@saltandpepper What you describe is similar to what I experience. It's almost like my brain brings part of the nightmare into my physical reality as I'm waking up. It is extremely unsettling and takes 5 minutes or so after waking properly to shake off that feeling of still being in the nightmare. I get that completely.
Some of my nightmares are directly related to my trauma and what I can't seem to deal with in real life. For example I will dream myself having confrontationally screaming matches with my family, me sticking up for myself and wake myself up still yelling at them, which is something I just don't do IRL.
My night terrors often stem from trauma I witnessed in the police force. I have dreams of persecution, being attacked by a mask assailant with a weapon and me being unarmed and not able to defend myself and I wake up physically frozen. I dream every night, sometimes multiple times a night sometimes multiple night terrors a night. As my therapist and I have discussed, he believes it's directly related to the c-ptsd as the psych meds I am on for bipolar do nothing to alleviate them.
I am just trying to be patient and let the therapy do it's work. I don't need to tell you how hard those nights can be, but as long as I keep moving forward and things slowly improve I'm determined not to let it beat me.
BB 🐰💙
