I think I need a shrink….
A couple weeks ago I had a nightmare. It was one of those dreams that was completely and totally real while I was dreaming it and it didn’t seem absurd until I woke up in a panic. I was golfing in the swamp (we’d actually just watched The Legend of Bagger Vance a couple nights before having this dream) and all of a sudden Cori (my 2 year old)was out on a tree root that was sticking out of water and an Alligator jumped out of the water and ate her whole. There was nothing I could do and I was panicked and felt completely hopeless to help her. I woke up in a cold sweat.This morning I had another dream like that. Only this time it was Ashley (my 8 year old). We were all at the zoo together and were inside the monkey cage playing with the monkeys (because you know they let you do that right?) and I started getting nervous and wanted to leave. So my mom and I left with the girls. Now through the monkey cage you could choose to go to a cage with a pool of hippos and a bunch of lions laying around the outside. I was telling my mom how dumb I thought that was just as I was noticing that Steve (my husband)had taken Ashley into that cage! I freaked out and started screaming just as Ashley fell into the hippo pool and watched as she was swallowed by a hippo. I woke up completely terrified again.
So- what do these dreams mean? Why am I so crazy?
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I took a class in college on dreams, it was a psychology elective, but often there aren’t clear cut meanings. Like X happens so it means this- though certain things did have meanings.
I think it’s good that you were sad that the cannibalism happened.
I wonder if you are worried about something. Do you feel like you’re losing control?
Do you have any reasons why you fear losing a child?
I dunno.
It was a few years ago when I took the class, so I remember little from it.
He does say to keep a dream journal so you can look at patterns in dreams.
I would say this is a pretty freaky pattern.
I once had a dream when my first child was 4 weeks. It was such a terrible nightmare, than even a year later, it still scared me. So I called The Dream Doctor. It was a radio show on in the evenings. I told him all about it and he completely explained it! After that, I wasn’t afraid. And what he said made perfect sense…it was pretty cool. I don’t know if he is still around.
Wow. Those are nutso dreams. I’m unfortunately not the person to tell you what they mean.
Hope you sleep peacefully tonight!
You have a lot of uncertainty in your life right now. You are moving and it is a whacky time. It must feel like things are out of your control. I know you, control freak, perfectionist much? haha! It will all settle down soon.
I have no idea what those dreams mean, but they’re pretty weird.
Doctor Jess says:
These dreams are extreme versions of what you really worry about. I assume mothers generally worry about the safety of their children. Cori is your youngest, and you worry about her as a baby. Ashley is your oldest, whom you send away to school each day (or you will in October) and have to trust her safety to her teachers. Annika and Megan are at home with you most of the time and have learned, generally not to run in the street, etc. This is a transitional time for you where lots of things are changing and maybe your trust in the system is not there yet. For example, your fears for Cori, although an alligator in a swamp is extreme, probably have to do with her somewhere getting to a physical position where her life is in peril, like in a parking lot, street, canal, like she did when all-of-a-sudden she was on a tree root in a swamp in peril. Your fears for Ashley are deeper, you and Steve send her to the places that scare you. She is out of your reach at school or friends’ houses, essentially, and without your knowledge you and Steve basically could “lead” her into danger, like Steve led her to the hippo pool, without realizing the dangers. I think your dream has just created imagery for your deeply felt fears and unsettled feelings in this new area. I think, although they should be uncommon, your subconscious is trying to work out your mixed feelings, and they will go away as you settle in, get to know Ashley’s teachers and new friends, and Cori learns her new safety boundaries at her new house.
This reminds me of Mrs. Weasley’s buggart in HP. She just continued to see her family members in peril. It really just showed her stress level and love for her family. The first ones that she saw were the ones least in her control.
Wow Jess. You really are brilliant. You need to comment more often.
I loved how you tied in the HP reference. No wonder I love you most (at the moment).
I think it means you’re missing your sister so you need to go on a trip to NM!
Are you on any new meds? Sometimes side effects are extreme/intense dreams or nightmares. (Especially endoral… a drug they use for a lot of things… kidneys, headaches, bloodpressure…) I know. Random question. Nightmares also run in our family… but it does sound like your feeling like your loosing control. You can break the dream down by family member or animal… (Wierd dreamlore stuff. I Studied dreamlore a lot in a folklore class.) Subconciously, are you loosing control of Steve? (Not that he’s really under control, but he is the one to take Ashly into a cave of Lions and hippos.) You could go into the Fruedian meanings also, but then, every thing would become extremely complicated. He wrote a whole book on that. Anyway, it’s like, when Bill Cosby, on the Cosby show ate the hoagy sandwitches and he had the crazy dreams with Male pregnancies and Muppets… There are whole disclaimers in the front of dreamlore books about how much a person is eating, drinking, sleeping, doing drugs, taking perscriptions, ect. that just about discount any dream and its meaning. OK, I’ll quit rambling. I hope the dreams haven’t been to crazy lately, and that your move went fine!
Happy Birthday! on top of all of that.
Found this link via google. Just woke up froma dream i had where a hippo swallowed my brother (he’s 25). Everyone seeemed to think he was dead but i was convinced i could find him. Weird someone else had the hippo dream!