Repetitive dreams fueling depression

Since childhood I have found that if I run a high fever that I will have the same dream over and over which even when about a neutral subject will become nightmarish upon repetition.

Just about two years ago I woke up with such a dream going though my head in the final hour or so that I was attempting to sleep. I would wake up just to return to the same dream when asleep again. I went into a depression starting that same week. This has now plagued me every day since that time. The topic of the dream varies from day to day, but repeats every morning. It leaves me feeling tired and more depressed. The start of the day is by far the hardest time for me. It seems as if breaking the dream cycle might help me break the depression as well.

I am seeing a psychologist regarding the depression. He says that although I do not have OCD, that this dream cycle is "obsessive" and started wondering if anybody had been prescribed a drug that helped with stopping such dreams. He thinks no psychiatrists in my city are likely to know if this is the case, so I am hoping somebody here might have heard of something about this.

I used to dream very intense, sometimes very visually beautifull, often nightmarish. I have experienced this connection with nightmares and feeling depressed as well. Some times i have the recurring dream that my mother absolutely hates me and I'm just crying, pouring my heart out as to why she would be so mean to me, I feel hopeles and hated. And in the dream my mother just loathes me for even being near her. Laughes in my face because i'm crying. Then I wake up and I feel empty and sad, I know my mother doesn't hate me, I know the opposite, but I feel so teribly depressed and completely drained when I've had these dreams.

When I started using my antidepressants it seemed to stop alot of the dreaming. Or at least I felt it changed. Don't know if that's a common side-effect. I used an SSRI that also helped with my anxiety and obsessive anxious thoughts.

Good luck:)

Yokker wrote:I used to dream very intense, sometimes very visually beautifull, often nightmarish. I have experienced this connection with nightmares and feeling depressed as well. Some times i have the recurring dream that my mother absolutely hates me and I'm just crying, pouring my heart out as to why she would be so mean to me, I feel hopeles and hated. And in the dream my mother just loathes me for even being near her. Laughes in my face because i'm crying. Then I wake up and I feel empty and sad, I know my mother doesn't hate me, I know the opposite, but I feel so teribly depressed and completely drained when I've had these dreams.

When I started using my antidepressants it seemed to stop alot of the dreaming. Or at least I felt it changed. Don't know if that's a common side-effect. I used an SSRI that also helped with my anxiety and obsessive anxious thoughts.

Good luck:)

Thanks for your reply. I used an SSRI years ago for a different depressed period. I don't remember it altering my dreams, but it was quite a while ago. Are you able to share which SSRI?

The subject matter of dreams does matter a bit. A few weeks ago the dream was the same every morning and centered on a rejection I perceived from a lady I was corresponding with when she suddenly cut off all contact. Those left me feeling even more down in the morning.

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles and wish you the best of luck as well.

Hmm, though I have no idea wether it can be attributed to it, it was called fluvoxamine meleate. I also used oxazepam during a certain period which is anti-axiety, which could help diminish obsessive thinking in theory I guess.

Guess rejection is a theme well discussed in our dreams, it's what gets me down. If it was just a random fearfull nightmare that doesn't seem to play into my feelings/insecurities its different.

I don't take any of these meds anymore, nothing at all in fact. My dreaming changed somewhat again when I stopped, when I was going off them I had a severe increase of nightmares in general. That has subsided and now i'd say I dream normal.

Do you have any trouble sleeping at all? irregular sleeping pattern or insomnia?

Yokker wrote:Hmm, though I have no idea wether it can be attributed to it, it was called fluvoxamine meleate. I also used oxazepam during a certain period which is anti-axiety, which could help diminish obsessive thinking in theory I guess.

Guess rejection is a theme well discussed in our dreams, it's what gets me down. If it was just a random fearfull nightmare that doesn't seem to play into my feelings/insecurities its different.

I don't take any of these meds anymore, nothing at all in fact. My dreaming changed somewhat again when I stopped, when I was going off them I had a severe increase of nightmares in general. That has subsided and now i'd say I dream normal.

Do you have any trouble sleeping at all? irregular sleeping pattern or insomnia?

Thanks for the update. Yes, rejection does figure into my dreams and it does get me down.

I generally do not have a problem falling asleep but I think my problem in the morning staying asleep is considered a form of insomnia.

Don't know if me being able to relate to what is happening to you helps..

I have had two reoccurring dreams for decades.. One always involved me losing something and running around in circles trying to locate it. Or. Falling from a cliff. I've had these same dreams ever since I could remember. I have been told by my doctor since having been diagnosed with clinical depression- That reoccurring dreams are very common in many people, and more especially those suffering with mental disease.

There are meds to supposedly decrease the frequency, and or the intensified effect the dream has on the person. I have not tried any of them per se, though I was prescribed several anti depressants at one time, but none specifically for reoccurring dreams.

I think what helps me when the dreams start up again is to not try and interpret them. My doctor reminds me of how the mind does not stop once the body sleeps- And how our day to day interventions affect our dream patterns.

Hope I helped in some tiny way.

I know that there are techniques out there for gaining agency during your dreams. You could read about those and see if you could interrupt the cycle by becoming self aware during your dreams and changing them. You could go in there and fight your dreams so to speak.

That is kinda out there, but it would be pretty awesome to literally battle your subconscious and win.