LOTS of people get those dreams and they happen with alcohol too and a lot of other drugs.
When I use to read about it I use to think "so what, its just a fucking nighmare and once I'm awake I'll likely forget it anyway". But then when they happen you kinda see another side to them.
I had dreamt one night durings wds/paws that I strangled my ex-girlfriend and threw her body in a lake. Then I went back to the lake crying, holding her in the water feeling like I killed someone who at one point I had loved so much. It basically triggered an intense depression for a few weeks where all in 1 day I realized how much anger/resentment I held towards the break up.
Psychologists say its not the events of dreams that matter but the emotion it produces that you should always focus on.
Some aging man with cancer kept dreaming that he would go to a car dealership and the only car they had was his least favorite kind (honda civic). He had it for 2 years straight and assumed all the dream meant was he didn't like civics. However, during the dream he said when he saw the civic he often felt "guilty" (which doesn't make a whole lot of sense).
Overtime him and the dr concluded that the dream actually meant the cars were all dream symbols for his body. And he always got the civic as a representation of what he would get in his next life cause he believed in reincarnation. At the time he was suffering from cancer he also became a massive dick, and started lashing out on all of those around him. Claming once time during a support group that he believed rape was ok after a girl just got done sharing her encounter with a rapist (now guilt kind of makes sense).
Him and the dr figured out what the dream meant. It was a way of telling him that if he didn't start making the right choices and being kind to people that in his next life he would get a civic, or a life in general that he didn't like (which aligns with beliefs of reincarnation, you do good in this life and you get a better life next time).
At that time he started to change his life around. Started being nice to people, and dropped a lot of resentment he had towards the fact that he was dying. He also started his own self help group for terminal cancer patients where he wound up helping a lot of people. A couple weeks before he died he had told his dr that the dream had stopped happening, and that for the first time in his life he was at peace with the fact that he would be gone soon.
I think my dream just highlighted how much shit I wind up repressing in my life to appear strong to other people (pushing my ex under the water = repressing emotions). And that if I don't starting dealing with things, its likely to manifest in very ugly ways. Not saying I'm gonna snap and start killing people but it could symbolically mean that I'm going to strangle my own spirit if I don't learn how to mourn shit. My ex at one point was my spirit in life, she gave me reason to to want to live. And the dream had me fucked up in the head pretty badly for weeks to come. I'd obsess about it and think about it all day long. I'm the type of person who can't for the life of me understand why people kill each other, and just to have a dream like that myself really bothered me. Did it mean I was a murderer? That I was capable of doing such twisted shit?
It didn't matter, what mattered was I started dealing with emotions instead of trying to run away from them everytime they happened. Only you can really figure out what your dreams mean.
And when you're coming off any addictive drugs, its known that dreams generally get worse in the first 12 months then usually go away. I can't tell you what to do, but try to analyze your dream.
You may think its just a regurgitated teenage memory, but it likely has other meaning as well.
Maybe in the dream that car is a symbol for recovery, and its telling you that you can't steal recovery. You said the wds weren't by choice, which likely means right now you're not clean by choice. I'm just curious if the dream means whats most obvious, or whats least obvious.
The emotion of "panic" would be the most important thing to look at. What else makes you feel panicked that you can relate to the dream? And I know this is prob annoying what I'm doing as you never asked for a dream interpretation but I personally love trying to interpret dreams. When you meet someone whos really good at it (therapist lol) sometimes it will blow your mind the potential meanings behind them. And I also noticed theres a way to find the right meaning, where when you apply it you stop having the dreams.
Either way I know it sucks bro and I'm really just rambling at this point. G/luck!
