Bad dreams anyone?

Iā€™m even today after 8 years not sure if my vertigo is anxiety related, but I know for sure that vertigo causes anxiety. Over the years i managed to overcome it with the help of EMDR therapy. During the day Iā€™m good, but now Iā€™m having bad dreams every night. Not night mares, but close to it. Can anybody relate?

Sorry, remind me, are you only any meds? Tricyclics can sometimes cause nightmares.

On amitriptyline I definitely get them with increased frequency, but we are still only talking once a quarter, not every night!

No meds except Migravent. I heard good things about Prazosin though.

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Well, I realise this is an old post but how I wonder is Frank doing. So many join this forum, sit at the table and sup, and then apparently disappear. Presumably off into Life After MAV.

It would be so good to know how many of those partly told stories frozen in time on mvertigo really had happy endings. Hopefully Frank to whom Iā€™ve never spoken wonā€™t take offence at my comments but Did he find success. If so, how did he achieve it? Does he still get ā€˜bad dreamsā€™. I doubt it. Sometimes the bad dreams come from the meds, sometimes I think it might be the brain just ā€˜letting off steamā€™, ridding itself of some of the pent up anxiety MAV can generate. Experts reckon the brain doesnā€™t like change. Maybe bad dreams are its way of coping.

Must admit Iā€™ve had millions of dreams since Propranolol. Entertaining, ludicrous and ridiculous sometimes but so far fortunately not ā€˜badā€™. I had wondered if I always dream but the Propranolol somehow helps me recall them more readily. Last night I was on a very overcrowded bus, everybody wrapped up in thick coats and hats and scarves against the winter cold so I couldnā€™t squeeze passed to get out from my seat and because the aisle was blocked by a queue of people waiting for Sherlock Holmes (complete with deerstalker hat but no Watson!) who was at the front signing autographs! You just couldnt make it up. I just look on it as The One Added Bonus of MAV thanks to the Propranolol! Enjoy! Helen

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Helen,

yes, Iā€™m still here :slight_smile:

My dreams in general have gotten pretty much normal. However, I still have the situation that the moment I doze away I immediately get bad pictures/scenes. All sorts of. Iā€™m somehow taking care of this but actively ā€œmanagingā€ those dreams as Iā€™m not really deeply asleep yet and Iā€™m still consicously enough that I can alter these images in my head. Pretty weird, but it helps.

BTW, Iā€™m still not on any medication except vitamins and the like.

Best regards
Frank

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Thanks for the prompt reply. Good to hear you seem to have adapted to your new dream-filled existence. It just becomes part of your routine no doubt, and if it didnā€™t happen youā€™d start to wonder why after all this time. Helen

Well, it is quite strange to say the least. The typical thing is that when I lie down I have some thoughts and images in my head, purely automatically, which is fair enough. Then I doze away and those images kind of dissolve into something more or less unreal, which is then the start of the dream. Quite normal so far. But in my case it is that within seconds those images turn into something bad, wrong, dangerous or shocking. Not extreme, but bad enough for me to jolt.

For example Iā€™m driving a small road cross country in my car. All of a sudden behind a turn the road abrupty goes steep downhill, almost vertically. But they are all sorts of stuff, so there isnā€™t really a symbolic interpretation possible. But then I learned to alter those dreams, for example in the given case I pull up my car like an airplane and ā€œflyā€ it back onto the road and go on. I believe this vaguely resembles a technique used in ā€œlucid dreamingā€. And besides that I so got used to it that it doesnā€™t scare me anymore.

By now I donā€™t think it has anything to do with MAV, except that the vertigo is quite upsetting and scary and maybe that somehow this finds its way into the dreams.

Best regards
Frank

Iā€™m as sure as I could be itā€™s related to the vertigo or at least the anxiety vertigo generates. Perhaps the brainā€™s way of releasing the tension maybe. I spoken to a sports psychologist who actually gets VM himself, about my waking up with anxiety first thing, no apparent reason. He said itā€™s Body Anxiety. Brain doesnā€™t like changes and as MAV morphs the body experiences change. I find that there are three of us in this place. Thereā€™s my Brain, my Body and my psyche - ā€˜meā€™. I can lie in bed noticing the Anxiety in my brain and body just as the Third Party so to speak. ā€˜Meā€™ isnā€™t involved. Probably sounds queer but Iā€™ve accepted it now and, like your dreams, doesnā€™t bother me. Brainā€™s a powerful organ so I guess MAV and dreams and anxiety would surely be related somewher along the line. Cheers Helen

this is an interesting conversation, because I have always have a very active night, with nightmares, light sleep, and insomnia. I wonder if that relates to a ā€œMAVā€ type of brain. When I was pregnant, I did not have any troubles at night, I slept as I never did before, waking up super refreshed. After pregnancy, you know what happened, crazy MAV hit!

To add to this: the bad dreams started only years after the vertigo started. I noticed that I certainly lost faith in my body because of it and also got self-conscious. It is quite possible and maybe even likely that this is what is being resembled in sleeping: loss of trust to let go. But I donā€™t think there is a direct link with the actual disease, more like a secondary symptom.

Not a bad dream exactly.

I have had many vivid and ridiculous dreams since I started medication, Propranolol. I once even met Sherlock Holmes on a bus . However I havenā€™t been worried by them because I think I always did dream a lot and remember them anyway. Perhaps up to a point the meds just improves our memory of them. However, without starting a discussion about being psychic or clairvoyant, after last night I am thinking maybe they do really tell us something of the state of our subconscious.

Here we are in the midst of the first pandemic for over 100 years and all the new unprecedented rules and regs so last night I dreamt I was standing in our grounds outside the house talking to a couple I couldnā€™t recognise about the construction of the new buildings opposite and discussing previous occupants of our property then the dream faded. The moment I woke up this morning I find myself thinkingā€¦ Worrying I suppose, why werenā€™t we all wearing masks and were we Socially Distanced, wonder if we will all catch Covid now. As the result of what appeared to happen in a dream? Thatā€™s crazy but IMO only goes to show something of the state of our subconscious fears I suppose

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