SoberCAH

I have had drinking dreams on and off for years, and I have been sober a while.

But I also have unpleasant dreams about childhood.

These notions must exist in the inner recesses of my mind and the folds of my brain.

It's nothing to worry about, though, because I always wake up safe and sober.

grubby

The dreams are very disturbing, I had them all throughout 2014 and into early 2015. Hang in there, the dreams do seem to go away after a while. Addiction seems closely "tied into" the subconscious mind. If it matters, from time to time I also have bad dreams about bad events from the past (teenage years. family stuff, a job I worked at, etc), so I take it that alcohol is not the "only" thing that embeds itself in the subconscious.

At least, I haven't had an "alcohol dream" in a long time

ThatWasTheOldMe

They're just dreams. I dream I'm falling off a cliff. That doesn't mean I have a desire to jump off a cliff.

grubby

I've had my share of scary dreams, but the "alcohol dream" is particularly disturbing. It's like, you wake up from an alcohol dream and genuinely believe that you've drunk or re-lapsed, that's the most disturbing part. It feels so real.

Zebra1275

I'm approaching 7 years sober and I have a drinking dream about every 6 months or so. I'm always thankful when I wake up and realize it was a dream.

AAPJ

Somehow I doubt this will be as powerful here but I found it memorable. This was part of an AA meeting share by an old timer with over 20 years sober.

Normal people dream about sex but we alcoholics... we dream about booze.

You really had to be there I guess his delivery was perfect and the room erupted in laughter.

MicroMacro

Dreams are so cool. They show us what's going on inside us - in places we can't see during our awake hours. You can learn from them if you want to.

I would bet that your dream represents the part of you where the habit of drinking lived. You've been sober for four months. How long did you drink? Four months? It can take a minute to build new habits in place of old ones. That's the same thing as saying "rebuilding new neural pathways". The only way to do it is through consistent repetition over time (sorta like what you did with drinking).

Some dreams just play out busy work. This looks like one of those times. But ultimately you're the only one who can dissect it. Writing them down can help.