Dream has left me scared, detached and worried

[Onwards & Upwards]

I dreamt last night about the world and universe and that one day it would all come to an end and that some terrible disaster like a meteor or huge volcanic eruption could wipe everything out at any time.

I woke up feeling detached from reality and so, so scared of life, haven't been able to concentrate on anything, have been like a zombie.

We've all wondered about these things in life, I'm sure. There was a time where these sorts of thoughts would be very fleeting-infact they would probably only last a second and then pass and I would just get on with my day, they were never a problem and I was happy just to tell myself that our brains were never meant to be able to cope with such a huge thing and we could never get our heads around it.

This time, it's real fear. The night when I had the dream was preceded by a couple of days of these sort of thoughts entering my head, but I managed to carry on with my work but the thoughts were kind of sticking but I can not work out why the hell I even started to think about this, I wonder if something just got lodged in my sub-concious.

I'm desperate to stop these thoughts, I keep wondering what life is all about, really heavy stuff, I know. I can't help thinking that I've got lumbered with the worst fear of them all.

Usually dreams are nonsense and you can tell yourself that, but the stark reality of this one is hard to shift.

I got even more scared when it started to get dark this evening and I'm really scared that I won't sleep tonight and I'll lie in bed with all these terrible thoughts.

Has anyone else ever had thoughts like this and did they eventually pass?

[nomorepanic]

This is called depersonalisation and derealization and can be very scarey.

Have a read of the symptoms website page - there is some info on there about it

[Thumbelina]

You should have seen my dream last night - you can write a book on that...

Just the emotions coming out throught the dream, just that, dont worry.

[Onwards & Upwards]

Thanks for your replies.

After reading the symptoms as Nicola suggested, I now realise that this is derealization and further more, existential angst. It sucks.

Having Googled and read previous posts on here, I've found that many, many people experience it in their lives, at different ages and for different reasons.

I just hope that I can get passed it and that it is just a phase, I'd really like to know if anyone else has had these particular fears and how they got over them, I'm hoping it might just be a case of me having to accept it and I will become comfortable with it, because lets face it, there's no changing it.

The difficulty at the moment is that I feel like a zombie, detached, can't enjoy anything around me and I'm desperate to snap out of it, but how?????????????????

I feel as though I need a sharp shock of reality or something.

[MidnightCalm]

The other morning my alarm went off and I set it to snooze for like 10 mins, fell back asleep, dreamt I woke up but couldn't move, could see but my body wasn't responding and then I REALLY woke up, was so scared, couldn't separate dream from reality, it had me on edge for the rest of the day.

[Mudskipper]

This happens to me all the time and it's a difficult one to deal with. The only advice I can offer is to take each day at a time. Try to inject some element of fun into each day, even if it's just something small and, when evening come, draw the curtains, watch something amusing on tv and just let yourself drift away. If you fall asleep on the sofa, so much the better. I find I relax more and dream less when that happens and I don't feel any more tired than usual. Ultimately I hope to reach an age where the stressors have generally been left behind and I can just enjoy whatever's left.

[onceagain]

Hi I too tend to have very vivid dreams some of which upset me for several days because the reality factor.

However the reason that I'm responding is that I have only been talking bout this subject this morning how I watched a film at school and lived in terror of the end of the world.... I hated being away from my family incase the siren didn't give me enough time to get to my family... very scary for a child.

I'm sorry to hear that you have had to go through that emotion it isn't very nice at all... x