Drinking/Using Dream

Hi Folks,

Had a really vivid using dream last night. I was smoking and drinking scotch and liking it-never did before. I was drinking heavily but it didn't seem to be affecting me. I was drinking with one of my uncle's who is dead. I can't remember if it was the one who was gruff or the one who molested me.

What triggered it? I'm not really certain but tomorrow is an anniversary of stopping smoking for me. Maybe that triggered it.

It was so real I thought I needed to pick up a white chip.

It's been a long time since I've had a using dream, but you probably know they're not that uncommon. There's no telling how dreams are triggered, but I know when I had these using dreams I'd wake with a start. It's pretty scary, & I'm sorry you had to experience that. Hopefully that was the last dream you'll have. I sympathize.

I have those too. What is weird for me is that I had taken the dreams to mean that I was supposed to do what happened in the dream. BAD IDEA! 2 years ago I had a dream about 3 cans of Air Duster. I thought, I am supposed to do it! I did one can one day and another the next. The third can I did, I crashed my car! Then I have had other drinking dreams where I had the dream first, and then I "obeyed" it, and strange things happened. Now I just take the dreams as warnings what NOT to do. I hope you can find peace about this Nots, it is NOT fun (pun intended =D ) (((Notz)))

Thank goodness it was just a dream! They can be so scary. I have awaken in a cold sweat because of those dreams.

I heard somewhere that what we dream about are the things the dreamer is anxious about, things that he/she usually thinks the most. Or things the dreamer really would rather NOT think about. In any case, dreams can be very creepy to say the least.

And congratulations on the no-smoking anniversary.

I haven't smoked in 8 or 9 years and frequently dream that I am still smoking. These dreams disgust me and make me feel ill. I can never understand them. But I haven't dreamed about drinking. Don't know what to make of it.

Like Sabrina, I've continued to smoke in my dreams--it's never bothered me though. I've never had a drink in a dream. That would freak me out. The smoking in dreams I've discussed with Ts and, and because it's such a constant no one finds it significant ... possibly because it was a late choice I made for a part in a play in my 20s. It didn't figure into The Family Secret in the way alcoholism did.

I think the cease-smoking anniversary triggered your dream, and determined most of the staging and casting. Smoking is related to drinking, and the more theatrically we dress our dreams the more reality we are generally trying to cover up.

I think all the time I spent in Jungian dream therapy, as torturous as it was at the time, was the most helpful in personal ways for me.

I'm sorry about the dream jolt, notz, and hope the white chip worked its protective magic. Any more dreams like that? Are you over the upset?

roads

I had using dreams for the first 3 years or so of my sobriety but they went away. Now, I've been sober for over 8 years. A few months ago I started dreaming that I had a dream of drinking and that I could not figure out if I had relapsed or not. I know, sorta weird, a dream of a dream...I was relieved to wake up and know I had not relapsed because I was extremely anxious in my dream.....D.

Funny, I just watched a YouTube video about smoking dreams the other day (can't post links yet, but it's "Dreams of Smoking" by Joel Spitzer). The same premise probably applies to dreams about drinking or using drugs. I got using dreams for the first couple years, seemed to be at random. But I really liked his take that these are nightmares--not fantasies--about smoking/drinking/using. They're definitely troubling, though.

I think it is very common. I had them the first three years of sobriety and then they went away. They were very real and scary and freaked me out. Now at 18 years clean and sober I started having them again. they don't freak me out near as much though. I was very surprised to start having them again.