Been sober coming up on seven years. I occasionally have dreams where I am in a social situation and I have few drinks. In the dream, I can sometimes feel the effects and the horrible anxiety and shame that I now have lost all my time!! The dream can even include waking up hung over somewhere else, followed by the awful guilt and shame so common in the disease of alcoholism!!
Then, of course, I wake up, realize it was a dream and am thrilled and relieved that it was all in a dream and not reality?!
I've shared this in meetings with different responses......
Odd you should bring this up ... I haven't had a drinking dream since early sobriety, until last week ... and it was so real ...
As I passed the one year mark, the drinking dreams pretty much disappeared ... I attributed this to my change in 'thinking' which, of course, took time to migrate to my 'sub-conscience' ... once the sub-conscience has been 'retrained' for a sober way of life, then the dreams seemed to reflect that naturally ...
My Doctor put me on Chantix a couple weeks ago, to stop smoking, and some of the side effects are; possible depression, wild a** dreams, mood swings, etc. ... my dreams have been weird lately and one included drinking this past week ... and like you, I woke up, realized what happened and thought 'Whew', thank God it was only a dream ... (I was running around and finding 1/2 drank beers and chugging them down as fast as I could ...) ...
My sponsor told me a long time ago that a dream is simply 'a thought' ... and as long as I don't 'act' on it, there's no harm ...
(But I do believe that if we stay in 'fit spiritual condition', these dreams will stop completely ... but it takes some time ...)
Take Care and God Bless, Pappy
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
I had a lot of drinking dreams the first few months and not so many as of late. I have lost 20 pounds since September and had dessert dreams last night. I even had that weird guilty feeling this morning. *lol*
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I think there's an invisible principle of living...if we believe we're guided through every step of our lives, we are. Its a lovely sight, watching it work.
yep, every once in awhile they show up.... the first time it happened, it scared me real bad. so i talked to my sponsor about it and she said it is common, and they come and go. the last time one got me i went to a meeting in my dream and told them i drank. when i woke up i was so happy. still had my sobriety and even did the honest thing in my dream. LOL
Eating right and working out, who'd a thunk it? *lol*
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I think there's an invisible principle of living...if we believe we're guided through every step of our lives, we are. Its a lovely sight, watching it work.
Thanks all for the drinking dream comments!! Big secret to actually losing weight for me?! Eat less, work out more!! Could be the shortest program in writing and easiest program to explain to people who want to lose weight!?!
Oof, yes I have had these. That feeling of disappointment in myself is awful, but on the other hand that 'It's just a dream' realization is pretty great!
Count me in..I have them and hate them. The dreams seem to always be accompanied by some failure and a desire to get smashed. Not drink "normally" whatever that is but a dream of drinking fast and furious and trying to get away with it.
I just get nightmares :( , I had a dream the other day that eveyone in my family saw me in my underwear, I looked it up and it says I have a problem I'm ashammed of .. I thought that was interesting . If only they where sex dreams :(
I had them occasionally for the first 10 years, then they went away. Mine were sinister in that I would wake up within my dream and a voice would say "but you still cheated somewhere..."
I started a topic on Drunk Dreams about a week ago.....you can scroll down and read the responses to it?! I still have them, coming up on 8 years sober. They are an awful reminder of how I felt; before, during and after a drinking episode. All the feelings, the drunk, the guilt, the shame, the sadness of losing all my sober time. Yet, I do have to say it is great when I figure out it was a dream!! Don't get to upset by them.....good that we're both here gleek22.
I'll merge these two threads
-- Edited by StPeteDean on Monday 14th of January 2013 01:12:02 PM
Sure. I always feel guilty in the dream and am trying to hide the fact I'm back drinking again.
I'm not sure what is the biggest relief when I wake: that I'm sober and have been for a while, or that I don't have to live dishonestly.
Oh WOW Frodo, ... ... ... you just made me remember all the 'hiding' I did when I was drinking ... 'Hiding' the quantity of alcohol I was drinking from everyone was in fact living a lie to others, it was dishonesty at it's peak ... I forget what the term or expression is for when you don't tell the lie to someone else's face, but just fail to be up-front with them ... oh, what am I looking for??? ... like when the wife asks, did you drink on the way home from work? ... and I would say I only had one beer, which was true, but it was a 40 oz. beer (or I'd say I had only 2 beers, yep, 2 ... 40's) ... what do they call that? ... lying by default? ... oh, I can't remember, but it's the 'dishonesty' that Frodo mentioned that would always get to me ...
Wow, you're right, what a relief it is when you realize it was only a dream ...
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
Ugh I had a drunk dream last night and I literally felt guilty because I thought I relapsed. I didn't know what a drunk dream was either until my sponcer told me about it. When do these dreams stop or do they still come and go?
I started a topic on Drunk Dreams about a week ago.....you can scroll down and read the responses to it?! I still have them, coming up on 8 years sober. They are an awful reminder of how I felt; before, during and after a drinking episode. All the feelings, the drunk, the guilt, the shame, the sadness of losing all my sober time. Yet, I do have to say it is great when I figure out it was a dream!! Don't get to upset by them.....good that we're both here gleek22.
The first year, I had them off and on ... they tapered off drastically after six months ... my sponsor said that the dreams were merely 'thoughts' ... and that no harm is done as long as I don't act on them ...
Our dreams are a product of our sub-conscience ... and until we change our old thinking to our new way of thinking, consciously ... our sub-conscious mind will linger behind ... the way it appears to me is that I spent the 1st six months to a year getting my conscious mind changed to a new way of thinking ... then after that, the sub-conscious mind followed closely behind ... then the dreams of drinking all but disappeared ... for now, just be grateful it was only a dream ... not the real nightmare that we used to wake up to ...
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'Those who leave everything in God's hand will eventually see God's hand in everything.'
My sponser and several women told me that is is usually Milestones when we get those dreams...Alot of people still gets them espcially close to an anniversy!
I have them rarely. More often now it's that I have already drank and am sitting in a meeting or going around feeling like a fraud. I kinda forgot what it feels like "to drink" and don't dream much about "being drunk."
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Keep coming back. It works if you work it. So work it. You're worth it!
I still have them. They are an awful reminder of how I felt; before, during and after a drinking episode. All the feelings, the drunk, the guilt, the shame, the sadness of losing all my sober time. Yet, I do have to say it is great when I figure out it was a dream!! Don't get to upset by them.....good that we're both here.
Same as above here. I also have just the feeling dreams with no alcohol involved. They suck too!
I started a topic on Drunk Dreams about a week ago.....you can scroll down and read the responses to it?! I still have them, coming up on 8 years sober. They are an awful reminder of how I felt; before, during and after a drinking episode. All the feelings, the drunk, the guilt, the shame, the sadness of losing all my sober time. Yet, I do have to say it is great when I figure out it was a dream!! Don't get to upset by them.....good that we're both here gleek22.
Been sober coming up on seven years. I occasionally have dreams where I am in a social situation and I have few drinks. In the dream, I can sometimes feel the effects and the horrible anxiety and shame that I now have lost all my time!! The dream can even include waking up hung over somewhere else, followed by the awful guilt and shame so common in the disease of alcoholism!!
They suck too!