Before you know it, your list of things to celebrate when bored gets longer, and the number of drinks you enjoy each week goes up. Often, being bored without alcohol seems intimidating because when there’s no task to put your mind to, you’re forced to notice the things that are making you unhappy. 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. When you get sober, you realize there is an entire daytime pulse in your city or town that you never really felt before.

Those who seek to have alcohol at any interval, if they are honest, would say that even when alone alcohol has been a source of entertainment. It is used to combat not only boredom, but also sadness, stress, or the pressures of work. And then separately, researchers have evaluated liver function among people who drink kind of regularly and then stop for a while. He’s a senior scientific adviser at the NIH institute that studies alcohol, and he says the results have been kind of surprising. One of the best ways to deal with bored drinking is to anticipate it — why is not always easy. If you do manage to meet your friends, the added drinks from socializing might affect your ability to get home, placing a burden on your friends.

Seeking Professional Help for Boredom Drinking

And the sickness and tiredness you feel after the initial high of alcohol consumption wears off is neither fun nor interesting. So drinking because you’re bored isn’t doing much for you in the long run. Instead, you should find ways to cope with your boredom that keep you productively drinking out of boredom occupied and are more fulfilling. The average adult experiences around 131 days of boredom per year, so how you react to this boredom is critical to your mental health. If you justify to yourself, “I drink when I’m bored,” it can quickly lead to overindulgence and health concerns.

• That way, you may be able to identify an eating style that needs correction.
• If you need support in your journey, our team at Ria Health is always here to help you, and we’re only a call away.
• Drinking to combat boredom can be problematic, but you can prevent long-term consequences if you identify it early.
• Let’s address another reason life without alcohol feels boring.
• 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.
• You can use this knowledge to create a personalized plan for overcoming boredom drinking and maintaining a sober lifestyle.

Swap alcohol for non-alcoholic beverages such as mocktails or soda water with lime. I’m currently at work, and super tempted to pick up some drinks right now. It’d be far from the first time I drank on the job, even though I know it’s not a good idea obviously. Part of it is definitely that I’ve had a rough month and struggle with depression, but another part is simply that it’s a slow day.

How To Overcome The Boredom When You Stop Drinking Alcohol? (Transcript)

You’ve already taken the first step just by searching for and reading this article. The next best thing is to implement everything you’ve learned in this article by yourself. Because they are trained to help people in situations like yours. They can help you to explore the causes of your persistent boredom and offer tailored advice to help you overcome it. You can easily drain yourself dry on activities, responsibilities, and keeping up with a busy schedule if you don’t allow yourself adequate time for rest. Volunteering is a great way to meet people with a shared interest because you ought to pick a cause that relates to something you are interested in or passionate about.

The most effective treatment provides access to ongoing therapy, skills training, group or peer support, relapse avoidance techniques, and prescribed medications, if necessary. Taking a personalized approach allows many families and individuals the chance to adjust treatment to best suit lifestyle, needs, and long-term goals. The reasons people start drinking alcohol is very different than the reasons they continue to drink alcohol. Boredom and isolation are known relapse triggers for people with substance use disorders. An important way to safeguard your sobriety is to be aware of this and take steps to mitigate it.

How to Stop Drinking Out of Boredom

Some drink for pleasure or at social events, while others find themselves drinking for no reason at all.. Regardless of the intent, there are significant health implications that arguably make alcohol the most dangerous substance on the market. Find a support group and make contact with them regularly. 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.

Various addiction treatment programs are available for those struggling with alcohol use disorder and boredom drinking. These programs should address substance use and any underlying co-occurring mental health disorders to ensure the most successful outcome. The best approach to treatment includes access to follow-up therapy, management of skills, group or peer support, strategies to prevent relapse and prescribed medications if needed. Such a comprehensive treatment is most effective in achieving recovery.

Addiction Therapy Programs

Right now, you’re doing a very hard thing, and sometimes hard things feel lonely. Fortunately, there are more ways than ever to connect with like-minded people who are fellow travelers on this path. So many people quit drinking and end up walking around in a dopamine deficit state, struggling to find joy in anything. When I was a heavy drinker, everything involved alcohol. If I was hanging out with friends, we were getting drunk. Now that you know the chemical reason for your boredom, let’s explore additional factors that might be contributing to these feelings.