KeepingUp

I had one of THOSE dreams last night. Where suddenly I'm drinking, but I also realize that I shouldn't be drinking, but it's too late? So stressful! Luckily I woke up and I'm still almost 3.5 years sober. Life has been a bit stressful unrelated to drinking, so I guess I can probably chalk my dream up to that. Maybe this is also a cue to address some of that stress

I'd love to hear from others - have you had drinking dreams? What have they meant to you? OR What do you do to manage stress? Because clearly I need some tips!

(Stress aside, sobriety is great and I have no urge to drink. I'm so thankful to be sober through the stressful times now. Imagine how much worse they'd be!)

nez

I look at drinking dreams as a gentle reminder from my soul of just precious the gift of sobriety is. I never want to get complacent and forget how much hard work has gone into getting to today. A drinking dream is a no harm/ no foul reminder of where I used to be, so that I don't get complacent.

Dee74

I compare them to when I used to dream of high school...it happened a lot for a while, but I never wanted to go back there

D

least

I haven't had a drinking dream in years but they just reminded me how glad I was to be sober.

DriGuy

... and for me how frightened I was of falling back into the nightmare in real life. And drinking "nightmare" is the way I described my dreams. I would wake up realizing it was "only" a dream, but for what seemed like several minutes, I continued to experience the remorse, self hate, and loss as if it had really happened. I would keep reminding myself intellectually that it was only a dream, but the emotions were still there, while whatever biological chemistry took additional time to neutralize. I've never had any other kind of nightmare that was so hard to shake upon awakening. I haven't had a drinking nightmare in well over 20 years now.

My experience could not have been my AV talking. It seemed more an alter ego of my AV expressing itself. That would make three of me running around in the depths of my subconscious battling each other to be heard.

Gettingcloser

I just had one of those myself and I am almost 4 years sober. I did not feel threatened by it as I did in my early days of sobriety but I did wonder about it. In my dream, I was drinking glasses upon glasses of the heavy stuff like I used too but it was interesting that I felt no fear. I think that is because the AV has no power anymore. My life is fully functioning without alcohol.

Evoo

I get them! I had one recently.

Normally in the dream I'll suddenly realize I've had beers or whiskey by mistake -- then I'll freak out that I've "ruined my progress" and that I'll feel terrible the next day. They're pretty jarring dreams, but I always wake up reassured because there's literally no situation in real life where I would "accidentally" drink alcohol.

Like you I'm not having any cravings - I just chalk this up to "stress dream" category (like suddenly being back in college and forgetting to attend a class all year lol).

Colin1

I hardly ever remember my dreams these days and I think I've never had a drinking dream. OTOH, a long time ago I had quite a few in which I for some reason didn't attend a class all year. I thought it was just me, didn't know that other people had these too

KeepingUp

Oh my gosh, I've DEFINITELY had those dreams, including years and years after I was out of school! So funny that it's a semi-common thing!

anxiousrock

That's something I don't think I'll ever get used to. Hate drinking dreams.