Dreams

[schizofriendia]

So my dreams have always been foggy/cloudy as if I were just imagining them while awake but lately my dreams have become very vivid as if I'm not even in my body while I'm having them.  My meds were coincidentally increased and are having more of a positive effect on me than they did last time they were increased but I've also had a psychotic break between now and then.  This is a little disturbing to me though because it's nothing like what I'm used to, especially when I have nightmares which is nearly always.  Has anyone else ever had this happen to them?

[schizofriendia]

My Abilify that I take for psychotic symptoms was increased from 20mg to 30mg.

[Anonymouse88]

What meds are you on, and which ones were recently increased?  Certain drugs can come with side effects of more vivid dreams, and some unfortunate people end up with more vivid nightmares.  I don't know if there's anything you can do about it other than stopping the med that's causing the problem.  You can get the full PI sheets for a lot of meds at the crazymeds site, and scroll through to find the uncommon and rare side effects.

For me, Ambien has made my dreams more vivid and more cohesive, but not in a bad way.  Codeine did the same thing for the few days I took it, until I found out I was allergic.  Metoclopramide (for vomiting from a stomach bug) did it as well.  I have more of what I call adventure dreams, where it feels like I'm going on an adventure.  Even though things still change around the way dreams do, there's a feeling of continuity and usually a cast made from people I know.  I have trouble waking up from these because my tired brain thinks that whatever I'm dreaming is just so much more interesting than the real world.