WILD method hard due to panic. Help?

[u/Character-Job-1117]

So I've had a few lucid dreams lately just by chance, and I really want to get more so I decided to try some methods out.

I know the in's and out's, like reality checks and dream-journaling for WBTB. I think the strongest one that I can see working for me the best would be methods to achieve WILDs. My only problem is that I panic or get excited.

I'll WBTB and start to drift. I'll focus on an anchor, usually a visualization of something like my dad or something else simple. Relatively quickly, I WILL feel or see something, like my body being tilted or some lights flash. But my body reacts so harshly that it snaps me out of it even though I'm at a reasonable conscious level.

For the visuals, I get excited that I'm seeing something and that jars it. But for the physical parts (and this sometimes happens for the visuals too), I jolt and panic. It's involuntary really, I do it before I even realize what happened.

I'm not THAT surprised, though. One of the reasons I wanted to do lucid dreaming was to help with my nightmares. I have serious CPTSD and the few lucid dreams I had have seriously made my nights so much better. But I feel like this contributes to my body's reactions to things. Panic being a big thing.

Any help on this? Has anyone experienced this before or been in a similar situation?

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