Help! can't dream anymore??

[skins]

Recently i've noticed I havn't had a dream in a looong time.
:sad:

I've been on SSRI's for anxiety and depression for 20 plus years, but for the past for the past 4 months or so have given them up entirely. I was really proud of myself for achieving this but have only just realised I havn't experienced a dream for roughly the same time I have given them up, I think?

I switched to taking a benzo (Xanax) on an as needed basis, but, still no dreams....I miss them, they felt as real as reality itself, and took me on journeys and places I would never get to go in reality.

Also I find myself not being able to think as deeply as I did when I was on them either? like spiritually. Has anyone experienced similar?

 

[Steiner]

How much have you been sleeping lately? I find the more I sleep the more likely I am to dream.

 

[skins]

ive been working longer and longer hours lately so I guess less sleep then what I have been but still 5 hours at the least...but I would have been sleeping more hours say last month and still no dreaming so I dunno.

 

[Hellhound]

I don't think you aren't dreaming at all. You probably don't remember a thing. Why did you stop taking your medication?

 

[MotherWolff]

Sometimes I have had periods of time when I wouldn't dream anything either. I wish I knew why.....

 

[Ignace]

Last dream I remember must be from half a year back or so. :thinking:

 

[skins]

I don't think you aren't dreaming at all. You probably don't remember a thing. Why did you stop taking your medication?

I came to the realisation I didn't like the idea of constantly taking a drug to alter brain chemistry I guess..i had an idea that it was making me someone that wasn't the true me...I had a thought of what would it be like for me to be the way I was before taking the drug.

I am more moody, the highs are higher and the lows are lower and I'm still weighing up which is better to be honest...I am my own guinea pig at the moment.

 

[skins]

It might be tiredness or exhaustion.

When I am running long weekly mileage, I don't seem to dream as much, or remember as much when I wake up in the morning.

I think exhaustion might have something to do with it as I can't remember the last time I had that much spare time I didn't know what to do with myself:idontknow:

 

[skins]

Last dream I remember must be from half a year back or so. :thinking:

this person knows..has anything changed around that time?

 

[MotherWolff]

Last dream I remember must be from half a year back or so. :thinking:

Ooooh. That's gotta be hard. But at least you're not having any nightmares, right?

 

[S_Spartan]

havn't had a dream in a looong time.
:sad:

Hey! That's a line from a Smith's song!

 

[S_Spartan]

I don't think you aren't dreaming at all. You probably don't remember a thing.

I agree. You are probably so exhausted you are sleeping "hard".

 

[Rawz]

Oh you're dreaming, you're just not remembering them. Which could be a good thing. You don't even want to know the kind of dreams I've been having and remembering lately.

On a more serious note, I will say that I have been dreaming/remembering my dreams much, much more often now that I am on Pristiq than when I was on Lexapro. I went long stretches (months) without remembering any dreams while on Lexapro.

But seriously I wish I hadn't dreamed what I dreamed last night. *shudders* And the fact that my dreams feel more real than ever before just makes it worse. *shudders*

 

[PugofCrydee]

I usually dream most nights, and love to dream.

But there are periods where either I don't dream at all, or I can't recall them.

I see the fact that you've changed your medication intake and having no dreams more than just coincidence (although obviously I'm no mental health professional).
I wouldn't stress too much over it just yet, you were on meds for a long time, and now you are no longer on them. Your brain will take time to adjust.

I remember going through a similar thing when I came off certain meds, I didn't dream for some time either. But once I did resume having dreams...wow.. they where so much more vivid!

 

[Hellhound]

I came to the realisation I didn't like the idea of constantly taking a drug to alter brain chemistry I guess..i had an idea that it was making me someone that wasn't the true me...I had a thought of what would it be like for me to be the way I was before taking the drug.

I am more moody, the highs are higher and the lows are lower and I'm still weighing up which is better to be honest...I am my own guinea pig at the moment.

With that logic, then I should stop taking my anti-reflux meds, asthma inhaler and so on, because it alters my body.

You're not taking a drug to alter brain chemistry to make you act a certain way. You're treating an issue, an anomaly, to call it something. Just like anyone that takes a medication for a problem.

This stigma around psych medication and how people cut their treatments ticks me off. Guys, not to be rude, but don't complain that you feel depressed/anxious if you're going to do this stuff with your treatment. I don't understand WHY you feel the need to boycott your treatments like this. I will never understand it.

 

[Steiner]

I tend to dream every night and they can be pretty vivid where I remember most of the details. I realize that the more physically tired I am then the more likely I am to not dream. Like others have said- sleeping hard.

 

[skins]

With that logic, then I should stop taking my anti-reflux meds, asthma inhaler and so on, because it alters my body.

You're not taking a drug to alter brain chemistry to make you act a certain way. You're treating an issue, an anomaly, to call it something. Just like anyone that takes a medication for a problem.

This stigma around psych medication and how people cut their treatments ticks me off. Guys, not to be rude, but don't complain that you feel depressed/anxious if you're going to do this stuff with your treatment. I don't understand WHY you feel the need to boycott your treatments like this. I will never understand it.

Despite what doctors tell you, giving medications for conditions like ours is still very hit and miss, why do you think the one drug is often prescribed for several different mental conditions. Its not an exact science like other areas of medicine, and they don't yet fully understand the risks of long term use of taking some of these drugs yet, or whether they accurately target the symptoms of the condition at all.....research in the field is still relatively primitive. Take prescribing Ritalin to ADHD sufferers for instance, that drug probably does more harm then good and turns the patients into zombies yet its been prescribed for decades. Just because a doc writes you a script doesn't mean you should trust him and take it blindly.

 

[BlueDays]

Recently i've noticed I havn't had a dream in a looong time.
:sad:

I've been on SSRI's for anxiety and depression for 20 plus years, but for the past for the past 4 months or so have given them up entirely. I was really proud of myself for achieving this but have only just realised I havn't experienced a dream for roughly the same time I have given them up, I think?

I switched to taking a benzo (Xanax) on an as needed basis, but, still no dreams....I miss them, they felt as real as reality itself, and took me on journeys and places I would never get to go in reality.

Also I find myself not being able to think as deeply as I did when I was on them either? like spiritually. Has anyone experienced similar?

^ I envy people who can remember their dreams. I have never been able to remember my dreams my whole life. I only know I do dream because if I am woken up during one, for an instant I know what was happening in the dream right when I was woken up.

I agree with what Hellhound and Rawz has suggested earlier, you may STILL be dreaming, but just no longer remember them? :idontknow:

Also you say you have switched to taking Xanax when needed, does changing to that medication coincide with the not dreaming? From what I have read, taking benzos does more negative long term alterations to the human brain then SSRI's.:idontknow:

 

[skins]

^ I envy people who can remember their dreams. I have never been able to remember my dreams my whole life. I only know I do dream because if I am woken up during one, for an instant I know what was happening in the dream right when I was woken up.

I agree with what Hellhound and Rawz has suggested earlier, you may STILL be dreaming, but just no longer remember them? :idontknow:

Also you say you have switched to taking Xanax when needed, does hanging to that medication coincide with the not dreaming? From what I have read, taking benzos does more negative long term alterations to the human brain then SSRI's.:idontknow:

yeh ive heard the same, I might go off them yet..they only appealed to me because you didn't have to take them everyday like an SSRI, but lately i've been taken one once a day anyway, so maybe the SSRI is the safer bet.

And yeh the lack of dreams did roughly coincide with the taking of Xanax. But damn they are good at combating anxiety unlike the SSRI I found.

 

[Earthcircle]

My guess -- for what it's worth -- is that you might be sleeping deeper to compensate for sleeping fewer hours.