PTSD:When you fear dreaming

eric s blog

PTSD:When you fear dreaming
by
Chaplain Kathie


Most people can't wait for the end of the day when they hop into bed to get some much needed rest. After a long day of dealing with doing everything necessary to survive along with family, friends, coworkers and total strangers with attitude problems, it is a safe place where we can all focus on ourselves drifting off to sleep. Clean sheets, cool to the touch, perfect pillows to rest our heads on, cuddly PJs and all is ready to allow our dreams to take us away.

Our minds take us to where we want to be in life. We are free to say what we wanted to say to the jerk after we ended up hurt. We can even envision karma taking revenge for our sake. All is well with the world.

There are others fearing the end of the day when they have to yet again reawaken what haunts them.

A Nightmare on Elm Street - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American horror film directed and written by Wes Craven

Freddie, on his best day, couldn't scar the crap out of anyone as much as living after combat can. Even for the toughest, self-centered gung-ho type, they cannot escape all of it. They have just managed to convince themselves that all that matters is them in this world. For the rest, there are nightmares on every street.

Going to sleep is not something they want to face because they know how the night will end once more. They will fall asleep sooner or later but then comes the war all over again. Images so real they can feel as if they just entered into a portal. They can hear the sounds all over again in stereo, just as when it happened for real. They can feel heat on their skin. They can smell it. They can taste it. Their hearts race. Their muscles tighten on the adrenaline rush. They know when the nightmare comes, the time travel begins and the ghosts that sleep during the day have awakened.

During the day when the ghosts wake up from a nap, they are able to come out of the flashback with other people and things going on around them. While the flashbacks operate under the same controls, they are not alone as they are in their dreams and not as vulnerable to being attacked.

Alone in the night in their dreams, they see their friends and hear their screams. They hear the screams of strangers and of their enemies. They can hear the gunfire, smell the power and see the blood. What is happening in their dreams is often more violent than what they experienced because in their dreams, they are the target of death.

We can give them all the pills available to help them to go to sleep but their minds fight against them knowing full well what cannot be controlled when the ghosts take over. Their bodies want to surrender seeking rest but in order to obtain it, the price their minds pay is a high one.

As bad as it is for the veteran back in the "normal" world of their communities and homes, there are others still facing the same horrors of combat 24-7. They are the untold numbers of troops redeployed with PTSD and an arsenal of medications to help them sleep, help them wake up and help them function as a machine. These PTSD forces do not rest for the entire deployment. They are on constant high alert and dread the night. Exhaustion takes over and it all begins again.

No one knows how many die in their sleep attributed to "natural causes" but occur because of un-natural revenge of PTSD. There have been no studies counting the number of PTSD medicated dying in their sleep but there have been many reports of them surfacing when families talk about the loss. While physicians have disclosed a connection between heart related problems and PTSD, the connection has not been fully investigated.

Once home, they then have to cope with the flashbacks, nightmares and prospect of being redeployed. They have to cope with the way they act out their fight against what haunts them as their families fall apart, they pull away from them at the same time they need them and they do whatever they can to hide what they cannot control.

For Vietnam veterans, the few who escaped full blown PTSD, they still run from ghosts of their past. For others they are still waiting for the day when they "get over it" and they try everything possible to obtain it.

The end of nightmares come when the veteran is in control as a person. This takes great effort but with the right kind of help, they can lessen the brute force of the nightmare. They can heal during the day and in doing so, they can put Freddie back into the horror movie category instead of the living hell he awakens. Giving them medication only but not addressing the cause of PTSD weakens them and short changes them. The practice of medicating the warrior without healing their spirit has to end. Without addressing the fact PTSD is an attack against the emotions, they will not heal, they will not deal, they will just find it all masked.


This will keep coming back until they are helped to heal.