I need to preface this by reminding you that I am caring for my husband who was diagnosed with MCI two years ago and who has been declining faster in the last couple of months. I am also taking care of my sister who has all sorts of problems as yet undiagnosed. She had an appointment with a neuropsychologist on Monday and is going back early in January for extensive testing. While there she was asked to answer some of the MMSE questions and was unable to answer some of them.
Yesterday I had an appointment with my psychologist and an appointment with the psychiatrist who prescribes my anti-depressant. I firmly thought that the psychologist appointment was at 2:00 followed by the psychologist appointment at 3:00. When I got there a little before two, I learned that the psychologist appointment was actually at 10:00, so I had missed it. I started to cry. The psychologist had an opening at 3:00 because of a cancellation. The kind people in the office managed to juggle things around so that I saw the psychiatrist early and was able to see the psychologist at 3:00. I didn't quit crying until I got home and took half of a xanax, something I try not to do too often. The crying was strange. I don't cry often and I didn't think I was particularly upset about anything. I fell at sleep about 6:30 and slept until my husband waked me at 7:00 this morning (not counting a couple of trips to the bathroom).
Sometime during the night I dreamed that my mother who was 92 in the dream (the age she would be if she were alive) had a baby and a few days later I (I was 65, my actual age, in the dream) had one. Oddly, the picture taken in the hospital showed my baby playing a clarinet (the instrument both of our sons play). I knew I would have to raise my new son alone and assumed I would have to raise my mother's also, since at 92 she would not live long enough to do so. Wow! Guess it's true that dreams really are based on your underlying thoughts and fears!
Janet, I don't know what your thoughts are, but I don't think you have to fear your mother having a baby or at 65 I think you're safe, too.
Crazy dreams: This summer I went to bed praying that I could see Bill just one more time. That night I dreamed he came back only in the dream he was a zombie. No color, walking stiff and had a square head like Frankenstein. I new it was him even though it looked nothing like him. I put my arms around him and it felt so good. Then behind him I saw a car dealership. All the cars parked in the lot. I said I guess that means you have to leave and he dissappeared.
I am neither a psychologist nor psychiatrist, but I absolutely believe that dreams are based on our "underlying thoughts and fears", and yours demonstrates that. You are overwhelmed with caregiving, and your dream is a perfect example of your fear of being burdened for years with more people to care for.
I had a dream the other night that I was trapped in a box, and no matter how many sections of the box I managed to tear away, there was another wall to the box beneath each one. I kept tearing and tearing, but there was always another wall of another box facing me. I could not get out of that box, and then I woke up. It doesn't take a psychologist or psychiatrist to figure that one out.