It used to be "Normal For Me." It was attached to my nightmares and hyper-vigilance. It became less normal-for-me as I progressed with the highly unpleasant work of processing repressed memories and emotions.

It remains a common for me, but as I have developed my skills with the psychotherapy tools, it seems to be easing into isolated incidents more than drawn-out phases.

I don't believe it is a universal Norm.

You know PTSD can have different effects on people and the way they deal with it. There is no right or wrong way to feel. Your brain has been through a difficult trauma which a lot of times is hard to process. But you can not process this on your own. I have heard that seeking professional help in the area of PTSD has helped a lot of people.

You’re not alone, it’s something that I have had to deal with a lot between nightmares, night terrors & sleep paralysis.

I’m still on my journey of trying to work through it all

Sending support & strength
Gentlest of hugs <3

Nightmares and or night terrors can be miserable.... You are going through a lot Rich

There is medication that can help with nightmares... Have you been started on any medication for symptoms?... Some meds can actually cause them as well... I would look up side effects if you have been.... Big hug....xo

TRIGGER WARNING

I WAS attacked, rich, eg. as a missionary kid aged 9 when a guy bombed my family's car with me in the back seat. My nightmare isn't just the blue flames engulfing our car--blue because it was a gasoline bomb, a so-called Molotov cocktail. I found out the hard way that gasoline burns blue. Very pretty if not about to nearly kill you.

No, even worse was that in the instant before that guy threw it he had a chance to stop himself. He was standing right on the other side of my car window inches from me. His eyes locked onto mine. There was no denying he saw a child in the car he'd targeted for bombing.

He took a few seconds to reconsider, then threw the bomb at me anyway. Earlier this week I mentioned if Eastern religions turn out to be right and we're reincarnated after we die, I'll ask to return as another species. Cats are kinder to kittens and dogs are kinder to puppies than humans are to children, in my experience.

I take Prazosin at night for my nightmares from that instance when I was 9 and the torture incident when I was 15 and the gun meant to kill me at the end jammed twice. Prazosin helps me with nightmares from that too. And other incidents in between, some in my home when my father would beat me bloody when his untreated war zone PTSD boiled over.

Remembering feeling attacked nights for me is just the price I pay for surviving, I guess, rich. How could such extreme experiences be forgotten? I've tried stuffing them, I even kept from telling my PTSD therapist about the bombing for 12 years of weekly sessions. But it came out eventually.

I keep a journal and record my dreams and nightmares first thing every morning so I can go about the mundane activities of an ordinary day. I'm a nice guy, but I do not know how to open my heart to intimacy. Especially physical intimacy, since 2 years after surviving the car bombing at age 9 I was sexually assaulted twice along at age 11 along with 4 other boys and girls by a military pedophile.

That's why I'm twice divorced with no kids. But at least I'm not continuing the cycle like my father did beating me because he refused to get treatment for his PTSD.

Before Prazosin, I only had nightmares at night, rich. Since I began taking it 3 years ago, I've had sweet dreams, too, for the first time in decades. I really recommend it.

If there is very loud noise or if someone touches me to wake me I will immeidately panic and scream... then cry. Sometimes I'll wake this way from nightmares. I endured a lot of early childhood trauma. I think my hypervigilance in sleep is a sort of protection mode my body goes into bc I am especially vulnerable in sleep...as we all are.
Making the physical space I sleep in as sound safe as possible has been helpful... I use a white noise machine or a fan. Tell your partner if they are unaware that you are having or have been known to have this issue and how best for them to deal with it without triggering you.

The parish in my neighborhood here in Mexico celebrated its saint's day last night.

With fireworks. PTSD triggered all night long.