Classic anxiety dreams… what are yours?

[SingToTheSky]

I’ve had a few common ones - trying to find a toilet etc.

But a recurring one for me over the last couple of years is this:

I’m somewhere other than home, with my family. We’ve been staying, or even temporarily living, in an apartment. And now it’s time to pack and go home. I’m worrying about managing to pack everything before the deadline.

In the dream it seems to be more a worry about people thinking badly of us for leaving our stuff, rather than worry about losing particular things, but the overwhelming feeling is “How the hell can we possibly pack all this and get home with it all?”

There’s often other stuff going on in the dreams too, but all the while I’m thinking “but I need to pack!”

Anyone want to share their usual anxiety dreams? Or analyse mine? :o

I used to have a reoccurring dream that I was trying to dial a number on the phone. Every time I tried, I would get the number wrong. Re dial, same thing would happen! That was back in my really anxious days! Horrible!

Well I’m amazed that we all have such similar dreams. I regularly have the dream about desperately trying to phone someone and the numbers just not working, not dialling the number properly, not being able to connect. So frustrating.

Another one I regularly have although I don’t think it’s an anxiety dream is being back at my first job. I don’t really know what’s going on but I’m wandering round trying to pick up on everything.

I also often dream that my mum, dad, mum in law and father in law have all popped in at various times for a chat or a cup of tea. They’ve all been dead for years. It’s lovely, it’s like I’ve just seen them.

@MsAdoraBelleDearheartVonLipwig

Well I’m amazed that we all have such similar dreams. I regularly have the dream about desperately trying to phone someone and the numbers just not working, not dialling the number properly, not being able to connect. So frustrating.

Another one I regularly have although I don’t think it’s an anxiety dream is being back at my first job. I don’t really know what’s going on but I’m wandering round trying to pick up on everything.

I also often dream that my mum, dad, mum in law and father in law have all popped in at various times for a chat or a cup of tea. They’ve all been dead for years. It’s lovely, it’s like I’ve just seen them.

I just posted the exact same thing about the phone🤣 amazing how we all have similar dreams!

I’m still at school, about to take my A levels, but we havn’t covered half the chemistry syllabus. I’m at the front of a lecture room, trying to work out how we are going to learn it all in 2 weeks, and I realise the teacher hadn’t realised we’ve on my covered half the syllabus.

Getting ready for work and everything going wrong and never getting there. Or forgetting the call in when I'm off sick! (I have actually done that before 🤦🏽‍♀️) most of my anxiety dreams are work related. I really hate my job it makes me very stressed.

Crumbling teeth
Being late for work trying to get showered/dressed/makeup on and no time to do it
Being stuck on a ledge halfway down a cliff face
Being back at University at not knowing where/when any of my lectures are
Being on the toilet and everyone can see

Toilets: dirty, leaking or lack of privacy
The settings and contexts vary.

Another recurring theme since being a very young child is the "wrong" cuddly toy and that there are multiple secret duplicates but I know they're different from the way they've worn.

Hello packing dream people, seems we are quite the clique.
it's always packing for me and a couple of stand out ones are-

Packing up a self catering holiday let but it's taking so long that the next occupants just come in and start cooking their dinner.

Holiday hotel abroad and the airport coach is outside honking it's horn but we are still in bed, then having to pack the room from scratch, with various other holidaymakers getting off the coach to come in and berate us.

Packing up the house to move but the more that goes in the removal van the more appears and like the hotel one the new owners arrive.

It all means something very deep presumably?

@AffIt

Being back at university in halls of residence, but at my current age (early 40s).

In my dream, I'm not worried or confused perse, just a bit baffled by the whole thing and confused about why I'm there.

I will also occasionally be naked or not have any trousers on or something.

I have that too - not the naked bit, but being at university and wondering why I am doing the same course again, how I can possibly manage this alongside children and a job etc. This is often combined with 1/ losing my key and realising I have never locked my door and 2/ thinking "I must make the most of this opportunity now I have it again" and then just spending the whole time running around looking for my key/ a gown/ whatever 3/ realising that I haven't checked my pigeon hole (that's how long ago I was at university) and it is full of appointments I have missed, supervisions I didn't turn up to, whole courses I haven't attended.

I have also had having killed someone or committed a crime as a child and forgetting it until now, and having the evidence (bloodstained dress for example) crumpled up at the bottom of my childhood wardrobe, and having police looking into it all (or sometimes the grieving relatives).

Also have a dream where I need to phone someone urgently but I can't find a phone/ can't remember the number/ Can't input it correctly/ can't read the number

Trying to phone someone

Never had the teeth falling out one thank god.

Frequently have the turning up for an exam having never been in the lesson one.

Also lots of last minute packing!

Oh and needing to brake or do an emergency stop in the car and I press down on the pedal and nothing happens

When I was young I used to dream I was on the top floor of a multi-storey car park with no walls round it doing cartwheels right by the edge!
More recently I've had a horrible dream that I'm stood on a train platform and my dd is standing down between the two tracks. She's looking at me crying, I can hear a train coming and I don't know whether to tell her to run towards me or stand still

Mine are either:

Being late - for school (I'm 32! Sometimes it's my DC who are late now), an important appointment, or just trying to get somewhere and making no progress at all.

Driving - car out of control, going too fast, can't stop, usually heading for a building, etc.

I hate them so much, they make me feel awful for ages afterwards.

I do get the dirty loo one too. Loads of cubicles but everything is broken or leaking or both.

A regular dream I have is being with my two sons when a tsunami strikes. We're soon up to our necks in dark and dirty fast flowing water. I manage to get onto a buildings roof and I am hanging onto both sons. The water starts to flow even faster and I can feel my sons hands loosen their grip. I'm holding onto them as best I can but can feel them slipping from my grasp. The dream always ends when both sons are swept from my hands. I'm always so relieved to wake up.

I’m doing my finals and I haven’t revised.
I’m trying to drive a car but there’s no steering wheel.
And yes my teeth all falling out.

This thread is fascinating! I'm really surprised so many people have the teeth one. I've never had a dream about my teeth but I'm reading this in bed so now I'm worried I will! 😆

Another one , I have one cat then suddenly there's loads and I can't feed them all / keep all the bowls clean.

I haven't had any of these except the one about being back at school but never having gone to the classes. That was when I was neglecting various bits of admin in my volunteer roles so pretty obvious!

When S1 was a baby I did have one dream that he ended up in a pond while my back was turned.

I’m in an hotel and I realise a serial killer is walking towards my room and I need to lock the door. As I put my key in I can feel his key from the other side trying to open it. I always wake up at this point. Maybe too scary to stay asleep? Not a clue what it means.

Sat stationary in a car and it starts to suddenly go backwards and I can't stop it, no matter how hard I press the brake or pull the handbrake up tight.

Crossing a road just as I get the the other side I'm pulled back no matter how many times I try to cross

Walking up stairs. As soon I get to the top few steps I'm dragged back down and have to keep walking up over and over again

In a hotel but the doors aren't proper doors and I'm unable to squeeze in and climb through

Sat on the toilet only I can't wee inside it for some reason and it ends up all over the floor with nothing to clean it up with

Fuck I have loads of anxiety dreams

Realising I’m naked at work and having to hide behind a desk (teacher)
Getting really cross with a child at work and hitting them 😮
About to get married knowing I don’t want to

Another one I have is dh is having an affair at work. His personality changes completely and he takes everything including the kids and laughs at me. That one stays with me for a while after I wake up. I keep thinking how could he be so cruel but it didnt happen. It feels real when I wake up

Oooh loads of these!
My two front teeth just falling clean out. I try to hold them in with my tongue
Needing to dial 999 but can’t on any phone
Being on stage and having to perform a song and dance act I have never done before
Sitting my History A level. I haven’t revised and am frantically cramming outside the exam room and people keep talking to me and distracting me - I have this dream every May around exam season
Having people round for dinner and realising I have nothing to give them, trying to cobble a dinner party together from literally nothing
Trying to find a house to live in for my final year at Uni, have ended up living under a pier in my dream!
Doing my course at Uni and wondering how it’s going to work seeing as I now have kids, a job and currently live 200 miles away!
Phew! That was actually very cathartic 😊

Being naked in a public place, teeth falling out, falling from height (I wake up just before I hit the ground in the dream), losing loved ones. I had a dream recently where my toddler daughter had wandered out of the house out into the dark street outside - In the dream I noticed the front door slightly open and cold air coming into the house. I peered out the door and catch sight of her wandering down the path. A lot of my dreams feature my old house.