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Analyzing Dreams and Uncovering the Subconscious Mind : Analyzing Dreams and Uncovering the Subconsc

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Hi Tammy,

How are you? Thanks for having a look at my dreams again :)

My partner and I recently had dreams involving water, so I thought I'd add his dream here too. In both dreams TV comes up in similar context - distractions which take attention away from danger - interesting :)

Dream 1
My partner dreamed that he and I had a fight. I walked out of the room and he stayed to watch TV. He knew he should follow me and make an effort to sort it out, but decided to blow me off. He falls asleep on the couch and wakes when it is dark. Realising that he does not know where I am, he walks through the house and finds me in the bathroom. I am floating under the water in the bath, my arms are floating up above my head and my eyes are opaque. Thinking that he can resuscitate me - he tries to lift me from the water and finds that my body is frozen and stiff. He drops me as he tries to lift me and I fall heavily off the edge of the bath and land with a thud on the ground … he wakes screaming and I wake too – he is sobbing uncontrollably.

He is unsure if the drowning was accidental or intentional - incidentally, I am not suicidal.

Dream 2
There is a baby girl in my dream who needs to be adopted. I am with my sister and unsure about deciding to adopt the baby incase my sister decides she would rather adopt her. I am waiting for my sister to make a decision so that I can know if I get to adopt her – like letting fate decide – then I won’t have to make the decision.

The baby appears at different ages throughout the dream. At one point she gets up and runs out of the room, I follow her out as I am afraid she could get hurt as we are in a room on the second floor and the staircase is badly balustrade with very low railings. I watch is the child now about 2 years old throws herself at the railings and lands with her arms and feet through the gaps. She is giggling and swinging her legs and is able to peer over the low railing all the way down to the floor level. It frightens me that she is unaware of the danger and intrigues me that she was so well coordinated to place herself there in one quick move. I relalise that I must be a responsible adult, even if she seems so confident, so I lean forward to hold onto the back of her jumper. As I do, she quickly climbs over the railing and throws herself off. Her jumper stretches in my hand as she is dangling from it. I am not strong enough to pull her up so I shout for my partner whom I know is in the next room, but my voice is strangled from me like a silent scream and I find that I am calling the name of my brother instead of my partner. I then realize that I can pull her up and wonder why I want my partner to witness this precarious situation I am in, I wonder if I am being manipulative – trying to gain sympathy from him out of a situation which I can actually manage. I pull the child up and as I do she is an infant and is being strangled by the jumper. I lay her on the ground and she seems unable to breath. I quickly release the jumper and she starts to breath.

I cradle her and take her back to the room and inform my sister that the baby needs to sleep, my sister tells me to lay her on the bed and to put pillows either side of her to stop her from rolling off. I am immediately irritated that my sister thinks I am unable to care for my own baby (it seems at this point that she is mine). I place the baby on the bed and she has become a tiny transparent cutout. As I place the pillows around her, I lose her on the sheets. She has become so small I can’t find her. My sister comes over and I explain that I can’t find her. She helps me but I know I must find her before my sister does - I do and place the tiny cutout onto a purple pillow so that it is easier to see her.

When she awakes she is older again about 4 years. I pick her up and try to put her back to sleep. She will not fall asleep so I put her down and she sits next to the bed on the floor. I turn my back to her as my sister, sister-in-law and I are watching TV . Every now and then I remember that the baby is there – as if I had forgotten her, and turn quickly back to her to make sure she is ok. At one point I find that water is seeping into the room and the carpet is drenched. The water is almost touching the child and she is watching it as it gets closer. We all jump up and sweep the water out of the room and return to watching TV. Again I suddenly remember the child and shout out 'where is the baby?' I am scrambling about trying to find her and my sister is saying 'it's ok, she is on the floor.' Again I find that the water is advancing on her. The child watching it, she is edging closer to the bed to stay away from it. I turn on her and ask her why she didn’t tell me it was happening again – like it is her responsibility to protect us and not mine as the adult to protect her.

Throughout the dream I am helping her figure out who I am to her – telling her to come to ‘Mommy’ telling her that she is ‘my little girl’.
 
Hi shiraz, (1) Most people in our dreams are really a characteristic of ourselves. Your partner's dream may be a "fear or anxiety" dream because he worries about you. In addition, the body that lies in the water is really him but he projects this nightmare onto you.

He refuses to see the pain you are in because it causes him pain. He feels dead inside too. He wants to save himself from the emotions that are frozen and locked in his body. (You will need to teach him how to accept love to soften him so he will thaw out) He wants to clean all the negative emotions from his heart, mind, body and soul because it will lighten his burdens and he knows this on a subconscious level. Death isn't literal in dreams but symbolic. I doubt the death was about suicide, but about something in his life that is ending or changing. For instance, changing jobs, moving, or maybe a relationship. Just ask him if there is anything going on in his life that is changing or ending?

I will read your dream tomorrow.
Take care
Tammy
 
Thanks Tammy, that is very helpful . . . interestingly, he has just begun to acknowledge and accept PTSD in me. It has been an ongoing struggle for him, a fight all the way for the past 18 months and now, he is showing support and concern on a level that is helpful and encouraging to me and amazingly he is not flipping out when symptoms rise. I think this is the change and it has been wonderful and so freeing for me.

Thanks for your help, that really takes the worry out of it.

Hugs,
Shiraz
 
Thanks for your response on my other dream, this is an odd one, I woke up to dreaming of someone poking me very quickly with long bamboo sticks, jabbing at my face, I woke up because I was moving around so much trying to avoid the pointed sticks. It seemed very real, it was as if I could feel someone there, I was scared of them, it felt as if I knew who it was, but I don't know who it was. It was as if I was supposed to know who it was.

It's good to have you reading these, thank you,
Heather
 
Shiraz, I had to e-mail the interpretation because my computer is all messed up. I had to copy and paste the dream and now there are font symbols all over the place.
 
Hello Heather, I haven't seen bamboo as a symbol in dreams so I had to do some research into it, and it has a lot of different uses so I feel the meaning of bamboo is something you will have to figure out (It varies in culture and I don't know your culture). I can give you some theories based on reading your trauma diary. Most dreams have more than one meaning so if you find several things that reson with you that is always a good sign.

Bamboo is noted for being used in torture so I have to wonder what comes to your mind when you think of bamboo based on what I read in your diary.

This is what I read from your diary that stuck out in my mind.
"I have a pain in the side of my face, it showed up when I was in therapy this week, I was explaining how somehow I landed on the floor, my two and a half year old daughter was screaming in absolute terror, it took hours to calm her down, she was ridgid, at the time I only had a small idea of what happened. My attention was drawn to her, C, and somehow the incident fell through the cracks." (crack the whip)

Here is a link but don't check it out unless you have a grip on child torture. I found it curious that you had this dream not long after this happened.
Dead Link Removed

Here are some other interpretations.
Being poked in the face would be an indication that you need to focus your attention on something (whatever bamboo represents to you). The face indicates the way you want the world to perceive you, or how you perceive yourself. I get an intuitive feeling you don't want the world to perceive you as a victim of torture. But you are stuck and don't know how to move out of victim mode. It's hard when people are "poking" at you with criticisms after dealing with that type of behavior from your mom your whole life.

Bamboo can symbolize architecture, healing methods, making crafts, fences, etc (you mentioned boundaries in your diary and it seems bamboo is used for this a lot). You can run and hide behind shrubs of bamboo, or you can see them as vibrant growth in your life.

Since you are creative I venture to guess that this symbol could be telling you that your creativity can aid you in healing. If you have a good imagination there are books that will aide you in using your imagination to heal. Mental imagery is what helped me to heal a great deal, along with dream interpretation. Link Removed There are a lot to choose from so check as many out until one seems to fit with your modus operandi.

Lastly, bamboo is a symbol for the phallus and maybe someone shoved this in your face? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo

I hope some of this reasons with you.
Take care
Tammy
 
Tammy, thank you, I wrote a reply but got dumped off line, my message wouldn't post, I will reply another time. I thank you for all the information, lots to think about, this is a great support mode.
thanks,
Heather
 
Here's an odd dream, Tammy,

I dreamt that I was pregnant and my water broke and I went into labour. There was blood on the floor. I was with my mother (whom I do not have contact with) in some house. I felt overwhelmed because there was a baby about to be born, but I didn't even buy a change table or little baby face cloths or any baby gear.

It's very odd, because I haven't any chance of being pregnant, since I've been celibate (except for a brief fling) for almost 4 years.


It's odd, because
 
Hi midi, pregnancy in dreams can represent new ideas coming to life or it can represent responsibilities or burdens.

Water usually represents emotions and since it broke and labor is painful I believe this pregnancy dream is about some overwhelming emotions due to more responsibilities or some extra burdens coming to life.

The blood could indicate the heritage you feel you have with your mom. You both carry the same "blood line" and maybe you feel it's painful and a burden to have her blood run through you.

Not having the proper gear for the child would represent that you didn't see this coming so you are not prepared for the situation, or had not way to change it (changing table).

I still have dreams of being pregnant about 2 times a year. I can't have any more children but I love those dreams.

Take care
Tammy
 
Thanks Tammy! You're very good at making sense!

Here's another one, if you want... I dreamt of some old friends I haven't seen in over a decade. They are a married couple. I saw the guy and he said his wife is up in Thunder Bay (Northwestern Ontario area, but not too far north). She was there for 5 years to do her Phd. I asked him if he was sad she was gone from him that long. He said no, because he knew she'd be back when she was done.

What on earth could such a dream mean? I haven't seen either one of them in ages and there was no trigger to set my mind off dreaming about them, so the message has to be from my subconscious to me.

Any idea?
 
triggers can be very subtle.

Maybe the couple is a representation of your feminine and masculine traits. The feminine (you) is "UP" in Thunder Bay. part of you is not sad because you know that when you return from this thunder storm of emotions you will be much healthier phd

That is the best I can come up with. Not all dreams have a meaning. There are "junk dreams" and I've had my share LOL

Tammy
 
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