Last night I had a serial dream about my absolute worst fear in life. (Serial meaning it picked right up where it left off after I woke up and went back to sleep).
I had six pieces that made up one horrific dream. It was very vivid and specific, just like when I have hallucinations. When I woke up for good, I was extremely paranoid. Klonopin didn’t even dent it.
I’ve been feeling broken all day, just like I do after a psychotic break - sensitive to touch and sound, physically in pain, and mentally broken and paranoid. I fought the urge to stay in bed all day and just curl up and cry.
So my question is - can dreams be psychotic? This one sure had all the hallmarks. I intend to talk to my pdoc about this when I see her in October but just wondered what you all think in the meantime…
I’ve had nightmares where I was hearing voices before, yes. I’ve had dreams where I was manic and I was flying high, high in the sky and rocketing up into outer space. That is always a really scary dream.
My dreams are more realistic then my life while awake.
I think somebody’s trying to tell me something.
But seriously, there are many theories about what dreams mean and why we have them. I don’t think any theory has the definitive answer. One school of thought is that dreams are about unresolved conflicts we don’t deal with while we are awake. Or some theories explain what dreams are about by analyzing symbolism in them.
Or one theory is that dreams do not mean anything, they are just random movies in our head while we sleep.
I used to have terrible nightmares when I first got sick, almost every night and it depressed me. My dreams seemed to consist of situations that escaped while I was growing up. Thus I had vivid dreams about being in school and being humiliated and lost and just plain crazy. I did not get bullied or picked on in my high school days because I withdrew from all my classmates and put up walls. The bullies didn’t even want to bother picking on me. So in my dreams I was picked on and crazy. So I don’t know if this answers your question but yeah, I had many dreams of being flat out crazy.
Since hallucinating for the first time, I tend to have auditory hallucinations in my dreams half the time.
The annoying thing is there’s common places I keep going back to. And not all of them are happy places. I keep going to this school where I am missing one class constantly and I just know I’m going to fail it. There’s this japanese (I think it’s Japanese) hotsprings area I’ve been to several times and those are usually neutral dreams, nothing scary.
The last time I was at the hot springs I was like “OH I’m dreaming about that again, let me go into the hut and see if anybody works there before the dream ends!” So I did and it was a few asian folks and some scrolls were hanging with characters on them that I didn’t understand. Then I woke up.
Neat fun little diversions when they aren’t scary. Try levitating in them, it just might work. I also teleport in a lot in my dreams like Nightcrawler from the X-Men
Oh you are talking about chained segment dreams with sleep paralysis in between? I’ve only had that once since coming down with Sz, when I was in an unfamiliar hotel. It was terrifying and I haven’t had one I go in and out of since.
Had this dream where rats were biting my feet and it really hurt.
Had another one where this apparent spirit was holding me down and I could not move.
Both felt incredibly real.
I think dreams can be a sign that your having psychotic symptoms. Before sz i use to never dream. Id go to sleep and wake up the next morning feeling refreshed. Ever since i have had a psychotic symtom (voices) i dream everynight and i wake up feeling super tired sometimes. I know weed can reduce rem sleep but i didnt dream even before i started smoking. Never had them till a couple years ago when my voices started talking to me. Cant even get up for work sometimes cause my dreams be leaving me exausted. Thats why sometimes i be thinkin that a mi could be spiritual and supernatural… cause we know so little about them other than its related to chemicals in your brain. Just some thoughts
I don’t have voices, but the same thing happened to me after my psychotic break. I dream all night, everynight now and I wake up feeling like crap no matter what time I go to bed.
When I first got sick, I couldn’t tell the difference between sleeping and being alive. Luckily, I quit the benzos and got much better. Sometimes, I get anxiety or panic attacks while sleeping. I’m okay though.
Yes, I’ve had some pretty psychotic dreams myself, usually manifesting my fears.
Certain medications make them worse. These dreams can really mess me up for a while…
Glad to hear you’re feeling better.
The most messed up dream I had was a sleep paralysis 2 months ago. It felt very real and I couldn’t move my body. I woke up pretty scared and had some issues to get back to sleep.
I think dreams are just dreams. There’s no boundary between reality and imagination when you dream whether you’re psychotic or not. Dream just represent your emotional state, I think.
I wouldn’t think psychotic is the word. If you’re in a dream state I don’t think you can apply the same rules to your state of mind. That being said, there are tons of ways your dreams can be disturbing or intense. I’ve had dreams that took me all day to recover from. They weren’t like a normal nightmare but just hugely bizarre and uncomfortable. Experiencing psychotic symptoms or having a flare up has increased the nightmares/strange dreams for me. Meds can cause an increase too. While I wouldn’t think they are by definition psychotic, I think there can be a correlation and many parallels.
