[Armygirl80]

I have the strangest dreams Every night. I am always in present day and my dreams are so vivid and real that I wake up and when I start to think about them I get that weird feeling in my stomach. All of this has been going on since I returned from Iraq August 2007. I just constantly feel like I'm in another place every night living a completely different life...

[Alder]

Someone told me she had met a person once who kept books and books of journals of her dreams, because she always had coherent dreams about being the same other person. It was like she was living two complete lives, one by day and one by night. Her waking self and her dream self had their own jobs, families, etc.

So what are these dreams about? Are you able to make any connection between your dreams and your waking life? Or is there some unresolved problem that keeps coming up in the dreams? If the dreams are of traumatic experiences you had in Iraq, they could be a powerful gateway to finding healing, if you can find the right way to relate to them.

[Armygirl80]

Oh wow, that is a relief to hear that there have been other people out there who have gone through what I've gone through! I was right in Baghdad as a Combat Photographer- nothing too traumatic but I don't actually dream about Iraq- just live a whole nother life over here.
Basically my dreams are just living and working- etc in a whole different life. The other night- I had a dream that I was in a shootout and got sent to a high security prison (I was caught in the middle of the shootout and not shooting) and I remember taking a whole bottle of Zoloft and I was thinking about my kids and I couldn't get to them! It was awful when I woke up.
You know what is really weird? I have had so many dreams that I go back to homes that I have lived in the past and there's always swimming pools there- underground pools!

Thank you for your comment, if you think of any cool books- dream books please let me know!
I grew up in Tillamook and live in Redmond- glad to see someone else from Oregon on here:)

[MatErikijevich]

Did u experience any injuries in Iraq. If not, tell a doctor or psychiatrist

[jjwoodhull]

Even if your dreams are not about Iraq, you could be suffering from post tramatic stress disorder. Usually our dreams are not literal. If your dreams are making you anxious, you should definitely speak with a therapist.

[Alder]

The underground pool thing is very symbolic. It's what Karl Jung would call "archetypal." A conventional interpretation is that a house represents the mind, with its different rooms and closets and attics and so forth. Here, you are going back to past houses (earlier/younger states of mind), and finding underneath them the waters of the creative unconscious, finding reservoirs of something fluid. Water is life, and you are finding deep pools of nourishment, that which is lunar, feminine, fluid. But it is at a sub-surface level, you have to tune into yourself at a deeper place than the usual state of waking consciousness before you can find the pool and go for a swim!

[N0help4u]

I agree with Alder many of my dreams are about rooms, basements, roads, etc...
I started writing down the ones I can remember and try to get interpretation to them. Basements often represent foundation and structure in your life.
The dreams seem to be okay what you have said but that you are waking up with a bad feeling is something that to me says you really need to write down your dreams and analyze them.

[convoy13]

I have the strangest dreams EVERYNIGHT. I am always in present day and my dreams are so vivid and real that I wake up and when I start to think about them I get that wierd feeling in my stomache. All of this has been going on since I returned from Iraq August 2007. I just constantly feel like I'm in another place every night living a completely different life...........

My brother did that once he went to THERAPY!! He forgot it So go to THERAPY!! :cool:

[natalie1987]

I used to keep a diary of all my dreams it does help, I used to have a recurring dream about a man chasing me with bright red eyes.