ptsd nightmares

does anyone know the 'exact' answer to this question. if anyone answers.....just let me know if your answer is a hypothesis or a fact, please.

i had an experience recently that i believed has caused me to now have symptoms of ptsd. i am going to a doctor next week to try and get tests to get an accurate diagnosis. i have had a few nightmares since i came down with these symptoms over 15 days ago. the nightmares are always variations of the same theme - the person who hurt me is trying to find me and kill me.

but, last night i had a nightmare that had nothing to do with the recent event. it was a dream of me when i was maybe 9-12 years old and i was in a room alone with a family member and i was terrified of him. i knew that he wanted me to touch him sexually and i kept saying to myself in the dream......'oh, he must not recognize me. he must not recognize that i am his _________ or he wouldn't do this to me because if he recognized me he wouldn't do this to me.'

is it possible that the ptsd caused by someone now, in the present, could cause hidden memories to resurface? i know there is a lot of controversy related to the subject of repressed memories and i would never want to accuse someone of something from so long ago. but is this possible that the ptsd has unearthed deeply painful memories.

To be perfectly honest with you, nobody can answer your question and be entirely correct. This whole area is an inexact science. I can give you some insight into how the brain works, however, and then you can form your own opinion: Everything we do is 'recorded' in our brains, and how it's recorded is effectively as an image. Thus, the brain works best with imagery; and this is especially true for old memories. For tasks that we do regularly, we do not rely on images, and instead do the actions 'impulsively' and 'without thinking'. So, if you want to put on the TV, you don't 'see' the TV in your mind - You just go to where you know it is and put it on, as you have done many times before. However, if you have to go to a place that you've only been to once before, yo'ull most likely activate the part of the barin that contains all of the imagery of that place as you knew it before, and then you'll think about how to get there again.

So, something that happened in your childhood is recorded in your brain - most likely - but the neural pathway (or 'thought process') to activating that memory isn't always easy. Thus, 'tunnelling' and therapy can reactivate these old memories, but it's not as if they are repressed - It's more that we just never really got around to 're-thinking' them, because nothing we've done has ever lead to that part of our brain being activated again.

I hope this make sense to you.

Kevin

thanks.....yes, i believe that memories are tricky too. i will talk to my new therapist about it and see what she thinks.

i have a lot to talk about with her, but i guess my main concern right now is talking about my current situation with the man who has made me come down with ptsd symptoms, and getting away from him. then in the future i can talk about possible things that may have happened in the past.

but, thanks for the t.v. analogy. it helped me put it into perspective.

If you were traumatized not long ago and now having symptoms of PTSD because of it nightmares etc it is possible to have memories, though it could be your mind also dealing with the trauma and it could mean that nothing happened to you at that age... but when traumatized things can come up. I dealt with PTSD first when I was 16.. I always have nightmares that had nothing to do all the time with things that happened to me.

The best thing that you can do is find someone to talk too, see if you can get the diagnosis for PTSD, relieve treatment and than maybe bring up the dream. Sometimes therapists can tell whether you have symptoms of past abuse .... sometimes it can be hard... all you can do is share what you've been through recently and go from there.

questions_to_ask wrote:thanks.....yes, i believe that memories are tricky too. i will talk to my new therapist about it and see what she thinks.

i have a lot to talk about with her, but i guess my main concern right now is talking about my current situation with the man who has made me come down with ptsd symptoms, and getting away from him. then in the future i can talk about possible things that may have happened in the past.

but, thanks for the t.v. analogy. it helped me put it into perspective.

You're welcome. In my case, when memories (bad ones) resurface, I just let them simmer in my head and don't run awy from them. The mere act of letting them 'simmer' in my head, means that I don't get anxiou by them and don't give them any importance. I've suffered some terrible things in my life but I can freely think about them now without getting upset.

Chucky wrote:I've suffered some terrible things in my life but I can freely think about them now without getting upset.

When I think about the terrible things, either one of two things happen. I either dissociate, and its like it happened to someone else, or I get so overwhelmed with emotion, that I feel like I'm going to implode with anger and rage, so I have to distract myself.

My current therapist is using methods which focus on helping me to change my behavior and deal with 'current' emotions, so that I can improve my future. But sometimes I think that unless I deal with the things that happened in the past, it will still be there effecting me.

What kind of therapy or things did you do to get to the point where you can think about past trauma and not have it upset you?