Dream about a boy in a psychiatric type hospital/home - It feels like it means something

I had this dream the night before last. I've only just had time to write it up. I barely feature in it at all; it feels more like watching a film with interactive feelings. I have the sensation that it means something, but I can't tell, for the life of me, where it might fit into my own life... Any help with analysing it would be appreciated.

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I was being taken to a mental institution of some kind. It wasn’t like you see in films where we were locked in cells at night or anything like that. It was more that we were given a home next to the hospital; shared housing, and we went to sessions like classes at school.
I’m fairly sure I started out as myself. I was to be put on a waiting list because there wasn’t space. After that, I was following over the shoulders of a young boy (he was probably about twelve or fourteen years old) – watching and feeling what he did, but not actually being him.
This boy was a little simple minded – he didn’t understand a lot of the things going on around him. He was happy enough though. He liked being in the hospital homes, he enjoyed the therapy/treatment sessions and he was friendly with the doctors and other patients. (It was quite a pleasant way to feel, actually. He didn’t worry about the future or work and he didn’t need to concern himself with food or clothes or anything. It was like being a young teenager again, but without the need to fit in with others around you. He just was – he was him, he was there and whatever was around him was what was there.)
He shared his house with an older boy, probably about seventeen or eighteen. This boy had suffered some kind of trauma, I sensed, but I don’t think I found out what. He was intelligent, and the doctors had been working to help him face this trauma and move on. He was at the very end of his treatment course, and he was looking forward to going out into the world and starting his life. The two boys were very close to one another, but there was no sense of loss from the younger one at the elder’s imminent departure. He was happy to see someone moving on to what they wanted. (Again, he was content with good things happening to others. He seemed to like being in limbo – watching others move on. I got the impression that he had been there a very long time and had watched many people going through the system.)
The older boy took the younger for a meal out – somewhere like McDonalds, I think. They were eating, and the younger boy was watching a mother sitting nearby. She was telling off her son (probably about seven or eight years old) for eating too much, and wouldn’t let him have more jam. (I don’t know why the jam, but… there we go!) The boy I was following felt sorry for her son, and went over to him when the mother left him alone for some reason. He talked to the child – being his natural, friendly self and giving him jam he, for some reason, had. Mentally, this boy was closer in age to the one I followed in the dream, and they got along well. I don’t know what happened to the older boy or the mother, but the two younger boys left together and went to play outside.
They headed into what seemed an obviously bad part of town – exaggeratedly so (rubble all over the place, cars and buildings on fire etc), but were totally oblivious to it. They were approaching a corner when the child’s mother appeared again, taking her son and pulling him away from the other boy. She yelled at the boy I followed. He didn’t understand why she was angry, and was dragged by her around the corner they’d been near. Around there was a train, derailed and on its side, burning fiercely. For some reason, this image made it through to him where the rest hadn’t. He realised why she was angry, and ran away back to his house. He was shaken by this, and didn’t really know how to deal with it, I sense. Perhaps reality was a bit much for him? He lived in a safe, comfortable bubble and the train and the woman’s anger was outside this sphere.

The next day was the older boy’s leaving day. He was on his way to the front door, but before he could open it, someone knocked on it. He opened it as the younger boy was coming down the stairs, and found the police outside.
The woman had called them, accusing the younger boy of ‘inappropriate’ interactions with her child. The older boy defended him, explaining his situation and state, telling them that he was harmless, just no different to a very small child himself. All the while, the young boy stood on the stairs behind him, not really feeling much of anything. I don’t know if he didn’t understand what was happening, or if he just trusted the other boy to deal with things.

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The dream kind of trails off there; I don’t remember if there was more.

This is my first time posting a dream for interpretation, so if I've missed anything I should have added, please let me know and I'll put it in. (I've tried to make it as detailed as I can remember, like the sticky says, but I've not put anything about myself since I don't know quite what would be relative. - I'm not a boy, for a start, I suppose. And I'm 27 years old, so not a child as such either.)

Raivess, I do think that more info about you would help: what's going on in your life? Any major issues? What is bothering you the most? Which challenges do you have? Has anything traumatic happened to you?

I tend to fairly often get dreams where I am not myself, and what I think that means varies: sometimes it is because the dream is really like a movie - perhaps based on a movie I saw or my mind just trying to entertain me, but I think that is rare; more often when I am not myself, I take that to mean that the dream is metaphorical not literal, I am not myself and the other dream elements are not either, in addition in some dreams I think my mind decides to not be myself to protect me from too strong emotion because the dream would be too much so I distance myself from it to cope.

One thing that struck me in this dream that it is very much about escape from a difficult situation through snail, escape into a simpler mindset. The trauma was too much, so he escaped it by becoming simpler. Again I ask, is there any trauma in your past or present, and if not yours in someone you care about? Alternatively is there any issue or concern though not traumatic that you wish you could escape / undo / avoid / hide from / pretend it did not happen / have someone else handle the difficult conversation for you. This something maybe like a taboo in your mind, not molesting a boy of course, but something that you would rather not think about.

A few months ago, my dad died. That's hit me very hard. I don't know whether I should be back on my feet by now or if it's okay to still be reeling from it, but reeling I am. He wasn't just a rock to me, he was the ground I stood on - the one I went to if I had any problems or any questions, or thoughts. If I wanted an opinion, I asked him. (He always had a very strong opinion... not always a good thing, but there we go!) I miss him. Not constantly, but whenever anything comes up that reminds me of him. Every day, many times a day. Cooking, wood work, history, maths, writing, gardening, music... He was in so many aspects of life... I can't escape it, and I wish I didn't want to.

Now you mention it, escaping to a simpler mindset sounds like a nice option...

Ah, yes, that reeling is I think what this dream is probably about then for you: you have not been yourself and you know it; you have experienced major trauma, and you know it. I think this dream is in a way showing you in a metaphorical sort of way what you have been like after your dad's death. Btw, I am very sorry for your loss. I am fortunate that my parents are both alive though far from me physically, and I would rather not think about what it would be like to loose them. Loosing loved ones is a kind of taboo subject for our minds: our minds do not want to contemplate the possibility, and to deny what happened when it does. I don't think this dream can offer you a solution, but it might provide you with a new way of looking at your reeling, and if you do not like the way you have been handling this situation perhaps looking at it in a new way will allow you to understand your state of mind better at this time. I wish you that your increased awareness of your own state of mind may help you somehow to achieve a greater inner peace.

Edit: Btw, I think it is significant that the main protagonist in this dream is younger than you and also mentally even younger than he appears. I think part of you longs for the safety of childhood where your father was there for you. You do not want to be all grown up and handle the situations without him. When the police come knocking at the door, you let another handle the situation, though you realize that ultimately it ought to be you handling it, but you wish you did not have to handle the situation yourself. You wish you did not have to learn to cope with your father's death yourself. You wish you did not have to do the things you relied on him doing with you, now without him. May I suggest that you seek out the help of family and friends? Do not withdraw from the world and others. I suspect that yours is not a good situation to handle by yourself without others' support.

Hey! Your posts are really helping. The last one was... hard to read, but useful. I miss my dad. I was always his little girl, even until the day he died. (I am a TOTAL daddy's girl.) You are right in everything you said. I relied on him an awful lot. Perhaps too much at times, but he always told me that it was his job to be there for me - his reason, to be there for one of his favourite people, so... I never tried to change it. I'm glad though. I'm glad to have his advice in my memory still.
The last time I spoke to him was on his birthday, about ten days before he died. I sang happy birthday to him. He hasn't been well for a long while, so he couldn't breathe well enough to stay long, but as far as last conversations go, singing can't be too bad...!

I'm lucky not to be alone. My mom is a wonder - absolutely amazing. I have an incredible partner and a best friend I couldn't have made it through things without. I'm trying to be strong, but you are, again, right - I will try to make sure to get their help more often. And, if I have any more dreams, I hope I can post them up on DreamViews for more great advice..?

Thank you so much!