Thread: Need help interperting and controling a vivid recurring dream I have started having

If this is truly one of those unresolved issue things then I have done what you describe, hundreds of times, and it is not a cure. When I take control of these types of dreams I find that even though I am aware and in control, I still experience the same frame of mind, and the same emotions as I would otherwise. It's as if the stage is set for one of those dreams, and being aware doesn't change that. You'd think, "I could take control over the dream and change it to something happy" but that is not what happens. One cannot simply choose to be happy. The dream, being a relative construct of your own consciousness, cannot be happy if you are not. Having control over your dream is not the same as having control over your emotions during that dream.
That said, I'm not saying that taking control over a dream like this is a bad idea. I am saying that it may not result exactly how you would expect. I speak from a LOT of experience doing exactly what you're talking about. In fact, it is the reason my profile is tagged with "haunted by entropy", and has been for years. I've never told anyone here, but most of my lucid dreams these days are these recurring unresolved issue dreams, based on my grandfather. I have them every week.
However, everyone is different, and your experience may be completely different.

If you want them to go away, tackle the root of the issue; Controlling the dream that emerges from that issue does not necessarily make it go away.