Do the dreams ever go away?

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I've been sober from alcohol for 3.5 years but I keep having dreams where I keep trying to sneak or find alcohol. Like every night every dream revolves around alcohol. I never successfully drink, but every dream is an alcohol obsession. It's driving me crazy to the point where I wanna start drinking again just to stop my brain from obsessive craving
It's started seeping into my days now and I crave it :/
I don't know where this has suddenly come from these last several weeks.

 

[Peppers76]

I got off heroin 6 yrs ago...I still have such intense using dreams I wake up in a panic thinking I used. I've talked to other people who have a lot more clean time than me and they still have the dreams as well. So unfortunately I think it's a cross we have to bear.....

 

[MDPV_Psychosis]

They do seem to stick around, probably for the rest of my life. I notice they tend to come and go in waves. Like sometimes I'll notice days/weeks go by without many but then I'll have a period of time where I'll notice the dreams happening almost every night.

 

[Branggen]

I've been sober from alcohol for 3.5 years but I keep having dreams where I keep trying to sneak or find alcohol. Like every night every dream revolves around alcohol. I never successfully drink, but every dream is an alcohol obsession. It's driving me crazy to the point where I wanna start drinking again just to stop my brain from obsessive craving
It's started seeping into my days now and I crave it :/
I don't know where this has suddenly come from these last several weeks.

If you say its come in the last few weeks im sure it will go away soon enough, the harder it is for you to stay clean the better you will feel for having done so. Just wait for the pay off

I got intense dreams where I would be about to use but never actually did for many months after stopping heroin/crack but they have went away, I am still on morphine though a much lower dose. To be fair I dont have tons of dreams though, if you think just getting rid of your dreams would help I recommend cannabis, seems to get rid of most dreams for me, though I was smoking when I had those dreams

 

[Burnt Offerings]

^ very true regarding cannabis. Even taking as little as one hit a day will almost completely eliminate dreams for me, which isn't exactly an undesirable side effect, as my dreams tend to range from "unpleasant" to "bizarre". Almost all of them were strange, disjointed narratives where I'd only remember some fragments upon waking, and they'd be almost immediately forgotten once I began to wake up...so I don't think I've ever had one that's been based around alcohol or drugs, at least not that I can remember

My mother used to smoke but quit 30+ years ago and still claims to get an occasional dream in which she's smoking a cigarette, so I know that with some people this can be a "thing"

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I got off heroin 6 yrs ago...I still have such intense using dreams I wake up in a panic thinking I used. I've talked to other people who have a lot more clean time than me and they still have the dreams as well. So unfortunately I think it's a cross we have to bear.....

I think you're right.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

They do seem to stick around, probably for the rest of my life. I notice they tend to come and go in waves. Like sometimes I'll notice days/weeks go by without many but then I'll have a period of time where I'll notice the dreams happening almost every night.

Same. My drug councillor told me that the cravings/dreams come every three months.

 

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

I'm stuck living at my parents house right now. Was JUST looking at places to move when the social distancing stuff started so it's on hiatus for now so I can't use cannabis for now but will keep it in mind for the future! Thanks.

Would opioids help or just encourage them?

 

[Branggen]

For me, when I would have these dreams I would wake up and be thankful I hadn't actually relapsed. When you wake up do you feel annoyed that you aren't drunk or are you happy you aren't?
No clue about the opiods

 

[MDPV_Psychosis]

I wake with a mixed bag of feelings... something like the combination of depression, relief and anger. For what it's worth my dreams are always about using stims.

Depressed because I realize I'm not getting high despite what I thought moments ago in my dream.
Relief because I haven't relapsed.
Anger because I can't/shouldn't use anymore

 

[Xorkoth]

After I quit my main opiate phase (10 years of intense addiction), I would have dreams many nights for years, increasingly less often, where I would come into the dream realizing I had been chipping and was now facing withdrawals. I never actually used them in my dream, it was just like I knew I had been. I would feel guilt and shame and fear, and then wake up like THANK GOD that was a dream, fuck opiates. So basically reverse using dreams that would make me want to use opiates less. After 5 years, I stopped having those dreams and I was in a very difficult period of my life, and the lack of negatively reinforcing dreams led to me relapsing for about 8 months. I quit about a month ago again and strangely opiates have no part in my dreams whatsoever and I never think about them anymore.

I do have using dreams about stimulants often, like you describe, where I am obsessively trying to get them and never actually do. Usually they're about meth, which I have strangely only actually done a few times and it's been years since I last did. I also have them about cocaine, which I don't even like all that much. Those dreams do make me crave stimulants when I wake up which sucks.

Occasionally I have psychedelic using dreams where I do take psychedelics and then start tripping... one time I actually had an ego death during my dream, it was wild. I like those using dreams.