Since I was young, I've experienced a recurring theme in my dreams: that deer-in-the-headlights feeling.

I still remember the first time this happened quite vividly. I was fairly young (maybe between eight and ten years old). I was walking through a field, when I suddenly came upon a highway, which was for some reason sunken into the ground. I scurried down into the little artificial valley, and ran across the road. As I reached the other side, I saw a car coming, and tried to hurry out of its way. Suddenly, though, I couldn't move, and I was stuck there, still trying to escape, with the car bearing down on me. I escaped just in time.

This theme has been repeated throughout my life, in one form or another. Sometimes it's still a car coming at me, but sometimes it's rain or a falling object, and I always manage to escape just in time. Does anybody have any idea what this dream might mean?