Tazman53

Well I have only had 3 in my short 9 months, the first 2 really upset me, the last one I woke up and just thought to myself.... "What was that?" The last one was weird, I was drinking beer, I knew I shouldn't be and that was about the whole thing...... BORING!!! LOL

~Troy~

I am in long term recovery and still have the occasional dream, probably at least once a year.

How I look at them is just as a part of my recovery and that they prove that I am exactly where I should be and doing the things that I should be. I never once remember having a dream about drinking coffee, I never once had a dream about drinking water, I never once had a dream about drinking soda. So why would I have a vivid, occasional dream about alcohol? Just is one of the many little things that prove to me that I have a problem with it.

Currently, I have been sober longer that I was out there drinking. It proves to me that time does not mean a thing and all I have is just today. If I was a "normal", take-it-or-leave-it drinker, Would I still dream after any time of just abstinance? I think not.

An old sponsor of mine would tell me that it's dependant upon my spiritual condition. If I was right with God, The dreams would cease, but that was pretty much his answer for just about anything, hence, "old sponsor". Personally, I don't believe that. I look at them as a natural part of my recovery, and as I stated first, remind me that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. For the record, the last one I remember having, I was mentally & spritually in a very good place at the time. That even proves to me more the whole "cunning, baffling, powerful" statement.

done2

I am at 10 months, I have the dreams occasionally. They are so vivid. I hate it.

Also, a few weeks ago, I woke up feeling nauseous and ill, barely made it to the bathroom to throw up. I immediately was overcome with guilt and shame - I thought I had woken up with a hangover and immediately started to ask myself the questions - how much did I drink? What did I SAY?? What did I DO??? WHY????
It was just the flu . But oh boy, did it bring back memories.

DKS

I still have these dreams too, and I'll be celebrating one year sober tomorrow (June 12th). I have vivid nightmares that usually involve my husband starting drinking again. In one of them that was very painful, he announced to me that he was going to go out drinking with his buddies and he was going to get really plastered, drive drunk, etc and not come home to help run our business (that involves both of us packing and shipping online orders every night, so if either of us is gone, the workload for the other who has to do it all alone can be almost overwhelming). He used to get plastered and then come home and fall asleep in his chair and not wake up to pack the boxes and I would get so angry and exhausted when I had to stay up all night to do my part of the job and then do his part of the job too, and then I would have to get get up, hung over, after just a few hours sleep and get the kids to school and go to my "day job". It's horrible to remember those days and those feelings again and I hope to never go back to that situation again.

What is even more disturbing is that as horrified as I am that he is drinking again at the beginning of the dream, these nightmare almost always end with me giving in and drinking again myself by the end of the nightmare. I woke up from one of these in the middle of the night sobbing about a month ago, thinking it was real. What a relief to realize it wasn't real. When these nightmares happen and they are so vivid, they usually continue to really disturb me for 2-3 days after. I guess I'm still petrified that he will drink again and go back to the horrible behaviour and then I wont have the willpower to stay sober if that happens. They don't happen as often now that I'm at the one year point, but they really get to me when they do invade my sleep.

chip

Here's my theory on my drinking dreams:

My drinking was such a big part of my life, it became "wired' into my brain. Even though it's been almost 21 months since my last drink, I still get "synapses" here and there. These come in the form of dreams and random thoughts. Often it's a subconsious thought that enters into my consious mind.

I don't have any control over these things, but I do have control over how I look at them. I make sure I don't nurture or develop a drinking thought. I look at the drinking dreams as a blessing (as I explained in my earlier post).

One thing that is for certain about drinking dreams..... None of them make me want to start drinking again!!! In fact, they all make me wake up thankful that I'm sober.
chip

catch-22

I had a drinking dream just last night. My first! I thought, ooops, I'm drinking! But it didn't bother me. I just thought, well, it's a one off, a little slip, back to sobriety tomorrow. I woke up feeling drunk (!), but very happy it was just a dream...

Catch

Music

I still get one once in a while. Don't remember when the last one was, but I've come to be grateful for them. The first time I had all the same questions. I've come to believe that they're God's way of reminding me what it was like, in the safety of my own bed.