Dream Interpretation: Dreams About My Ex - The Dillusional Nightmares

No one really knows why ours dreams have the content they do. Freud thought that our dreams were symbols of our secret wishes and desires. Jung thought our dreams were more transparent, and that we could read off our wishes and desires directly from the dream content.

Dreams as Nonsense Narratives

In the 1970s, Harvard psychiatrist Allan Hobson argued that our dreams are narratives our cognitive brains string together to explain electric pulses and biochemical changes coming from the pons in the mid brain that control REM sleep.

Hobson's theory, however, was refuted when it became known that people with damages to the mid brain had dreams but no REM sleep, and that people with damages to the frontal part of the brain had REM sleep but no dreams.

Dreams as Meaningful Narratives

The most viable dream theories today is that dreams are produced in the cortical areas of the brain. They involve sensory areas (e.g., the visual cortex) and areas of the frontal lobe responsible for motivation and goal-directed behavior.

One particular area of the brain seems essential to dream creation and that is the dopamine pathway. This pathway transmits the neurotransmitter dopamine from deeper brain areas to the frontal areas. When this pathway is damaged, people have no dreams. Conversely, when this pathway is stimulated with dopamine-like drugs such as L-DOPA (used for Parkinson's), then the intensity and frequency of people's dreams increase. Low levels of serotonin are also shown to be correlated with dream intensity.

Dreams and Obsession

The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin are exactly those involved in love obsessions and obsessive-compulsive disorders. During a love obsession dopamine levels tend to be high and serotonin levels tend to be low.

So, if you are experiencing particularly vivid dreams, this could indicate that even though you don't feel pain anymore, you are still obsessing over your ex.

Our dreams tend to be created out of bits and pieces of our most recent experiences and the things we have been thinking the most about. So, while you may think you are over your ex, your brain is probably still processing the whole thing, and this then shows up in your dream contents.

To get rid of your dreams you need to stop obsessing over your ex. Suppressing your memories of him or you pain won't do the trick. You need to sever the link between your memories of him and your current emotions.