Section Gee! Advice, Humor, Comics, Horoscope, Kids : In Your Dreams : She May Be Running From Job Stress

Dear Cynthia: I’m 28. I work very hard at a job I love but in which I have yet to advance. I have a loving family and wonderful friends.

I’ve been having a recurring dream for about 10 years. It involves me being chased.

The house I lived in while I was a child is often the place I’m being chased in or from.

Once, a huge dinosaur was chasing me, another time I was being chased by men in fatigues, and most recently I dreamed a renegade family was chasing me. I never recognize the chasers, and sometimes someone from my family is with me being chased too. I usually wake up the split second before I’m caught with a super-fast heartbeat.

--LAURA

Los Angeles

Dear Reader: Being chased is a common theme in dreams and nightmares.

Often we are actually being pursued or pressured in our waking state, perhaps by a demanding boss or unreasonable partner. Or the creature chasing you could be symbolic for a part of your self, such as your own high expectations. It could also indicate a circumstance--such as a deadline catching up with you.

When a dinosaur is chasing you, it may be big, scary and powerful--but dinosaurs in the language of dreams represent outlived ideas. Uncomfortable memories could fall into this category.

Men in fatigues could represent the male characteristics of yourself; you may have rigid ideas about things generally associated with the “male” responsibilities. This could represent your anxiety about not being further along in your career.

Renegades have abandoned one way of believing or living for another. Since a member of your family is sometimes with you, and your childhood home is also a recurring feature, it may be that you have this dream when you are rethinking goals begun in childhood.

Some of these goals may make you feel like a traitor for changing your mind.

Since you began having the dream about the time you presumably graduated and entered the work force, determining ways in which you can relieve stress associated with your career should help.

Fax your dreams to Cynthia Richmond at (213) 237-0732 or e-mail them to in.your.dreams@worldnet.att.net. Please include your hometown and a daytime phone number. “In Your Dreams” appears every Tuesday and should be read for entertainment purposes only.