Anyone have extreme night terrors?

[Caseopia]

I've had night terrors since a little girl. I'm 41 now. They are getting worse. It stems from PTSD. I wake up with bruised legs and this past winter a broken foot twice. It was assumed I'm hitting myself and flailing in my sleep. The other night I woke up and found myself sitting up punching my legs violently. I also scream and scream nasty violent words that I would never say in my awake state. My counselor suggested getting a voice activated recorder to record what I scream in my sleep ,as I usually am not aware, and see if I can put together who or what I may be screaming at in order to work on it in therapy. To see if it's something I'm suffering from in my past or just random night terrors. Does anyone deal with terrors? If so , any suggestions how to reduce the intensity of them? I've tried almost all sleep meds to help and they don't work. Thank you all.

[Hidden]

I had night terrors and nightmares almost everyday as a child. Then as I got older my life just turned into one big nightmare lol. If I were you, I'd look up strange causes of night terrors on the internet and read other peoples stories who have figured out the source of their night terrors. I've heard of people removing some foods like gluten, dairy, soy, etc and getting great relief from night terrors. I know you said it's from ptsd but you might want to try some other things to see if you can get relief.

[Caseopia in reply to Hidden]

Thank you so much. Great ideas. I'll look into those.

[kenster1]

oh tell me about it had a lot of terrible episodes lashing out with arms and legs actually hurt my dog in the process about 10 years ago.

[Caseopia in reply to kenster1]

How did you/ do you cope with it? I feel like I'm crazy.

[Livinghappy]

Hi I used to have nightmares related to ptsd too. They were horrible. I would wake up very scared. My doctor actually prescribed me abilify and prazosin and ever since then things have gotten better. I also started doing yoga before going to sleep. I try other things too like jogging and that has relieved me of extra feelings by burning energy. You might want to find a daily work out routine. Lately I’ve been journaling and that helps me to feel better while getting rid of stored feelings. I hope these suggestions were helpful.

[Caseopia in reply to Livinghappy]

Thank you. I'm on ability. I tried prazosin but it didn't work. Doctor just put me on clonadine at bed time. Yoga is a great idea. I used to do it in the mornings. Never tried evening. Thank you. Glad you're night terrors subsided