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Original poster

Classic anxiety dreams… what are yours?

155 replies

SingToTheSky · 01/03/2022 21:56

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

OP posts:
PriamFarrl · 01/03/2022 23:07

Driving but forgetting how to do it.
Not being able to use the phone in an emergency.
Finding an extra room in the house but like a PP it’s an attic room with the roof coming in.

Toilets! I wonder if men get the toilet dream given that they can pee anywhere. Lack of doors or partitions wouldn’t be a problem.

Getting a plane or train but not being able to find my way to the platform or gate.

I’m a teacher and on the first day back I always dream that I can’t sleep because I’m worried about getting up in the morning.

Cheesecakeandwineinasuitcase · 01/03/2022 23:09

I was badly bullied by a former boss in a different team I used to work in and I’ve had a couple of dreams with her in it. Then I wake up and realise it was a dream.

myanonname · 01/03/2022 23:09

Driving or being driven in a car, and going over a bridge (like over a motorway) but it's either too steep or the car loses control or something and we end up off the road in the air and it takes forever to come back down, so we're almost flying through the air and it's horrible!

BlueOysterCult · 01/03/2022 23:09

Teeth falling out or going to work naked are my two regular anxiety dreams

superking · 01/03/2022 23:10

I don't think I'm an especially anxious person but I have ALL the anxiety dreams - filthy toilets, going to the loo in public, naked in public, exams and I haven't revised, trying to dial 999 but call won't go through... I also sometimes dream that I'm a passenger in a minibus driving up a really steep hill and we're about to fall back down. None of them are particularly upsetting though. I remember my dreams more than most people - can usually remember 2 or 3 every morning, so maybe that's why I seem to have so many anxiety dreams, I just remember them better than other people!

Cheeseandlobster · 01/03/2022 23:11

I have had the dirty toilets dream for years. There are always rows of them but they are filthy, no doors etc

I gave up smoking 15 years ago and I dream I have started again.

I am driving and the brakes don't work.

Finding hidden bathrooms in the house that for some reason I find spooky and I am scared of them.

I regularly dream that its the last day of my holiday and I am sad as I don't remember anything about the holiday. I love my holidays and look forward to them loads so I would be gutted if this happened.

ComtesseDeSpair · 01/03/2022 23:13

I’m on the bus and it’s crowded, and for some reason, I have my parents’ cat with me; but not in a carrier, just clutched in my lap. Suddenly, I realise that the bus is diverging from its usual route and I realise I have to get off, but it’s going to be difficult because the aisle is packed. At this moment, my parents’ cat starts struggling and trying to get away: I lose my grip of him, and then the bus stops, the doors open and off he runs. I get off the bus in chase - and then as the doors down shut behind me, I realise I’ve left my handbag on the bus.

It’s comically hilarious to describe Grin But when I’m amid the dream it’s terrifying. Whenever I have it (it recurs every year or so) I know that things are a bit out of control in my life.

XenoBitch · 01/03/2022 23:17

Loose teeth, and teeth falling out. Also, my mouth being full of gunk that I keep pulling out in an endless stream.
Tsunamis, and big things blowing up in the sky.
Trying to find a toilet, but they are either broken, really dirty or the door is missing.

minniesdragg · 01/03/2022 23:20

The cat escapes from me and runs out onto the road; Im climbing up a staircase but when I get half way up I feel stuck because lots of the stairs are missing; I havent done any work at all for an exam; Im sitting on a loo in public and cant get up to wipe myself and hope that noone notices ! that's a weird one...

Lizzy1980 · 01/03/2022 23:20

I have two, frequently.
I dream that I’ve just arrived at my holiday destination and realise that I haven’t brought anything with me. No clothes, make up etc.
I also dream that I’m in an emergency situation (this varies) where I really need to call for an ambulance or the police but I can’t work my phone. I either keep dialing the wrong number or I keep getting the code wrong. It’s quite unpleasant because the situation is always really distressing. I’m either at the scene of a serious accident or there’s someone breaking into my house

lonelynotalone · 01/03/2022 23:20

I have the teeth one quite regularly. They all come out and I've a mouthful of teeth rattling around in my mouth.

Also one where I have to write down my phone number for someone, or ring someone urgently, but I can't get the number right. I keep writing down a digit wrong or dialling the wrong number. Even though I know it.

Prettybubblesintheair · 01/03/2022 23:23

Teeth falling out, living in my old house but the new tenants are on holiday and come home and catch us living there and I apologise profusely! A reoccurring one is I’m trying to write down my phone number or dual 999 or something that involves writing/pressing a specific number in order and I keep getting a digit wrong and have to start again! It’s usually accompanied by some high pressure emergency that requires me to write/dial the number quickly and I just can’t do it!

Prettybubblesintheair · 01/03/2022 23:23

@lonelynotalone

I have the teeth one quite regularly. They all come out and I've a mouthful of teeth rattling around in my mouth.

Also one where I have to write down my phone number for someone, or ring someone urgently, but I can't get the number right. I keep writing down a digit wrong or dialling the wrong number. Even though I know it.

Omg spooky cross post!
lonelynotalone · 01/03/2022 23:23

@throughtheair

I have the public toilet one a lot. Each toilet I try is unsuitable, like the cubicle doesn't have a door, or the toilet is filled to the brim, or the toilet is really high up and impossible to sit on.
Just remembered I have this one too! Horrible.
AllLopsided · 01/03/2022 23:23

I have the packing dream, sometimes leaving home as well as coming home. I used to travel a lot for work but typically for a couple of weeks so needed to pack a decent amount. And I was bad at it and always running late! Also have the one where I can't get my stuff together to get off the train, exam when I haven't revised dream, out of control car dream, toilet dream where the only ones are in a two foot high cupboard or open room, running away dream where I'm trying to run but it's like my feet are made of lead, and trying to scream but no sound comes out (last two are trauma related I think). Is there any hope for me?

As a side note I'm surprised how much I dream about people who have died as if they were still alive (my Dad and his mum especially).

frostedfruit · 01/03/2022 23:26

Having to walk through cows, or near cows or across fields containing cows. Worst dreams are if the cows are not behind a fence and coming towards me. Or if they are able to push down/cross the fence. Dream cows are terrifying!

SisterRuth · 01/03/2022 23:28

@Featuredcreature

It's odd that I have never had the traditional turning up to an exam unprepepared dream, it's always that I already have the qualification and it's pointless doing the exam Hmm
I have both - yay! I used to have the "unprepared for an exam" so much more when I was younger but these days it's much more likely that I'm worrying about an exam, worried that everyone else has revised & I haven't but then realising "wtf I don't even have to do this exam, I've already passed it, got a B in it last year."

Another one is me getting more & more angry finding people I don't know in my house. At first it's a party but I get so angry & eventually have to chuck everyone out.

Thecazelets · 01/03/2022 23:29

Loads. A small sample:
Driving but the brakes not working - pressing desperately on the pedal as we career along towards a busy junction
About to take a History A-level exam for which I haven’t done a stroke of revision (I am in my fifties!)
Sneaking back into my old flat or house while the current owners are out, and nearly getting caught. Only ever have this about either my first flat (sold more than 25 years ago!) or the house we sold to buy this one. Both sales I still slightly regret although there were rational reasons at time
Finding that I have cheated on DH and am instead in a relationship with a truly awful ex. Always wake up horrified and relieved that that one isn’t true
Many variations on the ‘can’t find a clean or non-visible to all loo’, and/or being naked in public dreams
Trying to walk/run up a very steep hill for seemingly hours - so incredibly tiring, painful and effortful
Occasionally have one where I confront and shout at my father for his dreadful self-centred behaviour over the years - would never waste my breath on this in real life but clearly still playing on my mind
The teeth one occasionally- used to have that one more as a child

Thecazelets · 01/03/2022 23:31

I have the running away and trying to scream but no sound coming out one as well.
Not exactly looking forward to going to sleep now…!

sleaf · 01/03/2022 23:32

Calling 999 for the police, but no-one answers.

Intruders trying to break it through the front door.

Plane crash, not on board but witnessing one.

sleaf · 01/03/2022 23:34

Being on a footpath in the middle of two railway tracks in the dark, with trains approaching and passing by.

northernstars · 01/03/2022 23:34

Loads but specifically the toilet one and packing one.
Working in a college or hospital and at points there are no doors, just these small hatches people climb through - and I can never even attempt it.
My husband disappeared on our wedding night and I've never seen him since. (We've been married 3 years and yet I still have this dream - it's so nice when I wake up and he's still here!)

DearZoom · 01/03/2022 23:35

Oh god I have so many anxiety dreams. I have teeth falling out, I try to run somewhere but am only able to move slowly, and probably my most common one which is having to sit a physics A level paper when I’ve never been in a physics A level class.

Icecreamandapplepie · 01/03/2022 23:36

Always always I have nowhere to live and am looking round awful rental properties. I know I have to take one.

My mind dreams up something hideous every time. The worst was all on one floor so dirty, and in one room were dirty mattresses and a body wrapped up in a duvet on one of the mattresses.
And I was thinking well it has a bit of a front garden so I'll have to take it Shock

StartupRepair · 01/03/2022 23:42

Wow I share so many of these.
Teeth.
All toilets filthy so can't go.
Running through airports trying to find my flight
Being made to do final school exams again. Sometimes in the dream I remember and say 'but I've been to university, why do I have to do school exams?', but they always get me on a technicality.