having the same recurring dreams

[Ambrosia_angel]

I always have a dream that I'm going to France by ferry/or train and I never get there (think I might have once but I don't remember that well? 95% of the time I don't get there ). I'm commonly going with my old school but sometimes I do go with family and even once with my child which I don't have!!!? It's really frustrating. I'm on my way to France and I can't get there. The only thing I can think of is that we were going to go to France with my school and I gave my deposit in but not enough people applied to go but it didn't upset me that much :s. I was more upset with fact that I couldn't go on the American ski trip every year due to unreliable parents (dads -_-).

I have no idea why I keep dreaming of going to France? Anyone know much about dreams?

 

[Valentijn]

I have no idea why I keep dreaming of going to France? Anyone know much about dreams?

Well, Belgium is near France, and that's where one of the best ME/CFS doctors in the world is

 

[GhostGum]

The specifics in dreams rarely are relevant, you should not look at them in practical terms, more so how you feel about certain things, how they are expressed and what they may represent.

A bit daunting going into psychology on this forum (dream analysis no less lol) but the sub conscious can express things we are not aware of in day to day conscious life or are ignoring; whether you really want to explore it is a whole other matter.

Travelling dreams nearly always represent the challenges in our day to day life, generally how well the travelling goes in the dream may represent how well or how badly you are tackling something that is going on currently. Your travelling partners will also just represent something about yourself, how do you feel with them?

I had a recurring dream for like 6-8 years during my illness, I would always be back at school with old friends trying to complete high school doing tests but they were incomprehensible, impossible to do and I was always heavily afflicted by fatigue. Always thought this just represented my illness and inability to get back progressing in life but eventually realised it also had a lot to do with the pressures of the peer group (which is set during school) and the fear of failure within that psychological peer construct.

Writing all that, especially about what a dream may represent, it shows how incredibly subjective psychology can be, you could find some truth out of dreams, especially recurring ones or you could go off meaningless tangents; especially if you ask people on an online forum for analysis.

 

[Ambrosia_angel]

Well, Belgium is near France, and that's where one of the best ME/CFS doctors in the world is

I never thought about it like that. It makes sense!!

 

[peggy-sue]

I reckon the feelings that you get in dreams are the feelings you have about your life.

You want to "get somewhere", to reach a state of good health, but things are getting in your way.

 

[Ambrosia_angel]

@GhostGum well nearly all my dreams are about school or classmate but aren't very specific. I vaguely know why I dream about school a lot but the France trips baffle me. The child thing was very odd, she was about 5 years old and I lost her at one stage we went on a coach (with old classmates on) and I didn't get to France still. Sometimes my mum and my dad are involved in dreams but not negatively, they are usually neutral. I have other dreams with them that can be negative.

I can understand how they can be largely subjective.

 

[Marlène]

You can't reach your goal(s) in life which is to move on, have fun, work, go on holiday, get married, have children, ...?

I have something similar, I always dream I'm 6 months pregnant but then it stops. I'm pregnant forever and there's no baby.

FYI: I have 3 kids and no desire whatsoever to have another baby.

 

[Ambrosia_angel]

Yesterday night was the first time I dreamt of being healthy without worring about illness. Nearly all my dreams have me worrying about making myself worse or telling people I am ill and what I can't do. I wish I had more dreams worry free!! Or even better it being reality

 

[taniaaust1]

A bit daunting going into psychology on this forum (dream analysis no less lol)

lol ghostgum.. but we are smart cookies at this forum, some of us even study subconciousness symbolism

How I'd interprete this..

Travelling often represents ones journey though life. You never getting to France like you wish to.. I think is probably representing that fact that you are unable to get to where you want to in life right now. This dream is to do with trying and not getting to where you wish to be (in life).

The family and the child in your dream are representing aspects of yourself (this is why there is a child there who you dont really have).

I notice that you arent driving yourself eg in a car in this dream.. I think this may be due to that you either dont drive in real life so you're brain has put in a form of transport which you are more likely to do.. or the lack of driving yourself is symbolising that you dont have a lot of control over the life journey you are taking right now.
(not as much as if a car was driven in which you can choose when to stop, when to go etc).. so things are more out of your own hands and in control of something else. (so sounds like typical ME/CFS.. this illness doesnt allow us a lot of control as we need to work around it.. just like you have to work around what time you catch a ferry or a train).
...........................

France.. as I dont know what France could mean to you so I cant specify exactly what thing on your life journey it may be representing. "Old school" would be important symbolism in this dream too but I cant get enough info on it to say what.. schools thou is usually to do with learning something in life, life lessons.. "old" school seems to be representing something from the past (maybe something you've been wanting to go back too but are being stopped as you arent in control of your life journey right now or something you've been wanting to do for a long time but just arent able to complete it or do it).

 

[taniaaust1]

I had a recurring dream for like 6-8 years during my illness, I would always be back at school with old friends trying to complete high school doing tests but they were incomprehensible, impossible to do and I was always heavily afflicted by fatigue. Always thought this just represented my illness and inability to get back progressing in life but eventually realised it also had a lot to do with the pressures of the peer group (which is set during school) and the fear of failure within that psychological peer construct..

Ive found that for my dreams, double meanings arent uncommon and that a dream may have more then one symbolism representation to it.

 

[GhostGum]

Yesterday night was the first time I dreamt of being healthy without worring about illness. Nearly all my dreams have me worrying about making myself worse or telling people I am ill and what I can't do. I wish I had more dreams worry free!! Or even better it being reality

Trying to explain to people what you can not do is a massive issue for all of us I think, at least it has been for me throughout all my years with ME, no matter how you try to get around it or approach it trying to explain it to people always is extremely frustrating, unless the person has some kind of understanding of your situation which is nearly never. Oh how much easier it would be to just say something like, "I have MS".

Just expressing your feelings, writing down your dreams and thinking about things will help though, you may not be able to physically change your situation or magically fix biological issues but you can at least try to keep yourself psychologically in good shape and not get beat down by your situation. I was extremely pent up and jaded for many years, put on a tough front (which has server me in other ways) but not getting a lot of emotion out I have learnt over the last couple of years was quite problematic. What I was getting to was maybe just talking about things has helped you a little, just getting a nice dream and waking up with it can be pleasant with all we deal with.

Ive found that for my dreams, double meanings arent uncommon and that a dream may have more then one symbolism representation to it.

I do not know, getting a solid relevant single meaning is hard enough

When I realised what I did about the peer stuff and started to learn to deal with it the recurring stopped, if you think you have some understanding but keep having a recurring dream then you are not getting the understanding.

 

[Dreambirdie]

@Ambrosia_angel I've spent many years studying dreams, and have documented thousands of my own along the way. Because dream images are mostly symbolic and metaphorical, the key to understanding them lies in translating those images into words via your personal associations. Those associations are what make the dream meaning "click" into place.

In my experience travel dreams usually have something to do with wanting or needing to change the space I am in, needing to get out of myself, get away from the usual predictable stuff of my everyday life. Since you mentioned that you rarely dream of being worry free, your dream travel could be pointing you in the direction of getting away from your worries. Travel by train brings up the idea of "train-of-thought." Since you mention you are not able to "get there" in your dreams, could it be that your worries are "derailing" you, and preventing you from changing the the mental/emotional space you are in?

Traveling to France could mean so many different things, depending on what France means to you personally (your personal associations to it). I would make a list of all the things that come up when you think: FRANCE, and then investigate how those thoughts and feelings about France pertain to that larger theme of getting out of your self and your usual worries about life and health.

 

[Ambrosia_angel]

Thank you everyone for all that input. I missed school as I had to drop out never saw anyone again. Most people I knew didn't even ask me how I was. Even people I (thought) I was really close to. I only had one person who tried. I learn french at school for four years but it's not a country I'm overly interested in. I recently found out that my school is on a ski trip to France after I had the dream and I never knew. It looks like they are having lots of fun too. I really wish I was there -_-

What a coincidence? I know they have ski trips but this is the first I know of to France.

I also don't drive but a train or coach(ferry) would be the most convenient way to get their from england.

I have written down dreams before in my diary but stopped writing personal stuff because I think my mum has been reading it. I tend to only write in there when I'm really sad too and I've been fairly positive recently trying to improve and stuff. May not be happening the way I like but I'm still keeping hope. I always say I will write in there more but I don't. I should because I love looking back on old stuff from 2009 etc. I find it really hard to read the stuff from when I was really depressed from last year.

 

[manna]

i have dreams of crossing water during near recoveries. its like i have to normalise water in my system to move forward. im generally making mud bridges across the river (the same place in the same river--i used to jump off the bridge there and once walked on it during a hard frost). in chinese medicine me/cfs is a state of "damp" or too much water in the system. anything to do with school, as i return to there fairly often, seems to me to mean, quite obviously perhaps, that i still have learmning to do. in this instance about the body and how it works. to get to france you have to heal first, maybe, hence why you've not got there yet, perhaps?

 

[Dreambirdie]

i have dreams of crossing water during near recoveries. its like i have to normalise water in my system to move forward. im generally making mud bridges across the river (the same place in the same river--i used to jump off the bridge there and once walked on it during a hard frost).

in chinese medicine me/cfs is a state of "damp" or too much water in the system.

I have studied TCM and used it as a primary healing modality for about 35 years, and I wouldn't agree that ME/CFS is exclusively a disease of excessive dampness. In addition to dampness (or "phlegm obstruction"), ME/CFS patients have a wide variety of imbalances, ranging from heat toxicity (caused by pathogens), to deficiencies in the kidney chi, lung chi, spleen chi, as well as overall yin deficiency, and liver chi stagnation, just to name the main ones I'm aware of.

Interesting that you must cross the water or make bridges across it. What they call "dampness" in TCM is known to be created by the earth element organs--spleen and stomach. So clearing up sluggishness in the digestion is key to aiding dampness.

I have also had TCM associations show up in my dreams, particularly ones about "a burglar in the house," which is the term they use to describe pathogenic infections. Whenever I have a viral flare, I dream about break-ins. That's my cue to pound down the anti-viral herbs. I like it when my dreams give me a warning about this.

 

[manna]

yes damp extinguishes the digestive fire. i didn't say it was exclusively damp though. if thats what seems to be implied then i withdraw that implication as not representative of what i was getting at.

interesting about the dreams. i also find that the time of a dream, or nightmare, has relevance too when compared against the organ clock. i generally wake at 5 with my colon though my lungs can wake me around 3 ish in the morning and so the state of my meridians plays out in my sleep depending on the meridian system im currently passing through..

 

[Dreambirdie]

interesting about the dreams. i also find that the time of a dream, or nightmare, has relevance too when compared against the organ clock. i generally wake at 5 with my colon though my lungs can wake me around 3 ish in the morning and so the state of my meridians plays out in my sleep depending on the meridian system im currently passing through..

I'm aware of the organ clock in TCM. I tend to wake up btwn 3-5 am, which is "lung time," and from my understanding, the lungs in TCM relate in part to the immune system.

I take the physical body into account when investigating my dreams, but I also explore them from other angles as well. Consciousness is bigger than the physical body, and we are more than just a bunch of organ systems and chemical reactions. I like to keep that in mind, as it gives me a broader perspective on my life and my inner process.