Nightmares after going NC
TLDR: is anyone else having recurring nightmares involving their BPD person?
I want to give a little backstory - I went NC (second time) in October of this year after reconnecting 6 years ago with my uBPD mom. Things went downhill after I found out my older alcoholic/addict sister was doing meth, and being extremely concerned about it, I brought it up with my mom and enabling father - initially they said they knew about her addiction and understood how serious it was - but then everything went downhill when my sister had a conversation with mom, 'apologizing' to her about whatever bullshit she made up.
My mom turned on me and decided to call me a cruel and heartless sister because I had told my sister I did not want to have a relationship with her anymore unless she decided to get herself help/go to rehab. She sent me an extremely long text, saying extremely hurtful things, telling me I'll never be successful, bringing up my past relationships and calling me a cheater, saying that I am jealous of her for having a nicer car than I do, and monetizing (to the date) how much money she gifted me over the years - most of it being for my wedding that she offered to help me out with 2 years ago. I ended up responding that I needed an apology because of how she spoke to me, and that if she couldn't apologize, it would be a better choice for us not to speak.
Long story short, my relationship between my mother and sister has always been one of triangulation and manipulation, and my mother pushed us apart our whole lives, only in recent years wanting me to have a 'good relationship' with my sister and just 'love each other'. There was a lot of physical and emotional abuse during my childhood/young adulthood - both from my mom and dad. My mother has always lied about situations to make her look like the victim. She was definitely more witch/queen when I was a child, but now she leans more waif/hermit - although the witch does come out when triggered. When I've been her 'good person', she was always more than happy to spill all the family secrets, give me gifts and take me shopping and gift me money, even though it always made me uncomfortable. Whenever I'm the 'bad person', she ALWAYS uses her 'gifts' and throws it back in my face, calling me ungrateful and saying things like I've never loved her. It makes me sick.
We also had a recent conversation after months of NC, where she 'checked up' on me a week after the LA fires happened (I live in LA). She pretended to not know where Altadena was (she has stayed in Pasadena over 4 times) and she also said she couldn't remember where I lived. Again, she's visited me over 6 times and was playing stupid. The conversation was awkward and I ended up confronting her and asking if we could talk about the distressing text she sent me months ago and as expected she made everything my fault and demanded an apology. The conversation started going south and I mentioned her physically abusing my sister and I as a child, and she had the fucking nerve to say 'I never put a finger on you' which is a blatant lie. She ended up hanging up on me when I told her she was lying and we haven't spoken since.
Anyway, after going NC recently, I've been in therapy, which has been helping immensely and I feel a lot better. I feel so much more at peace in my day to day and my nervous system feels more calm and grounded. I do think about my mom and my family daily, but because I'm not literally enmeshed anymore, I don't feel the anxiety around having to call her daily (she always expected me to call) or check in or talking to them in general.
The weird thing that has been happening is that I have been having frequent nightmares involving my mom, my sister, and other family members. The nightmares are almost nightly, and I've been waking up feeling uncomfortable and distressed. I'm very active, move my body daily, eat well and have a meditation practice - I'm wondering if there any practices to help calm the subconscious/nervous system. I have been talking through the nightmares with my therapist, and it's been helping, but I wanted to come on here and ask - does anyone have frequent nightmares or dreams with their BPD person? Is there anything that's helped you work through them ( or diminish them occurring?
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