Psychosis and Lucid Dreaming

[pearlzandlace01]

So the thing is, I have psychosis and they're thinking possibly schizophrenia. I just came out of a psychotic episode and still am having some residual symptoms. Could lucid dreaming possibly be dangerous for me?

[Astaroth]

Hum...I don't see why would it be dangerous, but we're talking about serious problems and the best thing you could possibly do is talk with your med and ask about it to be sure.

[JoannaB]

From what I heard the main way that lucid dreaming can be dangerous is to anyone who has a problem differentiating reality from dreams already because if someone like that incorrectly assumed that they are dreaming, and did something that was dangerous in waking life, that would be a problem. However, I would think that even someone with that problem might be ok as long as they avoid doing anything that would be dangerous whether it is a dream or not. I would think as long as one avoided doing anything dangerous just in case, trying to learn to better differentiate reality from not reality would be useful. However, with these kind of serious issues it is always safer to ask one's doctor first before doing anything like this.

[Hukif]

Yes it is. What happens during your episodes? How do you feel? Depending on that, it might be a bad idea to try certain methods. For example WILD would be a safe bet since you would never do anything dream-related unless you have done a WILD and it did not end in a FA. As everyone has stated, you need to ask your doctor first. Also what kind of hallucinations are you prone to, if at all? Depending on these, the induction method should also be decided; while not everything is dangerous, it would be far more specific than what is for others. Because yeah, learning how to properly make a distinction between non-real and real would be ideal to psychosis, but not done half-heartedly or just trying with anything. A good example of a bad technique would be the one where you have to convince yourself it might be a dream right there and now.

[Memm]

I think you should consult a professional about that, I consider myself mentally stable and even then I've had a couple of LDs / intense dreams where I've woken up and still felt disconnected from reality for a decent amount of time (very, very rare though), I think this is probably something most people experienced at least once as kids waking up from nightmares or such. It would be wise to assume some people might be effected by this to a much greater extent. As a bit of a tangent, I've always wondered if hallucinations / delusions in real life is the "dream" brain mixing with the awake brain, something like lucid dreaming while awake, if so I wonder if reality checks that us LDers use could be of some use to people that have trouble identifying reality, after all we use RCs because we often can't tell if what we're experiencing is real or not; that moment of not being quite sure is probably very close to what an episode feels like.

[n00bf0rlyf3]

As long as you remember to constantly do RCs you'll be fine, I'm also going to agree with the previous posters and say consult your doctor first.

[Maxis]

Sorry to ruin the parade and not to mention disagree with most others, but I actually suggest you drop lucid dreaming in its entirety until you get your psychosis under control. Even if there really is no risk, it's better to be safe than sorry. RCs may not actually work around this depending on how bad your psychosis is, since RCs can and do fail on occasion, and they're probably more likely to if you're experiencing psychosis. I'd might as well explain why, so bear with me for going off-topic. The success of an RC most often depends on: a. your expectations and b. your attention to the result of the RC A is more relevant here. People often have their RCs fail because they automatically assume they're awake and don't truly question their reality. As a result, a clock will look normal, or a lightswitch will flick on successfully while dreaming. If you're experiencing delusions and/or hallucinations (I'm making assumptions here, sorry), it can also go the other way around--it's unlikely, but still possible in IWL you'll RC and the result will be that you're dreaming. It varies depending on the RC (e.g. a nose-plug RC usually doesn't fail as often as the clock RC since there's less room for expectation), but it still happens. Things like delusions in general are a bit risky to play around with if you're into lucid dreaming. This obviously depends on the severity of your psychosis, but one weird turn in a thought process and you could be stuck to the belief you're actually dreaming without any evidence to it (that is, after all, the definition of a delusion). I guess I'm trying to get to that the one dangerous thing, and probably the most dangerous thing, that could happen lucid dreaming-related is that you believe you're dreaming when you're actually awake. The chances of this happening are rare whether you have psychosis or not, but the worse your psychosis is, the higher the chances are. If you and your doctor both believe with 100% confidence that at any point of time (including during a psychotic episode) you'll be able to differentiate waking life to dreaming, go ahead and keep going with LDing. But if you're even slightly unsure, I do recommend you put it off for now, until a moment comes where you can answer you'll be 100% sure. Lucid dreaming is good, but your safety is more important than your hobbies. Be careful, and good luck to dealing with your psychosis.

[pearlzandlace01]

Thanks, everyone. I will definitely speak to my doctor first.