According to Hofmann: What dreams may come…to mess with your head
I spent nearly an hour the other morning trying to convince myself that I wasn鈥檛 a child actor who fell too early from grace.
You see, hours prior, I had a dream that a Hollywood lawyer tracked me down and told me I had a big residual check from appearing on two seasons of an 80鈥檚 sitcom. I don鈥檛 recall which television show it was 鈥� something in the vein of 鈥淛oanie Love Chachi,鈥� 鈥淪mall Wonder鈥� and maybe 鈥淢animal.鈥�
From there, I had to deal with the sudden, yet retroactive, fame of being a former child actor.
Like most dreams, that one ended when something great was about to happen as I was about to discuss my upcoming movie project with Gal Gadot.
After waking up, I did what I always do and stupidly stared at the bedroom ceiling as my cellphone鈥檚 alarm chimed away, all the while whispering to myself, 鈥淚 need to go back to sleep right nooooooow!鈥�
Of course, that never works and if I do fall back to sleep, my mind flashes to me falling out of a window or something, and I鈥檓 jerked awake in a panic while panting, sweating and clutching my chest, which, oddly enough, is how I fall asleep most nights.
Anyway, the thing about being the child actor stuck with me for some strange reason because while it wasn鈥檛 really a major part of the dream, it certainly was a part that seemed the most plausible.
Believe it or not, I was a very cute, photogenic kid. I know that to be true because whenever I show someone my childhood photos, their reaction is, 鈥淥h, my! How utterly breathtakingly adorable 鈥� so what went horribly wrong?鈥�
I even went as far to go online and check my acting roles on the Internet Movie Database, and found that the only film credit remained my role as a doctor on a horror TV series.
Perhaps because the dream was so real, the idea of being a former child actor was suggested deep in my mind to seem like a natural thing. It reminded me of the movie 鈥淚nception,鈥� where thieves enter people鈥檚 dreams and plant suggestions to make them do crazy things like have an action movie where thieves enter people鈥檚 dreams and plant suggestions to make them do crazy things.
I had to find out why I was 鈥淚nception鈥�-ing myself.
My hunt led me to various online psychological associations that have highlighted the condition known as Dream-Reality Confusion (DRC).
According to the studies, individuals prone to DRC have higher neuroticism, thinner boundaries (honestly, I didn鈥檛 even know I had any), higher dream recall frequency and suggest that high levels of borderline personality disorder features, fantasy proneness and dissociative symptoms may be related.
To that, I laughed because I know that can鈥檛 be right and that鈥檚 not the real me.
Perhaps they鈥檙e referring to the character I once played on TV.