Poiuytrew

Hello everyone, I'm new to this site and I have a question. I've been sober for almost 6 months and recently I've been having very vivid dreams about using and when I wake up it takes me a little while to realize it was a dream. Does anyone else experience this? Any ideas how to make that stop?

GracieLou

Welcome to SR!

I personally have not had them. At least not yet. I have heard others on here speak about them though. I think the best thing is to go with the flow.

As they say, this too shall pass.

I am sure more members will be along soon with their own advice/experiences.

Poiuytrew

Thanks for the input I'm really hoping they pass soon. Also looking foward to other members advice on the subject

doggonecarl

They are just dreams. I don't think they are indicative of anything like a relapse or what not. We are bound to dream of stuff that dominated our waking lives. I don't know how to stop dreams, but drinking dreams fade the longer you are sober.

fantail

Oh yes, definitely. I had them a lot near the beginning, then they went away for a bit. Now I'm at four months and in the last few weeks they've come back very vividly.

It depends on what you think about dreams, but I see them as a good thing.

For me, the resurgence of the dreams coincided pretty neatly with temptations in my daily life. While awake I was starting the moderation questions... maybe I could drink just on special occasions, etc. etc. Then while asleep I just had dream after dream where I tried to moderate and made myself unhappy. It really helped me get rid of some of those ideas.

I know the dreams are upsetting but I think in some ways they're just part of your defense system!

redneckrecovery

I had dreams too, very vivid dreams. So vivid I had to ask my wife if I drank. I had them early on, then I had them from 4-6 months. I'm a year sober now and I still get them once in awhile, but they are infrequent.

hayley86

Im 8 months sober now and for the first 4 to 6 months i would get dreams where i was drinking again and it was often by mistake in my dream when somebody passed me a drink and then i couldnt stop and it was back to being misery living that way. It also used to shake me up abit when i woke up because it felt so real and vivid and i would have to tell myself that it was just a dream and not real. I like to think that its my sub conscience warning me to be vigilant still and to be aware of these things and siuations, I dont think about drinking anymore in daily life i.e. i have no desire to drink so i always take it as a warning of how it would be if i went down that route again. Im now at 8 months and haven't had any for a good while now, i wouldn't worry it will pass.

Pat S

I'm on day 5, and had a really vivid dream about drinking last night.

In the dream my mom had told me she was worried about my drinking. That I might need help. For some reason this reality drove me back to the bottle (in the dream) and I woke up really upset and confused.

I actually walked around my apartment looking to see if I had drank last night, when I woke up. (The answer is no.)

The dream was a dream, but the panic was real.

But so was the relief when I realized it was just a dream.

I had no idea I could look forward to this kind of anxiety...

But it's just another sign that if I ever thought I could drink like normal people, I was sorely mistaken.

-Pat

sunshinescooby

In my first AA meeting last night, someone was saying the exact same thing.. Dreamt he was drinking. In the dream he had lost is cell phone. He woke up and had to look for his phone to make sure he hadn't been drinking. He had been sober for a year.

One of the other folks in the meeting piped in and said.. "That's called a freebie" and everyone laughed. Still, I'm sure it's very frightening.

The interesting part of it is (and would be the same for me too) that we'd actually have to look around for evidence after we woke up.. IN other words we were previously used to not remembering what we had done the night before.

I haven't had any dreams about drinking yet, but I did have them about smoking and sometimes when I've been really tempted for some reason I still have them.

BTW welcome to the site.. a great place to hang out!!