I have two versions of the same recurring dream/nightmare.
In one I am in my underwear and far from home and hiding so nobody sees me in my underwear as I try to get back home.
In the other I find myself on foot on deserted streets in a really bad neighborhood late at night and am trying to get home alive with no one seeing me.
A long time ago I would often have that that dream of being in just my underwear and trying to get back home!
As a kid I used to throw a tennis ball against the stair wall that led down stairs (to the spooky basement). I had a recurring dream that when I dropped the ball and had to go downstairs to get it the trolls would chase me.
I would run to the stairs but then the stairs would flatten out and I would slide down back to the trolls. It always ended just as I was in their grasp.
One night the dream kept going after the stairs flattened out, but the trolls didn’t get me. I grabbed on to the stair railing and pulled myself up and escaped the trolls.
I never had that dream again! I was probably around 12.
The basement remained spooky though!!
I mentioned the dream to my brother maybe 10 years ago. He said he had a similar dream of trying to climb a sand dune, but the sand just keeps giving way and he keeps sliding down. He said he still gets that dream once in awhile.
He thought it was always striving to live up to mom and dad’s expectations. Maybe. I’m not sure I ever felt that pressure from them. And he was and is very successful with the perfect home and family - much more so than me.
Perhaps it is just because I don’t care what others think of me, and figured that out at a young age. Or, it was just a goofy dream that I figured out.