Symbolic dreams...?

About a week ago (the week I stopped drinking coffee, by the way), I had a slightly distressing dream. I was sitting in a conference-type setting next to an older lady I didn't know. One of my friends was standing in front of her, and she pulled something out of him (the closest thing I could relate it to in my dream was an evil spirit). He yelled and exhibited pain during the process, but once it was out he thanked the lady and said he felt a lot better. Then the lady turned to me, and said, "Oh, you have one, too! Would you like me to take it out for you?" She kinda nudged it, and I immediately felt a tight pain in my back that I've been carrying for the past few months--it felt similar to when someone finds an enormous knot in your back and their elbow falls off of it. It was super weird. So I asked her to yes, please take it out. She said okay, but warned me that it would be very painful. As she started pulling it out, I felt the pain move from the spot where it had been residing and all I could do was grab a pillow and yell, "JESUS, I NEED YOU!! JESUS, I NEED YOU!!" over and over again. That's all I remember of that dream.

Then this morning I woke up to a dream that was considerably longer than I can remember, but the end of it was significant. I was in an old van with my brother and one of my sisters, and we were speeding down a freeway. All of a sudden, the freeway stopped short, leaving a huge drop in front of us. I watched from afar (even though I was still in the van) as the van slowly turned upside down as it fell. Back in the van, my thoughts were, "Wow, this is unexpected. Can this be the end already?" My action, however, was to grab a sweater, put it over my mouth, and yell, "GOD! I TRUST YOU!!" Immediately, the van stopped falling, flipped back to topside up, and gently landed on the ground. And all we could do was sit in shock.


These are points I've noticed in both the dreams:

• I'm stressed out, probably more than I've realized
• God is my last and foundational hope
• And the most interesting: Both times I cried out, I muffled it with a pillow or a sweater. Why?