Hello everyone,
I'm hoping you can help me gain some insight on my nightmares, especially certain aspects of them.
My nightmares usually involve someone being possessed by a demon or evil force. I've always been into horror, ever since I was a child. It was bad because during the day I would be so into watching scary movies or reading scary books, but at night I was always terrified. I'm not sure why my parents kept allowing me to watch/read such things lol. Anyway, when I was about 10 my dad let me watch The Exorcist and it pretty much traumatized me. It took me several years to stop being paralyzed with fear every night that I was going to become possessed by a demon. Now as an adult, it's one of my favorite movies and I enjoy watching it, as well as many other horror movies. But I'm sure my experience after watching that movie as a child (and my general interest in horror throughout my life) is at least part of the reason behind my having these nightmares now.
Sometimes I will have dreams that someone is possessed by a demon, but I won't be scared. It will just be something that is happening, and not really a nightmare. Other times someone will become possessed and I will be terrified, and I still feel terrified after waking up. I only remember having one or two dreams where I was the one who became possessed, usually it is someone else. Sometimes it is a friend or family member, sometimes it is just some random person. Usually the dream will start out normal, and sometimes lots of regular, everyday type things happen before the possession. Then all of a sudden the person I'm with will start to seize. I always know what is happening to them. I'll try to talk to them, to help will them to resist this force entering them, but I cannot speak. I will try to speak or scream but only whimpers come out, and this adds to my fear within the dream. When I realize that I can't control what is happening and that soon they will be possessed and probably trying to kill me, I try to run away. But my movement is impaired, as if I'm weighed down. If I try to run, I often have to clutch at a wall or get down on all fours and clutch at the grass to move myself along. It's like an invisible force is pushing me back, and in the dream I don't understand why, which again adds to my fear because I feel helpless and like I can't escape. Sometimes I become paralyzed and cannot move at all. I will try to will my body to move because I know I have to get away from this evil thing, but either I can't move at all or just the slightest movement is terribly labored, as if my limbs weigh hundreds of pounds. To clarify, in these dreams I'm not scared because I'm fearing death or pain. It's just that I'm afraid of what is happening, of the evil that is nearby. To look into the eyes of the possessed person or see what is happening to them, to know that this evil thing will be coming for me - that's what terrifies me in the dreams.
Any insight you can give would be appreciated, especially about why in these dreams I can't properly speak or move. I really only have one other kind of nightmare (which involves bees or wasps or some other type of insect usually) but in pretty much any nightmare that I have, I have the same problem of not being able to properly speak or move.
Thanks!
