feature story assignment;

Dreams;
Weed, Meth, E, Crack, Coke, Heroin… you know them, you might have taken them, but have you ever had a dream while on them? I interviewed this guy that used to be addicted to drugs and has had many dreams while on some of these drugs. He did not wish his name to be said; so to protect his privacy I will call him Richard Henderson*. I sat down with Henderson and asked him, “What are dreams on drugs like?” he was quite, “nightmarish” he responded shortly, he told me that dreams on the drugs he had taken, mostly E, were warped, He described his normal dreams like beautiful works of imagination, he feels that normal dreams are a type of déjà vu. When he is on his drugs, he says his dreams are un-realistic, and sees things that would never normally happen; one of his frequent recurring dreams while on E was him taking an elevator to hell, it wasn’t the normal hell with the evil looking stereotypical devil, but instead of flames, the whole ground was lava, it had no real floor. On another dream, he told me that he made ‘peace’ with this girl he disliked from elementary school. Henderson stated at one point that when he isn’t on drugs while he is sleeping, they will show up in his dreams, he will find himself dreaming of smoking weed or popping a pill. He says they are so life like, when you can’t wake up; it really feels like your own in your ‘dream” world. He told me, there was one dream where he was hanging out at a park with a bunch of his rave friends and he knew something wrong, but he couldn’t wake himself up. He was married in the dream and he had tried everything; splashing his face with cold water, screaming, hitting/pinching… etc. Finally after nothing would work he decided to kill himself. It was the only thing that worked, but he was so scared to fall back asleep. That was his last time doing drugs before bed. He says it is the worst more scariest thing ever do to. He suggests that no one does it on purpose. Recurring dreams are most common with people who have post-traumatic stress disorder, so, its possible that people on drugs may have the same types of problems, which is why Henderson had those dreams.


*fake name to protect.