When I was little I had nightmares about being stung by bees. This stems from an incident that occurred when I was asleep as a child of about 10 years old. There were bees that built up a hive in the AC unit in my parents room, where I fell asleep one time. I woke up to the worst pain I ever felt in my life---I got stung by a bee and FREAKED out! This shock always stayed with me, even until now. I would sometimes be asleep and when I heard something outside the window I would think it would be a bee! This even carried over into my dreams--or nightmares rather. Everything would be fine and then all of a sudden I'd be running from a swarm of bees. I'd often wake up just before they stung me, but it felt SO REAL! To this day I can't seem to shake this fear of bees that I have. I guess the fact that I got stung by one after I ran over a bunch of its buddies, while I was mowing the lawn 2 years ago, didn't help things for me that time either. I doubt that it'll ever go away. Isn't it strange how things that happen in our youth seem to resonate within us well into adulthood, oftentimes never ever really to leave us?
Comments (3)
This story, in the way that a somewhat physically traumautizing incident in childhood persisted to stick with you into adulthood, reminded me of something that is not dream related per se, but is an interesting physiological phenomenon. When i was young, around the same age you were when the bees stung you, I contracted food poisoning from a bushel of bad green grapes that I was eating at my grandmother's house. As was always the case when i went over her house, I had eaten an inordinately large dinner that night (my grandmother could cook man) and had eaten the grapes, which I loved, as an after dinner snack while we all sat around on the couch in her living room and watched Sunday night TV. When I got home that evening, even though I only weighed like 75 pounds soaking wet back then, I puked up about 8 and a half pounds of undigested grapes and grandma's cooking into the kitchen sink. I mean I filled the entire sink up, it was that bad. For years after that, and I'm talking into my later teens, I was physically unable to tolerate the taste or even the smell of green grapes. Physically, it would make me nauseus. And i had once loved them. Not only that, but I could eat purple grapes just fine. I know that the reason for me not being able to tolerate the grapes was purely psychological, and eventually I did overcome it, but the instinctive physical naseus reaction to them became something that i could not control for years. Your dream reminded me a lot of this incident. It is facinating what the power of physical and emotional trauma can do.
Posted by Anonymous | November 14, 2006 1:15 AM
Posted on November 14, 2006 01:15
Sorry Optimus 2g, forgot to sign my previous comment. That was me, Mr. Mxylplyx.
Posted by Mr. Mxylplyx | November 14, 2006 1:22 AM
Posted on November 14, 2006 01:22
I used to have a lot of dreams about insects when I was younger. They were persistent until a couple of years ago, actually. Is there anything that could be symbolized by the bee that is what is haunting your dreams? Perhaps the feeling of being attacked when you are most vulnerable?
Posted by annie hall | November 18, 2006 6:17 PM
Posted on November 18, 2006 18:17