Recurring nightmares and anxiety
I have GAD and haven't had this problem in a while but it's come back lately. I'm having really vivid and terrifying recurring nightmares. When I was a kid I would have them, usually about being shot even though I've never personally had an experience near a gun or gun violence. They continued for a while and eventually died down.
Now in the last year I've started having recurring nightmares again, about hurting people and the guilt and shame and fear of trying to hide it. They're horrific and vivid and it's really frightening because when I wake up I feel like I was really there doing these horrible things. I would never hurt someone, I don't feel I have that sort of predisposition, but every time I have those dreams they just feel so real it's frightening and it makes me think for a while after I wake up that it was real. They also build off of each other, which is even worse in adding to the scary part, it makes me feel like I can remember these things happening before.
I don't know what it is, if it's my anxiety or something else, but all I know is it's getting harder to sleep. I don't know when these dreams will happen, and when they do they're so disturbing it's hard to go back to bed. The dream is less about the physical act and more about the guilt and fear afterwards of knowing I've done something very wrong and someone could find out. Does anxiety affect anyone else's dreams or give people recurring dreams? If it does does anyone have tips on how to stop it?? I can't keep feeling like this, or I'm going to be really stressed and tired forever.
@casiopea3199 Hello Casiopea! This looks like a tough situation indeed, and I should know because I was in this situation for a long time myself. Yes anxiety does actually cause such nightmares. And as you expressed, the anxiety of the dreams themselves also adds to the anxiety in general, which in turn builds up even more anxiety that causes these dreams.
Please don't forget that anxiety is a form of panic a part of the brain goes through and as such exclaims things as more emphasized than they are.
What I did was to start a dream journal so I could study these dreams better. This, in time, gave me more control over my dreams. Slowly I was able to subside the nightmares, alongside the practices to hamper general anxiety in the daily life.
What's important to differ is that you should not take this studying dreams better as in being focused on them in an unhealthy way. Just observe them neutrally and objectively. Try to avoid thinking of them all the time, all day, like I used to do.
Also I realized that dream interpretation was still valid in the undertones of the nightmares. For example I would dream about forest but in a very nightmarish way, but I would also realize that during the day of the night which I had the nightmare, I had many thoughts about people in the society. I knew that people translated as the image of a forest into my dreams, which helped me understand the meaning of the dream and tone down the impact of these nightmares.
Hope it helps. I hope your sleep becomes more quality time as soon as possible!
