up to look around. They usually remain in bed and then return back to sleep."])

No. I've experienced sleep paralysis. There were several times when I was a teenager where I would be trying to go to sleep and I would become unable to move but I could hear everything and was conscious. I would concentrate on trying to move my fingers and slowly be able to come out of it.

Turning on a TV or radio would prevent it from happening.

A Night Terror might occur during sleep paralysis. But sleep paralysis alone would not cause a hallucination of alien abduction or demonic attack.

I have hallucinated the feeling of a human hand being placed on my back as I was drifting off to sleep. It felt so real I would jerk spasmodically awake and adrenaline would surge through my body causing my heart to beat furiously. But no one was in the room with me.

That is not all that uncommon I've read.

But for it to be a Night Terror you'd have to experience some kind of interaction with a terrifying entity.