Hello, I'm a 41 year old female, that was diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder, Rapid Cycling, 5 years ago. Since then I have been in and out of the "loony bin" (LOL) for medication adjustments. I have educated myself about my condition, and I know when what to look out for and when its time to seek help. Since I have super support from my family, I am very well looked after Since my diagnosis, I also saw a therapist weekly, until we moved last Aug.

My therapist always helped me work through bad dreams, which it usually turned out, were related to things going on in my life. However, for the past three months, I have been suffering nightmares so severe that I fear sleep. My whole sleep cycle is out of whack. I stay up as long as I can, usually 5-6 am, then crash for a few hours of very disturbed sleep.

At the moment I am still taking all my medications as prescribed and am under the care of a psychiatirist. He is telling me that all is well, after running blood work. As you may know, one of the symptoms of bi-polar is for a patient to not require much sleep. But this is very different. My medications, designed to help me sleep, do make me very tired. But I fight sleep for as long as I can, due to the nightmares.

All of the nightmares are related to major doom, global disaster, mass death. Many of them contain images of Egyptian tombs and I can often see hyrogliphics, which I do not understand. I feel tremendous fear and am always trying to save those that I love and those around us. The dreams have become more vivid and detailed as well. Each dream repeats itself in a cycle. (My husband discovered this, as I talk to him about them)

Since I do seem to have some psychic abilities, nothing to make a living off with, I now feel even more anxious. However, having been raised as a Jehovah's Witness, now shunned by my family, I wonder if their constant teachings of impending Armageddon, are coming through. Due to having spend my childhood with this fear. Could it be some subconscious childhood issues coming through? Or is this simply part of a bi-polar high? Or am I foreseeing what is about to happen?

Be all that as it may, I now truly fear sleep. (I do sleep with a CPAP machine, so it's not sleep apnea) My medications seem to be working quite well, and I have room to adjust the doses I take for sleep. But I truly fear deep sleep, due to the visions in my dream.

My girlfriend is bipolar as well, she has had bad dreams but not like yours, do you think maybe because you think about this all the time is maybe the reason of these dreams? I know that if I have something on my mind for a long time I dream about it every night!!

Thank you for your thoughts, youcantstop 48. You know, I thought about that. But during the day, up until I crash, I am actively engaged in other activities. It's not really the detail of the dream so much, as it is the feelings I have during and from them. It's fear of fear, if that makes sense.

As mentioned, the dreams are not the same every night, but they do run in a cycle. I would love to hear more of our thoughts about that.

Regards,
LifePaparazzi

Maybe you should write down your dreams as detailed as you can and see if you can get any interpretation of them.
What meds are you taking that may possibly cause the dreams, especially taking a combination of psychotropic drugs.
Also what you eat can sometimes cause strange dreams.

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Originally Posted by N0help4u

Maybe you should write down your dreams as detailed as you can and see if you can get any interpretation of them.
What meds are you taking that may possibly cause the dreams, especially taking a combination of psychotropic drugs.
Also what you eat can sometimes cause strange dreams.

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Good ideal. I shall write down a dream log. Maybe they will make sense then. It does help to analizy ones dreams.

I do wonder if my meds. Have anything to do with this. I'm on Cymbalta and Seroquel right now. But I have been on these meds. For well over a year now.

One thing that will help you is to have a job and hobbies... your interactions with people in these activities will provide your mind with lots of new material to work over and digest in your sleeping state.

Dreams and nightmares are always about ourselves in one way or another. Nightmares are always about our subconscious mind trying to reach our conscious mind to solve some sort of conflict. Your nightmares are about death... the road you are on now leads to your "death" is what your subconscious is saying. So, you have to get on with living... having a job, hobbies, all the wonderful things that a woman deserves in her life even is she has a major mental illness.

Focus on making a happy life for yourself, don't focus on mental illness. :)

Best wishes in 2008,

May I ask what medications you are on?

Some medications actually cause nightmares. Sometimes the combination of several meds will cause this also. This may be something you want to explore with your med doc.

Cymbalta and Seroquel --anything else? How much is the dosage etc..

ARe you recently taking anything over-the-counter? Cold preparations perhaps?

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Originally Posted by N0help4u

Cymbalta and Seroquel --anything else? How much is the dosage etc....?

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I take 60 mg of Cymbalta and 200 mg of Seroquel. I'm also on blood pressure med. Lisinopril, Cholesterol med. Tricor, and I take Lyrica due to a spinal birth defect. Other then that, I might take the occasional asprin or Alka Seltzer / Tums.

No alcohol, healthy diet, moderate daily exercise. I don't eat grape fruit, as it can react with meds.

You NEED to take Co Q10 because of the cholesterol meds. Europe and other nations require Co Q 10 to be prescribed with cholesterol drugs.


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Hopefully J_9 checks back and can give you insight on the meds and your nightmares.