I need help interpreting a reacurring dream theme. I am moving into a new house or looking to purchase a new house. When I look around the house I find a secret room (generally in the attic). It is small, private, and comfortable and I like the space and want to spend time there. I am excited and intriqued by this secret room.

Houses are often interpreted as representing the entirety of your personality or life. A new house could mean a change in your lifestyle or attitudes. A secret room could mean something personal and special entering your life. The attic suggests it is a new thought, new idea.

Thank you morningangel. I have experienced a complete life change in the past two years. I am an alcoholic and have been sober two years. I have been using a spiritual 12 step program to get and remain sober. I wonder if my life change and spiritual awakening is represented in that secret room that I find and I desire to be in.

What an inspiring life journey. No doubt there is something special in your secret room.

As someone who also found himself in Dreamland just short of my second sobriety anniversary, and who remembers fondly a small, cozy single dream room, I'm going to take a slightly different tack from Morningangel and suggest that your room is your "Inner Sanctum", the room where no company comes and where you indeed feel most "at home." This is all to the good; but there's an ambiguity: in some degree, it is the refuge you've found from all the damage of your drinking years and the stressors of a still-new sobriety.

When I look back on those days and those dreams, what strikes me is that, essential as that refuge is, there much beyond it in both the Inner and Outer Worlds; and we can only withdraw from them for so long. We live in both those worlds and must engage them - and accept guidance from the Wise Ones in each. Dreamwork proved essential for me to become fully sober in the 12-Step sense; and it may be so for you. I'd suggest you consider trying a dream log for a while, just to see what happens; and for the first two weeks or so just record, and not dwell on understanding or interpretation. Those will come in time, through your own efforts and perhaps with the help of posters like Morningangel, whose website might be of interest to you.

Understand, dreamwork is in no sense a substitute for the Steps; but it can be a supplement. And the same can hold true vice-versa.

BobW, that's a wonderful way of interpreting his secret room and wise words of advice.

Thanks Bob, it is good to hear from someone who was where I am now. The internal changes and experiences of twelve step work are rewarding and at the same time emotionally overwhelming. I definitely have embraced this path and have no desire to turn back. I appreciate and understand your warning of not obsessing over or withdrawing into an inner sanctum. I will try a dream log.
I also experience drunk dreams, Where I am drinking in my dream. I wake up in a panic thinking I have slipped only to find out it was a dream. They occurred more often in my first year sober, and have become less frequent since I have passed two years.
Again, thank you for your insight.

Aren't those drunk dreams frightening? But I think they serve a valuable purpose. They remind us, "You could always go back!"; and I think sometimes - not always - they warn us we're at risk of slipping into a dry drunk.