Dreams are strange and interesting — and occasionally frightening — things.
Depending on who you ask, it seems that dreams can either be profound indicators of things going on within your psyche, or merely your brain's way of clearing up emotional clutter from the days and weeks before.
Regardless, my ”emotional clutter” often periodically involves dreams of struggling to survive in alien landscapes that often seemed to be other planets because the beings that surround me are definitely not human. But they are also not entirely alien, either.
I find myself wondering whether I've just read and watched too much science fiction, or if my subconscious is actually trying to tell me something.
One such dream visited me again last night following a fairly common theme in which not only resources are scarce, but if you're outside in the open without some kind of breathing apparatus, you are likely to die after a while. It's not that the atmosphere isn't breathable — it is — but after a while you simply run out of strength and collapse and gradually die as a result of some kind of atrophy/entropy process.
These dreams are always somewhat unpleasant and occasionally I find myself waking up very suddenly at the edge of having a panic attack.
If you're not familiar with actual panic attacks perhaps these words are relatively meaningless to you… but I can assure you that an authentic panic attack is way more than somebody ”just being histrionic” over something in their environment.
So I got up and wandered around for a while, as I usually do. I find that when a panic attack is impending, or I am just at the edge, the cold of the flooring in the kitchen under my bare feet helps... as does opening the refrigerator and breathing the air from inside the fridge or even the freezer.
Hot — and especially dense and humid — air in my environment has always been extremely uncomfortable for me.
I remember when I was little my parents were always chasing the sun and we would go to places that were often hot and tropical. On paper, it seems like I should have enjoyed these fabulous places we went to but I found myself mostly sitting in the shade somewhere with a soaked towel wrapped around my neck gasping for air like a fish out of water.
To this day, I find myself somewhat amazed at having survived summers in Texas for over 20 years!
Usually, the dis-ease and marginal panic attacks subside after 10-15 minutes; if they don't, I just put on clothes and get up and sit in front of the computer and do something — or perhaps even read a book — for maybe an hour or two until my system feels like it has somewhat returned to normal.
There are many ways to be a sensitive person, and in my case it has far more to do with environment and temperature than it does with anything emotional.
My parents often described me as ”excessively fussy,” never quite grasping the idea that — at least to me — when the temperature was 95° and it was also quite humid outside I found myself being in a state of constant extreme physical discomfort.
Bringing the bunny back around, I suppose these dreams might be a reflection of the fact that being in hot and humid places literally does feel like being in an alien landscape; in a place that doesn't feel natural to my body. And the people around me who claim to "love it" definitely seem like they are ”aliens;” at least not of the same species as I am!
I remember having a fairly substantial panic attack during a vacation to Colorado, many years ago. We were visiting the Hot Springs at Glenwood Springs, where there are also underground steam caves that people enjoy sitting in like they're in a sauna.
Even in the coolest of the underground rooms — which are fairly open and not too tiny and cramped — I started freaking out within less than a minute, and had to make a rapid exit and go into one of the coldest pools to chill out. It took me a good 10-15 minutes in freezing water to feel like a normal person again.
Conversely, cold has never bothered me. As I have always claimed: "you can always put on another sweater, but there's a limit to how many clothes you can take OFF!"
Dreams notwithstanding, I would probably do much better on an ice planet than on a desert planet.
Thanks for coming by, and have a great week ahead!
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Created at 2025.06.01 22:55 PDT
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