Complex PTSD Drug Dreams

Unraveling Complex Trauma and Nightmares About Drug Dreams

You wake up in the middle of the night, heart racing and covered in sweat. Nightmares are terrifying for anyone but are made even more so when they cause you to relive situations when you were in serious peril, especially if you are struggling with substance use, as complex PTSD drug dreams are a concern.

But what do you need to know about the link between substance use and complex PTSD?

One of the primary symptoms impacting the majority of people with C-PTSD is nightmares, which are only compounded by drug use. They can come up when you feel stressed or anxious, need to process difficult emotions in therapy, are having cravings, or are going through withdrawal. Medications, talk therapy, and good sleep hygiene can all help.

Icarus Behavioral Health in New Mexico is here for you when you’re ready to put coping strategies in place and confront traumatic experiences from your past. Keep reading to learn more about the very real connection between your drug dreams and your complex PTSD.

The Connection Between Nightmares and Mental Health

Dreams are often a part of the subconscious in the brain, leading you to explore the things that are too painful or stressful for you to relive during your waking hours. As the mind processes these events, you might see an uptick in the number of dreams you have about substance misuse or a traumatic event.

Research has uncovered lots of possible reasons why mental health is connected to your nightmares. In one prevalent theory, there is a correlation between nightmares and depression. The more you are able to recall the dreams, the bigger the impact on your overall mental health.

Furthermore, the content of your dreams can significantly predict your overall mental health. Therapists can work on the content of your dreams and how to cope with them in your sessions. As the frequency of the distressing dreams fades, you’ll be able to identify real progress.

As you continue to work through repeated exposure to the dream’s content, you’ll also learn more about your emotional regulation. In turn, this applies to situations outside of your sleep and may give you the confidence to try new things in addition to improving sleep quality.

Mental Disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual indicates all of the mental health diagnoses that a person could potentially have. One of the most common conditions associated with the run-of-the-mill nightmare is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Under the umbrella of PTSD, you might experience dreams of all kinds related to the traumatic stress you went through. If you combine that with drug abuse, it’s even more likely that you will have these types of complex nightmares that surround frightening events and recurring substance use.

Almost 72 percent of people with PTSD will experience sleep disturbances and nightmares, making it crucial to understand why they happen and what you can do about it.

Why Do Complex PTSD Drug Dreams Happen?

Drug dreams combined with the nightmares that are often seen in complex PTSD are daunting and may have lingering effects on your daily life. Understanding why they happen and what they mean for your past and future is paramount to successfully overcoming the temptation to use drugs or alcohol.

Here are a few reasons why your brain might latch onto these traumatic events and bring these dreams to the forefront:

• Stress related to PTSD: If you experience a trigger for a traumatic event that you may have once coped with using substances, then a dream might bring that drug use top of your mind. Substance use can come up any time that you must deal with excess stress in day-to-day life.
• Cravings: It’s completely normal for someone with a substance use disorder to have cravings for their drug of choice, no matter how long it’s been since their last time using it. Cravings can come to the front of your unconscious mind through dreams, even if you aren’t aware while awake.
• Processing difficult emotions: When you start making the effort to heal a mental health disorder, there are bound to be difficult things that come up for you in therapy. As you dive deeper into the traumatic events that brought you here, drug dreams may begin to recur until you resolve them.
• Withdrawal and abstinence: Going through withdrawal symptoms stemming from drug and alcohol detox can come with sleep disturbances and bad dreams. If you also cope with PTSD symptoms, sleep may be even more disjointed and present drug dreams.

These are fairly common and universal experiences for anyone coping with mental health issues and substance abuse. Traumatic experiences only make your dreams that much more vivid and enticing, making them extremely disturbing and daunting to overcome.

Keep in mind that experiencing these dreams isn’t the same as a relapse. If you can bring your worries and anxieties over the dreams into the therapy room or bring them to your support groups, then you might be able to get the support you need not to turn back to substance misuse.

What to Do About Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Drug Dreams

When it comes to dealing with drug dreams compounded by traumatic memories, it’s time to seek some professional accountability to maintain sobriety. A skilled therapist can help you through your difficulty sleeping and may be able to give you some exercises to practice when on your own at home.

Therapies for Mental Illness and Drug Abuse

One of the most effective therapies for traumatic stress could be exposure therapy. Within the realm of this type of therapy, you will experience prolonged exposure to triggers that remind you of events that caused your PTSD symptoms. This could mean thinking about the events, writing about them, or simply visiting a location where they took place.

Other behavioral therapies may also be effective for PTSD and substance use disorders. For example, you may find that mindfulness techniques associated with dialectical behavioral therapy can give you space to think about not using drugs, calm your nervous system down, and fall back asleep taking action based on your imagination.

Medications to Alleviate Dreams and Other PTSD Symptoms

While under the care of a treatment team, your psychiatrist might also be able to help with medication-assisted therapy. They could prescribe selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that can alleviate other symptoms like depression and anxiety that are often comorbid with PTSD.

Other drugs like prazosin can also help with both drug dreams and PTSD dreams. Researchers found that this medication can help alleviate drug dreams, leading to fewer instances of relapse and reduced cravings for your drug of choice. If you have co-occurring PTSD with your substance use disorder, it may be time to talk with your doctor about how to manage symptoms.

Talking to an Experienced Professional

If you think that you may be in immediate danger, you should seek help immediately. You can go to the closest emergency room or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline to talk to a trained volunteer in a confidential phone call. They may also be able to connect you to resources in your community like crisis centers.

Practicing Good Sleep Hygiene

As you work to mitigate the effects of these sleep disturbances, practicing good sleep hygiene might help. This might mean turning off screens before bedtime, going to sleep at the same time each night, optimizing your sleep space, and limiting naps taken throughout the day.

Don’t force sleep if it seems to elude you. Instead, try some relaxation techniques or read a book for a little while until you feel sleepy.

Seek Complex Trauma Treatment with Icarus in New Mexico

If you find that nightmares disrupt sleep patterns again and again, it might be time for you to find help with trauma-informed care. If you have a dual diagnosis of both repeated trauma and substance abuse, Icarus Behavioral Health in New Mexico is available to help you get more restful sleep and limit your risk of relapse.

We offer help at every level on the continuum of care, ranging from detox and residential treatment to partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient. Our skilled clinicians will offer you the very latest in the evidence-based therapies proven to work for your conditions.

Let our enrollment team answer your questions and verify your insurance benefits now so that you can get the help you need as soon as possible!

References

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