Phobias in a Dream

[Spiek]

In reality I'm not particularly afraid of heights, but last night in a dream I was terrified that I was going to fall off the top of a building - as if I had acrophobia. It *was* dangerous in some places (I was climbing across a high roof to escape from a prison) but sometimes the fear got so bad - even in safer areas - that I had to lie down on the roof. Once laying down I couldn't stop gripping the roof really hard and feeling like I was rolling towards the edge. Has anyone else experienced some sort of phobia in a dream that you don't have when you're awake? If so, I wonder why this happens.

[Vex Kitten]

I'm not afraid of snakes in waking life but there were a couple of dreams where I was terrified of them. I have no idea why phobias to things we are not usually afraid of develop in dream... except maybe it's our minds giving us some sort of hint about something that needs attention if we can decipher the imagery. Not really an idea but more of a grasping at straws type of thing.

[Patrick]

I have selachophobia in real life - fear of sharks. I can't swim in a pool, let alone the ocean, and I used to be scared in the shower. Even though it's got better over the years, I've constantly had dreams where I'm floating in a dark, deep ocean, with thousands of fast moving, vicious sharks all around me. Or even worse, I'm swimming on the surface, unable to see below me, and I know there are sharks coming toward me. I don't really know if these dreams have acted as a sort of long-term therapy, or more a catalyst for my phobia. Sorry if that's off topic (you asked of phobias occuring in dreams that aren't present in waking life), but I thought I'd mention it. Slightly more on topic, though, when I was young I started having recurring nightmares of the broomstick men from the disney film Fantasia. They would hunt me down and no matter where I hid, they always found me. This gave me a waking life fear of them, and today I have a lasting fear of being chased. Sorry I couldn't be more on topic... just for me phobias and dreams are very much linked.

[Spiek]

I don't really know if these dreams have acted as a sort of long-term therapy, or more a catalyst for my phobia. That's an interesting point - I guess it would be a good use of lucid dreaming to conquer phobias. I hadn't really thought about that, although I'm sure it will have been mentioned somewhere here before. I used to have a recurring dream of being chased but it didn't affect me in waking life like it did with you. That's probably because it was so far from reality (my grandfather would turn into a giant white rabbit and chase me through tall grass! ).

[Matt5678]

spiders.....all those legs....you have no idea where their gonna go next! and learning about Camel Spiders didnt help my phobia much, lol

[De-lousedInTheComatorium]

spiders.....all those legs....you have no idea where their gonna go next! and learning about Camel Spiders didnt help my phobia much, lol Note to self, never go to google images again to type in: 1. camel spider 2. camel spider bite

[Redrivertears]

Has anyone else experienced some sort of phobia in a dream that you don't have when you're awake? If so, I wonder why this happens. Well, In psychoanalytical theory (if you subscribe to that), dreams are highly symbolic. Which means that your manifest content (ie that which you see and experience in your dreams) isn't the same as its latent content (that which it's really about). With that in mind, its quite possible to be phobic about just about any sort of manifest element. The trick is in trying to discover what this manifest element really symbolises, and why it evokes experiences of fear. Ofcourse, other theories will have entirely different explanations. -Redrivertears-

[A Humble Sinner]

In reality I'm not particularly afraid of heights, but last night in a dream I was terrified that I was going to fall off the top of a building - as if I had acrophobia. It *was* dangerous in some places (I was climbing across a high roof to escape from a prison) but sometimes the fear got so bad - even in safer areas - that I had to lie down on the roof. Once laying down I couldn't stop gripping the roof really hard and feeling like I was rolling towards the edge. Has anyone else experienced some sort of phobia in a dream that you don't have when you're awake? If so, I wonder why this happens. Dreams are reflections of your subconcious mind and mood - if you're stressed during the day you'll be stressed in your dreams. It's your mind's way of dealing with stress and fear (and positive emotions too of course). So I'd imagine that if you've been stressed this has come through in your dreams as a fear. The exact fear doesn't matter, the emotion does.

[Semper Erato]

I can't even tell you how many times that has happened to me. It doesn't even have to be something remotely scary or dangerous; I once had a dream where I was terrified of people singing a song about cats (and I'm not afraid of singing or cats). I've also had the same experience as Pensive Patrick, though with a numbers video for children (I've mentioned the "Eight Little Indians" somewhere else), and that in turn led to a nightmare about the "Night On Bald Mountain" segment from "Fantasia" (again, I think, I said that somewhere else) that spawned another phobia. Funny how dreams exaggerate things so much that they can impress their effects so firmly on a young mind.