phoenix108

I'm pretty new at being sober, but the 3rd night, I had the most horrific nightmare of my life...long story short...i knew i was going to die in an earthquake/tornado, and i prayed "God, please deliver me"...i woke up amazed to be alive...it terrified me...and yes, I have read quite a lot into this nightmare...but wondered if this is common..

Dee74

It's very common Phoenix - incredibly vivid and often terrifying nightmares. Thankfully they tend to fade away pretty quickly,

SnowDawg

With me yes. I look into dream interpretations online. Some good. Some bad. The worst are the dreams of drinking and using again though. But sleep dramatically improved over time in my case with very pleasant dreams now. Beaches, meadows, and fine food.

Inca

I had terrible nightmares at first two. They went away after a few weeks once my body adjusted.

Now I get them during periods of high stress and they are so vivid I wake up thinking they are real. The difference is now that I'm sober I can quickly realize that they are not real and just dreams. When I was drinking, my world was so crazy that I was never quite sure what exactly was real or not. Very scary.

sugarbear1

I'd wake up and my hanging robe would be a person, those were not fun.

I never had a drinking dream, only got to carry the bottle around, but it was always closed. Smoking pot dreams are called freebies, but waking up and feeling high wasn't fun.

I prefer sobriety today!

justinJustQuit

My vivid dreams lasted about 5 days. They were always fantasizing alcohol, or very dark. Usually knife cuts. There were very vivid.

It's weird. In my dreams I've been stabbed in the liver like 3 or 4 times. I always wonder if they are related to my health or something. Or maybe it's just something manifesting from my thoughts during the day. (like worrying that the damage I caused my body by drinking so much damaged my liver)

DoubleBarrel

I had a lot of dreams, crazy stuff. Violent, scary, you name it.

One turning point in my recovery was when using dreams turned from a "freebie" into a nightmare, even my subconscious recognized that I didn't want to throw my sobriety away.

Your brain is going through a lot of healing, and shaping new pathways, literally. Give yourself time. You can't die from a dream, as far as I know.

FeelingGreat

I find analysing my dreams takes some of the fear out of them. I don't think you need to go online to interpret dreams, you can usually work out what they represent. Huge earthquake/tornado = big changes = fear of big change.

Pete55

Heard it many times about these vivid dreams, I had them to. Mine faded away.
I used some "techniques" I heard from others, some of my own, but understood why this was happening. For what it's worth, in my case I believed that for many years of drinking etc, I suppressed my reality and emotions.
Once the alcohol was stopped, then all that was suppressed came to surface.
This understanding removed some fear if I was actually mad !
I also had a sponsor who listened about my dreams, to a point of course then suggested I pray.
It's mind's way of coming to grips with a new found sober life.

As mentioned, eventually it fades away, just don't try to analyze these dreams, get on with the day and the moment.

phoenix108

Thanks for the assurances! I think there are direct parallels between my dream and real life...and i successfully stuffed my fears for the last 10 years...it's scarey what my subconscious has retained...that can't be healthy. so thanks.