Was really rough. I woke up numerous times, several of those times were due to nightmares. When I woke up from the nightmares I was in a panic and I was hallucinating wildly. (Disturbing things) This set off my paranoia and I was very fearful and freaked out which just made things more difficult. I eventually had to crack open the bathroom door to let more light into the room before I fell back asleep. Hard to believe I used to sleep like this every night as a kid and in highschool before I gained awareness. Still miserable when it happens.
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Time for a teddy bear to help you out?
Seriously though, I have to sleep hugging a pillow or something otherwise I don’t feel comfortable. Also I have to be wrapped up in a blanket. Something about having weight on me feels comforting.
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I can’t sleep without being covered up. That’s also why I can’t sleep when it’s I’m hot, because it’s too uncomfortable with the blankets on. I also need music playing or it takes forever for me to fall asleep.
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Same. I used to snuggle my stuffed spider and pretend like he was scary enough to scare bad things away. Then a demon decided to destroy that belief by doing horrible things to me while holding him so now I’m scared to do that again. Bahhhg. If I get really bad I can always play with my rattos
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I’m working with the VA, and I take prazosin for my nightmares but they’re also sedating and can make you feel dizzy in the morning at first. You pretty much don’t dream when you’re on the medicine, or perhaps you just don’t remember it. I also have had torturous dreams. One dream I had was very disturbing to this day:
I dreamt that I was at a drug lords villa, and there was a huge bowel of heroine, The pile looked to be the size of a bowling ball. I was getting the tour and being told where I could go and where I couldn’t. We walked by a room and I saw three or four people on medical cots sedated with IVs in their arms and they had diapers on. He called the victims in their medically induced coma, (his pets). I woke up after awhile but it was creepy.
some of them I just don’t want to mention but you get the idea. I’d be fixated on that horrible dream and prazosin helped me alot over the span of my taking it. I’d mention it your doctor…
I used to need music, bright lights, need to be completely covered in blankets. I’ve progressed a lot since then.
Last night though I was definitely wrapped up tight!
I have to have white nosie in the background also to fall asleep. Usually a loud fan running.
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I tried prazosin trying to find a substitute for Ativan but it didn’t quell my night anxiety or flashbacks like Ativan did so I didn’t stay on it. It also messed with my blood pressure and made me almost pass out a couple of times.
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I have hard time falling asleep with lights on. I use white noise from time to time. It depends on my mood and how active my voices are.
Sorry @Anna . That sounds awful. But if that were happening to me , I’d be trying different meds until I found the right one.
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Have you tried seroquel before? It should help you sleep and also help w/ the delusions
Haven’t tried seroquel yet. Maybe at some point but I heard you gain weight from it 
I don’t know if you still gain weight on the lower sedating dose though
I have a recurring nightmare of having to return to high school…only as my current age. I have to try and fit in and be a normal teenager. Maybe I’ve seen never been kissed too many times. In my dreams though it’s different, they tell me they made a mistake when I graduated and didn’t have everything I needed to complete my senior year and have to repeat it. I try and argue that I already have an associates degree in computer application & programming and a bachelor’s in heath administration but they still send me back. I can’t figure out how to answer people when I try and tell them when my birthday is because I’m trying to be just another teenager so I don’t stand out but I was born in 1981…and in the dream i can never figure out what year i’m supposed to be born in to be 18.
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One of my nightmares last night was about a boy who lived in an orphanage and acted like a mafia don there. He called the younger children his servants and he’d make them do things for him and then shoot them afterwards. He also killed and tortured animals. I was one of the young children and he took me with him to this abandoned building to explore and I was scared. Things from the kids past kept coming up like how he had an abusive dad and a sick mom who died and a grandpa who sexually abused him. While in the building he was attacked by a giant dog and I saw it rape him. He was furious I saw and chased me down and tried to rape me. I woke up from that and then ended up falling back into the same dream later.
You gain weight on most AP’s, but being overweight is far better than having delusions. You can live a normal, productive, happy life if you’re overweight. You will have a miserable life with no friends if you’re delusional all the time and hallucinating. Plus, you can always cut your calories a bit and start exercising to minimize the weight gain if that’s important to you.
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