Drinking dream and FEELING drunk
 

Last night I had a really vivid dream in which I decided to drink, throw away sobriety and tried to hide it.

I woke to the alarm and literally FELT the awful, guilty nausea of a hangover beginning to take hold. I felt like I was waking from a blackout.

I've been reading 'Drinking: a love story' and it's triggered a lot of memories and insights. Probably why this dream visited me. But man, that was REALLY strange. It felt so real I was half terrified for 10 minutes or so that it had all been real.

So glad it wasn't!

I hate that feeling when waking from a drinking dream, luckily, it doesn't last very long. I mostly feel instant relief.

I think the relief we feel is a great sign that we are serious about not drinking. I have been thinking lately that it is strange, if we are so serious, why we never hear of "not drinking" dreams.

Someone shared one time about how our subconcious does not recognise negatives, as in "don't drink". The speaker said she was saying to herself "dont drink, don't drink..." but her subconscious was only hearing "drink". So her life went "don't drink, don't drink, drink." Over and over. Maybe it is like the child to whom we say "don't drop that tray" and they drop the tray.

I wonder if there is any validity to that idea. That we only have drinking dreams because we can't have not drinking dreams?

Gottalife,
I've actually never had a "drinking" dream, but I've had 2 "not drinking" dreams. The first was myself in my old bar. Everybody was there, and I walked around a bit and said "I gotta get the heck out of here. I can't drink."
The second was the other night. I was with an old drinking buddy, who was drinking, and I was talking to her about how hard it was lately with cravings. But then part of me went (in the dream)...."why am I talking to a drunk about drinking?" I woke up shortly after that.
I've been able to master lucid dreaming in difficult situations since I was a child, I think from all of the nightmares I would have. I'd always have to wake myself up somehow or I'd just "fly" out of a window, away from whatever terror was there.
Just thought you'd find that interesting. :)

I had a very insightful drinking dream here nights ago, on a school trip trying to hide my drinking from
Old aho friends.

The relief when i realised it was a dream was completely overwhelming

The mind is one powerful mechanism! Your brain was basically still sending messages that it's reality, can take some time to shrug off.

Don't worry you are still sober:You_Rock_

I love that feeling when you realise it was all a dream, it is weird how confusing it is for about 10 mins... did i/did I not drink? Then you get that huge wave of relief.

That is because in your brain it WAS real. But dreams, like memories do not harm us. It is what we do with them that makes the difference. I do not go all Freud on my drinking n-mares. Like the one where my bro- who I watched die after we unplugged him in the ICU (the same ICU and bed spot I nearly died in 2 years ago because of booze) taunting and mocking me to drink with him because it will be fun.
It means I have strong memories and booze can kill. My brain is rewiring itself. All the booze related wiring has been fried- literally, so now the whole brain needs a makeover. Bound to be some weird stuff in there. To get over the guilt, fear and shame when I have not quite yet worked out it was just a dream- I touch stuff- furniture, a wall - my nice heavy reassuring watch. Just to remind myself they are real and it was just a dream.
Addictions sucks and I do not like it.

thanks all.

Standing on top of a mountain I'd just run up, watching the sunrise less than an hour later - it was not only a sense of relief but of gratitude that came with that dream.

I suppose in a way, those dream experiences are great gifts; reminding us of the glory of the sober day we wake to.

I actually had more not drinking dreams than those in which I drank, at least as far as I remember them. The most typical scenario for me is that I am in an environment where I am tempted to drink, usually surrounded by people that are drinking, and I keep refusing and try to escape. I also had a bunch where I openly declared to colleagues, friends etc that I had a drinking problem and am now 100% abstinent, and felt left out of activities due to it, had negative feelings about being left out. The interesting thing is that situations like that never happened to me in waking life, not even in early sobriety, I never really regretted not going to drinking events, usually avoided them as the plague whenever I could. I had countless intense cravings for alcohol, but never in the context of social situations, I was a solo drinker and wanted to drink on my own, never truly felt tempted much in a group.

I think, at least for me, these kinds of dreams are often associated with anxiety about some ongoing life situation and have little to do with drinking or being tempted to drink per se. A similar recurring theme for me, when stressed, is that I am in college, am supposed to graduate, but have not completed some of the mandatory courses or otherwise am lacking some qualifications to graduate, while all my peers are doing well. I have had this theme appearing in my dreams for many years. In reality, I was never slacking in my education, more the opposite, tended to take on more than required. But I do tend to worry about deadlines and the possibility of not being able to complete things, and can get stuck in procrastination with tasks sometimes. That is when I typically have the school dreams, it's very predictable, like clockwork. Like the drinking dreams, waking from these school-related ones for me can be pretty disorienting and it can take a minute to fully realize I am very far from that in reality and have completed several degrees since those days. But often have some sort of pressing deadline that I am stressed about.

The drinking/being left out theme in dreams, I think, can be something similar for me. A signal that I am not taking care of myself the way I should or I am being tempted into potentially dangerous / uncertain situations; most often it has nothing to do with drinking but I recognize what it is when I think about it awake.

Our minds often use symbols in dreams to signal something we are uncomfortable about, whether aware in waking life or not. They don't necessarily mean the dream imagery and experience directly.

Drinking dreams; the only place I can drink safely :D. 3.5 years later I still have them.

~Bunnez

That's interesting. I think I had maybe two or three in the early days, but nothing anymore. I say interesting because I think you've been sober for 3 or 4 years now correct?

Yes, creeping up on 4 years. I'll have a drinking dream every now and again. Doesn't happen often, and usually it's just slightly unsettling - but this time it was visceral and truly FELT like I was in that awful, sick place between drunk and badly hungover..... nausea and dizziness swept me upon waking and the fuzzy feeling took a few minutes to dissipate.

I'm sure it relates to the fact I'm reading that book right now. Much of what is talked about I've personally experienced. The author's recounting of some of her own stories is like a lens looking back into my own history. It's shaken loose things I haven't thought about in a long time. Memories that had been shuffled off to the darker corners of my mind. So, I'm guessing that's why this one was so strong and present. Most of the time they're not so vivid, and certainly don't leave me FEELING drunk.

Pretty wierd.

happened again last night.

this time with some strange drug I was offered at a house I'd rented through AirBnB. I took the pill and it wound up making me feel like I'd been half-paralyzed... ill and woozy and I missed a flight because I tried getting out of the AirBnB and it turned out to be a giant fancy hotel that I was shut into.... everywhere I tried to exit was blocked or locked. It was conjoined with some weird hospital facility and seemed like a psychiatric prison almost. It was freaky as heck. When I finally managed to get out and to an airport, I'd missed the flight to a wedding and couldn't find my wife, still muddled and confused by the drug, I woke like that and had to spend a few minutes again, shaking off the disconcerting feeling and the foggy brain.

Tell ya what, this book is shaking loose some stuff!!!

Glad - again and always - to be clean, sober, healthy and happy!

Welcome to the hotel California....

hahahah!!! I didn't even think of that. YUP.

I still have the occasional dream(nightmare!) about my ex wife and we've been divorced over 10yrs! Actually had a dream about my recent ex last night and we were at a bar. She was drunk refusing to go home and I was sober(this has happened in the past)..We argued(like we would in real life) and I left(again..which I've done in the past).. I woke up feeling like it was real. I'm sure it was my mind warning me;"Danger!" :lmao

Know that feeling all too well, FreeOwl.

Wishing you peaceful sleep and peaceful dreams, friend.

That's interesting that you have such a clear and detailed memory of what the dream is about. Thank god its just a dream.

my dreams are often super vivid and memorable. that can be both positive and negative, lol