Dreams and Anxiety
Dreams are weird, right? Most of the time, we wake up and dont remember them, but occasionally, we have dreams so vivid that we wake up and can't stop thinking about them. Sometimes, we have bad dreams that make us wake up feeling actual fear. Sometimes, some people can even realize they're dreaming and gain some control over the world of their dream. I'm writing this at 5 a.m., right after waking up from a dream that made me realize that a low-level anxiety I've had for a while might be a little more high-level than I thought.
Before going on, I should give a bit of a trigger warning. Im about to talk about a nightmare involving teeth. If you're uncomfortable with that, then please skip past the next heading.
The Dream in question
The dream I just woke up from atarted innocuously enough. I was at my maternal grandparents' house hanging out watching TV with my mom, my brothers, and my wife. I casually ran my tongue across the back of my teeth and noticed one was loose. Now, if I was still a young child, this would be completely normal, but in real life and subsequently in the dream, I am 23 years old and already have all of my adult teeth. I start moving the tooth, and sure enough, it falls out.
Thinking fast, I casually put my hand over my mouth and spit the tooth into it, thinking that I would throw it away and schedule a dentist appointment after i left my grandparents house so as not to cause a fuss. I ran my tongue across the back of my teeth again, and another tooth fell out. After this happened 3 or 4 more times, I excused myself to the restroom where more and more teeth kept falling out. Right as I felt panic start in my physical body, in a moment of lucidity, I realized it was all a dream and my teeth were fine. Though, even as I write this all down, I can't help myself from continuing to check my teeth with my tongue.
What does it mean?
Im not going to pretend that all dreams have a deeper meaning. It's mostly just your brain processing a bunch of random stimuli. But this dream is going to act as a bit of a wake-up call. You see, I never properly built the habit of brushing my teeth every day. It's a personal failing that I have tried to rectify in the past, but I haven't ever done it consistently enough to actually build the habit, and therefore, my teeth have likely gotten pretty bad. I wouldn't know for sure because I also haven't been to a dentist in years. I've somewhat recently begun working on my health by going to the gym and tracking my caloric intake. I guess I need to make sure im taking care of other parts of my body as well.