WHAT DOES THIS DREAM MEAN?
Posted , 3 users are following.
Hi there,
Just wondering if anyone can shed some light on this?
I am constantly dreaming that I am in places from my past life, meeting people from my past life. It's all so real and not always nice.
The dreams make me feel depressed and anxious when I wake.
My life is going well at the moment but I am doing a very gentle taper from diazepam which I have been on for 22 years.
Does anyone else identify with this please? Any advice gratefully received please.
0 likes, 3 replies
lily65668 anne28866
Posted
Hi Anne,
Some of us just do have vivid dreams. I always have and, like yours, they're not always pleasant. Sometimes they're downright disturbing. But we don't need to be concerned about the content of our dreams.
You can find Freudian interpretations of dream content on-line but I find them very one-dimensional and one-size-fits-all. But then I have to say I think that's true of much of Freud's thinking. He may have been one of the founders of modern psychology and psychiatry but a lot of his theories seem too rigid to me.
Dreams don't have to mean anything in particular, though when I find I can't forget a vivid dream I can sometimes identify where it came from. A few of my dreams are clearly my own unconscious talking to me in coded form, and dreams of this kind can be very useful. However, the majority of them seem to be irrelevant "static" - much like surfing through the channels on a radio and hearing meaningless jabber.
In your case, I'm pretty sure the diazepam taper is playing a part, as this is a known withdrawal effect. I'm glad to hear that your life is going well now, but the fact that you've been on diazepam suggests that you've recently been going through some kind of crisis. I suspect your unconscious is just trying to get everything back in order while you sleep. I once heard a description of dreaming as: "the mind going through its back files".
If you can't overcome your anxiety about your dreams, the only solution is for your doctor to put you on antidepressants (as opposed to anxiolytics like diazepam) as antidepressants suppress dream sleep. However, that means exchanging one chemical cosh for another, with the prospect of either having to stay on medication for life or going through yet another phase of withdrawal.
I'd suggest going easy on yourself for a while. Be open to any messages from these dreams that might bubble up to the surface, but don't break your head trying to work out what it all means. I'm sure the dreams will fade away in time, as you recover both from the chemical effects of the diazepam and from the stressful situation for which you had to take it in the first place.
anne28866 lily65668
Posted
Hi lily,
Thank you for your reply. You description of dreaming as: "the mind is going through it's back files" hits the nail right on the head. The majority of the dreams do feature people and places from before I started taking diazepam, not a good time in my life at all.
As you say I sometimes feel like I am re-living the feelings of anger and loss that I had at the time. indeed the interesting thing is that in my dreams I am saying and doing the things that I wish I had done at the time. A kind of cathartic effect at times. The really nasty ones are the dreams of feeling lost and searching for something.
Yes I do feel low for a while when I wake according to the dream emotions but it does wear off. I definitely do not want to take any other medication to create another addiction.
We are indeed complex beings and what you say makes perfect sense.
Thank you so much for your advice
alpine anne28866
Posted
Hello Anne
I also dream of times gone by but they are not necessarily disturbing. Perhaps it's to do with nostalgia, I have vivid memories of my teen years & early 20's. Following recent surgery I
find that the medication they gave me for pain results in dreams that wake me in the middle of the
night. Sometimes I wake in the early morning feeling anxious but that soon goes when I make a
pot of tea. Don't let dreams bother you, there's not much we can do to control them.