Are nightmares caused by suppressed emotions?

[noname223]

Why do we have nightmares? I don't have the energy for a long research. Maybe someonce can lecture me about it.
Often when I try to suppress feelings or thoughts they reemerge in my dreams. (Not only nightmares.)
I have different traumatas. I came to terms with my domestic abuse. It still tortures me a lot but I don't feel ashamed anymore. This is the difference to my bullying. I partly blame myself for it and I have an unhealthy relationship to it. I have often told my therapist that we should talk more about it. There are some things I feel embarrassed for. Even in front of my friends which is very seldom because they almost know literally everything. Since I have told it them there are less nightmares. I try to tackle those thoughts when I am awake so that they don't excruciate my sub-consciouss. This helped a litte bit.
When I was halfway religious I often felt guilty for being suicidal or I feared hell a lot. I had horrible nightmares. Losing my faith has helped. Though I don't doubt that other people can get strength from their faith.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

Nightmares and dreams are obviously just alternate versions of you in other universes. Time and physics might flow differently in those universes to explain some of the weirder things.

 

[Pluto]

I had recurring nightmares about my parents and certain school bullies for about 10 years after I left school.

The nightmares about my parents always involved getting attacked by large snakes while my parents looked on without feeling the slightest concern. Horror movie vibes. It was very scary but at the same time, a very fitting metaphor for their creepy, emotionally dead parenting. Meanwhile IRL, they felt nothing even when I was in a state of PTSD, so at least the nightmares gave me some validation that I had actually been abused even though no one actually cared.

The other nightmares involved the most psychopathic of my many schoolyard bullies. I was always just running and trying to find a place to hide. Often found myself back at school, or some equivalent place.

Seemingly the eventual cessation of that - or the possibly related night terrors that I used to have - could mean that a period of psychological processing passed. It still left a completely defective personality and a freakish background that no normal person could begin to understand, though. Perhaps it would take hundreds of years to actually recover, if even that.

 

[whatevs]

Is math related to science?

 

[Nolan96]

My nightmares usually don't involve anything suppressed, but I'm not sure if I do suppress anything internally. (Externally there's a lot I don't express, to most people at least.) I worry all day about things and then worry all night about the same exact things in my dreams.

 

[Graham]

Why do we have nightmares? I don't have the energy for a long research. Maybe someonce can lecture me about it.
Often when I try to suppress feelings or thoughts they reemerge in my dreams. (Not only nightmares.)
I have different traumatas. I came to terms with my domestic abuse. It still tortures me a lot but I don't feel ashamed anymore. This is the difference to my bullying. I partly blame myself for it and I have an unhealthy relationship to it. I have often told my therapist that we should talk more about it. There are some things I feel embarrassed for. Even in front of my friends which is very seldom because they almost know literally everything. Since I have told it them there are less nightmares. I try to tackle those thoughts when I am awake so that they don't excruciate my sub-consciouss. This helped a litte bit.
When I was halfway religious I often felt guilty for being suicidal or I feared hell a lot. I had horrible nightmares. Losing my faith has helped. Though I don't doubt that other people can get strength from their faith.

Dreams are your subconscious trying to work out your emotions and a way forward I read somewhere

You only remember dreams if you wake up during them

'Funny' when people have the same themes - can't find a toilet, naked, can't run, lost, missing a plane train etc

 

[Dead Ghost]

When I took citalopram, I went through nightmares every night for the time I was on medication, then they disappeared forever, and that's 14 years ago.

Yes, I have had nightmares at this time, but of the normal and few, not the beast of blood and guts and that I know.

My opinion is that if they are repressed emotions that want to come out somehow, express themselves. For some reason citalopram does not let them express themselves in the waking state and they have to go out anyway and they do it with dreams.

On the other hand, mianserine has the opposite effect, emotions are expressed in all their fullness in the waking state and let you sleep in peace. But at the expense of creating a lot of problems in relationships with others. I make it clear that I'm only talking about my experience, I know for a fact that medication gives other people a pretty powerful emotional balance.

Spoiler: Original Text

Jo quan veig prendre el citalopram em vaig passar amb malsons diaris totes les nits durant el temps que em vaig medicar, després van desaperèixer per sempre, i d'això fa 14 anys.

Si que he tingut malsons en aquest temps, però dels normals i pocs, no la bestiesa aquella de sang i visceres i que se jo.

La meva opinió és que si serien emocions reprimides que volen sortir d'alguna manera, expresar-se. Per alguna rao el citalopram no les hi deixa expresar en estat de vigília i han de sortir com sigui i ho fan amb els somnis.

En canvi la mianserina te l'efecte contrari, les emocions s'expressen en tota la seva plentitud en estat de vigília i et deixen dormir en pau. Però a costa de crear-te forces problemes en les relacions amb els demés. Aclareixo que només parlo de la meva experiència, se de sobres que a d'altres persones la medicació els hi proporciona un equilibri emocional bastant potent.