| Subscribe to Mark's Newsletter |
Nightmare Disorder
Nightmare disorder is more than just people having a few random bad dreams. During nightmare disorder:
A person is repeatedly awakened in their sleep (whether it is at night or during a daytime nap) by disturbing bad dreams.
In most cases, these dreams involve a threat to the persons overall sense of well being and may involve physical or emotional harm to them.
When they wake up, they are fully aware of the dream they just had, and these frequent bad dreams could lead to a depressed mood or anxious state.
A person is only diagnosed with a nightmare disorder if their dreams interfere with their family, social or occupational life.
Symptoms
(according to the DSM-IV-TR):
- The patient must experience repeated awakenings from frightening dreams. This disorder is accompanied by intense subjective distress upon awakening including:
- a lingering sense of fear or anxiety
- sweating
- rapid heart beats.
- When the patient awakes, he or she must wake fully and be aware of his or her surroundings.
- The nightmares must cause the patient distress in important areas of his or her life.
- The nightmares cannot be directly attributed to another disorder, or be the direct effects of medications, substance abuse, or a medical condition.
Information Strategies:
It is important that you receive a full and complete medical evaluation first, and work with your doctor to determine whether this disorder developed at the same time as a medical disorder started.
If that proves to be negative (meaning no physical finding that might be the cause), then a full evaluation for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is strongly advised. This diagnosis has as one of it’s intrusive symptoms nightmares. However, in PTSD talking, screaming, and striking out are associated symptoms.
When recurrent nightmares are part of the “B” criterion for PTSD, intrusive symptoms of the disorder: also includes some of the following:
- The other symptoms of intrusion (which actually are a form of dissociation.) are:
- Intrusive and distressing recollection of an event that comes to your mind unbidden, repeatedly
- Flashbacks (where you experience your trauma so strongly that you do not realize where you are; you are RELIVING the traumatic event(s)
- Intense psychological distress, and physiological reactivity to events that symbolize the traumatic event (such as if you have been physically abused, and you see a TV show where there is physical violence you have an involuntary reflexive reaction to that event).
- If this occurs, please turn off the TV or change the channel. Watching this event will only serve to re-traumatize you, and will probably stimulate more nightmares!
Treatment:
- Seek the proper psychotherapeutic assistance that consists of
- Stabilization and Self Soothing Skills Such as :
- Relaxation techniques such as yoga or meditation
- Trauma Oriented Psychotherapy Such as EMDR (or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
- Medication Evaluation by a psychiatrist to help with symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Trauma Resolution
I am ready to be of service. I’m an EMDR Trainer, author and international lecturer.
I have also received the Francine Shapiro Award for a lifetime achievement in helping to build the EMDR community.
Contack Mark by phone at (516) 731-7611 or email mark@markdworkin.com
Mark is available for speaking engagements for the general public and professional communities, radio and tv appearances, seminars, webinars, enhancing professional development, workshops and trainings.
