Dream Of Being Kidnapped And Escaping (What’s The Meaning?)
Dreaming you are kidnapped and escaping can be frightening, and you may wake up feeling panicked and worried.
Nightmares can often leave people concerned about their true meaning.
However, these dreams try to turn your attention to something about your lifestyle you need to change.
Dreaming about being kidnapped and imprisoned usually indicates that something in your waking life makes you feel controlled and constrained. However, this doesn’t have to be a negative dream; instead, it shines a light on the part of your life causing these feelings.
What Does it Mean if You Dream About Being Captured And Escaping?
Kidnapping dreams generally point to high levels of stress and anxiety. Dreaming that you are kidnapped and escaping means you are likely feeling trapped by people or situations in real life. This dream also suggests you are trying to flee an emotional hold someone has on you.
Kidnapping dreams are relatively common and reveal that you feel confined by events or emotions. For example, if you feel stressed by work or family situations, this can spill over into your dreams.
Strong negative emotions are one of the biggest drives behind many dream symbols.
Your brain is likely working to process feelings of anxiety by creating stressful and frightening dream scenarios.
Another, more prosaic reason for a kidnapping dream is that you have recently seen or read a story about someone being kidnapped :-/
This could be something you’ve seen on the news or even read in fiction. Events like these can cause your subconscious to focus on them and process them through dreams.
Note: When you have dreams like this, it’s a good idea to look at what is causing you a lot of stress or anxiety in your waking life and find ways to reduce it. Better sleep hygiene can also help mitigate these nightmares.
Here are some common reasons for dreaming about being captured and trying to escape—by looking at recent events in your life, you can unravel the reasoning behind your dream…
You Are Feeling Trapped
The most obvious reason behind a dream of being kidnapped is that you feel restricted somehow. The person who kidnaps you can be a key to the source of your anxiety.
For example, if the person seizing you in the dream is someone close to you, this could indicate they have a powerful emotional hold over your life, and their opinion and actions make you feel trapped.
It could also be a situation that is stressing you—perhaps a work or social event that you don’t want to be involved in but cannot escape.
You Are Being Denied Your Goals
Something in your life is preventing you from achieving your goals.
This could be a situation you are in, or it could be a person. Unfortunately, this thing or person is taking up all your attention. Instead of focusing on your needs and aspirations, you are dealing with this.
Pay attention to all the details of your dream:
- Is your kidnapper recognizable or a person you know?
- Are they a shadowy, faceless figure?
- Where are you being held—this could point to a place or activity that is causing you to stress.
- How do you try to escape, and do you succeed?
You Are Denying Part of Yourself
If you dream about someone else being kidnapped, that person may represent an aspect of yourself. In a dream like this, the person represents the part of yourself you are denying and locking away.
Think about what qualities that person in the dream represents. For example, if they are artistic, you may be denying your creative impulses. So trying to escape shows that you want to free this part of yourself.
If you are upset by the idea of the person in the dream escaping, consider that this aspect may be a negative trait you are trying to suppress.
Instead of forcing the negative traits down, your subconscious may guide you to find a better way to deal with them, perhaps by channeling them into helpful activities.
You Need to Escape Restrictions
When you dream you are trying to escape a place like a prison or a room your kidnapper has confined you to, this indicates that you want to run from a situation or even an attitude that makes you feel restricted.
This could be the people around you, but the restrictive attitude could also come from within.
Sometimes we need to break free from prejudices we have grown up with and taken on without examining them. Your true self and inherited prejudices are working against each other, and you must find a way to break free of old, unfair ways of thinking.
You Won’t Face Your Problems
Dreaming of escaping a kidnapping can also indicate that you are trying to run away instead of facing and dealing with your problems.
Perhaps your situation is overwhelming and causing you a lot of anxiety. Instead of talking to the people involved and possibly finding a solution, you avoid the issue and hope it will disappear.
Note: Especially if this is a recurring nightmare, it might be that for you to stop having these dreams, you’ll need to confront the issue head-on and deal with it.
You Feel Helpless and Lack Confidence
If you try to escape your kidnapper in your dream, but your attempt fails, this can indicate that you feel helpless in the situation. You believe that nothing you do will make the problem go away. It can also suggest that the stress and problems you face in life are ones you think are permanent.
This nightmare can also be a sign that you are not confident in your abilities, which is why you cannot escape. You are so trapped by your lack of self-belief that you remain a prisoner of your situation.
Another meaning is that you lack a clear focus. Without a goal or direction in life, you feel you can never escape and move on.
I Had A Dream I Was Kidnapped And Escaped
Consider all the aspects and details when you have a dream like this, as these symbols are critical to the meaning. For example, if you recognize the abductor, this may indicate that person has a hold over you—emotional or physical.
Are they:
- an ex-partner,
- a boss,
- or a controlling parent?
Details like this will help you focus on the source of your anxiety.
The place where you are held prisoner could also have great significance.
You can find the root of your anxiety by using these symbols and your understanding of them. Once you better understand what your subconscious is pointing towards, you can take steps to rectify the situation.
A dream like this doesn’t necessarily mean you must quit your job or cut someone from your life. Instead, you can take small steps to help lessen the stressors, such as setting firm time boundaries and stepping away from situations before they escalate.
What Causes Kidnapping Dreams?
As you can see from the examples above, anxiety is a key cause of kidnapping dreams.
However, you might have a more personal stake that causes these dreams. For example, if you have children, you may have a valid fear of your children being kidnapped.
You can help alleviate some of your fear by ensuring your children know the dangers and reinforcing their understanding of what to do when strangers approach them.
However, remember that they need to know how to keep themselves safe in all kinds of situations, and not just from strangers.
