milly4me

I've heard people mention them.

I had one the other night. It was pretty simple, friend was going to a bar. I tagged along (for some stupid reason - like I had to talk to someone there or something). Decided to have ONE beer. Next thing I knew I had spent all my money and was drunk.

And I was thinking (still dreaming) "what the hell? How did that happen? Now I'll have to confess to the Jan 2018 class on Sober Recovery and join the Feb class"

Woke up. I was staying at someone else's house, so between the dream and the surroundings I was REALLY disoriented. SOOOOOOOooooooooo relieved it was only a dream.

But . . .

Like others have reported. It was so incredibly real. I could still taste the alcohol. I could still smell the bar. So vivid. So gross. So weird. It was two days ago, and it still pops up in my head as a memory not a dream.

What IS it about these dreams? What's really going on?

BTW, I'm 22 days sober today.

ScottFromWI

Congrats on 22 days! Those drinking dreams are certainly disconcerting, but they are very normal and almost everyone experiences them at some point. I still have them occasionally many years into being sober, albeit not nearly as often or intense as in the past.

I don't know that it's possible to actually figure out what is "really" going on, and frankly it sometimes makes things worse by trying to figure out "WHY". Our brains were sedated for years by alcohol, so in a sense they are just waking up from a long slumber and stretching out their legs.

If anything, they are actually a good sign that you are getting sound REM sleep!

BlownOne

I still have them too once in a great while even at 3 years sober. I don't put much stock in them other than to keep me motivated with recovery. Personally, I think I will probably always have them to a degree simply because my mind is alcoholic. My conscious mind is always focused on recovery, but my unconscious seems to have a will of its own. Don't worry about the dreams. Just keep doing what you need to do when you're awake =)

LBrain

Over the 4 years since I quit drinking I've had only a couple drinking dreams - very real and woke up in a panic.
I've also had dreams where I could fly or breathe under water - they are just dreams.

milly4me

Yeah, I'm not obsessing over the dream. It's just so weird. Luckily I haven't had sleeping issues with giving up alcohol. So I've been sleeping just fine. And I usually have pretty good dreams; vivid, real, etc . . .

But this dream was just BEYOND.

I'm just curious. I've read that it's your mind thinking before a relapse. That's scary. I'm kinda just assuming that since the brain is accustom to being drunk, when you sober up, the brain has to create it's own drunkenness just to stay even keel or something.

It's unsettling, but it's fascinating.

BreezyFe

Yup-get those dreams except mine are always me either hiding or sneaking booze. I never drink it because I usually wake up-probably from the stress of getting caught or not be able to hide it from whoever is in the dream with me (lol).

tomsteve

I've read that it's your mind thinking before a relapse.

some people believe that opinion.
many dont.

i dreamed about pancakes and bacon last night. doesnt mean i was thinking about having them.
i just had a dream about pancakes and bacon.
if it was true that its my mind thinking before a relapse then theres a whole lot ive been thinking about when im sleeping but havent done,too.

Dee74

I've had drunk dreams too but I've never had a problem when I was awake

I dreamed of high school for a lot of years afterwards - didn't mean I wanted to go back there.

If you're not wobbly about recovery when you're awake, I wouldn't start attributing meanings to dreams too much

D

DontRemember

I had one sometime back and it was odd. Kinda like when you go through a breakup and dream about your ex for a while. Eventually the thoughts/memories fade.

Zebra1275

I've been sober close to 8 years now, and I had a drunk dream a couple of weeks ago. It's the first one I've had in a years.

When I woke up a felt tremendous gratitude that I don't drink anymore.

I told my AA group that the dream probably had the same preventive effect as 6 months worth of AA meeting attendance.