I had this boyfriend who I was madly in love with and I told him if he started doing drugs, it was over. He hadn’t talked to me for awhile and then I called him and he told me he was doing drugs again and by that time I was so taken with him that I didn’t care. Still we broke up.

About a month or two later I had a dream. There was a cliff and all my friends were hanging off it about ready to fall. I tried to help them one at a time but I couldn’t. No matter what I did, they kept falling. My ex-boyfriend was there too. I woke up crying.

Then like the next night or so, I had almost the same dream except it was just him. I ran to the edge of the cliff and grabbed his hand trying to pull him up. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “It’s all your fault.” I watched him fall until I woke up with tears in my eyes.

—Anonymous

Hi Anonymous—

Falling in dreams usually is a symbol for uncertainty about the future. Can you guess the reason why? When we fall—we don’t know where we are going to “wind up landing.”

You aren’t the person who is falling in your dreams, though. Instead, it’s your friends. And no matter what you try to do, you can’t help them.

Is this how you feel about some of your friends now, who are getting more and more involved with drugs? Are you afraid you’re going to lose them? Are you worried about their futures?

It’s always sad to lose someone we care a lot about to drugs. Unfortunately, it happens, and what’s worse, like your dream shows, there’s usually not very much we can do about it. It’s not enough for us to ask or beg someone else to quit using drugs. They have to want to stop on their own, before anyone else can really help them.

The last dream you had shows that you feel guilty for your ex’s “fall” into drug use. Don’t believe it! Your ex is a big boy—and he’s going to have to learn to take care of himself sooner or later. In the meantime, you have to keep moving on with your own life.

Maybe it’s time to look for someone who doesn’t need to be rescued?