Posted by sunnydays on January 27, 2007, at 19:34:40
In reply to Re: Nightmares **sex abuse trigger**, posted by Daisym on January 27, 2007, at 18:36:35
> Sometimes I avoid sleeping so I can avoid the nightmares. This is a bad strategy because the more tired I am, the worse the dreams are. Sleeping pills or a glass of wine before bed sometimes minimize the dreams. Not always though.
**** Thanks. Yeah, I couldn't possibly avoid sleeping - I require more and more lately. I don't have any sleeping pills, and I'm not old enugh to drink legally, so those are out.
> I agree with toojane, writing down dreams is really useful. That way you don't have to carry it around, you can put it away for later reflection.
**** Yeah, I think I'll try that.
As far as being aroused, this is common, both for dreams and when you are retelling some event, particularly a sexual event.
**** I guess I know this, but it's hard for me. Arousal is such a shameful thing for me that I have a hard time accepting it ever, let alone in this context.
Anniversaries are hard. If you think it would help, please write more about what happened to you here. I think sharing and receiving support can calm down the psyche's need to force it up and out in our dreams, even in non-concrete, very symbolic ways. I know it is hard, but I think it will help. I promise to read and reply.
**** I'll try. Basically what happened was that my brother and I were alone in the house because my mom left to go somewhere. I was a sophomore in high school, and my brother was in sixth grade. He had bipolar disorder (undiagnosed at the time) and he was probably manic. He exposed himself to me, and tried to force himself on me and tried to get me to look at him for like two or three hours. Eventually I went to the kitchen and he followed me and I screamed at him and he went to his room. I don't want to go into a whole lot more detail than that, but that's the basics. It was really scary, and my parents didn't have the best response to the whole thing. There are many things I beat myself up about it because he was younger than me and I should have been able to stop it, and it was hard.
sunnydays
poster:sunnydays
thread:727148
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20070119/msgs/727287.html