psychotic break?

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

So, paging Dr Cronos.

The other night, I had a dream, a really really really really^infinite power, weird and [expletive] up dream. I can't remember all of it, but it goes something like this:

I was watching a movie, something like Identity Theft or whatever. And, at the end of the dream, or towards the end, the meaning of life and the universe was revealed. And, it was not the Christian belief or the Muslim belief or the Jewish belief. But, it was apparent there was something to the afterlife. And, it was some [expletive] up religion that had it right...like scientology, but not scientology. Anyway, at this point, I became the focus of the movie and everyone in the crowd was laughing at me. Time was nothing. I could go forward or backwards however I wanted. The butterfly effect was in full swing; I couldn't change anything, but I could jump back to points in my life or forward to points in the future.

The price I paid for this, however, was that everyone, everywhere knew everything about me. Once he/she/god/whoever opened up the curtain to reveal all the secrets of the universe, my entire being became open for the universe to know as well. As a result, everyone hated me. All my family hated me, my friends hated me, Ms. AW was going to leave me.

At this point, I believed all that. At 3 AM, I fully believed that when Ms. AW woke up, she was going to pick up AW jr and walk out the door. That, in the morning, I no longer had anything to look forward to. My existence was: 1. [expletive] earth life sans any meaning or fun as everyone hated me, 2. [expletive] after life to last 2 eternities 3. hopfully something better. I laid in bed for like 5 minutes petrified to even move. Then, I woke Ms. AW up. She just looked at me like I had just killed her dog or something and went to the bathroom. I got up, got some water and went to watch her blow her lid, accept that everything was [expletive] and leave.

Only when she asked me what was wrong did I start to come back to reality. I told her about the dream and she just gave me a kiss, told me I was insane, and went back to bed. Then AW jr started crying and we fed him and I fully understood it was all just a dream. But.....what blows my mind is I was in a different place for 10 minutes or so....fully believing in an alternate reality. Isn't that like the definition of insane? What the [expletive] happened?

Despite my persona on here, I'm extremely grounded and have no clue what the [expletive] caused that. It bugs me that for those 10 minutes or however long I was so off my rocker. How did that happen. Seriously. It bugs me and kind of scares me. But...it's a one time thing...so I don't even know what to think of it.

[Jocephus]

thats pretty intense. try not to look too much into it but maybe it can help you too.

[Maclowery]

In college, I had an especially vivid dream in which my longtime girlfriend had died suddenly the night before. I was a mess. I woke up still in that place, and was all the way down in the dorm shower, with my head on the wall, fighting back tears, when I slowly realized it was definitely a dream, and I definitely still had a girl I loved a few dorms over. In a weird way, it worked out, since I was just absurdly giddy and happy once I got out of the miserable state of the dream.

I don't think there's anything out of the ordinary that you woke up still thinking your dream was a reality.

[wart57]

Just kidding, I have had some intense dreams where it takes a while to realize it was just a dream, it can [expletive] you up for a little while.

[Cronos]

While that's a particularly intense dream, normally I'd just say that's all it was and not to worry too much about it unless something like this is happening routinely.

But a question for you, AW: when you said you were laying in bed afraid to move, did you see, hear or experience anything odd while you felt as though you were fully (or at least somewhat) awake and conscious? Also, did you happen to experience a feeling of not being able to move, maybe even struggling to breathe for a moment?

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

While that's a particularly intense dream, normally I'd just say that's all it was and not to worry too much about it unless something like this is happening routinely.

But a question for you, AW: when you said you were laying in bed afraid to move, did you see, hear or experience anything odd while you felt as though you were fully (or at least somewhat) awake and conscious? Also, did you happen to experience a feeling of not being able to move, maybe even struggling to breathe for a moment?

Yeah, I was awake. I didn't know what to do. I thought maybe I'd go back to sleep, but I kept getting that nightmare feeling* so that wasn't possible. I wanted to believe it was all made up, that it was just a dream, but despite being awake I couldn't get it to go away. In order to move forward, I had to accept that the dream was real, that everything I had just learned was real. I distinctly remember giving up the last morsel of hope that it was all a dream in order to be able to get up and wake Ms. AW up. But, no real shortness of breath.

*I don't know if you know the nightmare feeling, but when I get it as soon as I fall asleep my entire body is overtaken with fear.

My blood sugar was a little bit low, like 65 or something, but not that low that I was incoherent.

Just.....crazy.

[wart57]

While that's a particularly intense dream, normally I'd just say that's all it was and not to worry too much about it unless something like this is happening routinely.

But a question for you, AW: when you said you were laying in bed afraid to move, did you see, hear or experience anything odd while you felt as though you were fully (or at least somewhat) awake and conscious? Also, did you happen to experience a feeling of not being able to move, maybe even struggling to breathe for a moment?

Sleep paralysis sucks, it was the most freaked out I have ever been the first time it happened to me. Now, when it happens, I know what is going on and I can control it. I would bet your money, sleep paralysis is the basis for most alien abduction stories.

[Cronos]

As Wart mentions, I'd guess it was a symptom of sleep paralysis; It affects a certain percentage of people at least once in their life. I've had this happen to me a few times in the last ten years or so, and when it does, it's freaking terrifying, but for me it's fortunately pretty rare.

When the body is in REM sleep, you are essentially paralyzed. Sleep paralysis is a condition in which the mind and senses become conscious during REM sleep. The brain is doing its normal thing at the end of the day and processing everything during REM sleep, which includes dreams and nightmares, and so can make for especially vivid and [expletive] up experiences if the conscious mind receives that information and has to interpret it. Startling hallucinations (I'd swear to you I've seen the Grim Reaper walk in to my room and up to me before), even loud sounds and whatnot can result, including not being able to move or feeling like you can't breathe despite desperately trying to do so.

I'd agree that a variant of sleep paralysis would explain this instance. Not much you can do about it other than the normal things one can do to improve the quality of sleep; if it happens often enough that it's distressing to you consider a sleep aid or having a sleep study done.

[wart57]

As Wart mentions, I'd guess it was a symptom of sleep paralysis; It affects a certain percentage of people at least once in their life. I've had this happen to me a few times in the last ten years or so, and when it does, it's freaking terrifying, but for me it's fortunately pretty rare.

When the body is in REM sleep, you are essentially paralyzed. Sleep paralysis is a condition in which the mind and senses become conscious during REM sleep. The brain is doing its normal thing at the end of the day and processing everything during REM sleep, which includes dreams and nightmares, and so can make for especially vivid and [expletive] up experiences if the conscious mind receives that information and has to interpret it. Startling hallucinations (I'd swear to you I've seen the Grim Reaper walk in to my room and up to me before), even loud sounds and whatnot can result, including not being able to move or feeling like you can't breathe despite desperately trying to do so.

I'd agree that a variant of sleep paralysis would explain this instance. Not much you can do about it other than the normal things one can do to improve the quality of sleep; if it happens often enough that it's distressing to you consider a sleep aid or having a sleep study done.

In my very first sleep paralysis dream, a grey being with glowing green hair walked into my room, walked through my bed and stood behind me, it reached down a touched my shoulder and my shoulder felt like it was on fire, and I could not move. When I finally was able to move again, I was still terrified, I had to run in to the bathroom, and just stared at my reflection, and looked at my shoulder to see if there were any burn marks.

[IMADreamer]

As Wart mentions, I'd guess it was a symptom of sleep paralysis; It affects a certain percentage of people at least once in their life. I've had this happen to me a few times in the last ten years or so, and when it does, it's freaking terrifying, but for me it's fortunately pretty rare.

When the body is in REM sleep, you are essentially paralyzed. Sleep paralysis is a condition in which the mind and senses become conscious during REM sleep. The brain is doing its normal thing at the end of the day and processing everything during REM sleep, which includes dreams and nightmares, and so can make for especially vivid and [expletive] up experiences if the conscious mind receives that information and has to interpret it. Startling hallucinations (I'd swear to you I've seen the Grim Reaper walk in to my room and up to me before), even loud sounds and whatnot can result, including not being able to move or feeling like you can't breathe despite desperately trying to do so.

I'd agree that a variant of sleep paralysis would explain this instance. Not much you can do about it other than the normal things one can do to improve the quality of sleep; if it happens often enough that it's distressing to you consider a sleep aid or having a sleep study done.

In my very first sleep paralysis dream, a grey being with glowing green hair walked into my room, walked through my bed and stood behind me, it reached down a touched my shoulder and my shoulder felt like it was on fire, and I could not move. When I finally was able to move again, I was still terrified, I had to run in to the bathroom, and just stared at my reflection, and looked at my shoulder to see if there were any burn marks.

Thanks, I didn't want to sleep tonight anyway. I'm not saying aliens, but aliens.