Recurring Themes in Nightmares

I have so many bad dreams that I rarely consider any of them nightmares. Blood/gore and fearing for my life has become the norm. About 90% of my dreams are what normal people would call "nightmares".

A lot of them have variety. But every now and then, a similar theme will occur. I've never been able to understand where these themes are coming from or why they keep happening. So I will write about them below:

1. Ugly Fishes
I know it sounds funny, but this is the most frequent recurring theme lately. There's always some lake or pond or swimming pool. And inside, there will be these disgusting, half-dead, grey blobs of fish. They look diseased. They are always slimy. And I'm always revolted. It's times like these where I wish I were an artist, because no words can describe how gross they look. Typically, the pool/lake/whatever will be grey and slimy too. I have these fish dreams about once every month or two. And I have for about 2 years now.
I don't have a fear of fish. They're not my favorite animal by far, but it's just so random.

2. Meteors Falling / Missiles Launching / Bombs Dropping / Fireworks Exploding
I've grouped these together because they're all the same.
I've been having these types of dreams the longest - for about...hmm...3-4 years?
I use to have them ALL the time, at least twice a month, but nowadays I only have them maybe once every 3 months.
In the beginning, it was mostly just meteor dreams.
I'd be standing somewhere, and then out of nowhere, meteors begin falling from the sky. I'll try to run back and forth and dodge them, but they are endless. I fill with dread because I know no matter how long I try to avoid them for, I'll eventually die no matter what. Because they literally will keep falling FOREVER. It's just this horrible feeling of knowing I can't escape no matter what.

Sometimes, it's the moon falling. Sometimes, stars.
But other times, things get spiced up a little bit. The first missile dream is one I can remember well. There was an evil guy running for president. But he didn't get elected. So he launched missiles at those who didn't vote for him. It was the same thing again. Missiles would fall from the sky, and they would be aimed at me and at other people, and they wouldn't stop until everyone was dead. I'll try avoiding them, maybe even get in a car in some dreams, but it never stops.
Alternatively, I seem to have a lot of dreams where China decides to drop bombs on the US, and they don't stop until every single person is killed. I try zig-zagging away from the bombs, but no. They are relentless. Hiding behind trees doesn't work. Nothing can avoid them. And it's just seriously constant, no time to stop anywhere, the bombs/meteors/missiles are everywhere.
And there was one time where China decided to steal fireworks and shoot them off at the US. So yeah, same thing again.
I don't know why the bomb ones involve China so much (it has occasionally been some other countries). But yeah, I don't have a fear of China. On the contrary, I don't think it's as bad of a country as many people think. And I don't have a fear of meteors or fireworks either.

3. Mom trying to kill me
This is the only one that makes sense. My mom and I don't get along. I often have dreams where I do something that makes her mad, and she chases me around. It's usually around the house or neighborhood, but sometimes I even try taking a train and she somehow follows me and just chases me (occasionally with a knife.)
I usually just run away, but there was a dream or two where I fought back. One time I actually managed to win, I trapped her in a basement. I told her I'd let her out if she would stop trying to kill me, but she refused. I was heartbroken.

4. Grandpa-Dreams
As background info, my grandpa was the most important person in my life. I loved him so much and he was so kind. He had a brain tumor (in real life) and passed away a few years later. Before he passed, his speech had become worse. But he was still smart.
So basically, I have a lot of dreams where my grandpa has just had surgery. And he doesn't do anything wrong, but people will think he's retarded and also say he's trying to steal things. They're just very mean to me and it always makes me cry in the dream. He doesn't even realize how mean they are to him. I just keep yelling at them to stop. But no matter what I do, they still keep being mean to him.
There's also another type of dream I keep having about him. It's where he's come back to life, or I transported back in time. I'm happy I get to see him again, but he's mean. Just rude and he hates me. I always feel hallow and I can't believe that he's being so mean, when my memory of him is that he's super nice. I really hate these dreams, they are the worst by far.

5. Suicide
This is the newest theme. It's only happened 3 times, but they've all been within the past 2 months and have the same feeling. So I think it's going to catch on.
The first one is the one I remember the best. I was at a hotel or something. Then I saw a man standing on top of a cliff. I heard someone say "look away" but I didn't process it. I saw the man take a step forward and splatter on the ground. All I could think about was "Why couldn't I help him?" and "Why didn't he talk to me?"
I felt so...frustrated. Just a second ago he was alive. I could have helped him. If he was lonely, I could have been there for him.

The second dream took place in Russia (which is really random, idk why...)
I wasn't really in this dream, but I was watching it. A girl jumped from a water tower onto a highway. I remember cars running her over and her being found. I wanted to save her. I again felt guilty, somehow responsible. If she had just talked to me, everything would have been prevented.

The third dream, one I just had about 2 weeks ago, was very similar to that one. A girl jumped down and got ran over by a semi. This was the most graphic dream. Her head was ran over. I remembered how everyone was shocked. And I wondered why they would kill themselves by getting ran over. And the driver felt responsible. He felt as though he could have prevented it.
I remembered thinking "Why would you make him go through that? Why would you kill yourself in a way that would damage someone else's life forever?"

6. Afraid of Heights
Okay, I Just remembered this one. I don't have a fear of heights in real life, but I use to dream a lot about it. It's been a year or so since the last dream, but thought it'd be worth mentioning.
I'd typically be on a mountain. Even though I was at least 10-15 feet from the edge, I'd feel like the world was tilting and I was falling off. I'd even sit down and still feel like I was sliding.
I had about 2 dreams that involved zip-lining across a mountain. They both were like tourist attractions and had children doing it, but I kept thinking there was going to be an earthquake or something and I'd fall to my death.

These are all the themes I can think of now. I'm sure there are others I just can't remember.
The thing about these is that, aside from the suicide one, I've dreamed about these at least 15 times each. Sometimes I dream about more than one in a night. It's just so weird.

Do you ever get good dreams?

delonix wrote:Do you ever get good dreams?

Good - Not really, maybe just a few times a year.
Neutral (Neither nightmare or "good") - Yes, about 2-3 times a month^^

Update:
Here's what I dreamed of last night (I wouldn't consider this a nightmare though, just an average dream) :

So. I guess I was enrolled in high school. Like, the class was in the high school building.
But I was super tired? So I decided not to go. But then my mom got really mad at me. And the school called and said I was going to go to jail for skipping so much class.
I basically went insane? I was so angry and tired and sad. And confused! I screamed at my mom not to call the cops, I think? Then it dawned on me that I was going to GED prep classes, not highs chool. (In my dream, the GED prep classes were in the high school building).
I was like, "Why would I get in trouble for not going to the prep classes?! I don't have to go to the classes, they're optional!"

Then my mom stopped being angry and suddenly turned serious. She told me that the school had discovered I had a severe mental illness.

Then I screamed while crying and asked my mom to tell me the name of the illness so I could look it up online. She wouldn't tell me!
So I went on a laptop and started messaging my best friend about what was happening, but I couldn't. I would misspell all the words or just make incorrect sentence structures.
My mom finally told me the name of the illness (it was hard to spell, it was like "Pliyamonth Evadeousnis" or something).
I kept trying to type it on the computer but it would come out wrong.
I asked my mom to read each letter out loud and I'd type it one at a time but still I failed. I started crying more because I realized I was psychotic and I'd never be able to live a normal life.

Then somehow the world changed and the illness was demonstrated visually?
It was basically a "tornado illness".
It was mostly caused by being exposed to tornadoes. But I had it despite being in a tornado. It was an illness that made your mind spin like a tornado. There was a spiderweb graph. On each point, it had things like "Sad" "Angry" "Murderous", etc. So people with this tornado illness, it's like the points on the graph would spike excessively.

Last night's nightmare:

I was in the back of a bus. There were cop cars everywhere and their sirens were going off. They were chasing a bad guy. The bad guy's car ran into the bus, and then he and the cops opened fire. The bus was caught between the two. Everyone else on the bus either got off or lied on the floor, but I couldn't move no matter how hard I tried. I realized this is what they meant by "frozen in fear". I got shot at least 15 times and still couldn't move.

Then the bad guy ran away and I watched the cops chase after him.

Suddenly I was off the bus and I was a cop now. I didn't know who the bad guy was. There were 4 people split into two groups. I knew 2 of them were good and 2 were bad, but I didn't know which was which. I then decided that this one guy and a a pregnant lady were the bad ones. So I tackled the pregnant lady to the ground. I said,

"I'm sorry if you're not the bad guy, but either way, please just relax. This will all be sorted out soon. Don't worry too much, the stress is bad for the baby."

Then she just looked up at me, almost expressionless, and said it was too late. I knew that she meant her baby was already dead.

I told her, "No, it's not too late, all you need to do is relax!"

Then she said, "I forgive you" and she cried.

Her belly then opened up and I saw her dead baby. Its heart wasn't beating. I almost threw up. She then said it was my fault and that I'm a monster. She said she wasn't the bad guy but I killed her baby anyway. She said I don't deserve to be alive.

Then I walked away to go by a tree and started to cry, and she threw her baby at me in anger/sadness.

Warning:
Animal Abuse
Dead Babies
Sexual Content

Proceed with caution.

Fir dream:
I went to a guy's house and we fell in love. It wasn't the burning-passion kinda love I usually feel. It was just a "Oh, we love each other, well okay then".

We decided to have sex. I was like, okay, we need to use a condom for now, because I haven't started taking the birth control I had. Plus, neither of us had been tested for STDs.

So I gave him a blowjob (with a condom on...because that makes sense...)
Then I was like, "Scrrew it, I just took a pill, and we're both virgins, let's have sex without a condom!"

Then I got pregnant. I didn't mind being pregnant in and of itself, but I was terrified of my mom finding out that I had had sex. So I hoped(?) someone would punch me in my stomach so I could have an abortion. But then I started crying and hoping someone DIDN'T punch me, because I didn't want to kill the baby, even if it was only one day old.

Then my boyfriend and I got my cat and started hurting him. Like break one of his legs off or throw him on the ground. Every time we hurt him, we fell in love a little bit more. So the more pain he was in, the more we loved each other.

We were both completely ruthless and felt no empathy at all. I didn't care if he died.
Then I woke up and I felt completely awful. This dream, this lack of empathy, and such strong sadism, scared me so bad. I hated it so much.

Then I fell back to sleep.

So I had a "second dream," but it was kind of like a continuation of the first, I think.

I was 29 months pregnant. (Which was normal in my dream lol.)
At 30 months, I would give birth.

I had an extremely huge fear that on the day before I gave birth, I would trip and fall on my belly and my baby would die.

But I gave birth to a girl and didn't trip. Then my boyfriend (from the previous dream?) and I had sex again, and I got pregnant again.

I walked around and now I was apparently a slave. My master wanted me to take dancing lessons. I then became a boy (who was STILL PREGNANT). I found a girl who I wanted dance lessons from, but she told me boys shouldn't dance. Then I said "Please, my master wants me to learn," so she reluctantly agreed.
It was hard finding a time to meet up, but we settled on 8 o'clock.
Then I said, "Wait, I was thinking 8pm. What were you thinking?"
Then she was like, "Of course -__-. I was thinking 8am...ugh"

Then I said I can come in at 8am, I'll just skip a night of sleep.
Then I was super worried that the stress from skipping sleep would kill my baby.
I went into this van and then I become 29 months pregnant and that fear came back.
Some guy in the van thought I was stupid for having a fear of tripping.
THEN I TRIPPED AND MY BABY DIED!

I was crying so hard, just...endless sorrow. Two girls tried comforting me (they were both pregnant), but then they just died out of nowhere. I became even sadder.

Then there was a sentient tiger? And he could light things on fire? He had 3 kids and was teaching them how to light patches of grass on fire, but then a female tiger came in and killed his children. (It had something to do with the children being too powerful and people were afraid they would rule the world...but the children were innocent and it was just really freaking cruel the way she killed them.)

There was also some blurry stuff, I don't remember when these things happened, but:

I had a girlfriend at some point and I got her pregnant...by inserting my eggs into her ovaries...because thaaaaat makes sense XD.

My boyfriend and I tried raising a baby but it was starving. And I couldn't stop it from starving.

Could your nightmares be because of some of the medicines you are taking? Or did they exist before you started on the medicines?

delonix wrote:Could your nightmares be because of some of the medicines you are taking? Or did they exist before you started on the medicines?

I suppose it is possible, but I don't know for sure. Because I've had bad dreams for so many years. When I first started taking medicine, I didn't notice an immediate change in dreams, However, over the years, I started getting bad dreams, then nightmares, then bad nightmares, and now...absolutely sick nightmares. But my medications have stayed the same through all this time. So if it were the medicine, I don't see why the dreams would be getting worse even with the dosages staying the same.

I usually get violent nightmares. Don't know how to stop them.

#3 again last night [Not really a nightmare, it had a good ending]


I decided to move out against my mom's wishes. I started packing everything I could, but she started yelling at me. She would take things out of my bags and rip up my notebooks with my stories in them. Then she had a knife and threatened to kill me if I left.

I started crying and begging her to let me go. I would scream, "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" but then she just started laughing while chasing me around the house. I just kept crying and crying and begging her to care, but she just thought it was funny to try to kill me.

So I finally got a lot packed (not everything though). There was some part where I had the car keys, but my mom stole them from me and somehow I got them back. I headed out toward the car with my bags, but then I accidentally opened my mom's car door and my mom took the opportunity to go to my car and locked the doors.

I kept begging her to let me inside my car and she just refused.

But then somehow I made it into my car and I drove away. (Oh, there was a part where I was begging my mom to give me my debit card...just like the keys!)

Anyway, I didn't have anywhere to go, but I was so happy that I was away. I remember thinking to myself, "I don't even care if I become homeless and have to sleep in my car. Anything is better than staying there!"

So then I spent a while posting craiglists ads. There was a girl who was looking for 6 female roommates, and I responded to the email, but then I realized I actually didn't take my computer?? XD So I got an idea to get some cardboard and write "homeless and looking for a place to live!" on it and stand by traffic!

but then after a few hours, my mom was driving around and I got really scared, because I realized if she saw me she would either kill me or force me to live with her again. So I ran to this GED center. There I met a girl who was 17 and trying to get her GED. She didn't have any friends, so she texted/emailed me and then invited me to her house.

Her house was awesomeeeee! So freaking greaaaat! It was all gold and cream colored! SO FANCY! SHE HAD A BUTLER AND I DRANK SPRITE FROM A WINE GLASS XD.

So then I really wanted to ask her if I could move in with her, even offer to pay $200/month in rent, but I didn't know how to bring it up. I didn't want to be desperate or rude. [we weren't really friends anyway].

but then her mom came home and the mom said "Oh you can sleep here tonight! Stay as long as you want!"

So I was very happy because then I could live with them! : D