[x123]

I think that my dreams are subconsciously brainwashing me and magnifying my psychological problems. I suspect that certain conscious feelings result in dreams that then subconsciously brainwash me to have stronger conscious feelings. Is this plausible that the dreams are actually feeding back to make my psychological problems worse? I often feel like my reactions to situations are beyond my conscious control and completely out of proportion to reality.

Specifically:

(1) I've noticed waking up and realizing that my dream was very negative about the value of life. (This week my dream was like a South Park cartoon. It was actually kind of funny and cute, but it was also gross just like South Park.) I think these kinds of dreams make me depressed the following day.

(2) My brother and I are business partners and I literally cannot stand to even look at him or hear his voice. Sometimes I wake up and realize that I was dreaming about my brother except that all his negative features were ridiculously magnified. My conscious behavior around my brother is involuntary anger and disgust that is triggered by simply seeing my brother's face.

Does this theory of dream brainwashing make sense to anybody? If so, what do psychiatrists call this phenomena and how do I fix it?

[pegasus]

Hello x123,

Dreams are the result of processing the past, present happenings and hopes/fears for the future. What you do during the day, your past events and your natural thoughts of your hopes and fears are magnified in your dreams. I suggest, before going to bed to purposely think of positive things and think of good endings to your dreams, this can help to direct the dreams in the right direction. I do not believe that the dreams are brain washing you but certainly nightmares can be very unpleasant.

[x123]

Originally Posted by pegasus

Hello x123,

Dreams are the result of processing the past, present happenings and hopes/fears for the future. What you do during the day, your past events and your natural thoughts of your hopes and fears are magnified in your dreams. I suggest, before going to bed to purposely think of positive things and think of good endings to your dreams, this can help to direct the dreams in the right direction. I do not believe that the dreams are brain washing you but certainly nightmares can be very unpleasant.

Thanks, they aren't actually scary dreams. When I wake up and recall the dream, the emotion I feel is hopelessness or just confusion - like: why was a dreaming this? It feels like something is deliberately trying to brainwash me in my sleep to be depressed and dislike my brother.

There are two themes:

(1) Attacking the value of human and animal life. For example, I dreamed that doctors were gradually amputating body parts from my father as part of his cancer treatment until there was nothing human left. This theme leaves me feeling like life isn't worth living.

(2) My brother being extremely annoying. For example, I dreamed that he was walking around my apartment talking to me while he was carelessly urinating on everything. I suspect this type of dream makes me feel irrational anger and disgust whenever I see him or hear his voice.

I feel like I've been brainwashed - especially regarding my brother. My brother is actually a very good person. He annoys me sometimes, but there is no reason for me to feel such visceral anger whenever I see him.

BTW thanks for the hug.

[healingme4me]

Dreams aren't always as they appear. They are typically symbolic. There's a Dreams and Interpretations sub forum, you may want to look into, here on PC.

I sometimes write down my dreams in a journal and use a dream moods site and books to analyze the symbolism and see what's bothering me on a subconscious level.

For instance to see a shark, represents anger. The color red, passion. There's symbolism for amputation, that doesn't resound off the top of my head.

[x123]

Originally Posted by healingme4me

Dreams aren't always as they appear. They are typically symbolic. There's a Dreams and Interpretations sub forum, you may want to look into, here on PC.

I sometimes write down my dreams in a journal and use a dream moods site and books to analyze the symbolism and see what's bothering me on a subconscious level.

For instance to see a shark, represents anger. The color red, passion. There's symbolism for amputation, that doesn't resound off the top of my head.

Thanks, I'll cut and paste the above examples to that forum to see if anybody has some ideas.