Have You Ever Woken up Because of a Bad Dream?

Often, we happen to relive our memories in our dreams. Dreams are considered a sort of a portal to the past. If there was a time machine it would probably work the same way. Some people like to revisit their memories, some don’t. We all know that dreams are made of our subconscious thoughts. The subconscious thoughts may be a beautiful place for some and they may have good dreams wherein they revisit a time in their past when they felt loved however that is not always the case. Many people tend to also have really bad dreams wherein they end up revisiting a time when they were scared or underwent some trauma.

Getting over happy times is not hard. We often tend to even forget some moments. There are times when we are so happy that we think that we will never forget that moment and yet as time passes by, we tend to forget it. However, with traumatic moments it is not so. We may not be thinking of it constantly but it is always in the subconscious. Sometimes it is very prevalent that someone is suffering because of a traumatic incident that has happened to them or to someone close to them recently and on realizing this they may be able to ask for help however often even after years of the traumatic experience a person may continue to live a normal life without having any issues as such until some other stressor that may not even be connected to the previous traumatic incident occurs. There may be signs, there may be dreams but they may not be able to recognize it. Often, we tend to disregard our dreams and actions and nowadays we hardly have time to sit with ourselves and just think. The world we are living in at present times doesn’t really make it easy for one to stop and think about themselves unless they reach a point where they absolutely have to.

When we undergo some sort of trauma or if someone close to us undergoes some sort of trauma, the trauma stays with us for a while. Sometimes it even lasts a lifetime. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD as it is more commonly known is a diagnosis that is given to those who because of the trauma they have undergone find it hard to accomplish tasks in their daily lives that they once could with ease. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is when we live with the trauma as if it is happening to us all the time. For example, if you have fought in war and have seen the people around you been killed it will stay with you at every moment, both when you are asleep and when you are awake. living with Post Traumatic Disorder is not easy.
Often people tend to use the term PTSD very loosely and also tend to self-diagnose themselves with PTSD. However, that is not something one must do. Not all kinds of stress and trauma leads to a person having PTSD. It is natural for you to have a hard time if you have undergone some trauma. Two people can undergo the same trauma and yet one may be diagnosed with PTSD and one may not. The DSM 5 which is the Diagnostic Static Manual of Disorders is referred to when we try to understand if someone has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or if it is something else. Often PTSD is confused with other problems like acute stress disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Psychotic Disorders and Traumatic Brain Injury. It is best to not self-diagnose oneself and instead to get proper psychological treatment and diagnosis. Another thing one must keep in mind about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is that it is not always a downward curve. Trauma does not always result in a person becoming incapable of being able to do their tasks and having a hard time. Although it negatively affects a person and interferes in their daily lives, there are also people who tend to become better at things afterwards. Post Traumatic Growth is when people have a low and then they are able to with the right support grow as individuals.

A few shows that one can watch to understand what PTSD looks like include the show This is Us where the character of Jack shows Post Traumatic Growth while his brother shows signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but not of Post-traumatic growth. Other shows one can watch to understand PTSD is perks of being a wallflower and Shutter Island which does an amazing job at portraying what Post-traumatic stress disorder looks like in Real life.