A dream of being abandoned can represent an archetypical childhood fear of being left alone by the people you depend on for sustenance. This fear remains in our unconscious minds even when we become adults and can reveal itself in our dreams when we are feeling insecure or lost in our waking lives.
It is common to dream of being a child again and being abandoned by a parent after experiencing the death of a loved one in waking life.
You may dream of being abandoned when you are having difficulties in a current relationship or after a relationship has ended. How did you feel after you were abandoned in the dream? If you felt liberated, it can be a sign that the relationship is not or was not right for you.
A dream of being abandoned by a group can mean that you are worried about being different from the people around you or about being left out.
Some people believe that if you dream you are abandoning someone, you will lose a friend or the support of someone you depend on, and that if you dream that someone abandons you, there will be difficulties in your future.
Being abandoned in dreams is very well placed at the beginning of the dreams dictionary because it is one of our earliest feelings as a child, going right back to when we are babies and we are left alone to go to sleep. Aside from this many people’s most remembered traumatic experience of being separated from their parents or carers is their first day at school, where many of us worry we are being left there forever.
The sentiment of being abandoned is akin to being rejected, no longer wanted. Many adults will feel this way after a relationship separation or divorce. When such things occur the feelings may manifest themselves in our dreams in the form of that first day at school, or being left alone in the cot or crib. You may have such dreams when you fear you’re going to be left alone, perhaps by an upcoming death or suspected separation, or the abandonment may be more figurative, say if you’re feeling left behind at work or your friends seem to be way ahead of you in terms of expectations.
However, if the dream is a happy one, say if you’re abandoned on a desert island and you’re glad to see the back of your abandonees, it may reflect a need to gain freedom from your current restraints.