people can't help me

[mehaas]

This nightmare has a lot of similarities to most of my nightmares, but I can't stop thinking about it and can't figure out what it means.
I was at a house when the man became very mad. Throwing things and chasing people. I started yelling at him and getting the kids out of the house. This man was the spitting image of my next door neighbor but I knew that it wasn't him. Than all at once everyone was out of the house except for me and this man. He was holding me down raping and beating me. The front door was open, but the screen was shut. My mother and my boyfriend were outside the door. It was like the man was challenging them to rescue me. I was screaming for them, and they were trying to get in, but couldn't. Somehow I knew the police couldn't break this "barrier" to be able to help me either. I knew the guy was beating me but all I could feel was him sitting on top of my and I could see him swinging but never felt the connect. I woke up just as the man was coming down to headbutt me in the face.
I commonly dream that a person looks like someone I know but isn't them. Most of the time I know who they are supposed to be. (A man could look like my brother but I know he is my dad sort of thing). I also dream that I am getting beat by someone but never remember them actually hitting me, just the swinging and blood.

[rightleft22]

This is a common dream scenario – ‘being chased caught beaten by a known/unknown assailant while our love ones watch unable to help.

What struck me in your narration is your statement that you realize that though a person looks like someone they are not that person. In dreams such as this the characters themselves tend to be symbols or metaphor which you seem to intuitively understand.

The man beating you looks like your neighbor but isn’t’ your neighbor. To understand your dream you will need to understand what ‘neighbor’ and ‘man’ mean to you. What unconscious thinking or feeling of the symbol of ‘male neighbor’ might be “beating” on you?

Your current association (thinking and feeling) of family ‘mother’ and boyfriend can’t help you as you battle in your ‘home’ (dwelling, body, Self). The dream requires a new awareness.

Often the dark man that confronts us is our own shadow – those aspects of ourselves that we are unaware of or repressed and that tend to get in our way as there is a tendency to project our shadow on our loved ones. Our shadow can contain the best and worst of our potential.
I note that you get the ‘kids’ out of the house. Kids often represent new life, possibilities, hope in the future… Your dream indicates that you’re afraid that this shadow figure will hurt you kids and that you have to protect them from it. The best way to protect others from our projections is to acknowledge the shadow; to shine light (awareness) on shadow the shadow is diminished.
IMO your dream indicates that your currently fighting yourself, some thought or feeling that you don’t want to deal with.