Hello, DV members. I'm hoping to get some feedback and thoughts on the unsettling dreams I've been having fairly consistently for the past 15 months ongoing.
A little background one me: -as I've stated in my introduction post I am new to DV's but I am not new to lucid dreaming. I've been lucid dreaming for about 4 years, but have gotten more serious about it in the past two years. I like to analyze my dreams because I believe they are messages from the subconscious and typically observe my dreams when lucid because I want to hear what my subconscious has to say.
I'm a 17 year old girl and a senior in high school preparing for college.

15 months ago (the exact date is August 3, 2013) I had an unsettling dream from what seemed to be out of nowhere. [Some people may consider such a nightmare, I however, have a narrower definition of 'nightmare' and prefer to call these dreams I've been having unsettling.] A young girl cut a tally of five on my shoulder with a very sharp knife. It was extremely vivid and painful to me, as most the unsettling dreams are. I woke quite confused, and shaky because it scared me and really hurt. [I've never been able to deduct a clear meaning from this dream, though I'm not necessarily looking for an analysis of this as it's not the purpose of this post.]
The unsettling dreams have not stopped since this night; though they were kinda slow at the end of 2013-and I don't have these dreams every night-, they really picked up in frequency by January 2014 where 83% of my recall was something I considered unsettling [I've run some numbers and percents to analyze this entire series I've dubbed "the storm" due to the heavy symbolism and development of storms and rain in these dreams]
As I've stated, these dreams are typically physically painful for me and usually provoke some kind of emotional response. I've been burned, cut, dissolved in acid, stabbed with syringes, chased and attacked by beasts, bitten by snakes, eaten alive, shot, watched those I love suffer, had some terrible dental work, been crushed- and goodness it goes on...many of the dreams involve psychological aspects that bring me to tears, but if I were to share and explain everything, this post would be several pages long and I'm not looking for individual interpretations...

I do have very vivid dreams, and the pain persists into waking life many times. In many cases, thinking about the pain in the dream will awaken what feels like real pain to me in the associated area. For example, once I was stabbed in the left forearm with a syringe, and now thinking about it makes my left arm hurt. [I realize this pain is likely psychologically induced, yet it is real enough to me...]
Some of these dreams have affected me so much that I've developed bad emotional responses to things in reality. I used to not have problems with syringes and injections, but now I panic every time I have to get a shot; same with going to the dentist. I'm just constantly reminded of these bad dreams and they shake me up a bit sometimes.

I've been searching for the meaning of this "storm" and I think I'm coming to the conclusion that the unsettling dreams are induced by stress and are part of my subconscious' uncontrollable reaction to this stress. The past 15 months have been characterized by academic pressures as I am taking college level classes on a high school schedule and have lofty expectations to meet. My mother pressures me about my schoolwork and multiplies the stress. The unsettling dreams calmed slightly over the summer, when I did not have to worry about school work, but picked up again this most recent August (the beginning of the school year) where 43% of my recall was unsettling.

To get to the bottom line of this post:
I've been trying to use these unsettling dreams to my advantage and include them in my mantras when I go to bed, reminding myself to do a reality check if I'm scared or in pain and the like. However, since these dreams are so realistic and intense, I often don't have the mind to do a reality check. I think I've been getting a bit better at catching these red flags of fear and pain as a dream sign, though often times I am unable to stop or prevent the unsettling aspect from occurring and I wake myself up because I'm scared -Is this cowardly?
Does anyone have advice on how to cope with these dreams? they shake me even now thinking about them. They just have such a magnitude for me because I-like other people here on DV's- consider my dreams very important. Every other place I read about coping with bad dreams starts with the same thing: "(don't forget!) Dreams aren't real" -I can't even begin to agree with that statement...
Do you think stress could be the (at least main) cause, or do you think it's something else- what are other factors of long term bad dreams? I've been trying to manage my stress, but I've just always got so much schoolwork to think about and A's to keep...
This isn't typical is it? Does anyone else suffer high percentages of unsettling dreams? What do you do to cope?

Thanks to anyone who reads this wall of text, I really really appreciate it.
Please share your thought, stories, or advice.