The thing with dreams is that they rarely mean what they are showing. Ive dealt with a lot of heavy dreams in my past and have done a consderable amount of dream interpretation. That sometimes helps when something seems very off or shaking. I usually use thecuriousdreamer.com as its easily on hand. Sometimes, too, dreams are just toxic, and may not really have a deeper meaning.

At the time of waking up from a nightmare, I usually find it helpful to get up and walk to a different room and chill for a little while. Get something to drink or whatever. Until I start to feel calm. If its particularly bad, I might turn on the tv for a little bit or watch a video online to get my mind off of it. Then once my head is mostly clear again, I go back to bed.

I hope you start to feel some relief.

We can't control our mind's ability and necessity to release fears and hopes in our dreams.

Please Kat do not mistake A CURRENT DREAM about past trauma for your present waking state life and your successful efforts at removing yourself for your abusive brother. I know your trauma recovery is rough right now, but you are moving forwards a better future. Just hold on to your determination and you storm clouds will start to clear as you continue to move forward.

I myself experienced a long period of being too freaked out to get to sleep, and so my doctor medicated me up the whazoo so I could consistently get enough rest to be able to deal with my situation when I was awake. During that time I remembered little of what I dreams.

A dream can't contradict God.

Hi Kat!

I would really like to send you a more detailed response, but wanted to make sure that would be okay with you first. I am a Christian & I would love to try to explain my view on things, but since it is a religious response, I didn't want to presume and just send it to you. ;)

Let me know & I'm happy to post a message for you to your account here.

The one thing I did want to encourage you to think on, though, is that the promise you are claiming is from Jeremiah 29:11. The verse right before it says "For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon (where they were enslaved, persecuted & even killed), I will visit you & perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place." Then it goes on to say "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future..."

I won't get all into that except to say that the promise was not for instantaneous, 24/7, perfect peace & success. The Israelites were told they were going to go through a really terrible time. The promise was that for those who persevered, who didn't give up when everything looked terrible & hopeless, for those who continued to have faith even when nothing was going their way - God would bless them with goodness, peace, His presence, freedom, community, land, protection from mortal enemies & military success. These were real promises & they were certainly wonderful. And we are promised even more wonderful things today, but this promise was never meant to say that believers will never face hardship, despair, anxieties & fear. It was never meant to say that we won't have hard times. It was meant to call those who trust in the LORD to continue trusting in Him even though everything was about to go wrong in their lives and things were going to LOOK really bad.

All we can go when things LOOK bad is hold onto the promises & the truths that we know to help us get through to the other side where we will get to experience the good things we'd hoped for. "Hope" as it's typically used in the Bible means to wait expectantly for. It is good to have hope in that sense - to expect that good is promised to you & will come later on in your life, even if things are really awful right now with the nightmares and all.

Stay strong in your faith. If you haven't already joined the AAA Christian Encouragement group here, I'd love to invite you to join. Also, I spend quite some time writing out a much more detailed response with my thoughts for you, but wasn't sure I should post it since not everybody here shares the same faith - and since all I have to go on is your brief post, I wasn't sure how much you wanted me to go into depth either. But know that it's already written & I'm happy to share it with you if you ask. ;)

Blessings,
Gigi

Me and dreams have a LO-O-O-O-ONG herstory. Nightmares used to put me into such prolongated periods of insomnia that I was hallucinating routinely. I came to think of hallucinations as dreams I had while I am awake. The arsenal I used to get that under control is bigger than the Department of Defense inventory. I, too, believe spiritual communications happen more freely through dreams.

For what you describe here, I work to keep my conscious logical processes out of it. Dream logic and physical logic do not work out of the same dictionaries. I just let it brew and let it lead me to places my conscious mind would not normally go.

When God promised me my future of hope in place of harm, it carried no promise of zero challenge.