...the dreaded DRINKING DREAM! I've seen folks post about it but in my whole 13 days sober I didn't have one till last night. I was at some sort of banquet & just picked up a glass near my plate & sipped it and it was champagne! I freaked!!! I was thinking, "I don't wanna drink this! That was an accident!!! Do I have to start over at day one now? Should I tell my sponsor?"... etc etc. It wasn't a good feeling at all. But at least I wasn't happy about it lookin' for more!
Nice to hear from you Posey. 13 days.... Nice work! From my experience; it's normal to have these dreams and you'll probably have more of them. I still do. Like you said; atleast you looked at it from a recovering angle and not an active alcoholic angle. I would say that's progress.
Congradulations Posey...13 days and a drinking dream. My former sponsor gave me a great look at drinking dreams when he told me "Enjoy it, it was a freebie!!". I've never been shook up by a drinking dream since that. They are real and at least on one of them I questioned my wife heartily if I have left the house during the evening. She assured me I had never left the bed. Alcoholism affects the mind, body, spirit and emotions and the dreams are freebies. Welcome.
Love the name...hit a homer in the 4th game of the World Series last night. One more to go!!
Research shows that the dreams are a normal, physical, part of the disease of addiction/alcoholism, even when it is in remission. Has to do with the brain chemistry and does NOT mean you "want" to use or are "subconsciously" thinking of using...it's about the fragile balance of neurotransmitters and the unknown things that trigger them (though stress and less than optimal sleep and nutrition are possible factors). After over two decades of sobriety, I still get them periodically and they are not one iota less real than they were back in the early days I have learned to shake 'em off but I also double-check my stress/diet/rest. I can't say I "enjoy" them as "freebies" because they invoke too much fear upon waking, until I really KNOW that it wasn't real.
I hate em' but my sponsor reminds me that it's like a free relapse without the consequences. I try and think of them like that and am reminded that if I were to take a drink I would only feel worse. I'm grateful for the reminder of how hard it was for me to finally get sober.
K.....
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Nothing ever truly dies. The universe wastes nothing. Everything is simply, transformed. :confuse:
I'm really really grateful that I didn't want the drink---that inside my dream I KNEW I was an alcholic. I think it means step one really sunk into my subconscious. I'm working on step 2 now, but I believe I will have to work on step one every day, "one day at a time", for the rest of my life.
In my drinking dreams the drink is just out of my reach....I either have a bottle hidden and can't get alone long enough to drink it or someone else gets it first. It is actually quite frustrating, but I have learned to laugh about it. It's that whole cunning, baffling and powerful thing:)
sober I didn't have one till last night. I was at some sort of banquet & just picked up a glass near my plate & sipped it and it was champagne! I freaked!!! I was thinking, "I don't wanna drink this! That was an accident!!! Do I have to start over at day one now? Should I tell my sponsor?"... etc etc. It wasn't a good feeling at all. But at least I wasn't happy about it lookin' for more!
