Nightmares as TMS?

Hi all

Most nights I have nightmares, often quite violent ones whereby I am getting murdered. If not that, then something else unpleasant or just plain weird, but it can leave me waking disturbed or even annoyed. Sometimes I wake up screaming and a partner has to calm me down. This has been going on since I was a child, with peaks and valleys throughout my life where sometimes it would improve. They are not the same nightmares over and over, nor do they seem to be memory nightmares, as in playing back some traumatic experience. There is a 'joke' between me and my husband; he says, "Sweet dreams," and I tell him not to say it because for me, 'sweet' dreams is so far removed from what I am going to experience it feels weird to hear him say it.

I've never been raped, in a war zone or in a car crash or other situation like that. The only 'trauma' I can say has been emotional trauma during my childhood, but also physical trauma in the form of many years of a starvation type eating disorder, whereby I was constantly and chronically undernourished (and underfunctioning along with it). This has resolved a great deal the last 5 years.
My childhood was, however, a hugely stressful and unpleasant experience. As for my day to day demeanor, I am also highly strung, hypervigilant, easy to panic and have a constant, repetitive noise in my head for no good reason.

For the past few years the nightmares have been more or less nightly, so I'm going through phase of greater frequency. I am wondering if they can be TMS? What disturbs me is that they almost always involve me being killed in a violent manner.
thanks
Metta

 

I deeply touched by you post! When I was young, I often dreamed that I was left behind, chased, assaulted, killed etc.
Dreams are almost always reflections of different parts of your own personality and subconscious. Being murdered is a very powerful message from you to yourself and this is a message that it would do you good to listen to and welcome.
Given your history of eating disorder and your childhood, my suggesting would be that you consult a skilled therapist who can help you uncover what is beneath the violent images. Your subconscious is working hard on conveying important information to you using different violent scenarious - every night. Have you considered writing your dreams down just when you wake up? That would be helpful in regard to therapy and maybe you will be able to see a pattern or a message.
What strikes me in your writing is "trauma" - why use the ".."? A hugely stressful and unpleasant childhood may very well be a trauma and the noise in your head, the highly strung, easy to panic trait point in that direction. So the answer to your question whether this could be TMS is - yes, I think it could.
I've had a tough childhood and I have a lot hidden emotions and feelings. I consult a very skilled psychologist to learn to feel what I feel - I wouldn't have been able to this on my own. The fear has been to great. Today I know that no feeling or emotion can ever hurt me - but it felt like that for a lot of years...
Wish you all the best!

 

Nightmares wouldn't be classified as TMS since TMS deals with muscular pain.

That being said, Nightmares being associated with underlying emotions and the subconscious. Most assuredly.

I have nightmares almost every morning as well. Dreams are your mind trying to figure things out. All of us have trauama even though yours may not be severe, you still have it. Waking up with a nightmare ruins my whole day.

Try this:I have in the past and did have results. I've just gotten lazy.

Do a dream journal every morning and just briefly write what your dream was about. You will be able to remember more and more each time. One reason I stopped is my dreams were so long I would be writing for an hour! So don't feel like you need to write every detail. Just the basics will do.

Odds are you will find a theme to these dreams and you will be able to tell what emotions are causing them. Being in a heightened state of anxiety causes nightmares, and it sounds like you've spent a lot of your life with this anxiety. PM me anytime if you want help with dream interpretation.