Feeling Bored In Sobriety? Here’s How To Have Fun Without Alcohol

Whatever the reason for your boredom, drinking can create a negative cycle around it. So whether you are an absent-minded drinker or a lonely or anxious one, what can you do to prevent drinking out of boredom? Here are 5 tips to help you make changes to your drinking habits that could help you feel better, for good. Fried and overly sugary foods will also artificially spike your dopamine levels and cause your brain to overcorrect, leaving you feeling irritable, depressed, and cranky. These are all things you’re trying to overcome from drinking. Forming healthy connections with other people is an important of this process.

Myth: A “hair of the dog” can stop a hangover in its tracks.

And it says, “You’ll need coffee shops and sunsets and road trips, you’ll need airplanes and passports and new songs and old songs. At Recovery Centers of America, we offer a range of programs for substance use disorders and mental health conditions. From addiction treatment to aftercare and alums programs to weekly events and meetings, we are committed to helping you every step of the way. There are many reasons for this, from previous patterns of alcohol use to brain chemistry. There is a sense in which dopamine and serotonin—two essential brain chemicals that influence our sense of pleasure—are on hiatus from their normal function when one is drinking excessively. It can take time for both our personal habits and our physical bodies to adapt to not using alcohol.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year? How to Cope With Holiday Blues

I thought that wine was the glue, holding my life together, helping me cope with my kids, my stressful job and my busy life. I didn’t realize that my love affair with drinking was making me more anxious and less able to manage my responsibilities. Alcohol addiction rehab programs should address substance use as well as any underlying co-occurring mental health disorders. 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.

• Even though we’re not traveling right now, I rented a farmhouse two hours away from me that I’m just going to go to just for a change of pace.
• Mindfulness also helps you recognize triggers that may lead to relapse, such as stress, anxiety, or negative emotions.
• 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.
• You’ll meet millions of fellow Reframers in our 24/7 Forum chat and daily Zoom check-in meetings.

Problems Caused by Drinking Out of Boredom

So, I remember when I quit drinking, my Coach said to me, what is it that you love more than wine? What would you get up at 5 in the morning to do that isn’t drinking, not that anyone got up at five in the morning to drink? I enjoyed a lot of things, but more than wine, an activity that I enjoyed more than the fuzzy buzzy feeling of drinking. Even before that first sip, I couldn’t think of anything. I had to give myself assignments of what I might enjoy.

Alcohol didn’t make life fun. It just made you not care.

And it gave me drinking out of boredom what I call an anchor activity for the long days during the pandemic. If I go there at 11am or 2pm, and spend an hour, then I’ve done something, then I’ve seen something that I’m more amused and happy to settle down at the end of the evening and not feel bored. We’d all love to be the type of person who rises at 6AM, drinks kombucha, quickly writes a book and then goes for a refreshing hike – all before midday – but for most of us that’s not realistic. So if you wake up after a night of knocking back tequilas and behaving like a goblin, you don’t need to make it worse by drowning in self resentment. Boredom can be a scary concept for anyone, but it’s even scarier for those in recovery. They may worry that without drugs or alcohol to keep them entertained; they will have nothing to fill their free time.