Having interesting dreams during this pandemic!

[SunnyMeadow]

The past many nights I've had dreams involving telling off my mother, my father, patching things up with estranged family and more. In the dream about my parents I was yelling, swearing and punched both of them right in their mouths. In other dreams, I'm reaching out to family who were kicked to the curb by my uPDmom and I was patching up relationships.

In still another dream, I was so relieve to finally start making calls to tell those family members that she died of the virus. I was free and they were now free to start interacting with their dad/grandpa again. I had to take some flack for being my mom's watchdog but I did it and I was free.

This pandemic stress has my brain working overtime. I'm not a person who normally has dreams or if I do, I don't remember them. Now, I remember every detail, it's pretty amazing to me. I'm not sad when I wake up after these dreams, I'm hopeful and feel empowered finally.

Anyone else dealing with stress and life change in this way? (I'm also craving sweets but that's another topic  )

[GettingOOTF]

I have also been having very vivid dreams. I don't usually remember my dreams but I have been remembering these. They feel very real and the feeling stays after I wake up.

I've also been dreaming about family and my BPDxH. I discussed this in therapy last week. I had a disturbing dream that I was still married and couldn't leave. The dream was set in my childhood bathroom of all places.

My therapist asked me to talk about how I felt in the dream and I realized I felt trapped in the dream. She pointed out that I feel trapped now. I'm on virus lockdown in a small apartment so I am trapped in many ways.

This is such a stressful and traumatic experience for us all and it's a collective trauma. There's no escape from it for many of us who are in lockdown and have sick friends we cannot help. My therapist said my dreams are basically my brain processing what I'm going through. She said she's heard from many other clients that they too had been having these dreams.

I'm also craving sugar. I generally drink more and eat sugar when I'm stressed. I have neither of those things now as I'm not going out and can't get groceries delivered. I'm trying to focus on better coping mechanisms but I also think that right now we should do what we need to to feel better and some extra sugar is quite harmless compared to many other things we could be doing.

[Andeza]

I've been waking up with that tired, uncomfortable feeling that I had weird/freaky dreams the night before. But I can't really remember them. That tells me they are the product of a stressed mind and bored imagination. Very restless. However, my uBPDm has not shown up in my dreams at all. That I would definitely remember.

As for the craving sugar thing, same. I think what it actually is is this. In our normal, day-to-day lives we don't realize just how much sugar we get on a regular basis, and now that we're not having our favorite drink/treat/etc our bodies are going through sugar withdrawal. It would be interesting to tally up how many grams we normally consume, versus how much we're getting now that we're pretty much stuck at home.

Be safe and healthy!

[Free2Bme]

I recently read that sugar causes a dopamine release in the brain that is similar but on smaller scale than sex and certain drugs.  It could be that we are all needing a little extra dopamine right now, at least our brains think so. 

I have not been craving sweets more than normal, but my daughters must be!  They are baking like crazy.  Every. Day. There are cakes, cookies, chocolate nut bars, strudels..... and endless dishes.  I enjoy seeing them having fun in the kitchen, I just hope I can keep from putting on pandemic pounds.

I don't have a lot of strange dreams, but I wake up super early sometimes and can't return to sleep state.  Regardless of what time I awake, every morning starts with a deep feeling of dread about my circumstances (school, graduation, employment, money).

[SunnyMeadow]

Interesting about sugar cravings and dopamine connection Free2Bme, makes sense. Being in quarantine reminds me of being stuck in the house during winter when I'd make comfort food. I don't want to put on the Covid-15 because of this pandemic!

I had a boring couple of dreams last night but still remembered them. I kind of like working out these issues while dreaming. GettingOOTF, thanks for sharing that your therapist mentioned other people are having these dreams as well. A collective trauma is good way to describe it.

I'm glad your mom hasn't shown up in your dreams Andeza! I think you're right about not realizing how much sugar we get on a regular basis. I don't normally crave sugar, more salty snacks but being stuck in the house has kicked the sugar thing into high gear.

[Seven]

Well, I had one last night and interestingly I ate a bunch of sugar yesterday, because I'm at the point in this lockdown where I'm "f*** it Walmart has Easter candy on clearance" and 2)  I can spare the calories.   I don't eat sugar on purpose, except yesterday of course.  I ate a package of Peeps and a package of the mini-Cadbury eggs. I normally intermittent fast and do very low carb.

So the dream was I was an adult, but dealing with her brought me back to my teen years and my uNPD mother hated me, so she did everything she could to hurt me.  Take away everything I loved. The last week or so in real life, I picked back up doing jigsaw puzzles.  So in my dream she destroyed every one that I did. Purposely threw pieces away, broke them all down and mixed them all together (like multiple puzzles into one big pile of pieces).   But it got to the point where she was doing it in a madwoman mental state.  It was so bad that I tried to tell my dad to commit her.  He just shrugged his shoulders and waited for it to pass. My dad has been deceased for 7 years now, so it's even harder for me when he's alive in my dreams.

I woke up feeling hungover like I do any time I have a dream about my mother and screaming at her, trying to get through her head her behavior is an abomination. She just laughs a crazy-woman laugh.

[SunnyMeadow]

No wonder you felt hungover when you woke up Seven. What a chaotic, stressful dream.

Cadbury mini eggs are exactly what I'm craving. I've resisted so far but I have to go shopping soon so we'll see what happens when I'm in the store.