Nightmare's, go away?

[Palmolive]

Hey guys.

Im taking a guess that ts thread should be under mental health, but im sorry if its in the wrong place.

Basically, ive neeb having nightmares. For a few months now, ever since my dad tried to kill himself before christmas. Ive had sleeping problems for about a year, and its a real task to get of to sleep. Therefor i was put on Melatonin pills by my pysch to help me sleep although i havent seen a big improvement from them to be honest. However, ive read that these pills can increase you're chances of making you're dreams more, i dont know how to say it, but like so that you remember them more easily and makes the occour more often.

These nightmares are me seeing people i love hurting them selves and stuff like that, so its really hard to handle.

I was wondering if any of you guys have had any experience in situation like this?

Thankyou.

[Stacey]

I have a similar experience, however it turned out to be due to increased anxiety. Although the medication may be increasing the frequency of the dreams (I am not sure I don't have much experience with the medication), however considering what you've been through it is possible that this is a symptom of some form of anxiety, maybe this should be something you should bring up with your psychologist? Mine went away by themselves after a month or two, but they were horrible and interfering with my quality of sleep and therefore my quality of life, so I understand just how much these can affect you. I'm being treated for my anxiety now, and I haven't had any episodes of these nightmares since. So, like I said maybe you should talk to your psychologist.

[Stephanie]

Hey there Jessica,

I'm sorry that you have had to been dealing with these awful nightmares, it must be awful. It's good that you've been talking about your sleeping with your psychiatrist and that you've tried medication to help. I do know that psychiatric medication can affect your dreams and you may be more prone to vivid dreams, I've experienced that whilst taking Fluoexetine. I think that you have to look at the pros and cons of the medication though and see whether it's better to stop taking them for that one reason or whether it actually may be more beneficial for you to try and put up with the negative aspects of the medication.

It sounds like your nightmares are very distressing and I have had similar experiences before - they're not easy to deal with. It is important to talk to someone about these dreams after you have experienced them as it is known to help you cope with how they affect you. It might also help to try and distract yourself with positive thoughts before you sleep. Your dreams are usually a reflection of what's happening in your life when you're awake and so it's important to deal with that - perhaps keeping with some form of therapy or diary writing could help you.

Take care.

[EmisaurusRex]

I had and still have really bad nightmares about things like that. I'd wake up from mine screaming at times.
Although, mine didn't start while taking medicine. I take medicine to help me go to sleep because I would make myself stay up for days because of the nightmares. So...I guess it's different.
Mine are recurring. Like, the same ones over and over again. At first, they felt really real. Is that how yours are? Anyways...I guess I am somewhat used to them because I don't wake up screaming or crying anymore.
They get better when I'm not so stressed. And, it helps to talk about them.
I try to meditate or do something calming before I go to sleep, especially when I've been in a real crap mood.
Also, I tried lucid dreaming. Where you try to take control of your dream. Like...I tried to punch the people doing bad things in the face. It didn't really work for me, but it might for you. Wikipedia has a pretty good article about it.
If there's anything I can do to help ya, I'm only a pm away!