Gross, very disturbing dream involving blood and periods (sorry)

Hi everyone, this is my very first post on these forums so I'm not quite sure what to expect. Basically, a few nights ago I had the most eery dream. This is everything I can remember...
First I remember heading to an art class at my High School, which I haven't been back to in almost three years, with my old Art Teacher, Miss C. Miss C was absent from the class room, apparently because she had to go to the toilet, and so myself and the rest of our class traipsed upstairs to a different Art class room where another one of my old art teachers, Miss T was. I never liked Miss T very much. She wasn't abusive or anything, she was just quite moody and bitter and made me feel vulnerable. In the dream, Miss T had put on a lot of weight. At this point in the dream, I just felt a bit empty, lonely and melancholy. For some reason I found a sense of pride in the fact that I was going back to my old art class after all these years; I wanted Miss C to know that we hadn't forgotten her and we could still maintain a connection from the past. I wasn't totally enamoured by Miss C either, she had her downfalls, but she was always kind and supportive of my work and I liked her a lot more then Miss T. Anyway, so now I'm in Miss T's class room and I need to go to the toilet. She tells me that the toilet is up one floor. When I reached the top of the stairs, the the building looked completely different. It was no longer the "Art-Block" of my old High School, but it resembled a mountain-restaurant at a ski resort I've been to many times. It wasn't exactly the same, but very similar. So I found the toilet and went to the very end cubical. I don't think there was anyone inside at this point. I happened to be on my period, and (this is when the gross part happens) when I went to put my used pad in the sanitary bin, somehow it got stuck to another used pad and I ended up with my right arm completely covered in used pads. I was absolutely disgusted and repulsed and terrified. I desperately tried to rip them off but they wouldn't budge. I hobbled out of the cubicle (don't know why I hobbled, but I felt weak and tired, almost like a zombie). I realised that I was naked and only wearing an oversized t-shirt. I felt ugly, very vulnerable, slightly angry and wildly repulsed by my appearance. At this point, the pads were no longer on my arm, but the same arm was all cut up and bloody. My whole arm was covered in cherry red blood. As I approached the exit of the toilet, hobbling in pain, I saw that their were about 3 older men sitting in chairs by the exit. They were sitting kinda near the mirror/sink area of the toilet. I turned to face them, terrified of how vulnerable and exposed I must have looked to them and I purposely tried to scare one of them by making a kind of wild noise and jolting bloody my arm towards them. The man reacted to me and looked frightened and I immediately cowered in shame like a little puppy, holding my wounded arm towards my body. Then the man (he must have been around 60), started beckoning me to come towards him. I refused to. I didn't really think he could help me or even wanted to help me. He didn't look sympathetic. He just wanted me to come towards him. So now for some reason the bathroom is flooded with water. I reached for my iPhone, which was on a table underneath the water and pulled it up. It was still working. I wanted to see if anyone in my art class had texted me to ask where I was, and they hadn't. Then I woke up.

Background info!
So a few days before this dream my period ended. Over the Christmas holidays, I had growth-spurt where my body composition changed a lot and I feel like a woman now. At first this change was a bit upsetting to me, because I thought I'd just gained weight or something (my clothes fit differently). I used to have a very waif-ish figure and I found security in looking like a little girl, even though part of me didn't like it. I was like shit, I should really be taking better care of myself and exercising and eating better. But then when one of my friends me that I looked great and that it was a "New Year- New Me", I realised I truly had just had a growth spurt and was really excited about it. I really like my body now. I just feel more mature and attractive. I am still very thin naturally, but I just look older, with bigger boobs. About 4 months ago I started studying at a music school in London. I moved from a different country by myself and am living without my parents for the first time. I've been thrust into a very new, stimulating and intense environment and everything still feels a bit surreal. I'm having to discern what I truly want for my life. Despite the difficulties it's been the most amazing and transformative experience of my life. I've been pining over a guy in class for months now and I'm starting to think he's not the person I had dreamed up in my head, which is quite a hard pill to swallow. I'm having to slowly let go to that attachment to him.

Gosh I hope that wasn't too long... thanks for reading!

That was quite a dream, I have to admit. It sounds like different threatening things that bring out your insecurities were there. It was as if one led into the other. Then towards the end it all culminated in noticing you were naked. Being naked in public is a very common thing to occur in dreams when feeling unsure and scared.

It sounds like you have a lot of changes happening in your life, and I suppose that seeing your old school was something of a bittersweet experience. Changes are a good thing in one sense, you get to have new experiences, but there is also the chance of things not going the way you want them to. There was the seen in the school that was the old and familiar, and then the scene in the stall, that was the new and unfamiliar. The blood surely was frightening and unnerving and it seems to have to do with the changes you mentioned in the background information section.

I'm guessing when it comes to the iPhone but it seems to me to symbolize security, a connection to your old friends. None of them texted though, but you went to them after seeing and making it past those threatening men. Despite the phone having been submerged in water, it still worked.

To me it seems that many different elements in your life came to a head in this dream and made it a very powerful experience. These are just my initial thoughts and are pretty superficial. I hope they give you some different viewpoints that open the dream up for you. I might have some parts dead wrong but maybe something clicks with you.

I wish the best for you in your new life situation!

It’s great that you’ve provided a lot of background information because doing so always helps to provide a more accurate interpretation.

As you outlined, you’re away from your parents for the first time and in a very intense music school environment where things feel a bit surreal.

So it’s safe to say that your upsetting dream is all the same trying to help you regain a feeling of stability and centeredness in the face of all this by probably trying to rebalance certain attitudes and values etc. that maybe are being too strongly influenced by your environment.

For example, the dream takes you back to High School and to art classes which you enjoyed.

There, a kind of “choice” is presented symbolically between the generally kind and supportive Miss C vs. the moody and bitter Miss T who, instead of making you feel good about yourself, made you feel vulnerable.

Miss C is missing, having gone to the toilet, perhaps implying that she doesn’t shy away from allowing normal bodily functions to be taken care of no matter at what time they may appear.

This has the symbolical dimension, for example, of “peeing” which medically speaking is called “the expression of urine”.

On analogy, this links “peeing” with allowing ourselves to feel our emotions instead of “keeping them in”. If a person curtails urination for much too long, this can have serious medical consequences. In an equivalent way, slowing down or even preventing the flow of emotions can have damaging psychological results.

So you and the others must go to a higher level to another art class, implying perhaps the idea of “going further up” in an intellectual sense and further away from the “ground” floor which is closer per se to your instinctive side.

There at this “higher intellectual level” you meet once more the embittered Miss T. Perhaps unfortunately, the outer woman was like that from having been cut off from her natural emotional side too much.

Near her, you feel a bit empty, lonely and melancholy, perhaps the dream’s way of hinting that you might have to be careful not to let your feeling side be ignored too much or the same type of thing could happen to you that happened to her.

She’s put on a lot of weight, maybe hinting at the fact she’s “out of balance” with her instinctive side, allowing her body to become “slower” and “out of trim” as it were. For instance, many people consume sweet foods to unconsciously compensate for not feeling enough the natural, warm, sweet feelings of loving themselves.

The dream shows you as having a sense of pride in wanting to visit Miss C again and to maintain a connection with her, probably meaning that you should maintain a strong connection with your own sense of feeling good about yourself through thick and thin.

You need to go to the toilet which is another floor “up” again, but even further “up” and away from the “ground” by turning out to be on a mountain top, suggesting symbolically the clear, cold air and blue skies of an overly intellectual attitude that’s too far away from emotion.

Here, the dream begins a much more intense phase which essentially revolves around the image of menstrual blood.

In a way, perhaps the dream is hinting symbolically at the need to leave a kind of “routine” approach to your periods and to sense more fully the deeply spiritual dimension of menstruation.

For example, deep-seated traditional myths and practices etc. often emphasize the curative and fertilizing properties of menstrual blood and these ideas spontaneously appear in the dreams of modern women.

Symbolically, this means that if a woman can remain in contact with her feminine “tides” (as related to the lunar month of menstruation instead of “mechanical”, “atomic clock” time), she is more likely to be led into herself and to hear subtle hints of new “life” at organic, intellectual and creative levels.

In contrast, cultural legacies persisting in the music school might be tending to push you away too much from listening to your natural, feminine self and its deep contact with all forms of “creativity”.

This might be expressed symbolically by the used pads becoming disgustingly attached to your right arm.

Possibly, an inner conflict is forming between a more responsive feminine side of you (Miss C) and a more detached and non-feeling side of you (Miss T).

In this scenario, certain unpleasant symptoms (pads sticking to your arm) might be kind of “fighting back” to retain a greater “feminine” presence albeit in an upsetting way, maybe through upsetting emotions like worry and fear etc. that sometimes might be appearing.

And perhaps you’re feeling more tired than you normally should be even in your challenging environment, and there could even be a danger that obsessive thoughts about a negative body image might appear if you’re not careful to nurture your innate feminine side more often (e.g. you’re virtually naked and feel ugly etc.).

If so, this would tend to disrupt even further your connection to outer world activities (as symbolized by your “right” arm being cut, bleeding and almost useless).

The three older men sitting in the washroom could represent an “inappropriate” influx of negative self-hurtful judgements and opinions along the lines of “Why on earth are you studying music when you haven’t got one iota of talent?” etc. etc.

Perhaps your assertiveness skills need bolstering because, although an almost instinctive and healthy reaction to stand up for yourself occurs (you warn off the man with a wild noise and brandishing of your bloody arm), you weaken too soon and have to deal again with his beckoning to you. (If this idea seems to fit in with your own situation, you might like the book “Asserting Yourself” by Bower and Bower).

The flood in the toilet might be hinting at the possibility that “uncontrolled” emotions, say, of worry or anxiety etc. could possibly appear on the scene too often.

The crux of any underlying problem apparently could be about “relationship” because the dream ends with the apparent “not-caring” of your friends who don’t seem to have missed you.

So to sum up, the dream might be urging you to always keep up a close connection with your own internal feelings and values as opposed to sacrificing them to perhaps certain “outer” values that aren’t really “you”.

Anyway, without knowing anything much about you, this way of looking at your disturbing dream might not fit your actual circumstances very well, but I hope these ideas can be helpful in some way.

Please feel free to ask any questions or to make any comments about this particular way of looking at your dream.