{"id":408,"date":"2019-09-21T07:42:13","date_gmt":"2019-09-21T11:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/?p=408"},"modified":"2019-09-21T08:48:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-21T12:48:42","slug":"408","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/2019\/09\/21\/408\/","title":{"rendered":"Soulful Saturday: Nightmares"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hihi, guys! How are you? I\u2019ve been doing a bit mixed in terms of health and other things, but I\u2019m still alive and kicking, so that\u2019s good! Now if I could stop dying in minecraft, that\u2019d be even better. Honestly, I\u2019ve seen and died to so many creepers and skeleton archers, I\u2019m surprised I\u2019ve yet to have a nightmare about them when I\u2019m terrified of them in reality. And it was that concept that lead to today\u2019s post: nightmares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all of the dreams I have are nightmares, mind you. I\u2019ve had good dreams- but my bad dreams, or just the weird ones, are so vivid! They\u2019re far more realistic than my good dreams that I wake happily from. The weird and wild dreams usually fall in line with the nightmare side\u2026 So I\u2019ll be sharing some of those as well. I won\u2019t go into excessive detail, but I\u2019ll give you enough to learn how my mind has worked since I was young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most memorable nightmare I have ever had was when I was in elementary school. My dad thinks it was induced by stress from overhearing a DYFS worker saying they planned to take me away from him because she didn\u2019t like how our apartment looked or something like that, but I don\u2019t know for sure. All I do know is this is one of the most bizarre nightmares I\u2019d ever had at that point, and for most of my life, to be honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It starts with a news flash: Clones of all the people in the world were starting to appear. At that same time, aliens were invading, particularly colorful animals that otherwise seemed harmless\u2026 except for the ducks. The purple ducks with black spots were far from cute and innocent looking birds. They had sharp teeth and were eating anyone in sight, original or clone. The dream ended when the ducks got into our school, which was at max capacity because of the clones. I believe it was around the time I was about to get eaten that I woke up. This no longer counts as the weirdest dream I\u2019ve had, but it\u2019s still pretty damn creepy to remember!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I won\u2019t tell you much about the weirdest dream I\u2019ve had now, as I plan to use it to write a story- most likely in comic form. What I can tell you is it\u2019ll be a psychological thriller of sorts, focusing on magic in a world that no longer actively has it, and a death game that brings magic back to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all my weird dreams count as nightmares, but sometimes they came from something that I think of as a nightmare to deal with. Once, when I was young, I had a migraine. I was sleeping at the time before the pain started- and to warn me it was there, my mind gave me a peculiar dream. I lay flat on the ground, in a barren world. There was only the sky, me, and random feathers floating softly to the ground. I\u2019d pick up one of the fallen feathers and drop it on my head with a giggle. But then, I picked one up and dropped it on my head again, only to feel like I\u2019d dropped a brick on my head instead. I tried another and another- it just kept leading to worsening pain. When I woke up, my head felt like it did in that terribly painful dream. It\u2019d been so picturesque before my migraine decided to make itself be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s roll back the clock even further. See, I have a couple of memories of dreams I had as a toddler. One I even have a vivid image of in my head. For some reason, as a tot, I had a lot of dreams about being chased by food- the most memorable one being a strawberry. Every time I\u2019d have one of these nightmares, I\u2019d refuse to eat the food involved, slowly but steadily limiting my intake of food in general until I got over the dreams in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another one I remember well was Reader Rabbit popping out of my computer screen and trying to kill me. I mean, he was pretty tiny- it was hard to understand at the time I was safe at all though. And it wasn\u2019t just Reader Rabbit. Mario, one of my cereal box mascots\u2026 Many of them apparently had a violent streak and wanted to off me. I\u2019m not really sure why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final nightmare I intend to share is something that\u2019s very triggering for a lot of people, including myself. If you\u2019re triggered by any form of sexual harrassment or misconduct, please skip over the next paragraph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was about six or so, I started therapy. Then, one night, I had a terrifying dream that my therapist raped me. I couldn\u2019t remember being raped, or anything like it, but somehow I had vivid images of the act, and I\u2019d wake up terrified every time. Yes- it wasn\u2019t a one time thing. I had similar nightmares with a lot of people in them. I had them since childhood, but they didn\u2019t really stop completely. I get them once every few years at most now, but the fact is, they happen. And the impact was so strong that I ended up with a notable case of androphobia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, that\u2019s all the nightmares I can think to share with you today. If you\u2019d like, why not share some of your own? To talk through the scary things in life can be quite liberating. I know this was for me! So let me know in the comments, what kind of nightmares do you get? And, if you have any, tips on how to avoid them. Until next time- take care, friends!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hihi, guys! How are you? I\u2019ve been doing a bit mixed in terms of health and other things, but I\u2019m still alive and kicking, so that\u2019s good! Now if I could stop dying in minecraft, that\u2019d be even better. Honestly, I\u2019ve seen and died to so many creepers and skeleton archers, I\u2019m surprised I\u2019ve yet…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[33,2],"tags":[52,161,160,135],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8uAZQ-408","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":410,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jrolik.caludin.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}