My husband is an alcoholic and refuses to get help, so I am leaving him. It’s hard because we have three kids. However, I keep dreaming of him dead, either I find him floating in a pool or him trying to hang himself. Last night in my dream he was trying to hang himself and I kept trying to lift him up. When I tried to scream for help, I could not talk. Then, just when I let go, some help came and took him down. I get that death means the end of something. I just want to know about “floating in a pool,” and the “suicide.” What is my subconscious mind telling me? - Shelly 34, Clearfield, UT

Lauri: Well, the hanging and the floating are the same thing ... he is not making any progress ... he is just hanging there suspended. He’s hanging himself because he does not want progress; he wants to stay hanging—floating—in the limbo of his alcoholism. You want to help him rise above it (lifting him up) but you can’t. It also seems that you want some outside intervention, as that is the only way you believe things will get better. I find it very interesting that when you let go, the help comes. Sometimes addicts correct themselves when their loved ones let go. Leaving him may be the tough love he needs because your voice (nagging him) isn’t helping, which is why you had no voice in the dream.

Shelly replies: I have to say, I pretty much knew, deep down, what my dream was trying to tell me about my husband, but when I read your interpretation, I cried. It was all so very true, down to the fact that I won’t stay with my husband if he doesn’t go into rehab. I do feel that’s the only thing to help him. It’s so amazing how dead on you were. I am still in AWE!! Thanks again!