I was being chased by the darkness, and the shadow helped me. What the heck?

Hello, today (20/21 nov) I had my first (remembered) dream since a few years. And not only It's really weird, it's difficult for me to understand.
Any help from you'd be appreciated.

// START

I was somewhere that looked like underground parking area (I was looking at the entrance from the inside). There was a line of lanterns (like on normal streets, at sides), which started shutting down slowly, bringing the darkness closer and closer to me. Then, my brother, who appeared to be at the entrance, but from the outside (I couldn't see him - he was in the darkness), asked me if I want to go to the shop with him. [there my mind was still, but a bit disturbed by his question, look down]

// I HATE SHOPPING WITH HIM.

I said no, and then lights started to shutdown faster. [I started to worry about him]

// HE GETS ANGRY WHEN I REFUES AND USUALLY HE INSULTS ME.
// SOMETIMES I FEEL GUILT, BUT OFTEN I DON'T CARE.

I started running away (more deep inside the building) from the darkness. That was peaceful run, it was simply happening, no big deal. At the end of the street I suddenly started hovering/floating above the ground (no leg movement, but I still was moving rapidly). I bumped into a wall (again, no pain, I just lightly bumped into it). Running on my foot again, I turned right and there I started to feel fear, additionally, the place started to look more like sewers. [there the fear started taking me over]

First I panicked deep inside, but then I decided to think how do I escape. I started to look for a sewer flap to get out on the surface. I heard some dark voice about {not, escaping?}. At the end I managed to find a flap and got up on ladder, then with a bit of force I opened it and tried to get through (it looked more like a hole made in a rock, like a well). I was stuck and was moving with my legs as if I felt that something was about to drag me back. [there I kind of lost hope, I was only prolonging my existence]

// THERE I WOKE UP. DIDN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. I ALLOWED MYSELF TO GO BACK TO DREAM.
// OR, IT HAPPENED IN DAYDREAMING SOMEWHERE. DUNNO, REALLY.

A shadow figure (literally, made from shadow) popped up and offered me a hand, and I took it. The shadow pulled me out on surface.

// I WOKE UP.
// And sorry for "likes".

It didn't really bother me, especially that "my brother" part, but what with the shadow and escaping is disturbing.
If nothing, thanks for reading anyway :)

PS: Slashes are comments.

Although in order to provide a more accurate interpretation it would usually be best to have some more general background information about you (and a description of events just before the dream), the underground parking garage might mean something like “You want to avoid seeing the ‘light’ about some problem”, that is, you want to stay unaware about something (the lights keep getting less bright).

For example, you could sometimes act like your brother does in real life but you really hate being like him in this way, so you don’t want to see this in yourself.

So this might come out in an indirect way in how much you hate to go shopping with him.

But if you don’t look at some part of yourself which you don’t like (as maybe symbolized by your brother), things might just get worse (you go deeper into the dark garage).

Floating around could mean that gradually, you might not be aware of reality enough (that is, reality is symbolized by being on the ground) and this includes not being aware of your real feelings (e.g. not hurting yourself when you hit something).

If so, this could unfortunately lead to, for example, feeling really afraid and anxious in everyday life when there is no clear reason to feel that way from what’s going on in general (e.g. you feel fear and panic, the parking garage turns into a sewer).

The dream seems to be saying that the way to stop this from happening would be to let the “shadow” help you.

This means that you would have to learn to accept, for example, things you don’t like about yourself, partly because everybody has bad parts of themselves but these things are usually balanced out by the good things.

For instance, maybe you sometimes have bad thoughts about girls (e.g. being in the sewer) but the way to balance this out would be to act more kindly with them and everybody.

Anyway as mentioned, without knowing anything much about you, this way of looking at your dream might not fit your situation very well, but I hope these ideas can be helpful in some way.

Please feel free to ask any questions or to make any comments about this way of looking at your dream.

Thank you, Athanor. It's pretty much accurate! (ba, you shoot 9/10 even - my character is opposite of my brother). I'll try to provide you with my 'background':

I'm 19. I'm struggling with social anxiety, depression and emotional emptiness (one thing at a time) since I was ~15. I try to change myself for better, but It's hard. I also have faith-related problems (I'm nowhere in this area, dunno if I'm atheist, christian or something else).

When I talk to people I instinctively put on a smile, even if I don't feel too happy (I consider it to be a positive trait - people think I'm being nice to them), at least they don't ask why I'm sad.
I can get irritated by every noise. Well, irritation comes from [physical] pain it causes in my head. I love classical music, but I play it on minimal level on headphones - 2 points, or less if possible.

Oh, that thing about girls, is it wrong if I have negative approach to most of them? I mean, these girls (I won't say women) who drink, smoke, dress up like <?>, and curse a lot. To avoid bad conclusion: I prefer women (females with brains?).

// There my brother goes:

He is arrogant, unkind to other people, still expecting the others to do his work (really, if he has to vacuum clean the floor he is asking someone to do this, or, if he fails to do so, he makes a deal with someone). Ah, and he don't like to go shopping alone, no matter if he's going to buy pants, a bike, or even a bread from grocer's. However, I don't hate him, we're just... incompatible (for me it's hard to ask people to do my job, as it's hard to refuse a request).

I hope it help you a bit.

PS: Do you know a portal where someone can ask for psychological help? You know, I write my story and get some advices? I just realized I might need that.

I’m sorry that you’re having problems with your feelings. As said earlier, it looks like the dream could be saying this could become worse over time if some extra work isn’t done to solve the problem (the lights keep going out, you go deeper into the parking garage).

Your teens are an important time and you probably feel hurt and unhappy inside that this period of your life has been made very hard to deal with by your anxiety.

These angry and bitter feelings might be stirred up by seeing some types of girls who don’t “care” about good feelings.

Also, your brother might have some feelings like you do of “not feeling important enough” in the opinion of others, so he acts in an arrogant way.

This could by why you feel angry about how he bosses you around because maybe something inside yourself would like to do the same type of thing but your personality type doesn’t make this very easy.

It’s good that you’re working hard to change but it looks like you need some extra help (e.g. the shadow offers his hand).

This help can come from both inside yourself and the outside.

Personally, I wouldn’t try to use the internet to get psychological help because it probably wouldn’t be very reliable or safe.

Hopefully, one or the other of your parents is medically insured and you could use the Polish public health system to get some help.

If that’s not possible, maybe there are some self-help groups in your city led by people who know what they are doing so that you could meet face to face with some others who have some feelings of depression.

So I hope these ideas can help and if you have any other questions, please let me know.

I don't want to boss around. I want people to work together like ticks in the clock - being an authority is great, it's enforcing your authority over the others that makes me sick. I like the satisfaction that comes from doing something without anyone's help. Ya know, I did it and nobody messed around with my work, it's mine, etc.
Simply, I feel as important as I am (what means importance means nothing to me, just ability to live in peace).

Our system ends in supplying us with receipts to buy drugs, after which I used to feel a lot worse (I think doctors cheated on exams). They even locked me in 'B' for a month! Nah, there was no real reason: no suicidal thoughts, I eat well, sleep is worse, but... it's ok, null-agression zone. They simply didn't understand my 'case?'.

I won't seek for psychological help in the internet then. It's probably so accurate as illness diag on Bing :)

Thanks so much!

Unfortunately, it can be hard to find good quality mental health care that tries to pay attention to the actual person and their personal ‘case’.

Generally speaking, psychologists who have been trained in the methods developed by the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung try to avoid using drugs as much as possible and try instead to explore the person’s dreams etc. in order to help solve any problems.

I don’t know if you can find a Jungian trained psychologist in your city and whether he or she would qualify for payment by the health care system, but it might be worth a try.

You can also use this link Jung Professional Referral Service | New York Association for Analytical Psychology which is to the Jung Referral Service in New York City.

There you can read about how they might be able to put you in touch with a Jungian analyst in Poland.

This service is free and you would just have to e-mail them and outline what you’re trying to deal with day to day. Within 24 hours they would e-mail you back to arrange a telephone conversation to talk about various details (hopefully you could arrange a time that they can phone you instead of the other way around so that you can save some money).

If you wanted to go ahead, they would then try to find a suitable Jungian analyst in Poland.

Anyway, you can look at their site and see what you think about trying this way of finding a good person to talk to.

Interesting thing, that Jungian psychology. Will definitely try that after gathering satisfying amount of information about it. And the shadow is also a concept I should keep my eye on, since I have something in myself I don't want to acknowledge (and I'm not ready to do that, yet). Huh, deep topic to dig in. I have more dreams now, and I found that having dreams [remembered] makes me mentally stronger.

Thank you for your help, Athanor. Until next dream!