Dreams

All the freaking time. The dream confusion is such a weird feeling. If you’re an audio book person. There’s a book called “how to make your brain your best friend” by Rachel Barr. (She also has a heavy social media presence with a brilliant Scottish accent) but she talks a lot about sleep and sleep hygiene, and how what you think about or do before bed can impact how your brain learns. But for me, If I wake up with it, I just try to visualize the day before and walk myself through what actually happened. If you journal, sometimes it’s good to have a reference point. But really get up and focus on something else, the brain just has to sort itself out. I wish I was more helpful 😅 it happens a lot to me so I’m probably not the best to give advice

I have that issue too. I hate it. For me sleep is like the only time i can be free of tbe thoughts but i dream about my worries too. I wish i had advice but i deal with it too.

yup, us with ocd have to ignore all of the media explaining “what dreams mean” just like our thoughts just being thoughts, our dreams are just dreams. they’re just as meaningless as the thoughts. still very scary and uncomfortable though :(

Funny enough I haven't had any dreams about my current obsessions but recently had a dream featuring a past theme. I felt a bit alarmed waking up but it was easy to just let it go for the most part because I'm dealing with a new OCD subtype.

Yes, I can definitely relate to you with the bad dreams. I have them all the time too. I think our subconscious is manifesting our OCD fears in our dreams. So it's very normal. However, when we wake up, we have to just keep going on with life, and remember that the dreams have nothing to do with reality. The best thing for you is to apply ERP therapy to this situation. That means that you are going to refuse to search your memories, even though the OCD wants you to search and check and figure this out. Instead, you are not going to figure it out. You are going to drop it. You are going to go on with your life, as if the dream never happened. I know this is uncomfortable. I know it feels wrong. But it is the path to gaining more freedom over the OCD. I need to do the same thing. I feel like I'm going to hell because I sent out a text message that told some people to come down to the lobby. It makes absolutely no sense that I would go to hell over this. And right now, I need to just drop it. I need to stop trying to figure it out. I need to stop checking. I need to just go forward knowing that I am Safe, even if my OCD is bothering me about this.