SASA

I ahve now 83 days, slipped at day 60 and day 80, but tonight I had my first drinking dream. Before the dream started I woke up and started an allergic sneezing reaction that I used to have after drinking. I was sneezing for 2h and my noseis still running. After going back to sleep the driking dream started. And Oh men it felt real. I was downstairs in my house in the office and was drinking wine. I usually had 1.5l of wine per night, this time in my sleep I had at least 5 big bottles and while finishing each of them I tried to hide them away where I always used to hide them so my bf would not find them. And I drunk the wine, more and more and more, getting more and more drunk. I woke up at 8am this morning, complelty sweated and could swear I taseted wine in my mouth. I had to convince myself it was a dream. Anybody of you had these dreams? What do they mean? How frequent are they? It was a horribe experience. Any comments appreciated.

jamdls

I think most of us have these dreams at least a few times. My dad who has been sober for 25 years just had his first drinking dream a couple of weeks ago and he too was upset about it. We can't control our dreams and I think something just triggers our subconscious causing us to dream whatever we dream. The good part about these dreams in my opinion is that they do scare us, make us sick etc and it's such a relief to realize that it was just a dream.

TexasNative

I have vivid dreams like that at least twice a week. It's as you say, horror, not fantasy. I have read it gets a lot better after 10-12 months. I had one this past Tuesday where I was drinking beer in the morning and I swear when I woke up I could taste it. Again, not in desire, more in horror.

augustwest

they happen. they usually suck. as time wore they've happened less and less to me. as frightening as they might be, it's a dam good feeling when i snap to my senses and realize it was just a dream!

DayTrader

I don't understand the "83 days, slipped at 60 and day 80" part. Are you saying you started to try to get sober 83 days ago but currently have 3 consecutive days without a drink?

Anyway, as for the dreams, I still have them. I didn't really start getting them until I hit a year or so though.....and I still have them once and a while today. I ALWAYS wake up freaked out because in my dreams now, I start out sober, know everything in the dream that I know in real life, I'm even "in AA" in the dream.......but then I get loaded and/or high. I blow right past everything I've learned, blow my 3+yrs of sobriety, blow it all!

I've learned that I tend to get those dreams when my false ego is getting a little too big for it's britches again. Once I start thinking, "I'm good....I've got this....." I'm screwed....or at least it's right around the corner. Staying sober for me is about getting out of myself, letting go of all the things I try/like to try to control, and being more involved with helping others than helping myself. Not a lick of that comes naturally to me or any alcoholic I've ever met......I have to work at it. Sometimes I get tired of doing the work, get lazy, and start falling back into many of my old habits of control, self-will, and power...... then BAM...... drinking dream. I don't like the actual dream but I'm always glad to get them - they're like a warning-party coming to tell me that the disease is-a-comin!

LaFemme

SASA congrats on 83 days:-D. I have only had one of these dreams early in recocevery but they seem pretty common. Ironically I had drinking/smoking dreams constantly when I drank. They always involved me embarrassing myself in front of friends and family, which was horrifying to me as I was a closet drinker.

Cottonwoodchris

Haven't had a drinking dream, not before when I was sober and not yet now. But, I do have the occasional dream where I am surrounded by "Tweakers" and they are trying to get me to smoke with them (I put down the pipe 15 years ago and that one I never ever looked back) I do have a lot of strange dreams never the less.

SASA

actually while reading this I had a typo, I am again on day 13 without drinking, I had a slip on day 60 and one on around day 70.... Typically cannot even do the easy math, lol. Well the dream really freaked me out. It was so real and I really don't want to have anohter one. It brought up all the feelings, I tried to find new spaces in my office in my house to hide the empty bottles mye exbf coming in and looking around leaving, me continue to drink until I wuld pass out...... it really scared the hell out of me.

traderjane

I had one of those last night!!! In the dream, was at a party and drank (not sure what). But got drunk and acted like an idiot with a co-worker. I said to myself in the dream, "Now you've really done it! You've gone and embarrassed yourself with people you WORK with!" Of course, I was relieved to wake up and know it was a dream. I always think dreams are just your sub-conscious mind working stuff out. I don't think it means much more than that.

DayTrader

Well congrats on your 13 days!!

And don't worry about the dreams. You may or may not have anymore of them. Like I was saying though, as bad as they can be, waking up and realizing it was just a dream is pretty awesome.

wpainterw

SASA: Yes I've had lots of these dreams and, even after nearly 22 years of not drinking, still have them occasionally. But as time goes on they tended to get less scary and it's not too difficult to deal with them. I figure it's just our old friend (or enemy?) the subconscious, kicking up and letting off steam.Probably because with all that struggle with alcoholism in the past the impact on the subconscious was bound to be traumatic. It shows how much you really suffered and it takes quite a while to heal from all that. Some scars are likely to remain. But it does get better and better. When it happens maybe the thing to do is to settle down with something nonalcoholic and hot (bouillon maybe ?) and try to relax. Read something to get your mind turned around a bit.

W.

mama36

I had one the other night...I was drinking and drugging in my dream. I woke up terrified and felt so guilty, it was almost real...but the great thing, it wasn't and I am still sober for a whole 7 days...yay for me and yay for you for 83 days.

LexieCat

Congrats on your 13 days. I haven't really had any drinking dreams, but I've heard them referred to as a "free relapse"--you get to experience the consequences without actually doing the deed.

Most of us occasionally have disturbing, scary dreams about lots of things--I have recurring ones about having a final exam for a class I never went to all sememster and had forgotten was on my schedule (lol, something close to that actually happened to me in college during my early party days). It doesn't mean we want those things to actually happen--it's just garbage our minds spit out during our sleep.

sazza

I had one the other night. I was drinking brandy followed by a bottle of baileys ( no wine which was always my preferred poison!). I woke up in my bed and thought...Oh God I mustve passed out again, how did I get into bed. I could taste the brandy in my mouth and had a headache until I realised I had been dreaming. The relief was unbelievable - it was only a dream. Bit scarey though.

lildawg

Congrats on your sober time.

I've had a few dreams in which I was drinking. They didn't really unnerve me, per se. In the dreams, when I was drinking, I was irritated at myself for blowing my sober time. I woke up, realized it wasn't real, and that was that. I wondered what the big deal was that people kept talking about.

Reading this thread, though, I realize my drinking dream was not as severe as some of yours. Spooky.