Absolutely bizarre, gory dream...

This is my dream. Let me give you a little background; I've been in tremendous stress. I've gotten in a bunch of fights with my friends and some of them have left me altogether. I was at complete rock bottom the night of this dream.

So I'm in my house when this nurse tells me "These children need your help." So she leads me to my bedroom and on my bed there's one sickly looking child. I can't tell if it's a boy or a girl and they have scratches and burns.

The other one is a girl. She's bleeding profusely. Her hair is short and scraggly and her mouth is open wide, like her jaw is coming off. Her limbs are stretched out and bent at great angles. I can see the bones ripping out of her skin. Her ribs have torn out of her body and there's blood spilling everywhere. The scariest part is that there are several limbs coming out of her stomach that are just twitching and squirming and she's moaning.

I was a bit shocked, but I immediately felt extreme sorrow for the girl and I said hi. She then waved at me with one of the limbs coming from her stomach and then continued to moan.

She then shifted her body very awkwardly and crawled on top of my dresser, leaving a trail of blood and just sat there. I began to slowly walk to my bed which was soaked in blood. And I saw her image imprinted on my pillows and on the walls. I flipped the pillows over and lied down and then my dream ended.

I don't think I've ever had a dream more terrifying than this. Does anyone have any interpretations of it?

Sometimes I'm OK with interpreting dream symbolism, sometimes I'm not. Without knowing exactly what is stressing you out, I don't have a lot to go on (and no, I'm not suggesting you tell me. I got the impression it's private).

It does sound very much like a normal anxiety dream. Two kids that need help, one much worse than the other. I got the impression that the bleeding girl with the extra limbs was representing you, which is why she was in your bed and climbed onto your dresser. You lay down where she had been lying so it really seems clear to me that she represents you.

As to all the blood. Blood symbolizes life, and also passion, anger or violence. If she does indeed represent you, her massive blood loss could mean that you are feeling drained and exhausted. Thinking about this and the fact she'd waved to you suggests to me that you are fighting with a part of yourself about something, and it is exhausting you. That part of yourself may be feeling torn up, neglected, left out, but it still waved at you letting you know that it's still a part of you and will be there when you're ready. Perhaps she got up on your dresser to wait for you to "put her back on" or "dress" in her again.

When you lay down in the bloody bed, you were trying to reconcile the two parts of yourself.

Having multiple limbs is a bit puzzling, but could represent a frustration in your life concerning reaching out to people. The girl had multiple arms but she was injured and bleeding profusely. So it seems that maybe you are attempting to reach out and are constantly being thwarted. the limbs coming from the stomach could mean that you're trying to get something out of your system.

So at a guess, my interpretation is that you are torn about something, it's wearing you out, but you are coming closer to a reconciliation, or just really wishing you could reconcile it.

When I'm stressed I dream of zombies. It's a pretty normal anxiety dream from what I can see.

Wow. That's the best dream interpretation I've ever gotten. It actually represents a lot of what's going on.

You're right; there is a part of me that's struggling and I do seek to help her.

Yes, I have been exhausted, mentally and physically because of all that's going on. The anger has been fading as well, more into sorrow and remorse like the blood draining from my body.

I guess I am trying to reconcile with myself. Half of me is very sorrowful and angry and frustrated, but the other half is telling me to move on.

And you're right about me reaching out to other people. Something that's been bothering me a lot is that I attempted to apologize to this girl whom I'd hurt, but she didn't accept my apology, so I felt absolutely horrible. My attempts at reconciliation had been thwarted.

You're amazing! I'm glad I can dismiss this as an anxiety dream and not a cry to be institutionalized.

Hey, you're welcome.

Dream life is a fascinating subject for me. I don't think anyone should think they need to be institutionalized over a dream, no matter how crazy it seems in the light of waking logic. The subconscious isn't a sane place by the yardstick of the waking intellect, and it's in control when you sleep. I also noticed in my own life, that my anxiety dreams were strongest, most troubling, and stuck with me the longest in my late teens and early twenties.

You're not nuts. You're stressed. I wish you luck with the problem you're trying to resolve.