I do know some of the symptons for PTSD and I know that my father was suffereing from PTSD, it was already being determined by a therapist that the VA had sent him to. However I still have a questions about "dreams".

If someone has dreams that are obviously service related and disturb their sleep...i.e. thrashing around, waking them up, hollaring out loud in their sleep...yet they either don't wake up from it, or don't remember it if it does wake them up...is that still a sign of PTSD??

I remember as a small child clear up till not long before my father passed away,even my oldest brother who is 13 years older then me remembers it from when he was a small child, that our dad used to hollar out in Japanese in his sleep, or he would hollar for his gun, call for his friend since childhoo that was his best friend who was KIA or say other things. He would thrash around, or kick, cold sweats, ect...sometimes it would wake him up , other times he would just calm down and go back to a peaceful sleep, but often if not always, he would not remember the dreams if they woke him or the following morning.

I remember when I was younger, all of us kids, used to laugh because it was funny to hear your dad hollar out in Japanese when your a kid...but I look back now in my later years after I knew learned more about PTSD and realize how it wasn't something that was funny. It was something that was very serious.

After I knew more about PTSD I relaized that there were lots of other signs that led me to believe my father was suffering from PTSD and other things from his time in Korea. He served in Korean from 1950-1953 with the 34th IR 24th ID and was involved in some of the major battles there.

After I started pointing things out to him he finally gave in and let me take him to the VA to have things looked into more. It ended up being too late as he passed away before benefits could be officially determined and issued completly.

I guess now I'm just wondering if, even if he couldn't remember them, having those dreams and them affecting his sleep as they did...would that have been an early sign of PTSD?? Or since he didn't remember most of them would they have been dismissed as merely dreams?

Dreams are things that often times are our subconcious minds trying to work out problems, or stress in our sleeping state that we don't allow / won't allow ourselves to do while we are awake.

Many people don't remember, or rarely remember their dreams.

One of the tenants about diagnosing someone with PTSD, is their sleep patters, and dreams, and if there are disturbing dreams, what sort of things they are about. Without knowing what they are about (as a therapist or evaluator would have to had asked him, and he tell them) it can't be used as a factor for making the diagnosis. Simply not enough information.

Even if he were to say, "I have bad dreams, but I don't know what they are about, I just know I must have had one, because I wake up very upset" wouldn't be conclusive enough to add that as a symptom from PTSD.

Also don't know if Dad had always had disturbed sleep, or weird nightmares. I've had dreams where I was talking in portuegues in my dream --and I've never been to Portugal (or Brazil) and sure as heck don't speak portugese... I only know this, becuas of my uncle being fluent in it, and he heard me talkign when I was sleeping on their couch.

All I'm saying is, yes, it could've been, but since he couldn't remember any of the dreams there is no way to link them to anything.

I won't attempt to offer any help, but share my experiences. I am diagnosed with PTSD, and currently my dreams are well controlled by medications, violent dreams were a plague to me for many years before getting help. Perplexing to me was that I would dream of a real stressful situation, but the ending would be different nearly each time, and not the way the situation actually ended. I have no idea why this was the case, or if this is experienced by others.

Schwanke --
You were trying to resolve the situation in your sleeping state, that you've not been able to reconcile while awake.

We work through problems, and worries etc, in our sleep. It's the body & mind's way of healing itself.

Sometimes dreams are prophetic, sometiems they are reliving situations from our past, good and bad.

Sometimes they are our fears, our hopes.

But always they are a way for us to process and work thorugh things we won't, or can't while we're concious.

Yes, that happens to everyone.

You're mind is tyring to take a bad situation, from your memory, and correct it with a better result. WHen it finally comes up with a resolution (though not real) it will help you let go of that particular situation, and you'll cease to dream of it.

quote:

If someone has dreams that are obviously service related and disturb their sleep...i.e. thrashing around, waking them up, hollaring out loud in their sleep...yet they either don't wake up from it, or don't remember it if it does wake them up...is that still a sign of PTSD??

Yes, that is a sleep disorder and your description vividly reminds me of nightmares.

Dave ( and others) I am so sorry. I should have used my head a little better. It didn't dawn on me that when asking my questions and mentioning the related examples that it could be a trigger. I feel horrible for not realizing that before I posted it, I am truely sorry.

quote:

I feel horrible for not realizing that before I posted it,

I see no problem. You asked a question, there are many here who can and will give good responses. We are here to help.