Do you ever have bad dreams? And I don’t mean only full-on nightmares, the horror-movie kind. I also mean the recurring dream with an unpleasant plot that simply wears you down.
For example, a lot of people I know complain that they still dream about university — decades later! That in the dream they still have to write a term paper or a thesis, sit exams, all of that. Personally I almost never get those dreams, but I have another one that’s no easier. I once worked as the editor of a corporate newspaper at a large plant. Sometimes it was hard to fill a new issue with material and get it out on time. I haven’t worked there for more than eight years, but I still dream that I’m still there, that the paper has to go to print tomorrow, and not only is it not ready — I don’t even have the faintest idea what to write about. And in the dream I even think: “I haven’t put out a new issue in so long, why has nobody noticed? And if they have noticed, why haven’t they fired me yet?”
Having a dream like that once means nothing. You’ll probably forget it right away and never return to that plot again. But when the same unpleasant plot repeats with some regularity — a couple of times a month, in my case — it really does get to you.
At some point I’d had enough and decided I needed to do something about it. I started by putting the question to the AI therapist I’d been using for a while. I described the situation and the plot of the dream in detail, and answered the follow-up questions. It offered me a simple solution: I needed to let my mind “resign” from that job. Apparently something there was still holding on to it. To do that, you can do a simple exercise. Once a day, for five minutes, I was to picture myself — as if I still worked there — shutting down the computer, leaving the office, locking the door, walking out through the security gate, handing my pass and keys over to my boss, and going home. Ideally you shouldn’t just picture it, but actually walk through a real door while you do. That makes it easier for the brain to feel it and accept it. Honestly, though, I cheated a little and did it in my imagination only, without walking through a physical door or handing anyone any keys. According to the AI therapist, a couple of weeks of this exercise should be quite enough for the brain to finally understand that I don’t work there any more and to stop generating such dreams.
Even though I was doing the “lite” version of the exercise — no physical enactment, imagination only — after just a couple of days I realised something had “clicked” in my head. I started looking at that part of my past more easily. I genuinely recognised that there had been a lot of good moments at that job, deadlines notwithstanding. And that this happens at any job and there’s nothing terrible about it. And the main thing is that it’s all far in the past, I owe nobody there anything, I can get on with my life. I can remember all the positive things that happened there and be grateful for the professional and life experience. And I no longer need to worry about the newspaper’s looming deadlines.
It’s been a couple of months since I asked the AI therapist about these dreams, and I haven’t had the newspaper deadline dream since. I hope it’s for good.
If you’re curious what this AI therapist is, it’s a Telegram bot you can talk to by text or by voice. And of course you can discuss more than just troubling dreams — any other issues too.