Can bad dreams reflect psychological conflicts?

Dreamt i was in a hospital setting but my mother was telling me rather forcibly i would do something . I then went into a hysterical meltdown and was swiping plates etc off a dresser which were smashing on the floor. In the dream I was accusing her of abuse.
Woke up shaking. IRL I had a strange relationship with my mother in terms of conflict which may have bordered on emotional maltreatment much of it maybe to do with her drinking and own psychological hang ups. I was told numerous times that i was an awkward baby/toddler/child/teenager/young adult etc, and on one occasion that I would never be as good as my father, a man she constantly argued with.
Even as adults we were subjected,my brother and I, to drunken verbal abuse . My mother was one who would give 2 put downs for every compliment…
Sounds bad? but the crazy thing is while those things messed me up ,along with bullying at school, i still loved her because amidst it all there were good spells.
It crosses my mind that due to illness I have taken a less than ideal relationship and built it into something far worse ie emotional abuse when I know others have been through far worse, ie physical and sexual abuse, than I.
I guess what i am trying to say is at the age of 57 i’m still very psychologically conflicted (my father was no angel too, according to her he used to hit her and was very brutal on their wedding night. He was the emotionally repressed ‘I am the head of the house’ type ) It is not the first time i have had dreams that stir up these kinds of things.
Sometimes i think it’s a case of - ‘Tim- a suitable case for psychological treatment’ except that apart from 2 therapists who pushed a ‘you can be a good person with our help’ agenda, which i found offensive and rejected, I have never had much in the way of psychological ‘help’.

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Last night I had a dream that lasted for ever until 10 AM. Dreamed that I was inside a cafe with the Flowers In The Attic children. :sunflower:

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your mum sounds like a bully…the mistreatment of children or animals is unacceptable to me.
take care

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@firemonkey, I’m sorry you had to endure this as well. It sounds like there was a lot of stress in your home.

I do think bad dreams can easily reflect psychological conflicts. I’m having a very deep conflict with my youngest brother and I’m getting a lot of bad dreams lately that center around this topic.

It’s really upsetting me, and it makes it hard for me to want to see him and try and rebuild that bridge when I wake up mad at him.

Some say you dream because you need to heal from things. Like abuse. Maybe you find a solution in your dreams?

My son had bad really dreams. He was chased by monsters. We talked a lot about it. I told him I too dream of monsters but I have a motorcycle so I can escape. I gave him this dream motorcycle and then he got a solution to his bad dreams. He could escape. It’s strange that it worked. He woke up a couple of times screaming and I reminded him he had a motorcycle and he said oh yes. Then he stopped having those bad dreams waking him up.

I always dream about tornadoes and snakes when I am in turmoil. Lately I have been having disturbing dreams, I think because I have been angry.