I become an underwater slave. (dream)

Image by Midjourney

DREAM

Somehow, I wind up in an enormous swimming pool that's as deep as a performing arts center is tall. I'm not 100% certain, but I think I ended up in this pool because I met this random guy on the street, kinda started to like him a little, and he told me to come here. Now he and I and hundreds of other people are enslaved. 

I have to dive to the bottom of this pool either with weights, or to bring up weights depending on the assignment. And if anyone tries to escape, a diver launches into the air with a sledge hammer, and they will spin around and around until they come straight down on that person no matter where they go (aside from back underwater, doing what they're supposed to be doing).

Then I kind of half-way wake up and test one of these spinning divers underwater. She swings her sledge hammer at me, but she can't swing it fast enough to really hurt me. I can block it easily. She doesn't represent a threat underwater. I'm surprised at how effortlessly I can hold my breath. 

INTERPRETATION

The Olympics have been going on, and this dream definitely seems influenced by them. But I think this dream is kind of how I'll often meet someone I sort of like, and I'll often start to feel like I'm dragged into being their therapist. That's what the imagery of swimming down into the depths is to me. But having to hold my breath and kick with weights--that's work! I'm doing work when I do this, and I'm trapped in the pool. 

Someone I was on the fence about told me that I was their therapist. And it felt a little flattering, because I have that training, but have never used it outside of personal relationships and perhaps tangentially to help my coworkers. But when this person said it, it felt icky at the same time, because the relationship between a therapist and a client is completely artificial. It goes one way. You never get to truly know your therapist. They get paid to listen to you. But I'm not getting paid. So what do I get out of a relationship like that? 

I've had other people call me their therapist before, and that didn't bother me, because the relationship felt balanced in terms of give and take. But lately, I kind of feel like I'm being leaned upon too heavily for emotional support, and it feels a little like being in this dream.