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racingspoon
United Kingdom
35 Posts |
 Posted - 05/21/2012 : 15:24:09
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Bit of a weird one this sorry.
I am currently having a flare up of lower back and leg pain which has been attributed to a twisted pelvis by an osteopath. Last week I was pretty much pain free but woke up on Sunday morning in my current pain level.
Here is the thing, Saturday night I did actually sleep on the sofa which I have done in the past without too many problems BUT I also had the most vivid dream about my late father who died about 18 months ago. I haven't really dreamt about him or his death before but I have found that memories of him do pop into my mind at quite strange moments and this tend to be quite emotional. Like I say the dream I had on Saturday night was incredibly vivid and I recall being quite emotional in the dream. Silly question but is there likely to be a link between dreaming like this and waking to a spike and flare up in pain levels in the morning? |
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drh7900
USA
194 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 18:09:36
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My opinion...sure! Let's recap what we know about why TMS exists. Our brain, wanting to keep us from consciously realizing painful subconscious feelings, changes blood flow to create just enough oxygen deprivation to be excruciating without being harmful.
How about dreams? They're very much a work of the subconscious mind. How many things have we said or done in dreams that we'd never do in real life? If I remember correctly what I've learned about dreams, we're technically not "intended" to recall them. It's when we wake during dreams that they cross from the subconscious to the conscious mind. A dream that has ended usually is not remembered.
If your subconscious mind was replaying a memory, or a wish or even random thoughts related to something very emotional and was not intended for presence in the conscious mind, it would stand to reason that the brain would try to find a distraction to keep you from the emotions.
Those are my thoughts anyway. Intriguing question!
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Dustin |
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racingspoon
United Kingdom
35 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2012 : 23:22:26
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| Thanks for responding. So, on some level has the dream recollection actually allowed me a sneak peak so to speak on my subconcious and enabled me to see what is troubling it? As mentioned I often recall my father and my relationship with him as seemingly random times but does the fact I'm dreaming like this as well indicate that my emotions relating to him and his death are less 'resolved' that my concious mind believes? |
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drh7900
USA
194 Posts |
Posted - 05/22/2012 : 03:29:21
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My opinion is that you have to at least consider it a strong possibility. I am not a therapist or a doctor or even an expert on TMS or dreams, but I have had a long history in studying my own dreams for reasons I'm not necessarily prepared to go into here. I do believe that the subconscious mind knows a lot about us that out conscious mind does not. I also know that dreams are the realm of the subconscious. I had a dream one evening recently where I woke up in the middle of a huge physical expression of rage In the form of utterly destroying the contents of someone's house. Throwing things, breaking things, tearing things apart...things that I would never do in waking life...at least not without being in a state of pure anger of some kind.
This was shortly after learning about TMS. Normally my reaction would have been, "Well that was a weird dream," and I would have forgotten about it as i went on with lofe, but in light of what I had recently learned, my reaction was, "Wow...that was some kind of rage...what the heck am I so angry about?" and I began to dig into my emotions. Eventually I approached some memories of my time in the Army that, while I have always remembered them with some disdain, I realized as I began to focus on them that it wasn't just disdain...I was approaching seething hatred toward those involved. Hatred is something that's very hard for me to admit...I'm in the "love the sinner, hate the sin" camp; that is, I choose not to hate people, but may abhor their actions. That's an act of the conscious mind...or if I understand it correctly, the super ego...the mind "parent" telling the mind "child" (or id) that it's not acceptable to hate people, but we can hate what they do. That's an act of suppression...even repression of it's successful enough I suppose. As I approached that admission of hatred, my pain began to flare up with greater intensity, as of my mind was trying desperately to keep me from that guilty admission. Once I reached it, however, the pain began to subside.
I suppose my point in this example is that if you are having dreams that evoke such strong emotions, they are worth turning your attention on to see if you can resolve something. If dreams are the work of the subconscious and the pain is meant to divert attention away from subconscious emotions, then the flare-up involved with the memory of these dreams is a logical step, in my opinion. I don't know THAT much about Freud's work, but I do know he was fascinated by dreams...and a lot of Sarno's work stems from Freudian concepts. I took a one-semester course in psychology when I was in high school and just now remembered that we did an exercise in dream journaling...when I shared with my teacher one of the dreams I journaled, I remember the look on her face was near sheer terror and she actually said, "You frighten me, Dustin." At the time, I laughed it off...now I am wondering what made me dream that dream...because I still remember those twisted details lol. Maybe I just stumbled on to another potential lead in my quest to finding the source of my inner rage. So thanks for that!
Good luck with your journey of discovery! Perhaps some dream journaling may assist you in your own work of self healing.
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Dustin |
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The Importance of Dreams...
