You may have suddenly just woken up from a dream feeling so anxious. And then you remember that you dreamed about hurting someone.
Maybe there was a lot of violence in the dream, like shouting hurtful words, or maybe the energy was just really negative and angry. Maybe you even dreamed that you were physically hurting another person.
These could understandably make you feel heavy, sad, or even tired. Read on to understand what these dreams about hurting someone could actually mean.
What Could Hurting Someone Represent in A Dream?
Hurting someone in your dream could be representative of a lot of things. Here are some possibilities:
Symbolic of feeling out of control
A lot of times in our waking life, we could find ourselves in situations that we may not really be happy about. We may feel stuck, like we would rather be somewhere else instead of where we are.
We could feel unfulfilled, and that we have so much to offer if only we were in a different situation, but instead, we are trapped in our current situation. This could be in a professional setting.
Another would be in a personal relationship. We could feel that we are not happy with our family situation, our romantic partnership, or even with our group of friends.
We feel like we have no choice but to ride it out and take everything in, even if we just really want to leave or be separated from it all.
Holding these emotions inside may be the cause of our dreams of hurting someone. Maybe someone has hurt us in our waking lives and we don’t really know how to proceed, or retaliate. We don’t want to do that either, so everything gets expressed in our dreams.
Symbolic of repressed feelings
The symbolism of this dream is a bit related to the first one. You may be harboring a grudge towards someone you are close to but for some reason, are not able to express it properly.
Or you feel you don’t have a choice but to live with this behavior you don’t particularly like. These repressed feelings are letting themselves out through your dreams, through hurting that particular person in your life.
Symbolic of non-forgiveness
Again, this is a bit related to the second symbol of a dream of hurting someone. You may be harboring ill feelings towards someone and have not forgiven that person.
You probably haven’t dealt with your ill feelings and part of you just wants to retaliate. In your dream, your non-forgiveness towards that person and wanting to hurt them back is probably manifesting in this way.
Symbolic of worry
Sometimes, when you are feeling anxious of the future in general, it could just manifest as you dreaming of hurting someone to let out these feelings that are a bit heavy. It is your way of venting out what you are feeling, or letting it out.
Symbolic of pent up energy
There may be tendencies in you that you are not giving life to, and it could be expressing itself through hurting someone else in your dream.
For example, you may be predisposed to expending a lot of physical energy through sports or something related to that in your waking life, but do not get as many chances to do so.
Dreaming of hurting someone could be representative of all the pent-up energy you don’t get to expend but would like to.
Common Situations in Which You Dream About Hurting Someone
These violent dreams come in many different forms. The following are some common situations that you may dream about hurting someone, and their possible explanations:
Dream of hurting a family member
This kind of dream means that you may be carrying repressed feelings towards that particular family member. Take a look at how you feel when you interact with each other in your waking life.
Is there something about this person that irritates you but you don’t know exactly what? Or maybe you have been embroiled in a misunderstanding which still hasn’t been settled until now?
Check how you feel with this particular person and see if there is anything that needs to be resolved, and if there is a way to get to that resolution more constructively.
Dream of hurting your children
This may be representative of feeling resentment towards something that is mostly innocent. Maybe something has been done to you with no intention of wanting to hurt you, but you got hurt anyway.
And you don’t know what to do because you can’t retaliate, but at the same time, you still feel bad about what happened.
Dreaming about hurting animals
This may be symbolic of other repressed anger or negativity you have that you find hard to address. It may also be about you worrying about something but you are not quite sure which thing that is in particular.
It may be good to do some legitimate introspection on your situation in order to see what is making you anxious or what is bothering you in your waking life, so that you can become more targeted in your approach towards resolving it.
Dream of yelling at someone with hurtful words
There may be some unresolved issues in your relationship with this person. The words you are using signify the hurt or the betrayal you feel. The more intense your shouting, the more insecure you may be feeling about your relationship with this person.
As you wake up, check to see if this is something you can still do actively in order to resolve this issue, if there really is one between you and the person you are shouting at.
If there is nothing to talk about really, it may be good to meditate and seek ways to calm yourself and try to alleviate the anxieties you feel towards this person or situation.
Dream about defending yourself
You may have dreamt of someone hurting you and so you had to hurt them back. This could also be symbolic of being in a harmful or one-sided relationship in your waking life.
Maybe you are with an abusive partner or family member, who may be toxic and just sucks the life out of you.
This dream could be a sign that you should take control of the situation and stand your ground. Maybe you could even consider physically separating yourself from that person if you have to.
Dream of hurting someone in war
This could mean that you are facing a lot of complications in your waking life and are not very happy with the way you are handling things.
This dream could also mean that you want to absolve yourself of your responsibilities. Whichever one it is, try to find a more helpful way of getting out of your situation or going through your tasks.
If you feel that these things you have taken on are not benefiting you, then maybe you can think about letting them go, and just going after what you really want to do in your life.
Dream of hurting a stranger
Dream of hurting a stranger could signify your worries about things that just recently happened. You should be able to process this since it is coming from experiences from the recent past, so try to process it in your mind as soon as you can so that these anxieties don’t have to manifest themselves in your dreams.
Dream of hurting yourself
This dream could be very telling of the guilt that you may be currently feeling. Maybe something has happened and you are blaming yourself. Maybe there is a lot of negativity around you and you don’t feel good enough.
Maybe you are always putting yourself down and find it hard to accept your imperfections. This dream of violence towards yourself is a manifestation of all this resentment.
It would be very ideal to work on this aspect and really do your best to love yourself, so that negativity from other people could be dropped and you don’t even have to get affected by it.
When you have given yourself enough self-love, you can bet that you will be able to lessen your demands on yourself to always have to be perfect. You can love yourself just the way you are, warts and all, and see and appreciate your own beauty.
Dream of settling a duel with someone
This could mean that there has been a settlement that has happened in your waking life. This could be a battle with yourself – something that you have finally come to terms with internally and you have emerged victorious from all the things you used to struggle with before.
Conclusion
These are the many symbolisms and interpretations of dreaming about hurting someone. See which one best fits your dreams and the situation you are facing in your waking life.
You can interpret it with these guidelines, and hopefully be able to settle the backdrop of worry, anxiety, or repression that you are carrying around.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article !