Oh, okay, I see why Macmillan said you should talk to me.
Most of the time, what you're seeing in dreams isn't really telling you anything about the future. It's telling you something about yourself. Your mind will tend to visit and revisit certain things: traumas. Things that you avoid thinking about when you're awake. Things that worry you on some very basic level. When you are very anxious about one thing, your dreams will sometimes visit an entirely different thing that makes you anxious, that's why the Healer thought it was related to NEWTs.
From what I understand, Divination students have to learn to sort out all those sorts of things from the dreams they do have. Or all their predictions would be completely useless, since even when people have The Inner Eye (which Professor Carpenter thinks anyone can develop, but I've read that's not what most scholars believe) most of their dreams aren't prophetic. Or have a tiny prophetic ingredient mixed in with everything else.
So, if you're dreaming about Umbridge, and Umbridge making you do horrible things, I don't think this is exam anxiety. You followed the news and read the newspapers and all the rest, so you've had plenty of cause lately to think about people having to do things that are not something they would choose to do or would, normally, ever do. I expect that's part of what's bothering you, and why you're revisiting Umbridge every night.
It would probably help if you face it full on, the things you don't want to think about, and talk them through, with Macmillan or another friend (or me, if you'd like). Also, I can give you a potion that will help you to relax at night; that might help. (It's not Dreamless Sleep, it's just something you add a little of to tea.) If you're sleeping better, you'll have an easier time paying attention in class, I'm sure.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2015-02-19 09:19 pm (UTC)Most of the time, what you're seeing in dreams isn't really telling you anything about the future. It's telling you something about yourself. Your mind will tend to visit and revisit certain things: traumas. Things that you avoid thinking about when you're awake. Things that worry you on some very basic level. When you are very anxious about one thing, your dreams will sometimes visit an entirely different thing that makes you anxious, that's why the Healer thought it was related to NEWTs.
From what I understand, Divination students have to learn to sort out all those sorts of things from the dreams they do have. Or all their predictions would be completely useless, since even when people have The Inner Eye (which Professor Carpenter thinks anyone can develop, but I've read that's not what most scholars believe) most of their dreams aren't prophetic. Or have a tiny prophetic ingredient mixed in with everything else.
So, if you're dreaming about Umbridge, and Umbridge making you do horrible things, I don't think this is exam anxiety. You followed the news and read the newspapers and all the rest, so you've had plenty of cause lately to think about people having to do things that are not something they would choose to do or would, normally, ever do. I expect that's part of what's bothering you, and why you're revisiting Umbridge every night.
It would probably help if you face it full on, the things you don't want to think about, and talk them through, with Macmillan or another friend (or me, if you'd like). Also, I can give you a potion that will help you to relax at night; that might help. (It's not Dreamless Sleep, it's just something you add a little of to tea.) If you're sleeping better, you'll have an easier time paying attention in class, I'm sure.