When I am particularly stressed, I can have anxiety dreams. One theme is “bad guys chasing me.” Those are pretty darned easy to interpret, even for a cognitive-behavioral therapist who is not into dream analysis. Safety fears are old hat and very common.
Another theme is anxiety about professional competence. This plays out in two possible scenarios (a) I find myself back in high school because I really didn’t graduate (but I still have a Ph.D.) or (b) I find myself in college because I really didn’t graduate (but I still have a Ph.D.) These dreams often end with my saying to myself, “Why am I worried about this? I have my Ph.D. and psychology license, which allows me to work.” Then I feel much better. Then it magically turns out that I was mistaken about not having graduated from high school or college. See, I even do cognitive therapy with myself in my dreams.
Since my breast cancer diagnosis, I’ve encountered a third theme of anxiety dream. In these dreams, I find that I no longer live in my home but have moved somewhere else. It’s sudden and I’m not on board with the decision but it is too late. Last night I had the same dream. We moved to a pretty fancy house with two swimming pools. (In other dreams, there’s often a hot tub and in another we moved to a house on a river.) At one point the house changed so that it was part of a shopping mall. I was walking around the new house, orienting myself to it and I ended up in the shopping mall. I quickly got lost and ended up out of the mall and wandering around a city that was not familiar to me. I couldn’t get a cab or bus to take me home because I hadn’t yet memorized my new address. When I looked for my phone to call home, I kept finding phones in my purse but none of them worked. At one point, it started snowing and I was walking around with no coat. If this dream had a resolution, I don’t remember it.
I know where I am. I know where I live. I’m not going any where.
My Eyes Are Up Here 
That sounds like a truly awful dream. Cut that out. You are loved!
That is super sweet & supportive John.
Yep, John is the best!
I can relate to dreams like this for sure. I never considered that anxiety was surfacing.
I don’t think any of the themes I described are universal anxiety themes, except for maybe “bad guys chasing you”. I moved a great deal in my 20’s and 30’s for school and my career. It was very stressful and I got so that I hated moving. We’ve lived in the same house and community since 2001. I love being settled. However, since my cancer diagnosis and treatment, I’ve had to deal with lots of change and loss, some drastic. And the dreams about now graduating school? I am a nerd and very tied to my career as a psychologist, which I love.
This comment made me smile. I know, right? Sometimes it’s pure amusement. Being a kickboxer, my “bad guy” dreams are usually pretty violent, which can make me feel exhausted when I wake up…I can’t watch any sort of tv that shows violence because I want to sleep at night, not be a ninja, lol.
My mom is a breast cancer survivor ❤
OMG I dream I have to go back to high school all the time, and I keep telling the admin people that I have a B.A. in English Lit from college, so I MUST have finished high school. But no one listens to me! Since I had cancer and a few other bad moments in life, I have other scary recurring dreams, so the school dream I treat as an old friend, because since I KNOW I have my degree, I have nothing to fear.
That’s so funny. You are the first person I’ve encountered who has the same silly dream. I started having it right after I graduated high school. I dreamed I was still in high school all summer before college! Then I stopped having these kind of dreams until I got my Ph.D., which took forever, as they do. I’ve gotten used to those dreams, too.
Your dreams are more interesting than arriving at school without shoes, or in your pajamas.
I miss the dreams about flying with outstretched arms to escape the enemy.
I had those dreams, too! Except for flying.
Our minds can do strange things to us Elizabeth and going through the whole breast cancer thing is a strange experience for anyone. I often wonder if all the things we try to accept / hold in balance / keep under control surface from our subconscious when we sleep. Maybe our brains are trying to say ‘you stlll need to deal with this’ or ‘there’s more to do here.’ Sometimes, based on some of my more exotic dreams, I think its just a reflection of too many confused thoughts!
Yes, our minds do strange things when dealing with stress or just sorting out a normal day. I love it when I get mad my husband because he was mean to me in a dream that came out of MY brain!
I will arbitrarily say that your dreams with water…river, pools, HOT TUB…are sexy sex dreams. You perv. Scott has fabulously obvious stress dreams that always make me crack-up when he recounts them…driving a race car with no brakes or steering, etc. He jokes that he finally stopped having the school dreams…about showing up at school for finals, but realizing he’s never been to the class…then they started up again when he went to grad school. D’oh. My dreams are always insanely convoluted, but I have repetitive dreams, too. I used to have ones in grade school where I saved my Catholic grade school from Nazis (by stealing their Kaiser Wilhelm style helmut that enabled them to fly cause the pointy thingey on top rotated and let you fly like a helicopter). I always thought the Catholic school/Nazi dream was about my anger toward the hideous nuns we had, or the fact I watched countless WWII movies with my dad as a kid. Then (as an adult) I happened upon that 70s era movie Bedknobs & Broomsticks, which used to be one of my favorites as a kid (even had the lunchbox). The kids save their community from Nazis. I had zero recollection of Nazis being in B & B. So, my dreams are either I’m being chased by bad guys, or Scott cheats on me and is completely indifferent to my anguish (which always makes me wake up pissed off at him), or (now) my children are in jeopardy, or I save people. oohh, oohhh, or teeth dreams. I have dreams my teeth disintegrate and fall out. shudder.
Perhaps, Beth but what does it mean that I don’t recall even once getting into any of the water sources? Repression! I’m distracted by my dismay at having to lose my garden from the old house and figuring out how to restore it. Maybe it really stands for plant sex.
My mom had Nazi dreams but that is probably because it was 1945 and there were Nazis. I like your Bedknobs and Broomsticks link. I used to have dreams about saving the people on Gilligan’s Island and getting them back to “civilization!” Movies with Angela Landsbury–you are much classier. My epic dreams were inspired by Sherman Schwartz!
I hated those teeth dreams! Or the dreams when I found lots of money, woke up all excited, and then realized that it was all a dream. And how come I never fly in my dreams?
The teeth dreams are supposed to be about money (cause of the tooth fairy, I guess)…so maybe when you dream about money, it’s really about teeth? I’ve never had flying dreams either, but it sounds like Emma’s experimenting with lucid dreams. I told her a friend of mine once consciously worked on having lucid dreams, and looked for odd moments in a dream to trigger their lucidity…like mountain climbing barefoot. Once he noticed that incongruity, he’d take control of the dream and start flying around the world. Sounds great. But I still like saving people from Nazis with my flying Kaiser Wilhelm helmut. :- D
I love the dream interpretations. I was going to ask what all the water sources are about, but I like Beth’s interpretation, best. Maybe it’s time for a get away for you and your cute hubby.
Saving the crew on Gilligan’s Island and the flying helmut are priceless!