This is Annie Grace and you're listening to this naked mind podcast where without

judgment, pain or rules, we explore the role of alcohol in our lives and culture.

Hi friends, it's Annie Grace. I am answering questions and I am the author of this naked mind.

Today's question comes from Sarah. Sarah says, I am 95 days alcohol free today. The first

couple of weeks in I would wake up after having a dream believing that I had just had a drink.

That went away but now I'm starting to get him again. First of all, congratulations

Sarah at 95 days. That's awesome. She says not as often as they were at the beginning,

but I thought that they would go away by this time is this normal. Also, sometimes I go out

with friends, I don't drink and then I wake up in the morning thinking that I'm actually

hungover. I have to tell myself, you can't be, you didn't drink anything so weird. Why

does this happen and will it go away with time? Well first of all, let me say I'm not an

expert on dreams so I'll tell you my own experience and the experience of tons of people who have

also stopped drinking is that yes, it's natural and it happens and it can happen over lots

of time. For sure, it happened more frequently at the beginning. It happened to me tons of

times. I would wake up. I'd be about halfway through a pint in my dream and I'd freak out

and panic in my dream. It wasn't that I was so worried that I was having a drink for

the sake of having a drink or breaking some rule. It was more that I just felt trapped

again and I felt like back in this tangled web of just thinking about it because to be

honest, I hadn't been thinking about it all that much during my waking hours. So waking

up would be this panicky feeling and it would truly remind me of how grateful I am to

be free. But sometimes I'd have a drink and I'd enjoy it in my dream and it wouldn't

be any big deal and it hasn't happened for me in quite some time. But I have a friend

...