Dreams

[omeleteman]

Since I was injured, 8 months anniversary today, I am researching here and there to learn more about our problem.
I read somewhere, don't remember where, that SCI people usually have the images of themselves in dreams before SCI and it happens to me a lot.
Never dreamt of myself injured yet. In my dreams I am always walking or in a normal situation.
I want to know if the same happens to you.

[Rustyjames]

Fernando,

I also have dreams that I'm walking or starting to walk for the first time. Friends often tell me they have dreams of me walking too. I'm just over a year post injury.

[et]

I was injuried 3 yrs ago. Whenever I saw myself in my dream, I was just like a normal person who can walk. Till recently-- about several weeks ago, that's the first time I saw myself in wheelchair in my dream. That feeling was so real. I was awoke by that weird feeling. May be subconsciously, I already accept that I'm on wheelchair.

[Cynthia]

My dreams are also before my sci. Sometimes the chair is in my dreams, but I don't use it.
I have had dreams where I'm trying to walk really fast to get away from a dangerous situation, but my legs are really weak and I keep falling down. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/confused.gif

Cynthia

[Jeff]

If I have a dream that has nothing to do with my injury then I'm usually walking in my dream. Many of my dreams, however, are just like what Cynthia described. I also have dreams where I'm cured. Usually half-way through my "cure" dreams the cure starts wearing off and I have difficulty walking again, and then I wake up from the dream. Pretty weird. I'm twenty-one years post so my subconscious is, I think, aware of my injury, and usually trying to resolve the conflict/disgust I still feel. I also have unrelated to injury, good dreams. A few days ago I dreamed I was introducing my wife to my grandparents and they were so happy to meet her. When I woke up I remembered that only my grandmother was still living.

[rtr]

I read somewhere that your self-image is actually formed by the time you are a few years old. If you are still walking then, you walk in your dreams too. In the same article, it said that blind people who were not blind by that age dream in pictures.

[cheesecake]

I am 10 years post and still dream as if I was before my SCI. I am an ambulatory, incomplete but used to be a long distance runner and bicyclist. I still have dreams as if I am in a race or running on the beach(a passion of mine). I had a former boss who was 40 years post injury and he still dreamed of himself as he was when he was 17 before his injury. We started talking about dreams one day and I was amazed that neither of us saw ourselves as any different then we used to be. Some people say they have bad dreams, for me the bad dream begins when I wake up and I realize I can't run anymore. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Shawn]

Yes, i experience the same thing, i.e. in all my dreams since my injury (26/10/96), i'm the same AB'd person as before my accident. Why is this? Has my sub-conscience not accepted my injury perhaps? http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Steven Edwards]

I love this stuff. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

The most likely cause of seeing yourself walking in a dream is not that you have not accepted being in a wheelchair, it's that you do not use the wheelchair to define who you are. Dreams about oneself generally deal with self-awareness and how you feel others perceive you.

To those who responded, can I have your permision to post my interpretation of your dream/s?

-Steven

[Jeff]

as long as it doesn't get too weird. You're not into Freudian theory are you? LOL. I hate when someone talks about my diaper stage as a child. Also my mother is off-limits.

Other than that, go for it!

[Chris Chappell]

16 Months post to the day. Dreams are all able-bodied and still about running, (I was scheduled to run a 20k the day after my accident), as well as cycling (how I got hurt), basketball, hiking, tennis, etc. Sometimes I still can't believe it happened. Almost as if my day to day life is not conscious but an extended dream / nightmare? Am I really this injured? Am I really living day to day in a wheelchair? Why won't I heal? Why can't I stand up? I guess I'm still riding that horse named denial.

Maybe its all too real and that's why our minds try to protect us from the full impact of the tragedy.

Hope, conscious and subconscious, is alive and well though. Stronger than ever but growing a little impatient. We need a legitimate breakthrough.

[TD]

For the most part, when I dream I am walking. Sometimes I am flying. The weirdest dream was the one where I had wheels instead of feet!! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/redface.gif Got a real laugh out of that one!! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

"And so it begins."

[Steven Edwards]

Originally posted by Jeff:

Also my mother is off-limits.

Other than that, go for it!

I guess that knocks the Oedipus complex out. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif

Allrighty, let's get started. Regarding your non-injury related dreams, that would mean that you definitely do not identify yourself as disabled. Can I assume that you do not introduce yourself by saying "Hi, my name is Jeff. In case you can't tell, I am a quadriplegic. Oh yeah, my hobbies include [blah]"? I would assume that, when meeting someone new, you start off talking about just... how should I say this, normal things that able-bodied people can relate with?

The chair being in your dreams but not being used would basically be the same as above: you identify yourself as a person first, not a person with a disability.

By cure dreams, do you mean dreams of things you would do if not injured? Dreams that take place now or in the future? Not dreams about memories? If so...

You start out being "cured". You start doing things as any AB person does, primarily having fun and enjoying whatever it is. Once the newness wears off, you still have fun but you begin noticing the things that your injury prevents you from doing. You don't totally stop doing whatever it is, but your drive to do it tapers off when you try finding ways to do it that circumvent your disability and fail.

Now to your wedding... and I mean this in the [B]nicest way possible (read: no dirty thoughts), congratulations. I am still waiting for my tongue to get back in my mouth after seeing the picture. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/tongue.gif

The dream of introducing your wife to your grandparents: quite possibly a way of getting their approval... *scoff* that's not the right word. Just your way of knowing that your wife is someone they both would approve of. Nothing more, nothing less. http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

Okay. How far off am I? :-)

-Steven

[Jeff]

My "cure" dreams are exactly that. In my dream I was paralyzed but now I can walk. I actually have the thought in my dream that "I can walk again!" But, usually my movement starts tapering off before the end of my dream. Have to think about why that is.

I think you're on the right track with my other dream. For years I hated being the only single child and grandchild in my family. All my brothers and sisters were all married with children. Even my cousins who are significantly younger were starting to get married. Probably had something to do with that bothering me.

[mwelschbillig]

I generally dream of my self walking but there was this one dream I had when I was still in rehab where I actually was aware that I could not walk but was cured. The dream was so real and in my dream I fully believed it was true, I kept thinking in my dream this isn't a dream this is real but when I woke up it sure was a dream and the feeling of disappointment was like breaking my back all over again, the dream just felt so real it was quite a horrible feeling waking up. Anybody else had this ??

Marcel

[-Andrea-]

I always have recurring dreams. I'm still mulling over the one I had last night. I was w/my ex boyfriend. I KNEW something was wrong w/me, but not specifically WHAT. I was up and walking -- doing everything.
I remember, very explicitly, in every dream in which I am w/him, I always say, "my life is perfect now that you're back in it..."

Then I wake up.

If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud --Emile Zola--