Recurring dream

[DreamThrall]

So, I've been having this one recurring dream for the past couple years. I'm not sure exactly how long, but it has been at least 2-3 years now. It's not exactly the same dream each time, but the premise is the same, and each time I become more aware of and frustrated with how rediculous the situation is.

The dream is based around the fact that I had to go back to high school for some reason, I think because I couldn't finish for some reason other than failing. Each time I am fully aware of how old I am in real life at the time (I'm 22 now), and each time I become more emotionally frustrated with the fact that I am back in high school at my age. I even remember some a "scene" from the one I had last night -

I was acting out in class, playing off of some other guy doing the same, and when the class was over, some girl says, with a slightly flirtatious tone, "Oh I get it... he's bad, but you've got to be badder, right?", to which I reply, "No, it's because I'm 22 and have to deal with 17 and 18 year olds". She made an odd face, and it suddenly dawned on me that this demographic included her, but then I realized I didn't really care either. I walked off without apologizing.

I don't get it... I hated high school, why would I keep dreaming about going back? Another thing I just realized: When the dreams first started, the location was definately my old high school. I could identify locations in it, even if they were a slightly warped version, as things usually are in dreams. However, in subsequent dreams, the high school the dream takes place in gets more and more generic - last night there didn't seem to be any type of correlation between my old high school and the one I was dreaming about.

Does anyone else get these? Any ideas what it means? I think they may be triggered by stress in my real life, but I haven't really been paying enough attention to be sure there's a connection, though it would certainly make sense. But even then, why high school?

Sorry, I'm rambling now... Discuss.

 

[MiccyNarc]

You're going to be sent to some sort of reeducation camp in the near future.
Don't forget to send me postcards.

 

[Solaris]

Oh I love psycology stuff like this.

What is your current situation like now, what is your opion of your colleagues if you work. Are you still in eduction?

A bit of detail about how you feel about your life now, and I think we can go some where with this.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Recurring dreams tend to mean there's something that you have to work out.

Being in schools and such buildings in dreams are usually related to your life in general, how you're progressing and developing.

Maybe there's some stage of your life or some situation that you try to repress or have "skipped" mentally, anything you feel you should return to and clear up once and for all?

It doesn't have to be something you think of all the time or commonly, it's often the things we think about the least that become the material for our dreams.

 

[Solaris]

Now this is what struck me.


-"Oh I get it... he's bad, but you've got to be badder, right?", to which I reply, "No, it's because I'm 22 and have to deal with 17 and 18 year olds"

Do you feel your freinds, and workmates are a bit childish? Or maybe you subconciously feel that you arent really acting your age?

God I love playing Fraiser.

 

[the_rebel_medic]

/me pulls out his tarot cards and his dream ID book

On a serious note, i know a bit about this. does the dream involve dogs, or a pool or something. a little more detail please, Im serious mate i know a bit

 

[Solaris]

/me pulls out his tarot cards and his dream ID book

On a serious note, i know a bit about this. does the dream involve dogs, or a pool or something. a little more detail please, Im serious mate i know a bit

Pfft, psyc class kids at play.

 

[Dekstar]

It must be so boring having the same kind of dream for over 2 years. Waiting for all the psychologists to come and have a go

 

[DreamThrall]

desktar, I think you misunderstood me - while it is true I've been having this similiar dream over over 2 years, it isn't the ONLY dream I've been having.

Solaris - I'm 22 now, but I got married when I was 19 (my wife was 18). We've been through good times and bad times, but I wouldn't say we've had more than our share of either compared to other married couples. As far as my work situation, yes, there are idiots I have to deal with on a daily basis, but that situation is relatively new compared with this type of dream.

"Or maybe you subconciously feel that you arent really acting your age?"

That I would think has the most merit, though I'm not entire sure which side you're pointing at. As I mentioned before, I got married very young. Neither my wife nor myself ever really got into the typical 20-somethings club/party scene, so while I guess you could say I "missed out" on that part of my life, it isn't exactly something I truely miss. I find that I generally get along better with people that have a decade on me than people in my own age range.

-"Oh I get it... he's bad, but you've got to be badder, right?", to which I reply, "No, it's because I'm 22 and have to deal with 17 and 18 year olds"

I didn't mention before, but that type of mentality was fairly new to this dream. Before last night, I was generally seemingly complacent with the situation. While I may have been privately frustrated with it, I had never really taken it out on anyone yet.

Oh, and before anyone goes and kindly points it out, I recognize the silliness of having this type of conversation on a forum, and it doesn't really bother me.

 

[ktimekiller]

Maybe its a guilt growing inside you, something that you did. and that thing is telling your mental mind that you did not deserve such achievement. example, not saying you did, but cheating on something very major, or turned out to be a big deal, and your inner self thinks that you did not deserve to graduate

 

[jondy]

-"Oh I get it... he's bad, but you've got to be badder, right?", to which I reply, "No, it's because I'm 22 and have to deal with 17 and 18 year olds"

Without sounding.... weird.... could this be anything at all to do with your early marriage?

 

[spookymooky]

how well did you do in highschool?

Edit: Is this where your name comes from?

 

[Sulkdodds]

I would ask the spirit of Sigmund Freud, but he's at a party.

He'd probably just say something about penises then fall asleep though.

 

[DreamThrall]

ktime - I wasn't much of a cheater in high school. While I didn't do too well in high school, there's nothing I feel guilty about.

jondy - not likely, but I wouldn't rule it out

spooky - not very... enough to pass in 4 years at least. And no, I was using DreamThrall while I was still in high school. It's actually the name of a now-stagnant solo music project, which I've been using for other things.

sulkdodds - thanks for the consideration I think you just wanted an excuse to say "penis".

 

[spookymooky]

Feel like you could have done better in school?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Hmmm i used to have dreams about my primary school alot, as i went through secondary school. Now i'm in college and i never get them anymore. I think its due to the fact many of the people i lost contact with those 7 years ago came back into my life and i could tie up loose ends with them. Including some people i grew very close to. As Harj said you probably want to go back there just to finish some things like people you no longer see, or sample the atmosphere, something like that. Anything you can think of in particular?

I remember missing the day to day routine of normal school for a year or so, it can be hard to forget it, because it was mainly fun, laid back and some of your greatest times. Hopefully if you can narrow down what specifically about high school is still playing on your mind, you could resolve this dream, and make you feel happier about dreaming about it rather than you feeling bitter in the dream because your older.

 

[DreamThrall]

spooky - probably, but I never really cared much about my school work. It simply didn't interest me, so I did enough to get by.

Glenn - It would make sense.... but I was only close to a small handful of people from my high school. There aren't really any loose ends either - either way, the only thing I actually dream about is actually being in school, during normal school hours - nothing outside it, or even extracurricular activities.

 

[Dog--]

This reminds me of a dream I had, It was one of those dreams where you wake up, and that ends up to be a dream, then you wake of and that ends up to be a dream and so on, it went on like that for like 20 wake ups, i knew it was that kinda dream tho, it freaked me out i didn't think i'd ever wake up!

 

[kaf11]

my psychology student input:

I too have nearly identical dreams, in which im back in a high school setting. I dont believe it necessarily has anything to do directly with "unfinished issues" in high school.

you mention that you hated high school. the high school years are often very stressful for teenagers. i think dreams in which we return back to those pinpoint-stressful years we're simply finding an appropriate outlet for stress which we may be facing currently. as crazyharij said:

"It doesn't have to be something you think of all the time or commonly, it's often the things we think about the least that become the material for our dreams."

this is true. we rarely (although it does happen) dream of the very thing that is bothering us. your issue probably isnt going to be "found" within something in the dream. the dream is probably just the manifestation of a current stressor in a previously experienced stressful situation.

follow up questions:

does the dream always involve a woman?
does it always involve a confrontation with someone?
is it sometimes just a stressful event (such as not knowing what class to go to, forgetting your books/homework, etc...)?

 

[ktimekiller]

This reminds me of a dream I had, It was one of those dreams where you wake up, and that ends up to be a dream, then you wake of and that ends up to be a dream and so on, it went on like that for like 20 wake ups, i knew it was that kinda dream tho, it freaked me out i didn't think i'd ever wake up!

i had one, except it was only a dream in a dream in a dream, only 3, but seems like you had a lil more......\

btw thrall, perhaps there is really some unfinished buisness, it never hurts to visit it again, really no down side. you might want to visit it, something might happen

 

[Greatgat]

The penis is a phallic symbol, and Freud said "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Not sure where I'm going with this, but hey.

 

[DreamThrall]

kaf - Thanks for the comments. Nice to see I'm not the only one with these. The other night was the first time that there was a confrontation, and while I'm sure there had been women in the others, I don't recall interacting with anyone specifically until then. Now that I think about it a little more, there generally seems to be some sort of stressful situation featured in these dreams... and the more I think back, they seem to occur when I'm stressed out. Last week was horribly shitty on many levels, so I guess I shouldn't it would make sense that I had one of these. Although, the weekend was much better, so I don't understand why I wouldn't have had it Friday night or earlier, when the stress was all fairly fresh, vs Sunday night after I'd had a chance to cool down.

 

[Solaris]

Hmm, what was said earlier was pretty freudian, about a current strees being represented by a past trouble, and very disputeable, but could very well be valid.

As an NLPer (neuro lingustic programming www.nlpweekly.com for more info on NLP) I think theres a positive intention behind these dreams, as its a presuposition of NLP that every behavior has a positive intention.

What is your mind trying to tell you with these dreams, maybe its trying to dissacosiate your current feelings, to a past event, as a sort of anti stress mechanis.

But on a general psycological perspective, I feel inclined to ask, if your school was a metaphor, what would the metaphor be? Learning, exploration, freindship, stress, confrontation ect.

On the Fraiser crane show:
"While fraiser is a freudian I am a young, so they'll be no blaming mother today"Niles

 

[kaf11]

kaf - Thanks for the comments. Nice to see I'm not the only one with these. The other night was the first time that there was a confrontation, and while I'm sure there had been women in the others, I don't recall interacting with anyone specifically until then. Now that I think about it a little more, there generally seems to be some sort of stressful situation featured in these dreams... and the more I think back, they seem to occur when I'm stressed out. Last week was horribly shitty on many levels, so I guess I shouldn't it would make sense that I had one of these. Although, the weekend was much better, so I don't understand why I wouldn't have had it Friday night or earlier, when the stress was all fairly fresh, vs Sunday night after I'd had a chance to cool down.

hey, anything to help out. what i would suggest you do is keep a log, even a mental one, of whats going on in your life prior to these dreams. any time one occurs, think back on what has been going on in your life. might not necessarily be something huge, dont forget to include the small things. perhaps there is a certain kind of stress/issue which brings this dream about. try to correlate the dream to issues in your everyday life. with some practice, you might be able to learn more about these stressful situations and perhaps find a way to alleviate them.


and about the dream coming after a good weekend: stress has a tendancy to remain with you, even while youre not actively experiencing it or thinking about it. and as i said earlier, much of our dream content is believed to be pulled from our subconscious. if this were true then our dreams would express the things we werent necessarily thinking about, or things which we are repressing-such as stress and anxiety. it might make sense for this dream to surface once its cause has left your conscious thought.

i dont get it solaris. do you mean "Jung" instead of young. im not nitpicking, i was wondering if im missing out on the joke by not having seen the show.