Dreams

[DefinitelyReady]

Does anyone have dreams that revolve around the same things/themes? I dont know how often this happens because I don't log or journal, and have no sense of time; however I know there have been multiple times where I have had my estranged sibling come and "f*ck up" my life somehow, just cause strife. Everytime she's there havoc is wrecked on my life because of her mere presence or she deliberately starts shit; or I'll be back in school (not sure which grade or if it's college) and I start freaking out because I've gotten so behind (yet again) and I have anxiety/depression like back in the day, and am going to fail and I just panic and feel the stress all over again from my old days but in newer forms. I'm always "in trouble" and trying to escape it; or sometimes, I will have the dumbest dreams that put me in the most bizarre and trivial situations that are meaningless but I'm fully engaged in them as if they're not completely stupid af...
How can you always "stress" in your dreams?

(For anyone who reads my sh*t, you'll know that I think profanity is necessary and that I am the queen of run-on sentences. I am aware.)

 

[Rocinante]

Most that I recall tend to involve me being back in high school(I don't remember elementary or middle school being in my dreams), and there's just a students I was friends with that are in the dreams. This one was different though since the hallways were flooded and water was rising, I was trying to avoid drowning.

 

[lizzywizzy09]

I still have test anxiety dreams. I think this is because my mind is stuck in adolescence for very specific reasons. I also have dreams about death planning and teeth falling out.

 

[youshallrideeternal]

So a many number of years ago, I use to have this recurring dream, or a bad dream. Slightly different each time, but the same (you'll get what I mean in a sec.) So a typical example of this bad dream would involve me in a coastal beach side town; I am not at the beach though, I am somewhere up further away, in the more suburban, maybe industrial, part. I don't know why I'm here, of all places, and I'm here alone. But in the far distance, from the depths of the ocean, I can see what is very clearly a gigantic towering all destructive tidal wave, and it is coming straight towards me. Sometimes in this dream I am alone still, sometimes, people are running past me, in panic. But I remain still, in shock. And eventually, the mass tide reaches me, roaring loudly with chaotic venom of otherworldly descriptions, chewing up everything in a clean vacuum, it's sound more terrifying than it's sight, and then, it hits me.........and that's, usually, when I wake.
Here's the thing; I can't swim, I don't have the body for it. And I am fucking terrified in being in water generally above the chest. You will never see me at the local swimming pool, that's for sure, lol. I had this bad dream for a number of years, and I think, at first I thought it had to do with repressed issues of trauma and this was it's way of manifesting itself, maybe relating to being in water when I was younger, but then, I realised, it was about the most simplest, and also saddest, thing; it was about control. Or, thereof, my lack of control. I couldn't do anything to stop this natural disaster from swallowing me whole, as I can't do anything in the choices in my own life for a better existence. Me, just standing there, is not a sign of defiance, it was defeat; this was it, this was my reality, in a symbolic nutshell.....being devoured by a fucking tidal wave in a coastal beach side town, on a beautiful sunny summer day. I think when I realised that was what the dream was about, what it was trying to tell me, I stopped having it. I don't have bad dreams any more, I just have, fantasy dreams where I'm living a simple basic happy life. And I don't know what's more scary, the tidal wave crushing me, or the feeling I know these fantasy dreams are just that, a fantasy.
I'm sorry this didn't have a hopeful ending, lol. I guess, I don't know, I just wanted you know it's ok to have shitty dreams and you're not alone.

 

[DefinitelyReady]

Yeah, you mostly hear that dreams are a way your brain is trying to subconsciously process and solve your everyday stressors; so lack of control, fear, stress, desire/wanting, sadness, repression, etc. It just sucks that none of it is super clear. I hate things that are ambiguous and open to interpretation. Like that doesn't help. Or is all completely random and it's just an assimilation of feelings and images we've seen that day and it is entirely random. But mostly I just don't want to feel severe distress while I'm asleep as I already get that when I wake up lol. Thanks though for your input. Sorry you can't swim. I still hold my nose underwater if it's any consolation, or wear a noseplug

 

[ferrie]

I've had similar issues with recurring stress dreams. It gets really exhausting when all of your time asleep is spent in fight or flight because of your dreams. Do yours wake you up? With mine I sleep for maybe an hour straight before I'm woken up bc the anxiety got too bad. It's also just really annoying to wake up with my heart racing & feeling sweaty/clammy It happens every night for me. I got put on prazosin which is a med for PTSD that helps you either not dream or not remember your dreams when you wake up, and that helped me sleep through the night for awhile. It didn't stay effective very long at the same dose for me though & it can lower your blood pressure

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I used to have constant nightmares in high school and my first years of college, usually about my first crush. Sometimes it would start off nice and it would end with her or me dying in a fire or something. Other times she would be revealed to be some kind of nightmarish demon sent to rip my face off. The dreams themselves weren't always the same but they did always end badly or at least neutrally if I got woken up early. These days at least my dreams don't recur often enough at least not that I'm aware of.

 

[drearysunrise]

I sometimes log my dreams in an app that uses AI to give dream interpretations and it almost always tells me that it seems like I feel insecure in myself and lost in the world Which makes sense given that a lot of my dreams involve me being somewhere I'm not supposed to (or being there when I need to be somewhere else), and my dreams often switch POV mid-scene and have locations morph into one another. I guess it's fitting with how much my mind is bouncing around and struggling with itself in my waking life too.

 

[F@#$]

I haven't had a dream in years.

 

[Saturn_]

I notice I have a lot of dreams about things I wish I could have, but I know will never happen in my waking life (or will never happen again). Cuddling with my crush, hanging out with friends who deserted me, playing an online game I loved as a kid which got shut down, going to one of the holiday parties my late grandmother used to host for family... the list goes on and on. A lot of them are about childhood because I am very nostalgic and wish more than anything else that I could just go back. So maybe the specifics aren't recurring, but an underlying theme is usually there.