Can you have OCD dreams?

[Pikachu]

I'm sorry, first of all. :S I've been trying not to freak out because I can totally see how this dream is connected to some things I've been thinking about lately (very vague so if that needs explaining I will, aha). This is soooo embarrassing, please don't judge. 

Can you have dreams that are based off of OCD worry? But that also just don't mean anything? Like, I know people love to say that if all your teeth fall out it means this and this, but I always considered that dreams were more 'metaphorical' and thus their 'face value' meaning doesn't mean much. 

What im trying to say, again please don't judge, is that I'm a lesbian and last night I had this really bizarre dream about basically agreeing to have sex with a guy in return for something he'd given me (it was an object, I think it fit in to the later dream but I can't recall it all, it was one of those weird disjointed things), and in this dream, I don't know whether I 'knew' I was gay or not, but I remembered being really excited about this? ????? Wtf. 

Then I wake up and my rational brain is like "dude it would've been based off of worrying about your orientation, it doesn't mean nothing", but ?? I was reading a forum where this other girl had had a similar experience and that's when I knew I was basically really OCD-ing over this... I really don't like guys at all, romantically or anything else, so I'm really baffled by it because it hasn't affected how I feel at all (not that it realistically should, i guess). 

Can you have dreams based off of OCD worryings? Has this happened to anyone else? Did you just have to let it go? (Or am I going mad aaah ?) )-: any replies appreciated tbh, sorry this is so weird. 

Edited June 17, 2017 by Pikachu

[mudorstars]

When things are a boy tough, I often have OCD dreams. Usually things like I've got blood on me and can't wash it off, or I've wet myself or worse! One of my things is worrying that I'll contaminate others with my own 'germs'. I know it's not quite the same, but I think that the constant thinking -thinking -thinking that goes with OCD can impact on all areas of our lives. 

[St Mike]

All I can say Dreams (as in dreams you get in your sleep) are just dreams, they are not real. Don't bother analysing them, just forget them and get on with your life. 

[Pikachu]

Yeah, I mean. I feel a bit stupid for posting this now because it's not like I haven't had dreams that I know have been directly impacted by my OCD before, and especially because I've been worrying about this a lot lately so it's 'topical' in terms of my worries right now. I don't know. I mean it doesn't effect how I feel at all. It just irks me. 

 

[Wonderer]

Oh dreams!!!! I have OCD about my sexuality and have lesbian dreams a lot when it's bad, spending hours upon hours a day thinking about it tends to make it pop up in our dreams, BUT, I've had those kinds of dreams when I'm not OCD about the topic too, thing is, I am not attracted to females in my waking hours, so I just take them for what they are, dreams, and any excitement or arousal that comes with them is actually something that should be enjoyed rather than worried about ? X

[deepblue]

Just to echo what everyone else has said, I definitely have OCD related dreams. It might be a dream where I experience a situation that provokes my OCD, through to trying to perform a cleaning ritual.

We can all be our own harshest critic, and you have to give yourself a break from time to time. A dream has no more significance than a random thought. Just as "it's only a thought" applies to OCD, so does "it's just a dream". Plus if dreams were real, I'd have a car which from time to time can fly, would be able to leap great distances, and would have found out who that blonde really was...

 

[RB3462]

I'm a but late to this, but I wouldn't attach significance to dreams. I have had dreams where I literally got into a fistfight with my very best friend - someone who I don't think I have had so much as a tiff with. I also used to dream about being a vampire a lot. In short...dreams are just dreams!

[Iknowitscrazybut]

Hi Pikachu, I wanted to ask the same question myself. What I find (frustratingly) is that after a GOOD day, where I have not ruminated or checked or acts on compulsion, I then go on and have a very vivid nightmare where my OCD fear becomes a reality. Sometimes several nights in a row. I ask myself "Is this a sign?". I am beginning to believe that sometimes the anxiety is underlying and therefore pops up in the dream. Ultimately we have no control over our dreams and however real and disturbing they may feel, maybe should be grateful for them. The same way we are for our liver and kidney. They are doing a job I assume...perhaps just housekeeping for the unconscious mind, processing of worries, exploration of strong feelings and fears, as well as other roles. They have a function, but they don't 'mean' anything in the conventional sense. I do understand though. Last night I dreamed that I was auditioning to be on stage, without a script and that I would be on holiday during the scheduled performance. I then found I couldn't read the script. I can read. I'm not an actor. This is not going to happen. However I am doing some training with my team today so my brain decided to explore my anxieties through something metaphorical and believe me there was another tonne of weird stuff about a party with lots of students and it is all a huge pick-n-mix of bizaarity!  Yes I made up that word. Let it all be. The brain's just doing it's job somehow. PS I once dreamed I saved the world from an alien invasion. Nuff said.