How to Overcome Boredom After Quitting Drinking?

Once your downtime ends, and you’ve made progress on your hobby or taken a walk, enjoy a piece of chocolate before your next activity. Are there certain days where boredom is more likely to sneak in? At the beginning of those days, plan to work on a hobby or some other activity when nothing else is scheduled. You’ll find it easier to settle into the activity should boredom strike.

Bored Drinking: How to Defend Against the Sneakiest Trigger

• For those who didn’t work from home, only 12% were prone to excessive drinking.
• So drinking because you’re bored isn’t doing much for you in the long run.
• Additionally, you can save money by buying in bulk and reduce waste from single packaging.

This consistent connection will help foster healthy relationships in recovery with people who can support you and what you’re going through in the present moment. Losing relationships to the substance can be challenging but anchoring to others in recovery can be the very thing you need to feel worthy of recovery. Boredom drinking isn’t just a personal habit—it’s a learned response reinforced by decades of cultural cues. Once we see how deeply these messages are embedded, we https://ecosoberhouse.com/ can start questioning whether alcohol really “fixes” boredom or just masks it for a moment.

How do you cope with the Boredom of sobriety?

If you are an adult and active yet bored with work or mundane, tedious activities, push yourself to discover new adventures or make new friends. If your job represents a form of security but is painstakingly boring, explore new possibilities for employment even if you never fill out an application or get a job interview. Strong, positive energy coupled with the right attitude is important to infuse into your child a new productive program. If executed early and properly, boredom will have no opportunity to lead to dangerous experimentation with potentially addictive behaviors. I was however, a cigarette smoker, and quit when I was up to two packs a day.

Alisha Hamel, LSW, LAC —  Licensed Social Worker & Licensed Addiction Counselor

Every time I’ve relapsed, it wasn’t going to clubs or meeting a guy or whatever. It was me, at night, sick of watching some lame TV show and pretending to care or reading a book and pretending to care or doing whatever and pretending to care. quoteI’m thinking of buying a bottle of sleeping pills and when I’m not at work, take a few to sleep through the boring moments without drinking.

Notice that the militant AA believers such as R22 never back up their assertions with any numbers or other compelling evidence. They just make blowhard statements such as “This is a fact, period.” Unlike R22, I don’t need marijuana addiction to pretend I have all the “facts” because I have evidence to back up what I’m saying. 5% is also the rate of annual spontaneous remission, or those who quit entirely on their own with no specific treatment whatsoever. In other words, AA has the exact same success rate as… R33, ignore the bitter bitches here on this thread.

Sometimes, on a rare occasion, I find myself enjoying something like gardening without a drink and I stop and think “I should be drunk right not”. I don’t know if it’s habit or I think I enjoy things more if tipsy. After a couple of months, I start to feel this build up of tension or whatever. Different drugs can help with the road to recovery. Naltrexone can help reduce alcohol cravings, so they stop wanting to drink alone.

As difficult a challenge as boredom can present to overcome for anyone of any age, the answer lies in confronting and moving through and beyond the causes of boredom. Anyone experiencing significant levels of boredom needs to ask themselves what challenging (and likely unpleasant) experience they are attempting to avoid. One can form a habit out of being bored because it can present a degree of comfort and safety. Eventually, since no one expects anything from you, and you don’t expect drunk and bored anything from yourself, drugs or alcohol can seem like an acceptable choice and the easiest and quickest fix.

No wonder so many of us will avoid boredom at all costs—through drinking, shopping, scrolling, or, when all else fails…self-administering mild electric shocks. From a cultural perspective, boredom doesn’t just feel uncomfortable; it feels wrong. Carole Bennett, M.A., is a family substance abuse counselor, lecturer, columnist and author based at her Family Recovery Solutions Counseling Center in Santa Barbara, CA. When children or adolescents are spending too much time in front of the television (or screens of any kind) or listlessly whiling away hours, it may be time to step in. Curtail the screen-time hours and help your child look for and plan stimulating activates or hobbies. If they are not interested in pursuing them independently, get involved yourself or recruit other members of the family.

• You’re better off on your own than keeping negative company.
• Once that’s done, you’ll get a 15-day free trial to test out everything, including our daily habit change tools, tracking and analytics, community and coaching, and education and resources.
• In fact, boredom has been linked to anxiety, depression, and even addiction.
• The hidden downside of using alcohol to cope with situational boredom is that it often keeps us stuck—tolerating situations we might otherwise exit, transform, or outgrow.
• Some people take medication to treat alcoholism and other treatment methods simultaneously to stay sober.

Meetings through Support Groups

Situational boredom is part of life, but it doesn’t have to send you straight to the bottle. You can exit it, numb it, or engage with it—and only engagement builds the skills and resilience to break the boredom → drink → repeat loop for good. After a few sips, the irritable boredom fades, replaced by a buzzing numbness. You exhale, “Now this feels better,” and conclude that the ad is right — a glass of wine is indeed the solution for boredom.

I also cooked a ton and began writing again (before getting caught up in the party life I was an aspiring writer). The only thing that saved me and got me going was my new found love of crystal meth. I know some are being funny but really pot works. Couple of hits in the evening and I am up cleaning or organizing. Being bored under those circumstances is normal, not evidence of being a “dry drunk”.

• However, as the saying goes, this too shall pass.
• I’ve met so many new and amazing people, started new hobbies.
• If these problems persist, professional help may be needed.
• Hobbies also provide a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment, which can help reduce feelings of boredom.

It also offers an opportunity to express yourself without the need for drugs or alcohol. This is possible with the right support and a commitment to your recovery. It’s essential to remember that this is a normal part of recovery and that it will disappear with time as your body adjusts. Unfortunately, this can make you feel apathetic, unmotivated, and downright bored. It’s really common to attribute all ennui in sobriety to missing booze and thinking that the main way you (and everyone else) enjoy yourself is by getting wasted.