Hmm. I'm sure everyone get stressed once in a while. So the previous post was just some stress rant, no worries. It's not like this was high school, now that was stressful. I was just telling the guys the other day the dreams I used to have back in high school, there a few that were particularly unpleasant.
i) Elevator dreams. I entered an elevator, pushed a button. It went up, got to the floor but it didn't stop, in fact it kept going up faster and faster. No better time to panic and freak out than when you realized you were stuck in an accelerating, ever elevating elevator. It wasn't even really the fear of dying, just... stucked.
ii) Paralysed dreams. I was asleep, but I woke up. I can see everything around me, but I can't move. Can't move a single muscle no matter how hard I try. I tried and tried for what seemed like an eternity and I woke up (for real) in shock. Try having a few of those in one night. Maybe there was a reason why I got into rehabilitation engineering.
iii) Losing teeth dreams. These had the most variations, and usually less scary, but caused more distress. Generally starts off with having a loose tooth on my gums. I tried my best to make it stay, thinking that I can probably salvage it somehow, or I was just in denial. Inevitable it fell off and I freaked. I tried to fix it, like gluing it or something, but to no avail. Then I woke up from extreme dissapointment and realized that it was just all a dream. Phew, god that was scary. Some random things happened (talk to someone etc), then I found one of my teeth to be shaking. Shit. It fell off, this time I knew there was no way of fixing it, coz it wasn't a dream anymore and there's no turning back. This was when I woke up for real.
At least I'm not having any of those dreams. On hindsight they probably all suggested some level of helplessness. The last one I'd still have it sometimes, but very rare. Maybe it's coz I'm partly covered for dental care now. It's not that I am not helpless anymore, I think I just accepted it as a fact of life now, like what Al Cook said, "learned helplessness", that's when you pretty much believe and behave like you are incapable of doing certain things.
i) Elevator dreams. I entered an elevator, pushed a button. It went up, got to the floor but it didn't stop, in fact it kept going up faster and faster. No better time to panic and freak out than when you realized you were stuck in an accelerating, ever elevating elevator. It wasn't even really the fear of dying, just... stucked.
ii) Paralysed dreams. I was asleep, but I woke up. I can see everything around me, but I can't move. Can't move a single muscle no matter how hard I try. I tried and tried for what seemed like an eternity and I woke up (for real) in shock. Try having a few of those in one night. Maybe there was a reason why I got into rehabilitation engineering.
iii) Losing teeth dreams. These had the most variations, and usually less scary, but caused more distress. Generally starts off with having a loose tooth on my gums. I tried my best to make it stay, thinking that I can probably salvage it somehow, or I was just in denial. Inevitable it fell off and I freaked. I tried to fix it, like gluing it or something, but to no avail. Then I woke up from extreme dissapointment and realized that it was just all a dream. Phew, god that was scary. Some random things happened (talk to someone etc), then I found one of my teeth to be shaking. Shit. It fell off, this time I knew there was no way of fixing it, coz it wasn't a dream anymore and there's no turning back. This was when I woke up for real.
At least I'm not having any of those dreams. On hindsight they probably all suggested some level of helplessness. The last one I'd still have it sometimes, but very rare. Maybe it's coz I'm partly covered for dental care now. It's not that I am not helpless anymore, I think I just accepted it as a fact of life now, like what Al Cook said, "learned helplessness", that's when you pretty much believe and behave like you are incapable of doing certain things.
Comments