lostnfound1961

Good Morning all,
I have not written in a long time but thought I would today. I have been havng nightmares all my life but for some reason I have been having a lot about the home I grew up in and my mom and dad who have been gone for some time now.

I also seem to have a lot of dreams about small children and baby's. I realize they are missing and I have not seen them in weeks. I'm sure they must be dead by now and I can't remember where they are. I left them to die. In the dark and all alone.

In a more recent dream I am trying to save a pregnent woman and some others in a house across from the home I grew up in. The house just caved in and I don't know if they are alive and I am freaking out.

My councelor said it may be that the dreams lead back to me trying to save my self (my inner child)
D

DesertEyes

Hi there lostnfound, and glad to have you back

Yeah I used to have stress-filled dreams too. Sorta like yours, dreams where _I_ am guilty for somebody else's misfortune. My shrink used to call them "codie-nightmares", cuz only co-dependents get them. I dunno if that is true, but it made sense to me.

When I started taking care of _me_ those dreams stopped. It's almost like my "inner child" was communicating feeling to me thru those dreams. My inner child felt alone and abandoned by all the adults. I am an adult, and when I first got in recovery I was doing a lousy job of protecting that child.

Recovery has taught me how to "raise" my inner child, how to protect myself from harmful people, from getting myself into difficult situations, from always doing for others and never finding time for me.

Mike

GiveLove

Same experience here, lostnfound,

I had dreams where it was clear that _I_ had done terrible things and they'd gone so wrong. For years and years. When I started working hard to love and care for myself (my own inner child) those dreams eventually faded and have not been back.

What might you do for your little inner lostnfound today? One small thing that would make her laugh and smile?

guiab

I have never discussed dreams with a therapist or counselor. Generally, it is because I don't have many dreams at all, or I am not remembering them.
It is great that lostnfound and everyone else has gotten some insight in to their emotional 'basement' by looking at dreams. What is really great it that the dreams show progress.
Now the few dreams that I have occur when I am sort-of awake, like those few moments before the alarm goes off, or if I try to go back to sleep. The dreams have lots of anxiety and always involve me being identified as the source of some problem. Sometimes I am even being chased! With many years self-centered fear, it unfortunately makes too much sense. In the last few years the dream the anxiety has been a little less.

Rancorous

I'm a little confused about the whole codie-nightmare thing. What makes a "codie-nightmare" different from a regular nightmare?

I dream off and on (not necessarily, but usually nightmares) and I was wondering whether that type of thing applies to me. I dunno, I just think dreams are trippy and fascinating.

guiab

In truth, I have never had a therapist ask me about dreams.
I would have guessed that dream interpretation is out of the realm of a licensed practitioner and established science, that it is the realm of alternative therapy.

But what do I know? In most of those years of therapy I was probably being very codi and wanted to please the therapist, as in "Look progress! - I am being good, right?!"