I have had reoccurring nighmares since childhood. It wasn't until my mid thirties that I learned how to stop them. By that time, it was imperative that I understand and control them as I was struggling with some severe emotional issues and had become dangerously depressed.

These are the things that I learned by studying the subject.

1. Dreams are your mind's way of trying to open an inner dialog about the things you are suppressing.
2. Everyone in your dream, even people you know, are interpretations of yourself. Your mother, your husband, your priest, whoever, these are really aspects of yourself.
3. Most nightmares involve a person or thing that is identifiable as the enemy or the source of great fear. Even that dream enemy is a representation of yourself.
4. A reoccurring dream is most likely triggered by the reoccurance of a similar feeling or event that happens in your wake life. For instance, if something happens that makes you feel inadequate or helpless, it is likely to to trigger the same dream that you had the last time you felt the same way. However, you may not have the dream until several days after that event.
5. There is a tribe of aborigines, and I can't remember which one, that teach their children to meet their dream enemy face to face and then to demand a present from him. I tried it, it really works.and was always delightfully surprised by the present.
6. If you are unable to control your dreams while in the dream state, you can try lucid dreaming which is a process of revisiting your dream while in a state of relaxation.

The most persistent reoccurring dream that I had started when I was maybe seven or eight years old and continued until I was almost forty. It was really a series of dreams for they were never exactly the same but they all started the same way. I must have had it a million times, or at least it seemed that way. I call the series, the Stone King Dreams.

I was dressed like Alice in Wonderland and about eight years old. I was in the main entrance of my ancestral home facing a broad staircase. But I wasn't allowed upstairs and the way was guarded by a stone statue of a king. Eventually, I reasoned that the the king was only a statue and couldn't really hurt me, so I sneaked past him and went upstairs. That is when the nightmare started.

The really bad thing about these dreams is that I knew as soon as my foot stepped on the staircase, I was going to have a terrible nightmare. And I couldn't stop myself.

Finally, the nightmare chased me back downstairs and I tripped at the top of the stairs, flew over the top of the king and landed on my hands and knees on the floor by the door, And then, I ran away because I knew the king was mad at me for not obeying and I felt he was coming to life and was going to chase me. I didn't look back.

The last time I had that dream, I decided to look back. The king had awakened but he was still standing by the staircase. I walked over to him and demanded a gift. He gave me an emerald, which is my birthstone. I broke it open and inside was blackness. Then the king broke apart and from inside him came all the moaning and suffering sounds that I could ever imagine.

But then I realized that upstairs, were the rooms that held all the things I feared and the king held all the pain that I suppressed. He was never there to forbid me, only to protect me. He was the guardian, but not the guardian of those rooms above me. He was my guardian and I had put him there to isolate myself from the fear, that as a child, I had been unable to deal with.

Afterward, I was able to revisit all those nightmares and recognize the trigger. It was always some incident that I stood silently by and watched and never protested. It is amazing how much more empowered I became after I got to the root of the problem.

For a very long time, I struggled against suicidal depression and it was understanding my reoccurring dreams that led me to safety. I wish you well. Just remember, that you are only trying to talk to yourself. If you think knowing more will help, you can always email me.