My BF has severe sleepwalking. It is so bad that he sleepwalks nearly every day !


Question:

My BF has severe sleepwalking. It is so bad that he sleepwalks nearly every day at any time of the day. It is?

not just walking or unlocking doors, etc. He is what I would call a functional sleepwalker. He can walk, talk, drive, make phone calls, reaarange things, be violent, regress to child hood.... I have been contemplating-PTSD, Multiple personality, bipolar, schizo, fatigue, etc. He has had some major trauma in life and he is not all that great with coping. He is plagued by nightmares. He scares me sometimes. He will call me at 2 am and tell me he went for a walk and doesn't know where he is. I have to go find him- in a city. His sleep voice is very high pitched and child like. He has a short temper and at times a short memory. He works over night.
It is hard to get him in for therapy, counseling or a sleep clinic. I don't know what else to do and information like this is not really existent on the web.
Someone help me! I am drowning in all this and I feel at times like I am dating 2 different people in the same boody. I have a hard time being around him lately. HELP!!!!!!


Answers:

I can sure understand why this is upsetting for you and you sound like you're being terrifically supportive of him. I can understand your saying that he seems like two different people because sometimes people will act out of character while they're sleepwalking.

You say that he's had major trauma in his life so this could be some of what's causing this problem. Sleepwalking generally runs in families too so part of it could be hereditary.
It can also be triggered by alcohol consumption, hormonal fluctuations (in women) and by being overly tired.

Most sleepwalking episodes aren't as complex as your bf's but there are some people who will do the things such as he does, such as driving, talking, regressing and even violence. Most of the time when a sleep walker becomes violent it's because their intent has become obstructed; in other words, someone is stopping them from what they want to do.

You said that it's hard to get him in for therapy and that could be because he's afraid of what he may find out or he's afraid to address this problem. Just let him know that the sooner he sees someone, the better. Not only will it improve his quality of life (I'm guessing he must get pretty tired after these episodes) but it is important to get treated so he won't end up harming himself or someone else.

Usually sleepwalking that is that severe has a contributing psychological factor. This doesn't mean that he's mentally ill but the trauma that you said he's been through is probably somehow showing up during the night when he goes to sleep. Unless it's addressed in some way and resolved, I don't think this will get any better. People with PTSD and with DID (dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder) are also more likely to experience sleepwalking.

Sleepwalking often responds very well to hypnosis and sometimes benzodiazapines are prescribed. But to get the proper treatment, your boyfriend first needs a diagnosis.

There's no way that you can force him to see someone but all you can do is strongly encourage him. He should be seen by his family doctor and given a check up to make sure there isn't anything physical going on, then the doctor may refer him to either a sleep specialist or a therapist. This is really the only way that things can start to get better for him.

If you are ever treated in a violent way by him when he's sleepwalking, please consider your own safety. If the two of you are living together you may want to move out, at least until he gets this taken care of.

I hope this all works out for the both of you, take care.




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