I think people like us will always have dreams of our trauma. My dreams are always so vivid and I remember them. No one can understand that. I wake with night terrors and have nightmares all the time and some of my traumas date back to my childhood. hugs to you.

I too have dreams from my childhood abuse. I have dreams that I am trying to run away from my abuser, and he is so close behind me and he finally catches me. Then I wake up drenched with sweat, heart pounding. I have to bring myself back to reality by naming things in the room and telling myself that I am in the present and that he isn't going to hurt me anymore.

Not much different then the previous two. I have dreams that relive my friend dying in front of me. Sometimes the face will interchange with someone I care about, like my boyfriend. In all situations they end up dead in my dream. I wake up sometimes screaming but always in a panic and often disoriented. Sleeping can really suck at times.

One of my therapist allowed me to read many books on analizing dreams. Unfortunally there as may meanings as well as anwsers. But dreams in all people are very simular there are books that define difinition. Yet the dreamer is the only one that can understand the true meanings. Dreams that wake you are sending a message from what I was told. I write my dreams out if they wake me up. Yet have learned how to find meaning in them. They appear to fit together in some crazy weird way. Because I keep track I have become more aware of myself and higher awareness. Some therapist don't like it. The more aware you become the less there needed. Unfortunaly in my case who I was so surpessed only threw dreams I was able to gain some rational control over my life.

I email the dream to the Photographer. She just said, "Yeah. You don't want your picture taken because you can't accept that you are who you are. You can't get past the moment your face changed and you are afriad to see something other than the scar."

Eerie. I wonder if she's psychic or something?

Oh, come on. Let me rephrase that.... Of course you had the dream. You have lived through a life altering trauma. Of course you're going to have dreams about it. Very symbolic dreams. What happened to you was not your fault and unfortunately you have to wear the physical as well as mental scars of the event. Symbolic, yeah. Painful? Yeah. Unnerving, most definately. What would happen if you let them take "The Photo"? It's the threatening part that unnerves me. Safety is always our biggest issue. I understand the waking up in panic feeling. It's almost as if we can make our waking lives safe but our sleep time is the time when our brains unload. Now, I don't want to come accross as being offencive because that is not my intention. Our traumas are very individualized but our reactions to our traumas are similar in nature. Scary as hell to all of us. But think of it. We survived. We survived something that other human beings couldn't even imagine living through. You are a survivor. At least be proud of that.

Yeah. Unnerving and scary. Sometimes it just freaks me out, like a skeleton jumping out of a closet. Eeek.