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Misc Best drug to get rid of (nightmares)

S

Star winx

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 8, 2017
Messages
56
I was recently put on Clonidine to reduce nightmares (PTSD). Is there anything else that works?
Thanks.
Starwinx
 
If there is I've never found it, been looking for years
 
If you drink enough you'll pass out and never have dreams, good or bad. Except when you run out of booze, then it's nothing but waking nightmares.

Yeah, how's the clonidine working? That stuff showed actual clinical success with nightmares from PTSD. I don't know if my recurrent can't-find-the-classroom and it's midterms and I'm naked dreams count or not.
 
Honestly I had really good luck with trazadone (highish doses of 150-300mg) + NMDA antagonists. Lots of side effects with that, but if you have really shitty night terrors or such it allowed me to get 8ish hours of sleep a night consistently (with zero issues with nightmares or terrors), even while I was also detoxing from methadone. Very powerful combo, but there are a LOT of caveats to using certain dissos.

Clonidine is supposed to help, and it has helped me a little bit it isn’t perfect by any means. Apparently there is another med related to clonidine that helps with this, but off the top of my head I’m not familiar with it (or even it’s name, just something I once talked to a doctor about).

At one point cannabis helped a lot with my dream issues.

TBH honestly I’ve eventually learned to appriciate the lucidity and intensity (adrenaline) of my less than otherwise pleasant dreams. There are some that are seemingly impossible to work with without meds or other stuff, but generally speaking working with night terrors in terms of how I approach the entire experience has been more helpful long term than anything else.

Are you issues with dreams associated with the experience of trauma or PTSD?

Something I have found really helpful in the past is also just talking with others about my dreams (tend to be related to various terrifying armageddon/end of life scenarios concerning my own death and those I care about).

On that note, we have some good LAVA threads about dreaming you might find useful in discussing your dreams.
 
Cannabis is known to reduce REM sleep by a large percent. Thus u will dream less altogether.
 
I recently was prescribed a med tp prevent PTSD nightmares. It is called Prazosin. I’ve just filled it and I’m supposed to take it daily at bedtime.
 
I have the worst nightmares of anyone ounce ever heard of and nothing really helps them except alcohol. Even that just blunts them a bit. They're terrifying and really do me me up quite a bit when i have them. Luckily I've gone without for a few days so sleep has been good for a bit.

But, anyway one thing my psychiatrist put me on that's supposedly works wonders on PTSD nightmares is prazosin. They prescribe it up to 10mg before bed, usually in 1mg increments until it works. Guess it's for blood pressure but that's in really high doses. It's not abuseable so it's really easy to get rxd. Try it out it may be very helpful. I totally get where your at and I'd do anything to stop them ( hence my alcoholism). Really hope this helps
 
Star winx said:
I was recently put on Clonidine to reduce nightmares (PTSD). Is there anything else that works?
Thanks.
Starwinx
Click to expand...
What other medications are you on? I am on mess that cause me to have extremely scary vivid nightmares, I actually afraid to sleep sometimes
 
rainyday107 said:
I recently was prescribed a med tp prevent PTSD nightmares. It is called Prazosin. I’ve just filled it and I’m supposed to take it daily at bedtime.
Click to expand...

Tek4242 said:
I have the worst nightmares of anyone ounce ever heard of and nothing really helps them except alcohol. Even that just blunts them a bit. They're terrifying and really do me me up quite a bit when i have them. Luckily I've gone without for a few days so sleep has been good for a bit.

But, anyway one thing my psychiatrist put me on that's supposedly works wonders on PTSD nightmares is prazosin. They prescribe it up to 10mg before bed, usually in 1mg increments until it works. Guess it's for blood pressure but that's in really high doses. It's not abuseable so it's really easy to get rxd. Try it out it may be very helpful. I totally get where your at and I'd do anything to stop them ( hence my alcoholism). Really hope this helps
Click to expand...

Prazosin is the med I was thinking of. I’m not particularly interested in trying it because it seems to be of questionable value for this purpose.

Benzos and gabaergics generally are well known to be helpful with PTSD related stuff. Their use can become problematic if not properly managed, but they can help.

I’d really also suggest finding a good therapist (which can be a huge PITA, I think it takes me about 10 therapists to find one that works well for me) to work on this stuff to IN CONJUNCTION with other treatments (pharmacotherapies and other forms of support including MBSR). Finding a good therapist generally requires time and effort, but once you do it’s more than worth it.
 
Prazosin (Minipress) has worked very well for some people I've known, but not so much for others. Kind of like how trazadone doesn't do anything at all to me. Nada. Always made me jealous when in rehab/detox situations, and other patients are popping their trazadone and sleeping like babies, while I'm in my bed staring at the ceiling on the max dose they would allow. Body chemistry is such an interesting thing.
 
Isn't that med for when your taking a heart attack or maybe I'm thinking of catapres? Anyways yea I just started trazadone and it works,, I actually fun sleep!! When I can that is.. I work night shift so my sleep is all screwed up anyway. I did have a nightmare last night.. that I was in the walking dead and doing crazy things no lie my dreams are fucked up! Extremely.. I think it's cuz my brain is crazy
 
I was on clonidine when I toook naloxone to soon and went into an extreme withdrawal I hate restless legs
 
GiNa LyNnxx said:
Isn't that med for when your taking a heart attack or maybe I'm thinking of catapres? Anyways yea I just started trazadone and it works,, I actually fun sleep!! When I can that is.. I work night shift so my sleep is all screwed up anyway. I did have a nightmare last night.. that I was in the walking dead and doing crazy things no lie my dreams are fucked up! Extremely.. I think it's cuz my brain is crazy
Click to expand...

Both Minipress and Catapres can be prescribed for hypertension, among other things.
 
Anything that is going to reduce REM sleep is bad for your sleep quality and that's not going to be good for you.

Honestly, I would think the best way to deal with nightmares is therapy and addressing your underlying issues.

Nightmares, especially from something like PTSD I'd think, are a sign that there is something that needs to be addressed in your life and until you confront those things head on you will continue to have nightmares.

Most psychotherapists would say that nightmares are almost the unconscious mind's pain response in a way and most drugs will just mask the pain.

However, I would think if you actually have access that using something like MDMA or MDA while AWAKE would really help you confront those issues and help you have fewer nightmares if you use that time productively.

MDMA has shown to have massive therapeutical benefits for PTSD.

I would also think that using psychedelics like DMT, Mushrooms, Ibogaine, Ayahuasca, Mescaline, and to a lesser extent LSD or certain RC psychs could very much help you address your PTSD, but I'd think any of those should be combined with good therapy like CBT and or other modalities like neurofeedback, or even auto-hypnosis/hypnosis could help.

You might also strongly consider meditation like zen or mindfulness.

Ketamine therapy is more for depression, but I wonder if that might work also, but deciding to take something to repress REM just seems like a bad idea.

I mean eventually you will need good quality REM sleep and so you can only suppress those dreams for so long before it could really start to fuck with you in a bad way.

Also, though it might seem wacky, you might want to try to learn to lucid dream.

I have a very interesting book called "Lucid Dreams in 30 Days" which I've never actually followed all the way through, but it teaches you, well, to have lucid dreams in 30 days, lol.

You start by just writing your dreams down every day to starting to do cool stuff like tell yourself throughout your day that you are asleep and checking light switches and things like that to test your concsiousness and tell yourself you are waking up out loud before bed time, all with the intention to get better at controlling your consciousness so you can become aware when you are dreaming.

I'd think if you can learn to know you are sleeping in a dream you won't be freaking out in your nightmares.

They also make a type of machine that you can wear while sleeping that somehow teaches you to lucid dream by making sounds in your ears.

I really don't understand how it works but I believe it could and you can buy it for probably like $200 give or take.

I forget what it is called but an internet search should yield some results.
 
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Yes so far it has reduced them and less violent nightmares as well. The doctor mentioned trying another drug. I forget the name and was wondering if anyone knew of it. I'm still very new to Clonidine as I am on a few other meds Dilaudid, clonazepam, temazepam. I have as been in hospital for 2 months. I was on a lot more then but I am sill finding it to give me some very odd interactions.
 
Thanks. Yes it is for pretty severe PTSD. I hope there becomes a therapy when I could confront such issues that keep affecting my life in turn. I was pu on Clonidine in hospital where I have been for the last 2 months. The doctor there said Clonidine was at least worth a try as the nightmares were so often and vivid and often violent.

I will definately look into your advice it was very kind of you to share this with me as it has been a long time and I need to address it. You are absolutely right,

I don't really understand REM sleep but the sleep clinic says I get into it very fast.

Thanks.
 
A lot. Dilaudid, seroquel, clonazepam, gabapenin, sertaline, catapess, dexamphetamin, temazepam. I think thats all for now.
 
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