Posted by Noa on September 25, 2001, at 17:22:41
In reply to Re: Bad Dreams, posted by dreamer on September 18, 2001, at 13:28:13
I cannot say what your dreams mean, but may I tell you the associations that come to mind for me when I read about your dreams?
Effexor's effects on your dreaming notwithstanding, the content of the dreams seems so reasonable to me given the recent terrorist attacks. There may be other layers of meaning to find in your dream, but the associations that arose for me were these quite concrete ones, relating to the horrible events of September 11. My associations are immediately to the Marine barracks bomb in Saudi Arabia several years back---there you are in your dorm in Saudi Arabia. Another association I have to the part in which you are trying to ascend the steps and they go on indefinitely is the stories we heard and read about people in the WTC who fled upward in the towers to escape the flames and smoke and heat and then found themselves with no escape. And then in the dream, you see another service person dead. Also, the second dream's content seems so reasonable because we all know, though we might be trying to not think about it, that many of the thousands who died in New York, and in the other two crashes as well, died in flames, and that there were people who survived the fire in NY (and DC), only to die later of their burn wounds in hospitals, and there are probably still people struggling to survive such burns.
I have also had some strange dreams. In one, I dreamt I was just outside of NY, and decided to take a bus into the city (don't know why). As the bus rode around, I fell asleep and found that I couldn't wake myself up. I was worried about missing my bus stop, but also was trying to look out the window to see what was going on there but couldn't open my eyes enough to see anything. Then, I found I was able to drag myself up from my sleepy state enough to try to get off the bus near Time Square, because I decided to see a Broadway show, per Giuliani's encouragement to visit NY and support the economy, etc. But I couldn't bring myself to see a musical, even though I might normally want to, because I wanted to find a serious play that would stimulate my emotions and be a place to channel my sadness.
I see this dream as expressing my ambivalence about being in touch with the serious feelings stirred up by the terrorist attacks--part of me wanting to sleep through it and be unconscious about it, and part of me wanting to look around and see what was happening, and then settling on finding something structured to hang my feelings on so they won't be too overwhelming.
This attack has, I believe, affected all of us to varying degrees. But many of us are feeling "unentitled" to our feelings because we might not have been touched by the horror directly, as so many were. But we are entitled to our fear, grief, sadness, anger, confusion, horror, etc.
poster:Noa
thread:11525
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010915/msgs/11762.html