DAB

I just had 18 months sober on May 1st. You would think that after that amount of time you would no longer have dreams about drinking. I haven't had any since about three months sober and they just started up again.
This last one I don't recall actually drinking, but I was planning on buying some beer. Then I remember opening the refrigerator in my dream and seeing two six packs, one was Grain Belt premium, the other was Kirin Ichiban. But I still needed to go get a six pack of Ice House. A friend then called me in my dream and requested that I get a scissor and paper, that's when I woke up. I remeber feeling terribly guilty after I awoke like I had actually been drinking, and wondering if I should tell my aa group. After I awoke a little more, I realized that it was all just a dream, that I still have not had a drink in 18 months. What a relief.

FeelingGreat

Have you been thinking it might be safe to have a drink every now and then? when I was coming up to my 12 months I kept dreaming about drinking, but as I passed that time without starting again, the dreams stopped. I took it to mean my sub-conscious was 'rehearsing' my thoughts.

DAB

No, not at all.
I am totally comfortable with my sobriety at this point. I have no desire to drink and any drinking thoughts I get vanish as quickly as they appear. I have also been having reoccurring dreams that I haven't had since childhood.

FeelingGreat

Your sleeping mind is going over long buried emotions; have a think about what's happening in your life at this point and you may find the answer. I have vivid dreams and if I take the time to analyse them (not too literally), they can give me valuable insights into what's going on in my mind. There've been times when they have been a real gift.

noanxtime

I wouldn't tell the group unless you feel strongly about that. I think dreams when not drinking are stranger and more vivid than when not sober. When I was drinking, I didn't have any dreams that I remembered in the morning.
I have drinking dreams to, some have had negative endings, Like being so drunk and out of control of all my faculties, usually in an unfamiliar place which adds to the fear. Other times the dreams have a romanticized version of the 'fun' of drinking. Probably because such a big portion of my life was hinged on drinking. The anticipation of drinking, drinking, waking up and wanting to start over again.
I think dreams are a way of sorting out things in your brain. I wouldn't be too stressed about it. My dreams don't make me tempted to drink, after all, it was a dream.
I kind of like the dreams as weird as they can be. I 'see' people long gone and feel sort of happy to wake up not with a hangover from all my night time 'drinking'.

Skyhawk172

Weird, I had a similar dream the other day as well... In my dream, I had a couple mixed drinks and remember feeling horrible that I slipped from my progress (5 weeks yesterday!) Luckily, I woke up and discovered that none of it was the case.

Music

I know what you mean. The dreams used to scare me too and I used to wonder what I had done to bring the dream on. Then one day it came to me that maybe it's a God thing. Maybe God is allowing me to relive the hell of drnking in the comfort and safety of my bed. I'm going with that!

flutter

Well, I'm about 4 and a half years sober.. and I still have them. I know I've posted this a bunch before, but my counselor just told me to consider them "freebies", a reminder of how I would feel if I really did (waking feeling the shame, horror, etc) go back out, without actually having to. I don't know why I have them, they do bother me because often they seem so very real, and I wake up upset that I have botched all my sober time. I can't relate them to anything in my waking life, my recovery is rock solid.. I guess our brains just continue to process things well after we're done thinking about them consciously.