Repressed memories or horrible dreams?

Question

when i was growing up i "sexually matured" alittle earlier than most. I remember little bits of something.. a pull out couch, my uncle in boxers, and a football game. Everytime i get that picture in my mind i am sick to my stomach. I m not sure what happened... I know that i was alone with him, and that i never liked him. I would have dreams growing up of things like a man in boxers touching me and i would wake up crying or not able to breath. .. Not to long ago a cousin of mine (his daughter), who was helping me get through bulemia , told me that her father (now divorced from my family) told her that he has done "bad" things. She wouldnt let me know what it was, but asked me if he ever hurt me. I told her no. I still feel that something happened... but im not sure what to do. The a** worked in a freakin sunday school class with tons of little kids! Are my memories real? Is this way to many things to make it just a bad dream?

Answer 1

Your powerful physical response to these reoccurring dreams suggests that there was an actual event. Reread your question. You are basically telling us what happened. It seems like you've spent years trying to tell yourself that it didn't happen. I totally agree with the first responder.

Answer 2

... sometimes reoccuring dreams like that ARE repressed memories. Dreams are workings of our subconscious mind and all the junk that gets stored there over the years.
While a person might push the junk out of their minds and willfully forget some things in order to survive mentally through the trauma.... the actual events never go away, and are there in our subconscious minds forever.
You should probably speak to a psychologist about it because there are sometimes cases of forced memories, where no actual abuse ever occcured, but by being exposed to perhpas being told that someone 'confessed' to doing 'bad things'..... the persons mind can be manipulated into creating false memories of things that never happened.
It's rare, but it does happen.
It could also be that with so many stories in the news & papers in recent years about pastors and teachers that are abusing children, that its in your brain and your subconscious mind is dealing with your disgust towards those particular things.
To me your dream doesnt sound like a repressed memory at all.... but just a bunch of things perhaps that have bothered you over the years all smuged together in one dream, maybe.
but talk to a psychologist. Perhpas write down the details of the dream as best as you can remember, even if its fragmented. This will better help you and your psychologist understand it and differentiate between whether its an actual memory of being victimized or a bunch of crap thats in your brain that youre just stressed over.

As far as your dreams/ repressed memories..... in my personal opinion... though it is possible for certain details to sometimes be repressed by the victim in order to mentally survive the trauma... the rememberance of the actual trauma itself never goes away. You may choose to willfully "forget" some of the more vulgar traumatic parts but....... If you were abused as a child, you'd remember.

Answer 3

hi Jethro, i'm sympathies with you. If it has occurred then you definately favor a lot of braveness to get over it and for good stay it behind you. I extremely have studied Freud ( very well favourite Psychotherapist)'s concept about Repressed memory. It rely es, how previous you've been then, in case you've been smaller than 5 it is somewhat difficult to keep in recommendations. even if our recommendations is this variety of efficient device, sometime if we are expecting of or study similar situations it has an impact on us. Few months again there became a piece of writing interior the newspaper about this mom who became a social worker, who drowned her own little daughter interior the swimming pool because she felt that pedophile became coming to get her daughter. ( This became in basic terms the psychological situation) in case you've gotten a study a tale, or watched some kind of programmer you would in basic terms be having a dream for no reason. maximum significantly you want to give up questioning about that dream and pass on, otherwise it would want to hang-out you continuously. There are quite a few strategies to take care of this. till now you pass to mattress, would nicely be pay interest to music or study some pleasant tale. do not imagine about some thing else. in case you experience that it had occurred to you, have a one to at least one chat with someone who you adore the most and who might want to understand you. in case you experience like crying or expressing your anger, be at liberty to finish that. ( ensure interior the technique do not harm your self). good success and take care.

Answer 4

You were probably molested as a child no doubt, particularly if you already have confirmation from his daughter that he did "bad" things and also because it's a close family member. Ask your mother or his other siblings about him.

Answer 5

You need therapy.

You did not "sexually mature" early-you were victimized.

I am very sorry.