Did anyone else have constant terrifying nightmares as a kid?

When I was very young I had the most terrifying nightmares. Part of me later in life realized how the nightmares had conditioned me to learn to control my feelings because my feelings about the dream would influence its direction. I believe this skill was the earliest form of what ended up leading me towards deep psychedelic and altered states of conciousness. If I began being afraid or scared of what might happen then bad things would 100% happen. It taught me as a very young kid to control my emotions and learn to control the dream space. I ended up being a natural lucid dreamer very young. I dont remember the first one but I know it was happening basically my whole life.

Some of the nightmares i had were false awakenings. I would dream that i had woken up from my dream, i would be in my bed in my room, go running to my parents room out of fear from the nightmare, and the nightmare would be there waiting in my living room when i arrived there. These false awakenings could go 2 or 3, or even 4 times over sometimes. It really warped my young mind because I didnt know at times if i was dreaming or if it was real. The relaxed sense you have in the normal moment was the same feeling of the dream's reduced context so i began to be paranoid that i was actually dreaming and i was going to face some terror in the normal world.

Anyways, Im just curious if anyone else who has gone DEEP into the psychonaut journey comes from a similar background of being forced to control your mind and feelings, and if you think that helped you develop the skills and the courage to face such frightening and confusing spaces that deep psychedelic states are. Yes obviously they can be and are more often miraculous and profound, but they can often be very dark and frightening aswell.