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. When children or adolescents are spending too much time in front of the television 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.

I definitely have my ptsd/trigger days when I feel like I neeeeed to drink. But it’s just occurred to me that a lot of my drinking is just habit or boredom. I had a nap after work and I have a beer in the fridge that I was planning on having later as my “last drink ever”. I want this beer about as much as I want to do my laundry. I went and bought soda water and fruit and I’m now trying to figure out what to do with my evening instead. This is a real-deal program designed for people that are truly, deeply ready to change.

Alcohol artificially boosts serotonin and dopamine in your brain.

When I was a heavy drinker, everything involved alcohol. If I was hanging out with friends, we were getting drunk. Author of Sober In Seven and wellness and sobriety coach in the UK, here to use my own experience of overcoming alcohol addiction to support you on your journey to a better healthier life. Boredom is a key reason people give for drinking too much and drinking out of boredom like this can become almost a subconscious activity, something that you do whilst doing something else. If you want to reduce the amount of alcohol you drink, it makes sense to avoid busy bars and thirsty friends. But many of us should because millions of us resort to drinking out of boredom whilst relaxing at home. Talk to other family members and tell them of your boredom so that they can support and work with you in determining other paths to fulfillment.

• Being bored means you’re not in trouble, you’re not in withdrawal, you’re not worried about what you said, and you don’t have to apologize for your actions.
• With lower rewards, normal behaviors are less appealing, and people find themselves feeling bored.
• You could swim with sharks, or try mountain biking, or try new food.
• Volunteering is a great way to reconnect to your community.
• Vodanovich S.J., Kass S.J. A factor analytic study of the boredom proneness scale.

Magid V., MacLean M.G., Colder C.R. Differentiating between sensation seeking and impulsivity through their mediated relations with alcohol use and problems. Hunter J.P., Csikszentmihalyi M. The positive psychology of interested adolescents. Coffman D.L., Patrick M.E., Palen L.A., Rhoades B.L., Ventura A.K. Why do high school seniors drink? Implications for a targeted approach to intervention. Caldwell L.L., Smith E.A. Health behaviors of leisure alienated youth. Author A designed the study and wrote most of the manuscript.

Seeking Treatment

We don’t have to deal with horrible hangovers or hangxiety. It is often the case that we drink too much to escape lives that we don’t enjoy. Those things do not miraculously improve just because we give up alcohol.

But at home, it’s easy to get a bit too comfortable… you can get a long way down a bottle when you are sitting in front of the TV half-watching some series to pass the time. The decision is often met with doubt, questioning if sobriety is attainable. It can also spark feelings of shame, guilt, and resentment.

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An increasing number of studies show that one way of coping with pandemic-induced stress, boredom, stress or isolation is drinking. I resisted, and have managed to reject the impulse to booze so far.

• Anyone experiencing significant levels of boredom needs to ask themselves what challenging experience they are attempting to avoid.
• It can take days or weeks to replace your bad habits with good ones but filling that void will keep your thoughts occupied.
• Going out to eat doesn’t feel appealing because when we went out it usually involved drinks.
• I know it will pass and deep down I KNOW with every bone in my body that I don’t want to go back to drinking but DAMN it is hard!
• I definitely have my ptsd/trigger days when I feel like I neeeeed to drink.

When I’m not writing about sobriety and mental health, I’m fully living in my role as wife, mama, and SEO badass. So it’s not that sobriety is inherently boring; it’s that your serotonin and dopamine levels are now very low. When serotonin and dopamine levels are low, we become less motivated and less interested in our surroundings. Just about one year ago, Dr. Robert L. Doyle, a professor of behavioral health at Harvard University and psychologist Dr. Joseph Nowinski, wrote a book entitled Almost Alcoholic. Their work provided a compelling look into the fine line that may pinpoint where a person can cross over from casual drinking to being well on their way to full-fledged alcoholism. In other words, how do you know if you might be an “almost alcoholic? If you know you will feel lonely or down, try and plan some interactions to reduce those feelings and your reliance on alcohol.

Reasons You Might Feel Bored in Sobriety

If you’re going to be bored – embrace the peace of it. Occupy your time and get healthy social interaction by taking part in group meetings and sober-related activities. Group meetings like Alcoholics Anonymous or SMART Recovery allow you to share your story with others, get feedback, and enjoy the friendliness and fellowship that’s crucial to discovery. Many groups hang out before or after the meeting so join up for a great time and less boredom. There’s no doubt that addictions mess with our brain and how it sends and receives signals but many problems with addiction also stem from rituals and habits. To stay sober, you must break your nasty habits or once-comforting rituals by replacing those bad habits with good ones.

Boredom usually stems from one’s own lack of motivation, endeavor, or creativity. Everyone gets bored now and then, but there’s a difference between changing that mood through healthy alternatives and turning to drugs or alcohol, either alone or with friends.

Drinking out of boredom can reinforce negative feelings and self-medicate. Carole Bennett, M.A., is a family substance abuse drinking because of boredom counselor, lecturer, columnist and author based at her Family Recovery Solutions Counseling Center in Santa Barbara, CA.