[AbsentFriend]

I've had recurring nightmares for at least 6 months, and they got worse over the holidays. After the holidays, they remained at a steady every other night, and sometimes every night.

All had the same theme - someone in my family was angry with me for some absurd reason that I had no control over. (Example, my dream mother moved into a new house, end even though I'd never been there before, she yelled at me for not knowing where the silverware went)

My psychiatrist suggested that I might be treating someone the way I used to be treated - so I asked everyone I knew whether I had ever treated them unfairly. Maybe they were just being nice, but none of them had any complaints.

Then I asked a friend of a friend - who is a school psychologist - what to make of them. She suggested that it was ME who simply wasn't letting go of the past.

So then I sent an email to my mother, thanking her for some small thing she had done for me in the past that I appreciated.

And the nightmares started to wane. Not gone completely, but it definitely helped. I obviously have more work to do, though.

Hope this helps.