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Workaholism and Burnout

Dreams about overwork and workaholism--the most prevalent addiction here in America. Even a casual browse of this list will make it obvious the Americans have gotten to me, too--my dreams are full of warnings I work too much and play too little. And I'm locally famous for refusing to give in and get a real job... so what does that make the rest of you?

RELATED TOPICS: weird dream jobs - career advice in dreams - play - addictions and 12-step programs - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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BAD NANCY!: by "Nancy"; March 1985, a prodromal/diagnostic dream
A second me punches me in the breast. I fight back, yelling
"Bad Nancy! Bad Nancy!" Five months later I find a malignancy...
BEHIND THE SCREENS: by Wayan; 1984/2/12, a vivid sex dream that hid a warning
I hide a catgirl behind Japanese screens. We have hot sex now & then--but usually I ignore her...
CAUTION: SEX; NEGLECT
BIRD CRASH: by Emily Joy; 2007/3/12, a set of didactic nightmares
Such pressures there are on the sick to act well! I implore you, ignore them all...
CAUTION: EXPLODING TEACHER
BLEEDING HEART, the SELF-HEALING CORPSE, and IN THE FUTURE DESERT:
by Wayan; 2002/5/29 - 2004/5/11, a diagnostic, predictive dream-series; Bleeding Heart as comix
A tree-girl moves to Hollywood to make film deals, but jealousy stabs her...
CAUTION: BLOODY ASSAULT, GAY DRYADS, MUTANT NUDITY
BROKEN GLASS by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of working to death.
Helping out talking animals until I'm exhausted, I suffer a fatal accident. What am I being warned of?
CABIN IN THE SKY: by Wayan; 2005/7/25, a nervous, guilty dreamlet of escape
Bart Simpson leads me down from the Cabin in the Sky back to being... grounded?
CECY'S SUBMISSION: by Wayan; 1996/6/4, a bondage-farce dream drawn as comics.
My writer-friend Cecy will do anything to get published. Anything? Oh, believe me, ANYTHING...
CAUTION: BONDAGE, not to mention POSTAGE
CENTAUR AUDITION: by Wayan; 2012/1/7 and 2012/1/30, two linked Pygmalion dreams
Non-dream centaur ballerinas invade my dreams, because they long to be in the World Dream Bank...
CAUTION: BARBIE CENTAUR NUDITY, CASTING-COUCH OVERTONES
CHICKENS: by Wayan; 1998/6/6, a journal extract on survival
I realize how strongly environmental illness sculpts my view of the world...
CAUTION: CHICKEN BONDAGE
CHURCHES BURN WHEN YOU LEARN TO FLY: by Wayan; 1989/9/1, a didactic flying dream.
I finally learn the difference between just getting off the ground
and the mastery of true flight--but there's a heavy price...
CLASSICAL BIRDS: by Anonymous #58, 1979 or before, as told by Gayle Delaney; a wish-granted dream
I was tired and sad and mired in routine. I asked for a dream to restore my soul.
I found myself under a tree as a chorus of gorgeous birds sang classical music...
COCO CHANEL'S PUSSY: by Wayan; 2010/4/26; a film-pun-sex dream
Coco Chanel's fashion workers want me to screw Coco's cat,
so she'll stop screwing them financially...
CAUTION: SEX KITTENS
COMPLIANCE: by Wayan; 1984/12/20 & 2021/1/9, twin dreams 36 years apart showing cryptomnesia
2021: I dream I'm confessing to friends how I'm over-compliant. I wake, and start transcribing my
1984 journal. Turn the page and find a dream of a horny stallion who's disturbingly over-compliant...
CAUTION: KINKY STALLION
CRITTERS OF THE MONTANA FRONT: by Wayan, 2022/5/31, a watercolor warning dream
DAY: I admire Hannah Hinchman's watercolors of Montana and Vad Yakovlev's digital art of Equestria.
DREAM: I meet & sketch a coyote girl, a whack-a-mole mare, and a leering herder of shadowsheep...
DAD THE WORKAHOLIC: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; an emotional blowout dream
In the paper factory where my dad worked all his life, I find him on
his deathbed. Even as he fades, he's still trying to please his bosses...
DEADWOOD, or, MAO'S ONEIROLOGIST: by Wayan; 1976/4/2, a career-advisory dream-poem
The Cultural Revolution denies me the Himalayas--the spiritual heights.
So I flutter around the base of the Stairway to Heaven...
DEYUPPIFIER: by Wayan; 1985/11/6 a gleeful dream fable.
I built a sex-maze to reprogram businesspeople, but I only grasp its meaning when I fuck City Hall...
CAUTION: SEX, LANGUAGE, RADICAL POLITICS
DOG BITES CAT: by Wayan; 2015/2/17; a grating dream-poem
I get bullied into dogwalking. A biter--leaves a cat bloody. You'd think a talking dog'd listen. But Cheney...
DOG HORROR: by Wayan, 2023/1/21; a nightmare--but not the dreamer's!
I'm cold, tired and wet, and I have to take this dog to college. But when I touch him,
he howls in horror. I'm not having a nightmare, I am a nightmare. His nightmare...
DRAGONFLY BUS: by Wayan, 2023/3/28; four dreams on halting runaway feelings
A girl writes a whole movie to get a shy boy to hold her; I stupidly summon a monster dragonfly-bus;
a devil-suited jerk hogs a musical's stage TWICE; leeches crawl from the treasure-box I opened...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY, SEXUAL FEAR/GUILT
DREAM MILKING: by Wayan, 2000/6/30, a dream warning of overwork... but awake or asleep?
After a hard day getting a "free" bed, I dream my milker comes to drain my dreams.
Wait...did I agree to this? Or does milking drain objections, too?
CAUTION: CREEPY
DREAMKU, JANUARY 2007: by Roswila; various dates up to January 2007; 31 dream-poems--mostly haiku
A month of dreams full of science fiction: galactic navigation, spacedragons, oppressed fairies, alien love...
ECCENTRIC: by Wayan; 1990/5/17, a two-page dream-comic.
I'm a small planet in an eccentric orbit: a one-day summer, a two-day winter. Rest and hibernate, or...
CAUTION: SLACKER ETHIC
EDGE: by Wayan; 1992?, digital painting of a nondream vision.
A robed figure crowds a wild horse to a cliff-edge. One's my body, one's my soul. But which?...
ELIZABETH'S SOLE ESCAPE: by Wayan, 2017/7/29, a genderbent nightmare on... genes?
I'm Queen Elizabeth I, but I made a mistake--focused too much on art and culture.
Now, plotters who I overlooked smash in my bedroom door. I snatch a vial of poison...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE REFLECTS REALITY
THE EX-GODDESS: by Wayan, 2010/11/9, a dream-poem on a god in hiding--in plain sight!
I meet a forgotten goddess--outlived all her cults. Today she passes as a psychic, reads a crystalball...
CAUTION: NUDE CHALK SKETCH
FATIGUES: by Nicholas, c.1977, a punning diagnostic dream
I dreamed I was one of several soldiers about to be executed. I told my girlfriend the dream.
She asked "What were you wearing?" and I burst out laughing as I saw the pun: "Fatigues!"
FERRYGOAT: by Wayan; 2009/8/15, a dream warning what I was becoming; Dreamverse #48
That levitating bear's not tightrope-walking--she rides a goat strung like soap-on-a-rope. A goat that's me! I'm eating...
CAUTION: UGH!
FILL IN THE PIT: by Wayan; 2018/8/18, a political/practical advisory dream
The boarding school needs to fill in the old Punishment Pit. Not just archaic,
but a threat to every student. So let every student dump clay in & dance on it...
FIRE-CATS: by Wayan; 1981/10/10; twin dream-poems on over-discipline
For mere disobedience, I EXECUTE a forest-fire-fighting cat! So next
I'm trapped in a security-obsessed job; how do I like it? I flee...
FLYING UNICORNS' GIFTS: by Lily Michaud; 2007/9/5, an advice-dream inside a flying dream
Flying unicorns hang out with me and my friends, sending us
dreams full of useful advice--and more concrete gifts...
FOUR PERCEPTUAL SCREENS: by Wayan; 2018/1/24, a dream urging me to drop some armor--but not all
I dream my Doors of Perception have four layered screens to keep out mosquitoes, when one is plenty...
FREIGHTER DROPS A NUKE: by Wayan; 2021/6/8, a health-warning nightmare
Am I on this ship's bridge, or only watching on video? It matters, because that other ship
half a mile ahead just exploded, and the shockwave's about to crush us like a soda can...
CAUTION: NUCLEAR DISASTER
FRISCO GONE: by Catshall; c. 2014/10/23, a nondream haiku on a flooded city
old Frisco gone, high-rise condos obscure the view: hives for techie...
GARDENIAS: by Laurel and Frank, 1979 or before, shared marital-advice dreams
Laurel and Frank each dream the gardenia in their bedroom went
neglected & unwatered, but with care is now blooming again...
GINSBERG UNMASKED: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a diagnostic dream
Comics character Doctor Blasphemy, on stilts, bares his secret identity:
poet Allen Ginsberg! But who chopped off his missing fingers?
CAUTION: BLOODY FINGERS
HEADEGG (Black-Eyed Bird of Pain): by Wayan; 1983/10/24; acrylic painting of a headache-trance.
I was cartooning with a headache. It took over and started drawing for me...
HEALING THE RING: by Wayan; 1984/8/22, a nightmare on... anger?
I bear a Ring of Power meant to corrupt me. I cleansed it, at a cost, but can't wield it till I've read its spell...
HER CUTIE MARK: by Wayan, 2016/8/7, a dream fusing Shakespeare & My Little Pony
After seeing The Tempest with a tattooed Miranda, I dream she has a Cutie Mark on her flank--
a logo showing her life-purpose, her life-path. Except she's outgrowing it...
CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
HERON CATCHES ARROWS: by Wayan, 2023/3/31, a shamanic dream based on a pun
I'm a great blue heron with hands and human speech. A hunter fires arrows at me,
but I'm fast and can catch them. They're costly, so I demand a bargain with him...
CAUTION: ABOUT EMOTIONAL ABUSE
I LET RATS: by Wayan; 1994/4/22, a nightmare on appeasement.
A bold rat comes right up to me. I don't want to provoke it, so I stay quiet. And let the rats...
CAUTION: UGH!
ICARIAN PAIN: by Wayan; 1982/10/19, a dream of flight, shyness and pinching yourself.
I meet some cute dancers, but rather than flirt, I just try ballet leaps too. I get more than I bargained for...
INDUSTRY'S SHORE: by Wayan; 2008/9/24, a dream poem; Dreamverse #30
In the hills above a polluted shore, I find hidden valleys with huge rare trees, and realize it's my choice...
IS SOLITUDE HOLY?: by Wayan; 1998; a watercolor on dreamwork's isolation.
When I compare Julia Butterfly up her tree with those hermits who sat atop columns in the desert...
"IT WAS MY BABY": by Janie Legge; 1927/1/15, a nightmare after the flu?
I admire a baby, and talk the tired mother into washing it. I go get some
clean baby clothes and return to find she's roasting her baby in the oven...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE, DENIAL
JUST SAY NOSE: by Wayan; 1989, nondream digital poster-poem-rant.
What really built Silicon Valley? Oh, pizza, sugar, coffee, speed and cocaine, mostly...
CAUTION: DRUGS ON THE JOB
KITTY WANTS TO DIE: by Wayan; 1981/11/9, a nightmare baring a side of me ready to DIE to avoid stuff
Kitty, exhausted, stops fighting what's inside her, and lets herself die.
Crystalline alien worms burst out, growing till they loom over the spaceport...
CAUTION: ADDICTION ROOTED IN AVOIDANCE
LEARNING SCALES: by Wayan; 1985/6/26, an epic dream of Chinese dragons.
I find myself in astral China. The Empress is banished, the Jester rules. Wisdom is lost.
We need an Imperial Dragon...
MARABOU MONSTER: by Rustling Leaves; dreamed 2014/3/15
I've got too many obligations, an elderly relative to care for, and now giant birds are invading my house.
CAUTION: STALKING, KILLER BIRDS
MENAGE A THREE, MOVE TO PAREE: by Wayan; 1986? Sketch of recurrent dream theme
I was a young dream-artist out of place in the Silicon Valley...
MOM THINKS I'M ON A LEASH: by Wayan, 2019/3/10; an unheeded warning dream
My late mom Marcy shows up at work. "Check in weekly or we'll stop your allowance."
But my parents don't support me! I left my family and earn my own pay. No leash! I refuse.
Months later, as I recover from serious work-induced illness, I see the dream wasn't about
family values (ugh). What I needed to check in with was... mortality. Was death.
MOON-STRIPED TIGER PROWLING: by Sylvia Rosen, 1975/6/29; dream poem
The foul old fossil woman had carved and burnt her own flesh in the name of art;
we washed her till she was reborn young. It was my turn next to enter the water...
MY NEW PASSPORT: by Gayle Delaney, 1972/8/21, a life-changing dream
Why does my passport have color photos of me ice skating? I haven't in years. Your
passport must show your true face. Should I change it, or do they know me better than...
CAUTION: SHAMANIC SYNCHRONICITY
NIP OFF HIS NOSE: by Wayan, 2020/2/20, four surreal dreamlets about Covid? or... overwork?
1: I sketch two deer-girls making videos. 2: I pull a man's nose off, and milk the scene for drama before...
3: My old boss is convicted of murder! 4: I wake and two friends interpret #3 as "Overwork is killing you..."
I wake again. My dream-notebook's blank. No friends here; their interpretation was a dream too....
CAUTION: NUDE DEER
NO VACATIONS?: by Wayan; 1999/8/14, a spiritual nightmare.
Before I was born, I set up this life to learn loneliness, boredom and fear. Good move, soul! No vacations?
OVARIES: by "Ann", as told by Gayle Delaney, 1979 or before, a curative dream
Ann had inflamed ovaries and faced surgery. She asked her dreams for a second opinion. She dreamt of voices and images saying
"there's plenty of time for all this." She bathed peacefully in a river, meditated, gave easy birth to an infant, climbed a ladder to
her law degree. She woke cured. Her next doctor said "you must've been misdiagnosed; you just thought you were in pain."
CAUTION: SEXIST GASLIGHTING
PAPA: by Hélène Cixous; 1996/5/15; a revenant dream on workaholism
I'm in my papa's waiting room. I beg him to take a break from his patients now that he's dead, and walk with me...
PINKIE CLEANS THE WINDOWS OF PERCEPTION:
by Wayan; 2017/2/5, an advisory dream fusing Aldous Huxley & My Little Pony.
My new housemate Pinkie is a party animal, but she's really nice. She climbs a high ladder to help wash my
Windows of Perception. Then our unicorn friend Rarity walks in. She warns me to pace this renovation project...
CAUTION: PONIES
PIPES AND TIME: by Wayan; 2017/12/21, a dream of the far future that came true next day
A timetraveler shows me a hotspring shrunk to a quarter of its old flow.
Valves? Pipes? Or drought, from climate change? This IS the future.
A day later, a local main breaks, and our water flow shrinks to a quarter of normal...
PIXY CONCUSSION: by Wayan; 2006/3/11, a diagnostic sex-dream comic, 9 p. (or illus. text)
Janet's obsessed with a creepy guy till her pixy friend Kay decides to "knock some sense into her cunt"--literally...
CAUTION: LANGUAGE, NASTY LOVE SPELL, PIXIE NUDITY
RACK: by Wayan; 2006/4/4; a comic business-bondage dream
My friend Chris gets tied up at the office--that’s his job, looking martyred! But when the boss is away...
CAUTION: NUDITY
REBORN IMMORTAL: by Reneta Scian; 2010/1/3, a three-stage flying dream
First I try to break the sound barrier like my girlfriend. Nope!
Then I fly slowly to her apartment. Nothing flashy, but I make it.
Last, I zoom back to ancient China, where I find a candle-lit shrine dedicated to... me?
REST TOO: by Wayan; 1999/5/5. Acrylic on 12" LP; a life-sketch with a lesson.
The mysterious glyphs above the model's head are dream-language, warning me to...
CAUTION: NUDITY
SILKY SHIELDS A VANDAL: by Wayan; 1994/8/6, a cautionary dream.
I'm a kid in a classroom someone's trashed. Our teacher goes ballistic. But was the gypsy girl framed?
SILKY'S MASSAGE: by Wayan; 1981/2/2, a dream on workaholism, with 2/16 follow-up
I tried to cartoon a joyful dream but nightmares kept intruding. Finally, aching, I half-slept...
My spirit guide Silky came, and said the obvious, and stretched my sore neck and back...
CAUTION: NUDE ANIMAL DANCE TROUPE
SLAVES DON'T DANCE: by Wayan; 1999/8/1, a 17-page Shakespearean dream-comic (or ill. text)
Stolen by the Fairy Queen, I'm forced to nurse her great project: creating life! But her synthetic baby is...
SLEEPERS ALL: by Wayan; 2008/8/22, a dream poem, Dreamverse #12
I dream I'm an insomniac trapped in a flat full of snoring writers and reporters. Wait a minute...
SO ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION: by Wayan; 1990? Lost digital picture-poem restored.
I had a horrible realization that computers are useless, and I tried to make it beautiful...
SORTING HAT, DRUNKEN CAT: by Wayan; 2013/10/18, a steadily mutating warning-dream
I discover a Sorting Hat, as in Harry Potter--and it moves in with us. Our cat crawls in and plays peekaboo.
She becomes a teenager eager to get drunk at Thanksgiving--like every adult in her life. But she's not
puking drunk like them, so she must be OK! Just as I think I am--I only overwork to exhaustion.
CAUTION: DRUNK TEEN CAT, SEVERELY ALCOHOLIC ADULTS
SPOCK'S SPIRITS: by Wayan; 2000/3/12, a financial-advice dream.
Lost in a dark maze of machine-shops, I follow Mr. Spock, who's drunk, and talks to tree-spirits...
CAUTION: ALCOHOL AS INSPIRATION?
SPORECOUNT: by Wayan; 1990/1/5, a dreamtale on patience through change.
I'm a hot archeology student till I open the wrong tomb. A plague
turns us into green moldy monsters--at first...
CAUTION: DISEASE, DEATH, GRIEF, SHAME
STEAMROLLER: by Richard Wilbur, late 20th Century; an embarrassing dream.
As the steamroller flattened me I became quite a lovely stained-glass window...
STINKING RICH: by Wayan; 1993/1/20, a dream about class rage. Stupid class rage.
I envy and resent a rich family's mansion so much I break in and sabotage their giant meat freezer...
CAUTION: HOSTILITY, ENVY, WASTE OF BAD FOOD
SURVIVOR'S CURIOUS: by Wayan; 2010/7/7, a dream of an inner guard relaxing
As we cross a scary ledge, my tough survival-guide, always no-nonsense before,
finally willing to consider... intellectualism, dating, ethics... fun?
TAROT: MINE CHILD: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
Deep in the strata inside you, gems lie waiting in the dark for this child to dig them free...
TAROT: REST!: by Wayan; Tarot card, 3x5", summer 1978.
The card of fatigue and rest. Tarot's so primal--never a dull moment. Well, take a break...
TIGER DIALOGUES: 1973-4 by Ann Faraday, plus a dreamlet by John Wren-Lewis; recurring dreams
When I overwork, neglecting my body's wants, I dream of an angry tiger. Over
time, I've learned (mostly) to feed my tiger, and sometimes he's an ally now...
TRUST YOUR CANOE: by Wayan; 2012/8/16, two diagnostic dreamlets
I ride a magical self-guiding canoe, seeking the right beach and cove for me.
Even when the boat climbs hills so I can explore inland, I expect it to fail...
UNCLE MAC'S SECRET GENIUS: by Andrea McFarland, 2023/1/22, a surreal dream
My uncle Mac has a secret scheme to free us all from the Rat Race, but
his dancing mouse-headed robots (and climate change) get out of hand...
AN UNPRODUCTIVE SQUIRREL: by Wayan; 2013/11/27, an advisory shamanic dreamlet
I meet a giant squirrel. But a Committee condemns the squirrel for such long periods
of unproductive hibernation. The squirrel points out a teensy flaw...
VERITY, TOO?: by Wayan; 2000/11/5, a comic nightmare with good advice--if I avoid Freud!
My art mentors turn on me! My mom the painter says I'm genetically inferior,
and then my art teacher Verity sits on my head (ow!) and chants...
WAYAN SAYS: by Wayan; dreamed 1986/5/23 & 1991/7/25, silkpainting 1992/5/9, digital 1994/2/25
I'm a lean loose cheetah who works best in short bursts
and long lazy rests. If I start acting human, I overwork...
THE WEEPING BRAIN: by Wayan; 2010/12/5; an anti-workaholic nightmare poem
My sister just bought a biocomputer: an enslaved human brain in a box of weeping skin...
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED: by a Coon Rapids woman, early 1993; a psychic, near-lifesaving dream
I dreamed my husband told me he'd been in a car crash and was in a frozen ditch not visible
from the road near our house. I woke and called 911 who found him just twenty minutes later...
WINK OF A CAR: by Wayan; 2009/5/20, a surreal dream on workaholism.
DAY: I work way too much--art projects plus helping a friend get her lost data back...
DREAM: A gun nut threatens me, so I claim I bent his gun. Really I just bent spacetime.
He flees atop his toy car, letting it steer--it's smarter than he is. That car winks at me...
WOLF, NO WOLF: by Wayan; 1996/7/24, a nondream rant on place.
Is there really that much difference between the rootless yuppies flooding the West, and war refugees?


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