Hi....I had/have tormenting dreams in the past, and from what I understand it's a reenactment of the trauma.

Also, from what I understand, traumatic memories aren't stored like normal memories, they're stored in a primative part of the brain and in our bodies.

So what I understand, people with PTSD who get triggered are re-experiencing the body sensations of the trauma so we do things, like cutting, to soothe ourselves.

I haven't cut myself, but I've been around people who do, sometimes because of trauma. Many times medication helped. Do you take medication and/or have a therapist? I'm sending you good thoughts to take care of yourself, and a hug.

beechst yes im on meds and see a therpist

Intrusive dreams happen because when you are in a relaxed, drifting off to sleep state, your subconscious mind releases memories and issues that you have been trying hard to suppress. I'm working on some new ideas on how to cope with this.

~bill www.freewebs.com/krillco

Nightmares are so bad for me that sometimes I just wont sleep. I know that I cut but I never remember doing so therefore I'm sorry I cant help.

Thinking of you

Hello-
I cut,burn and brand because it "soothes" my pain and hurt. However, yesterday I came to the realization that: My abusers have caused me such deep-seeded hurt and pain and when I go to those events, memories, thoughts, etc..I hurt myself and by hurting myself, I am keeping their legacy alive. I am feeding their abuse and allowing them to continue to hurt me through myself. 2 days ago, I decided that their abusive monsters aka pain inside of me will starve because I will no longer feed the pain they've caused by continueing to cause myself pain. I'm determined not to self harm again. I refuse to let them win!

For nightmares,I have been prescibed Prazosin and it's been AMAZING.

i have suffered horribly with nightmares over 40 years and finally am relatively relieved of them. my dreams were a mystery to my therapists and so gruesome they hated to hear them. i finally figured them out myself. i used the dreams to help better understand what i knew happened to me as a child, what effects it had on me, and also what i did not remember but that had left me emotionally arrested at the point of trauma. empowerment, empowerment, empowerment... especially empowerment in the face of evil or harm. that is one of the most important things for people like us in the course of reclaiming our lives. dreams can be both painful and a source of healing if you learn how to read the messages your dreams are telling you. in my experience, dreams can represent your "chronic" problems you are stuck about, as well as symbolically reflecting daily or current events that are expressing or re-enforcing those problems or events. think of your dreams as your loyal messengers bringing you news. learn to take the stressful and unhappy negative messages and try to change things in your dream after you awake, for a better outcome. then try to apply something like that in real world terms to your daily life as much as you can. take action!