10 Common Nightmares (And What They Actually Mean)

3. Being Chased Or Attacked

Scariest dream, ever. In dreams of being chased and/or attacked, we're forced into a genuinely scary situation in which we are caught between the age-old 'fight or flight' response of either fighting back against our attacker, or running from it in an attempt to escape the situation altogether. Absolutely terrifrying, we can all admit. What It Means... Dreams in which the dreamer is being chased and/or attacked is usually symptomatic of feelings of worry, panic, and anxiety in its truest form. Freud himself, a noted psychoanalytic psychologist who stated dreams were mental symbolisms of subconscious anguish, suggested that dreams in which someone is being pursued or attacked indicates that the dreamer has a strong level of fear and insecurity in how they are dealing with a situation, forcing them to run away from it in the dreamscape.These kinds of dreams often emerge as the result of long-term or intense stress situations, forcing the dreamer to take a look at their life, which areas those fears and stressors may exist, and where they can hopefully be alleviated.