Thread: What 'mental illnesses' can be treated with Lucid Dreaming?

I've heard of someone who told their subconscious to get of anxiety for a week and it did.

Although I haven't had a lucid in a few months, staying on this forum and thinking about dreams has sort of taken away my anxiety a bit, and my depression!

Boredom.

Originally Posted by AstralMango

Although I haven't had a lucid in a few months, staying on this forum and thinking about dreams has sort of taken away my anxiety a bit, and my depression!

Whoa. Okay, firstly, I'm sorry to hear that you'd be struggling with these disorders in the first place... but if you feel like you've been improving, I think that's amazing!

Secondly, though, if you're still struggling with that sort of thing, that's the point behind this thread, isn't it? Lucid dreaming can be used to cure depression and anxiety disorders, as this is the purpose a lot of people have been using it for, so... have you yourself tried using it for this purpose already? Well, if you do/are, I hope it works wonders for you.

Originally Posted by AstralVagabond

Whoa. Okay, firstly, I'm sorry to hear that you'd be struggling with these disorders in the first place... but if you feel like you've been improving, I think that's amazing!

Secondly, though, if you're still struggling with that sort of thing, that's the point behind this thread, isn't it? Lucid dreaming can be used to cure depression and anxiety disorders, as this is the purpose a lot of people have been using it for, so... have you yourself tried using it for this purpose already? Well, if you do/are, I hope it works wonders for you.

Yep, I'm getting better! I'm now a bit more talkative and can talk to random people more easily. My depression isn't really there anymore. It used to be bad months ago, then it all changed when I heard about lucid dreaming! Man, this is really changing my life and my outlook on things.

Originally Posted by AstralMango

Yep, I'm getting better! I'm now a bit more talkative and can talk to random people more easily. My depression isn't really there anymore. It used to be bad months ago, then it all changed when I heard about lucid dreaming! Man, this is really changing my life and my outlook on things.

Alright! Huh. Well, in that case, I wonder if I should recommend it as a method of healing for some of my friends who are... feeling less well-off than I am. I hear it's helped a lot of people; but the practice also takes effort to develop and some people may not be inclined to take much stock in it...

Originally Posted by AstralVagabond

Alright! Huh. Well, in that case, I wonder if I should recommend it as a method of healing for some of my friends who are... feeling less well-off than I am. I hear it's helped a lot of people; but the practice also takes effort to develop and some people may not be inclined to take much stock in it...

I guess it depends on the person. Some are open to lucid dreaming and others don't want to hear of it.

Originally Posted by AstralMango

I guess it depends on the person. Some are open to lucid dreaming and others don't want to hear of it.

Yeah, that's why I'm thinking of recommending it to some of my friends who I know are generally pretty open-minded people. But then, developing lucid dreaming takes effort; and clinical depression makes it so hard for people to do anything... Well, I suppose no method is perfect but it's still worth it. ._.

What I find interesting is that for some of these issues lucid dream preparation practice is what cures them and the lucid dreams are a nice side benefit but by the time one has them it is a sign that one is already mentally better.

That's what I found to be the case with depression and stress. For depression working on self awareness is what helps cure it, and that is also part of lucid dream practice, but I don't think it is the actual lucid dreaming that cures depression. Lucid dreaming provides a temporary high, but it is the self awareness practice that provides the long term cure.

Similarly for reducing stress, it is kind of a prerequisite to lucid dreaming. Can't lucid dream if stressed, so one works on reducing stress as part of preparing for lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming provides a motivation and a reward for reducing stress.

In contrast to that my experience of overcoming or at least greatly reducing a phobia of large dogs 20 years ago with lucid dreaming, it was something I did in the lucid dream: facing what I fear and empowering myself to do something about it.

Similarly low self esteem: for example it really helped me as a young adult to have a lucid dream in which I told the dream character of my father that he was a figment of my imagination, learning to be more assertive in the dream, speaking up. Now I did not overcome low self esteem altogether, but I do think the LD assertiveness helped.

Not a "mental illness" but one can figure out what one does not like about one's personality and thoroughly change it. Again this is mostly due to self awareness. I know that the times in my life when I have been into lucid dreaming, both 20 years and now, have also been the times when I changed the most for the better in general.

Lucid dreaming has increased - and still does - my curiosity in general and that´s a very strong antidote to many mental states.

Lucid dreaming has taught me - and i am quoting someone ?? - that there are no uninteresting things, but only uninterested people.

Similarly for reducing stress, it is kind of a prerequisite to lucid dreaming. Can't lucid dream if stressed, so one works on reducing stress as part of preparing for lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming provides a motivation and a reward for reducing stress.

This may not exactly be true Stress reduces the quality of your sleep, but we have no clear indication that it impairs your ability to become lucid. I'd be extremely curious as to see how well a person with OCD behavior would do regarding induction! If you think about it, many frequent lucid dreamers became so due the high frequency of nightmares as children: those high stressful cues were actually used as a means to lucidity. Who knows!

Regarding the OP:

Well, first there's 2 aspects of lucid dreaming that you can distinguish in terms of benefits: induction, and experience.

Lucid dreaming induction reflects every behavioral change you make as a consequence of wanting to induce lucid dreams. In this category we would include something like:

- Sleep hygiene;
- Mindfulness;
- Development of memory (related to recall)
- Development of prospective memory (related to recall and exercises)

The first 3 components are already evidenced by research as having a critical impact on mental health and illness. In regards to sleep, it's believed it's highly influential towards mental health, and mindfulness can have extremely positive impacts on issues like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia (just to mention examples of clusters of symptons). At the same time, certain types of therapy already possess some degree of similarity towards lucid dreaming techniques: rationalizing certain events during the day that may evoke emotional responses, being aware of your thoughts, relaxing, living in the present, positive thinking, etc.

The second component is the experience (of having lucid dreams). Although is wasn't tested extensively (apart from a few studies which I believe Steph already mentioned around the forum), theoretically it can provide treatment for a wide range of problems, not just related to mental health, but to other areas as well, if not let's see:

- Exposure therapy in treatments of PTSD, anxiety, phobia;
- CBT exercises in treatments of personality disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, etc etc.
- Meditation (Mayatara does did regularly in her lucid dreams I think) to reduce depression;
- Biofeedback (for phantom limb syndrom treatment);
- the list goes on and on...

But naturally, without a proper induction method we can't test many of these as effectively as we'd want

PS: something I feel ashamed for forgetting: the day where we develop a device with high efficacy in lucid dreaming induction, it's the day where stroke rehabilitation and sports fields research will increase astronomically

Originally Posted by Zoth

This may not exactly be true Stress reduces the quality of your sleep, but we have no clear indication that it impairs your ability to become lucid. I'd be extremely curious as to see how well a person with OCD behavior would do regarding induction! If you think about it, many frequent lucid dreamers became so due the high frequency of nightmares as children: those high stressful cues were actually used as a means to lucidity. Who knows!

-Stress gives me greater recall of my dreams (probably because of lower quality of sleep (I wake up a LOT when I'm stressed)), but I tend to have very low awareness during those dreams as well. If I do become lucid when I'm stressed I will usually not remember anything I wanted to do. And I will get swept away in autopilot or in dream events quite easily.

-How do you suspect OCD behavior would affect induction? I have some OCD behavior - obsessive counting, tapping, feeling compelled to say certain words over and over.

Great, detailed post by the way! Very interesting stuff.

A good friend of my (sadly he's not around to re-post his experience), once posted something about how stress (or should I say, anxiety) offered him a clear cue to lucidity - specifically, false awakenings. He was stressed about having to go to social security the next day so he experienced a long series of false awakenings, one day I'll try to translate and post it here

-How do you suspect OCD behavior would affect induction? I have some OCD behavior - obsessive counting, tapping, feeling compelled to say certain words over and over.

Actually, this idea was suggested to me by Sageous, when he and I were discussing lucid dreaming induction at a time which I had been mis-diagnosed with OCD. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder tend to exhibit some traits that might act as facilitators of lucid dreaming induction behavior, especially meticulous behavior and attentions to details. On the other hand, from a clinical point of view, it wouldn't be beneficial to the patient at all to risk developing another compulsion for the sake of trying to achieve lucidity. Compulsive behavior is also found on eating disorders, and at that point, the individual could connect that urge to a reality check, essentially because the cues are extremely frequent (depending on the severity of the symptoms of course).

Originally Posted by Zoth

A good friend of my (sadly he's not around to re-post his experience), once posted something about how stress (or should I say, anxiety) offered him a clear cue to lucidity - specifically, false awakenings. He was stressed about having to go to social security the next day so he experienced a long series of false awakenings, one day I'll try to translate and post it here



Actually, this idea was suggested to me by Sageous, when he and I were discussing lucid dreaming induction at a time which I had been mis-diagnosed with OCD. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder tend to exhibit some traits that might act as facilitators of lucid dreaming induction behavior, especially meticulous behavior and attentions to details. On the other hand, from a clinical point of view, it wouldn't be beneficial to the patient at all to risk developing another compulsion for the sake of trying to achieve lucidity. Compulsive behavior is also found on eating disorders, and at that point, the individual could connect that urge to a reality check, essentially because the cues are extremely frequent (depending on the severity of the symptoms of course).

Oh. So... if I have a depressed friend with OCD, does that mean that he/she could use that to his/her advantage in lucid dreaming somehow?