Yogapants

Hello friends, I'm almost 8 months sober but over the last couple of months I've been experiencing really strong and vivid cravings. Not to the point of me seriously considering drinking because I know that if I start, I won't stop, but these cravings are very disturbing because of how realistic they are. I don't just want a drink, I can almost taste that specific glass of wine...

The first 3 months were tough for me, then it got so much easier the next 3, but the last month and a half are difficult in a different way. And I also now have really bad sugar cravings ( that I indulge because chocolate or ice cream are definitely not as dangerous as booze but I really would like to get off sugar as well.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any suggestions on how to best deal with it?

SoberinSyracuse

Yes, I know something about this and I'll PM you.

courage2

There's a mental obsession that's different from the craving of physical dependence but can be very strong and oppressive. I had the mental obsession for more than a year. I had it that long because I nurtured it -- it fascinated me. Idiotically, I played head games with myself, saying "oh, I have to look away, oh, I'll just peek once more." It was a big mistake -- alcoholics love head games but we always lose.
You're in control of your thinking as well as your actions. Don't doubt it. As you concentrate your body on healthy behaviors, concentrate your mind on healthy thoughts.

Dee74

I think most people experience a return to sum kind of mental craving at some point.
If you're like me, you drank for years...it can take a while for that learned behaviour to die away.

the good news is, we can learn that we don't have to respond to those thoughts - we can get through them... and stay sober

Urge surfing was a good technique for me. I hope it might help you too
http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...e-surfing.html

D

grubby

100% normal. "how to deal with it"? There is not much you can do I'm afraid, other than just ignore the cravings/do not drink of course With so much of this alcoholism thing it seems the most you can do is simply "outlast" it, that is, simply resist/abstain until the cravings lose their "merciless" grip on you or die down.

For me I had the most bizarre and yet vivid, lucid dreams involving alcohol. They were sprinkled "here and there" throughout 2014, with most around the 6 month mark.

The scary part is I would wake up and genuinely believe that I had drunk/gotten buzzed.... no really! That scared the hell out of me and I would be unable to go back to sleep (.... and 2014 was an insomnia-fest as it is). I would wake up early in the morning following one of these bizarre nightmares, shaken and quite disturbed, and it would be a few minutes until I came to my senses and realized "it was just a bad dream".

The sugar cravings are normal I think, early in recovery while Googling around getting "the crash course" on alcoholism I learned that alcohol and sugar are very similar in their molecular structure..... so that might explain the sudden sweet-tooth. I guess to the brain sugar is "the next best thing" now that alcohol is suddenly absent.

Nothing you mentioned is out of the ordinary, all sounds quite normal judging by my own experiences.

Yogapants

Thank you all for the helpful responses.

Sounds like I am just going through the next stage of my journey. Early in this process, I said to myself that in order to consider myself really better, I need to go through a full year so that I have a chance to experience every season, holiday, every birthday and other event without alcohol. Now I can see that I was really right. I never appreciated how powerful that stuff really is and how much damage it really causes in our brains.

Grubby, I had the vivid dreams several times as well, waking up convinced that I am hungover. Amazing how our brains can trick us!

Dee, thank you for the urge surfing reminder. That is a very useful technique.

Courage2, I appreciate the encouragement and the reminder to train the brain to think "happy thoughts". I need to go back to meditation and focus on mindfulness. It helped me a lot early on.

SoberinSyracuse, I PM'ed you.

Soberwolf

Yogapants congrats on your upcoming milestone I just want to add how good this place is for support & wisdom the things I learn here will stay with me for life dare I say it this place has made me a better human being (no ego)

Glad your with us