Recurring Dreams or Nightmares?

[RonJ]

Every few weeks I dream of driving on a city freeway. I'm clocking along at around 70 mph. There's a steep incline in the road so I hit the gas to maintain speed. I'm headed toward the peak at breakneck speed. When I get to the top the highway ends and there's a 1000 foot drop off. As I start to go over the edge the dream ends and I wake up with a queasy stomach.
Do you have any freaky dreams that Lee will allow you to post?

 

[GKC]

When I was working, I always had a recurring dream about being late to a meeting...it usually involved the meeting being in an unfamiliar place, very large with lots of passage ways and twists and turns, and I couldn't find my way. Sometimes I would be naked, although no one else seemed to notice. I've read that is a sign of anxiety or insecurity, and maybe so...my job (especially the last few years before I retired) was extremely stressful and demanding.

Now that I am retired, I haven't had that dream very often...on occasion, but not very often. I do have other dreams, but not recurring and not related to any kind of work, usually.

 

[amazingflapjack]

Recurring dreams of a similar theme are sometimes an indicator of some kind of delayed stress reaction. I see you are a veteran, and that you were in during our Asian Adventure. You might want to run this information by someone at VA in more detail; let them ask you the relevant questions (?) Regards, Flapjack.

 

[RonJ]

Recurring dreams of a similar theme are sometimes an indicator of some kind of delayed stress reaction. I see you are a veteran, and that you were in during our Asian Adventure. You might want to run this information by someone at VA in more detail; let them ask you the relevant questions (?) Regards, Flapjack.

It was the right time and the right theater but I was relatively safe, sitting behind a radio and wearing headphones.

 

[GKC]

Recurring dreams of a similar theme are sometimes an indicator of some kind of delayed stress reaction. I see you are a veteran, and that you were in during our Asian Adventure. You might want to run this information by someone at VA in more detail; let them ask you the relevant questions (?) Regards, Flapjack.

I really do think it was related to my job...it might have been a combination of other things, and as you mentioned it could have been a delayed reaction, but I really didn't have these dreams (at least that I can recall) until later in life, and I've rarely had them since I retired. While I once enjoyed my job, the last 5 years that I worked truly were horrific, in part due to the workload, but also in part due to my last boss who made Captain Bligh a candidate for humanitarian of the year.

As for my service, I was a Navy Corpsman, and while I did spend the last two years of my service attached to a Marine Corps unit, I never went overseas. I spent all my service time in the USA, so I really didn't have too much to be stressed about (other than spending two years at Cherry Point, NC with a bunch of jar heads!) unlike many who actually saw combat in Viet Nam. At the time, I was disappointed...now, I thank God that I was spared that horror.

 

[JcMack]

When I was drinking, I was often over served. The result was some very bizarre dreams. Since I took the cure 4 months, 6 days, 3 hours, 45 minutes, 7 seconds ago I've had only one dream once. That was 2 nights ago. I dreamed a snake was latched onto my foot. I remember rocking back and forth and I fell of the bed. I thought I broke my arm. I had a hell of a time getting up.

 

[straightshooter1]

I'm pretty much a cheerleader for treatment at the VA.

I have posted here before, that my wife is a Nurse Practitioner at one of our VA Hospitals in the Bay area and the doctors I have seen, with one exception (see my post a month or so ago about writing my own obit when the doc called to sorta tell me good-bye), excellent.

But, unless the dreams are causing a problem in my life, I might be hesitant to mention them to a VA doc/nurse. What you say there (or to any doc/nurse) just never goes away and I am concerned that, someday, such things might come back to haunt me in the area of ownership of firearms.

Of course, if there is a problem that is keeping me from having a "normal" life (OK-no one who knows me thinks I am really normal ), then I would not hesitate to deal with it medically.

I have had dreams about VietNam and other bad situations I have been in or almost been in, some of them "intense," and recurrent, but, when I awake from the dreams I recognize that it is only a dream.

And, yes, in some dreams I have been naked or clothed only in my briefs (real men do not wear boxers ) and, sadly, no one seemed to notice.

So far, so good.

Bob

 

[Straightshooter2]

I have two dreams that tend to recur and sometimes combine. The first is that something is out of control at work and I can't do anything to stop it. It's not always the same thing occurring but being unable to do anything about it is. Now you would think that, since I retired Dec. 31, 2001, I wouldn't be dreaming about Delta any longer. The other is even weirder. For some reason, I'll dream that I'm back on active duty in the Navy. Again, it's never specific and you would think with this one that after 40 years, I wouldn't have dreams about being active again. Occasionally since I worked for both airline and was on an aircraft carrier, it will end up with some strange combination of the two. Try fitting a 747 on a flight deck sometine.

CW

 

[M3Stuart]

Not an expert. But it sounds like you're worried about something unexpected happening.

Just my .02; find a hobby or something that is both mentally challenging and takes up a lot of time. Note; I suggest that to lots of people. In my case I write professional books and one title has to be updated every year. So I always have something I need to be doing in my spare time besides reloading and shooting and running a chainsaw and...

 

[labworm]

I'm pretty much a cheerleader for treatment at the VA.

I have posted here before, that my wife is a Nurse Practitioner at one of our VA Hospitals in the Bay area and the doctors I have seen, with one exception (see my post a month or so ago about writing my own obit when the doc called to sorta tell me good-bye), excellent.

But, unless the dreams are causing a problem in my life, I might be hesitant to mention them to a VA doc/nurse. What you say there (or to any doc/nurse) just never goes away and I am concerned that, someday, such things might come back to haunt me in the area of ownership of firearms.

Of course, if there is a problem that is keeping me from having a "normal" life (OK-no one who knows me thinks I am really normal ), then I would not hesitate to deal with it medically.

I have had dreams about VietNam and other bad situations I have been in or almost been in, some of them "intense," and recurrent, but, when I awake from the dreams I recognize that it is only a dream.

And, yes, in some dreams I have been naked or clothed only in my briefs (real men do not wear boxers ) and, sadly, no one seemed to notice.

So far, so good.

Bob

Sometimes only one session with a professional will eliminate certain dreams from recurring when you understand why they are taking place, sometimes not.

 

[imjin138]

Every once in awhile I will dream I am in the field and after I wake up it takes a few minutes to realize I am in my own bed and way to old to be in the boonies.

 

[Buckey08]

Ya, My mother in law MOVES in! My sister in laws move in! My hunting dog leaves, My S&Ws get sold and I'm a life member of PETA!

 

[CW Spook]

I have a few recurring dreams, some good, some bad. Once or twice a year I'll dream that I'm back the Navy or going to go back, and/or am moving to and from Japan, this after 40 years. I also have an occasional nightmare where I'm in a situation where I need to use a gun and can't get it to fire. The old recurring college class dreams ended some years ago.

 

[bloo]

Often dream I'm back at Great Lakes in boot camp. I'm 65 how can this be happening. The other one ever since I retired is that I'm back at work.

 

[captorquewrench]

Sometimes I dream about my dad and still wake up screaming, 28 years later.

 

[1morethan8]

I don't have very many dreams.. that's not my problem.
My "problem" has been with me as long as I can remember. It has no time frame, it may be as short as twice a month or twice a year, it has happened twice a week. Some will say it's just premonition. I know many has thought... the phone is going to ring, and it does. To me that is way to simple.
Sometimes I will be asked a question and I'll give an answer without thought, and about every time it will be true. It's like I know the answer without thinking and I say it as if someone else is talking. And it still freaks me out after all the years.

Last week my daughter came over to see us, she lives in town, it was on a Saturday. I was in the driveway cleaning the Jeep when she pull up. She got out of her car and walked by.. she asked, is mom home, I said yes. She then said come on in, I have something to tell ya.
Instantly... I said you're pregnant. I knew without any doubt!
And that old cold chill came over me another time!
She stopped and turned with a funny look and asked.. How did you know!?
She is 34 years old and was told 10 years ago she couldn't have a child.

 

[sipowicz]

Do you have any freaky dreams that Lee will allow you to post?

Lee has squashed all my dreams....

 

[mwtdvm]

After High School

I was a military brat and attended three HS. I'm not sure when it started but I would have a dream about getting my paperwork at the Principal's office on the first day of school and then trying to find my homeroom. I was always "late" and when I found the room, I opened the door and it was the Janitor's mop closet. Lasted about 8 years off and on and I haven't thought about it for 20-30 years. Hope I don't have a relapse.

 

[amazingflapjack]

Ron J

A common misconception among veterans and those that care about them is that one's military service in a combat theater had to be in the nature of extreme exposure to traumatic circumstances in order for them to have issues arising out of their presence there. Being there is enough, but even not being there does not preclude an individual from having "survivors guilt" which is the most common symptom of a stress disorder, right after the kind of denial you expressed when you discarded out of hand my suggestion about your time and place of service, and that you weren't a tunnel rat, this, along with dreams of a recurring theme that end just before an unavoidable negative outcome, just as you described, are early on the list of things to look at. There are many folks that served in the "Viet Nam Era," that never set foot or flew over the area that have significant issues with survivors guilt because they WERE NOT there. I had more than a little contact with people in your MOS, and there was a lot of stress in their job. Add to that the "setting" and the reality of something falling out of the air and blowing them up, and you have a fairly good recipe for something very real, that could be alleviated fairly easily.

As far as a contact of any kind at VA "coming back on an individual" about guns or anything else, legislation was passed into law in the last year or so that precluded that. It should be fairly easy to find on the net; NRA published it. I used to keep a copy by my desk here just so I could quote it chapter and verse, but it has gotten away to a file evidently. I would encourage you to talk with someone who can ask you the right questions. I know that sounds uncomfortable, and it may be a little, but you have everything to gain, and nothing to lose. Regards, Flapjack.

 

[GKC]

There are many folks that served in the "Viet Nam Era," that never set foot or flew over the area that have significant issues with survivors guilt because they WERE NOT there.

I can attest to that. I knew men (or still boys, really, at the time...18 - 20 years old) who died in Viet Nam, or who were wounded, harmed in other ways, etc. When you spent your time stateside like I did, you feel guilty that you didn't "do your part" like they did. It's not like I tried to avoid going...I voluntarily enlisted, and specifically enlisted to become a corpsman, so the chances were good that I could have gone to Viet Nam with a MC unit, or stationed at a Naval hospital, etc. I didn't do anything while in the service to avoid going...but still, I felt guilty for a long time, and never wanted to admit that I didn't go. (I never lied about it and said that I did go, either.)

It took a lot of years before I got over that...to get to the point today that I am grateful I didn't go. Not in any way to denigrate the sacrifice and service of the men who did go, but relief in the same way that one is glad he wasn't in a car wreck or diagnosed with a serious illness.