Other people’s dreams are never interesting…except when they’re about sex. Each week, our dream analyst Lauri Loewenberg tells one lucky reader what their dirty dream means. Got a dream you want Lauri to analyze? Click here to submit it. This week, another reader continues the running Sapphic theme and asks Lauri:
I have recently been diagnosed with depression and am currently on prescription medication for it. But for the last couple of months, since I’ve been taking these meds, I’ve had the weirdest dreams.
I keep dreaming that I’m being hunted down by a serial killer. Some nights I dream that he finds me and threatens me with a gun while he rapes me. Other nights I dream that I commit suicide just to make sure he doesn’t find me. He does horrible things, like crushing the heads of baby animals… I once dreamed that he made me have sex with another woman. I am not gay. This was terrible… I do not know who he is, but it is the same guy featured in every dream.
Please help me understand why I am having these dreams? Apart from the depression, that was triggered by the traumatic birth of my daughter (she is a healthy 9 months old now), I am happily married with the normal toils of everyday life, nothing spectacular. I keep thinking about my dreams during the day and they seem to make me even more depressed and are hindering my work as well.
Lauri: Many prescription medications affect REM sleep, causing you to be in REM longer than normal and also causing your REM time to be more intense. That’s not to say that your dreams during this time should be dismissed as a side effect so I am glad you are seeking out their meaning.
The murderer in your dream is most likely your depression. It hunts you down daily and is killing off who you really are. He also rapes you because rape in a dream is really about you feeling screwed over in real life. The depression has really f***ed with you, hasn’t it? He crushes the heads of baby animals because this is all going on in your head. It’s crushing the joy out of your life.
The other woman most likely represents you not feeling like yourself. You are a different woman than you used to be and the sex symbolizes that you are merging with this unfamiliar person: the depressed you.
Don’t let these dreams cause a vicious cycle within you. Understanding them will certainly take the fear out of them. In addition, it may take a little time for the meds to kick in. If the dreams don’t change and they are still freaking you out, then by all means, ask your doctor to change the medication. Let us know how things work out for you!
Want to be able to figure out your own dreams every morning? Lauri’s latest book, Dream On It: Unlock Your Dreams Change Your Life, will give you the tools you need to become a Dream Expert too! Check out all of Lauri’s books here.
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It was a bit lazy not to mention lucid dreaming as a possible solution.