Infinitap Games

On occasion, I have a nightmare involve losing sight of a loved one, either in a crowd or down a hallway, and then frantically trying to find them again because I know something bad will happen to them if I don't find them. I'm not sure what the bad thing is, I just know it will happen. To me, this combines a lot of the most horrible elements of nightmares: terror over the horrible thing that is about to happen, helplessness because I can't help unless I can find them, guilt that I was careless enough to lose this person, shame that I haven't done enough to save them, and uncertainty over what bad thing will happen and when it will happen and even whether it has already happened and I am too late to stop it. Most times, the feelings these nightmares evoke are a lot more powerful than the actual events and images within them, and they can last for several minutes even after I wake up.

I am nearsighted and usually don't wear my glasses in real life, so I am vigilant about not straying too far from the group during outings. I wonder if this has any influence on my occasional nightmares?

Oh how horrible! I hate that sense of helplessness in nightmares...
I've had kind of the opposite dream, it was a recurring theme for a while. In the week that someone I loved died, they were in my dreams. It was vivid, and they would say the strangest things, then disappear. That was worse than any other nightmare, because all I wanted to do was forget them, not believe they were still alive.

Both of those situations sound quite unpleasant. I am terrified of losing loved ones as well...

I have experienced similar dreams to this. The whole helpless motif does not escape me.

After reading your story, I was suddenly reminded of when I was a very little kid lost in the grocery story. Strange to me that I cannot recall ever thinking about it since then.