adrenaline surges as a result of Nightmares??night terrors?

[dizzygirl]

Hi folks..

I am wondering how many of you get adrenaline surges after (or during) anight mare or nightterror or flashbacks of a traumatic event or events in your life?

I am asking b/c I have a teribly time with nightmares and flashbacks at times (like this evening).. that really put me thru a loop.. I had bad nightmare tonight as I took a nap.. and it casued a surge.. and fear reaction fight ot flight thing.. where I woke up with my heartracing a mile a minute.. my hands and feet where freezing cold.. but yet my facew as flsuhed and I felt feverish in my face.. and I was shaking.. and having anxiety(more fear actually then anxiety) issues.. and I could feel the adrenaline surging thru my body at high speed..

and it takes me a bit to get grounded. and even after i am "grounded" and full aware of my surrounding and know that I am safe.. I still surge.. and the fast heart beating is unreal!

SO I am wondering how do you all deal with this kind of thing?? I work with a therapist allready.. and do have a good handle on things.. but the nightmares/night terrors I do not.. and I have have learned by trial and error to never mantion anymore that I have Post traumatic stress disoder.(dx at 15) .. I never say in my list of DX's thru the docs office that I have PTSD.. b/c before I was dx they kept saying that my PTSD was causing anxiety attacks and that that was why I felt like I did.. even when I wasnt having anxiety attacks....dr, Grubb assured me of that..

I realize that this is kind of a in between area for dysautonomia.. and I dont usually post about such personal issues.. But I'm really in need of suggestions from those of you eho know what I am talking about..

pointers that will help you ride out the adrenaline surge that is potsy.. but b/c of a HUGE fear reaction...if you dont feel comfortable posting feel free to send me a PM..

gosh I hope that you guys dont think I'm a nut ball now!

dizz

[worththewords]

I really wish I had some pointers to give you and hope that others can chime in on advice. This is something I experience as well, a few times a week. Even if I just dream about something that is very intense or active in my dream. It's a horrible experience when waking up, dealing with the racing heart, and despite realizing it was just a dream, the heart racing continues.

I've mentioned it to my doctor before who tells me it's probably stress and I should cut back on my school load but it doesn't even have to be a stressful dream to kick this process off. When it happens I wait until I am stable enough to walk, get an ice pack to cool me off as I usually feel clammy. I will turn on the TV and watch something that won't provoke anymore heart racing. I had this experience this morning and woke up at 6:30am and watched the weather on tv.

These adrenaline surges seem to be getting worse for me overall. I really hope someone can give some pointers on how to slow them down or prevent them.

You're not alone, hang in there!

[dizzygirl]

thank you!! yes i do try to do something calming.. all the old trick to deal with "stuff".. pop an icecube in the mouth or a fire ball.. as it will divert you mind from waht you either rememerbed or the night mare.. deep breathing..cartoons..

LOL.. yes cartoons! I love the cartoon Lilo and stitch hahaha! something funny or calm and realxing.. relaxation music/sounds.. I used to have sound spa. thingy.. but it got lost during my last move!

thank you worth the words! much appreciated!!

HUGS

LINDA

[worththewords]

ice cube or fire ball? I might have to try that sometime. I hadn't heard that one.

Depending on the time, I will turn on Cartoon Network or Nickeloden. I'll only watch the news if it is weather related. Obviously hearing about upsetting news doesn't help! My fiance loves the food channel, which is what I fall asleep to. It's great because there is never anything upsetting on that channel. When I lived alone I would find myself falling asleep to more dramatic shows, such as something on CourtTV. What a bad idea!

Let me know if you ever find a solution! I just remind myself over and over that nothing bad is going to happen to me.

Take care!

Alexia

[dizzygirl]

Oh yes I lvoe the food network too.. escailly EMERIL!! he cracks me up.. he is so animated while he cooks!! and I love the sound affect/noises that he makes while cooking.. its funny to me!! that ani Like to watch the travel channel and looka t all thso beautiful exotic place that I'll never be able to go to!! there too HOT!! LOL

ice cubes and fireballs.. are a tool ment to use to help keep you grounded into reality when you are having problems related to PTSD (flashbacks and such.) the therory is taht it is suppose to give your mouth a shock.. that willavert the attention away from what you are thinking or rememebering.. wokrs ok...icecubes work well thoguh. for the both PTSD and surging9POTSY things).. they help cool your mouth off.. and divert your attention.. as well you can rube some cubes on the back of your neck and face to help stop or calm down/control a surge of adrenaline...sounds weird but ti works...

i fianlly stopped surging.. thank god! took ong enough.. but it has left me felin very tired and sore! (headache/neackache)

[Ernie]

Hi,

I have adrenaline rushes in my sleep but I have never been tested to find out what is the cause or the trigger. I wake up in the middle of the night and I just want to run away. It takes me more sleeping pills to fall back asleep.

[Dizzy Dame]

I have night terrors as well, but mine usually involve having a nightmare, realizing I'm asleep, but being unable to wake up. By the time I actually do wake up, my body is in a tizzy. I'm scared to sleep at this point.

I'm sure that my fear in my dreams causes adrenaline surges, but I'm not sure what to do about it. How do you prevent something you can't help?

For now, I sleep with a light on, and never alone. I find I tend to have fewer nightmares if I sleep with someone else (ie my boyfriend) in the bed. I would like to do a sleep study at some point to find out what's going on when I'm having these horrible nightmares, but that's low on the priority list at this point.

- Lauren

Oh, and I wanted to reply about PTSD (total brain melt right there).

I have PTSD. It is difficult to deal with because it aggrevates my POTS. I wonder if there is a connection between the two. I've had PTSD longer than I've been sick, but all of the people I've met with PTSD are ill as well. One has MS, one has chronic migranes, there's me of course. Hmmmmm

[Jacquie802]

Hi, I think I posted something about this a few months back.. I do wake up inthe middle of the night with my heart racing, etc.

Jacquie

[lthomas521]

I stopped having serious nightmares after I started taking a self-defense course, many years ago. My typical nightmare involved someone attacking me. After a few months of training, the nature of these dreams changed altogether. The attacker would come at me, and I'd naturally do whatever I'd been taught in class to do. For example, if someone tries to grab you around the neck from behind, you can do the second basic throw. Naturally, things in dreams do not follow the rules of mechanics, so things that always work in real life do not always work in dreams. If the second basic throw didn't work, I'd move my hips to the side and do a hammer fist to the ... well, you get the idea. I'd go through various options until it dawned on my sleeping brain that nothing was working because I was dreaming. But in the meantime, the whole experience had changed from horrific fear to a routine technical problem.

Unfortunately, martial arts training involves far more orthostatic stress than I can currently tolerate. It's probably not something that a POTS patient can undertake.

One other thing that helped was that I was deliberately trying to train myself to recognize when I was dreaming. If you realize that you are dreaming while you are dreaming, the state is called "lucid dreaming." Are there any strange, impossible things that occur often when you are dreaming? Try to think about these things as soon as you wake up from a dream. Think of them as signs that you are dreaming. Another technique is to routinely ask yourself during waking hours, "Am I dreaming?" This habit may help you think of the question while you are sleeping. Once you know you are dreaming, you can take charge of your dream and do whatever you want in it. It's very liberating.

If you are having one of those "sleep paralysis" episodes, don't try to fight it. Try dreaming instead. Imagine yourself levitating off the bed and flying through the open window.

[dizzygirl]

lauren Hi--I have often wondered about the connection between POTS and PTSD.. I do think that when you are having PTSD issues that it most certainly aggrivates the pots symptoms...

though I do not think that PTSD is the CAUSE of pots.. i really think that it plays a role in things.. you know the whole figh tor flight response to fear/trauma...

Ithomas521--yes the idea of a self defense course would be great!! and very empowering and fantastic for the mind body and soul I think. very EMPOWERING!!... though I dont think I could handle a course right now due to the lovely pots and OI that I am ahving!

There is a really good self defense course thru the Jamestown Police department call RADD (jamestown is about an hour or so away from me in chatuauqua county NY)..I can get more info on that if any one is interested..there are other RADD courses thru out the country..

I iwsh that I was physically able to do something like that!!

I like the idea of being able to float out a window to get away from the "person (s)" in my nightmares..

i thank you guys for responding.. I dont feel so alone in the nightmare thing now..

[simon greene]

hi,

I get these attacks at night normally 15 mins after ive dropped off to sleep i wake up with pins and needles in my limbs and my heart is like a lead potato....i cant breath and i feel very scared then my heart does the 1812 overture...then i shake for 15 mins then it calms down... cant seem to get an answer from the doc or catch it on a ekg

rgds simon

Hi folks..

I am wondering how many of you get adrenaline surges after (or during) anight mare or nightterror or flashbacks of a traumatic event or events in your life?

I am asking b/c I have a teribly time with nightmares and flashbacks at times (like this evening).. that really put me thru a loop.. I had bad nightmare tonight as I took a nap.. and it casued a surge.. and fear reaction fight ot flight thing.. where I woke up with my heartracing a mile a minute.. my hands and feet where freezing cold.. but yet my facew as flsuhed and I felt feverish in my face.. and I was shaking.. and having anxiety(more fear actually then anxiety) issues.. and I could feel the adrenaline surging thru my body at high speed..

and it takes me a bit to get grounded. and even after i am "grounded" and full aware of my surrounding and know that I am safe.. I still surge.. and the fast heart beating is unreal!

SO I am wondering how do you all deal with this kind of thing?? I work with a therapist allready.. and do have a good handle on things.. but the nightmares/night terrors I do not.. and I have have learned by trial and error to never mantion anymore that I have Post traumatic stress disoder.(dx at 15) due to pretty severe- very life threatening trauma spanding over a period of roughly 15-16 yrs... (which again I deal with Much much better now..) .. I never say in my list of DX's thru the docs office that I have PTSD.. b/c before I was dx they kept saying that my PTSD was causing anxiety attacks and that that was why I felt like I did.. even when I wasnt having anxiety attacks....dr, Grubb assured me of that..

I realize that this is kind of a in between area for dysautonomia.. and I dont usually post about such personal issues.. But I'm really in need of suggestions from those of you eho know what I am talking about..

pointers that will help you ride out the adrenaline surge that is potsy.. but b/c of a HUGE fear reaction...if you dont feel comfortable posting feel free to send me a PM..

gosh I hope that you guys dont think I'm a nut ball now!

dizz

[yogini]

Hi dizzygirl,

I find that I have nightmares or intense dreams when my POTS is acting up. I think it's my body trying to wake me up and tell me that something is wrong - that I need to drink water, take meds, etc. I actually think the POTS causes the nightmares for me, and not the other way around...

-Rita