jerseygirl84

I suffer from night terrors as a result of PTSD from childhood abuse, I'm in therapy and was on medication to help with it but had to be taken off of it due to a bad reaction, now they're back and even though I'm on meds for anxiety, mood stabilization and sleep I still struggle daily.

bigsombrero

I am really sorry to hear that. I have also suffered from severe sleepwalking and nightmares in the past, often waking up screaming etc. I had the most success sleeping with trazodone, although it would often put me in a long-term fog. I have experienced panic attacks and also been on anxiety meds like klonopin and prozac.

I noticed that after I got sober, I stopped taking all medications. 1.5 years later, I can power through anxiety much easier, and notice that I'm relatively okay as long as I keep myself out of loud, crowded environments.

Are you alcohol-free? Have you tried getting sober and going med-free before? Have you asked your doctor about this?

jerseygirl84

I am sober... 3.5 years in... I'm actually on trazadone was in topomax for the flashbacks but I lost a lot of weight on it so had to stop... Was medication free for the first 2.5 years went thru all 12 steps and was still having issues so it was advised for me to try meds

KateL

I still get weird dreams after 10 years of sobriety, especially if I am under stress. I take half a diazepam (I have never had trouble with overdoing prescription drugs, alcohol was my only poison) It does help. Also it mostly happens if I sleep late, so must go to bed earlier

ineed

Hi there, I am sorry to hear about your night terrors, I can relate enormously. When I was sober I would suffer from them horrendously, and through my withdrawal phase too. It is one of my major setbacks in recovery for me.

However, you've said that you take trazadone each night? Personally, the night in which I had the most horrific, realistic and worst night terrors of my life was the night I to ok trazadone (I was clean at that point). I don't know what set it off, but honestly, I had such a vivid nightmare that I remember it to this day, it haunts me almost, and I suffer flashbacks from it that will never go away.

Perhaps it was mere coincidence that it happened on the night I decided to take trazadone, but I have heard other say they have experienced them while taking it for insomnia too. Have you tried cycling off it and not using it? Could you replace it with another sleep aid, say promethazine for instance? I think it could be a factor for it.

You can cycle each of the sedating anti-histamine very successfully I have found, if you take promethazine, atarax, doxycycline, diphenhydramine each on different nights, you don't get a tolerance to each unique sedative properties of them. They were extremely helpful for me when I was sober and didn't want to use addictive meds.