The cycle of drinking to fill time leads to mental, emotional, and physical challenges that can be hard to reverse. It is natural to feel bored when you are sober because of the way your life has previously revolved around alcohol. The reasons people start drinking alcohol are very much not the same as the reasons they continue to drink alcohol. Drinking as a way to cope with boredom indulges in and perpetuates that passivity. It’s hard to think of a more passive activity than lying on a couch with a six-pack of beer. You may think you’re going to feel better after boozing, but in actuality, you’re reinforcing the notion that you need to wait for life to entertain you.

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And when they do drink, they are drinking less and less often than previous generations at the same age. UNSW Sydney and Curtin University provide funding as members of The Conversation AU. Say you have downtime on a Saturday afternoon after a challenging week at work. “Getting through the week” might be your rationale for pouring a glass of wine. Even when COVID lockdowns ended, we found in the https://ecosoberhouse.com/ same survey that 17% of respondents who worked from home were more likely to be excessive drinkers.

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When you experience GABA withdrawal, you feel things like intense anxiety, moodiness, and intrusive thoughts. It’s why some people suffer “hangxiety” after a night of heavy drinking. Eventually, this leads to an unhealthy pattern of emotional drinking that is much harder to quit. To understand why drinking out of boredom can be so risky, it’s worth taking time to understand the role of dopamine in how we behave and make decisions. If those thoughts are very negative, then hanging out in your own brain isn’t going to be a great experience. This is where the real work of sobriety is – facing up to your own mind.

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• While the holidays are indulgent, there’s also plenty of downtime (hint, hint) for learning how to deflect urges to drink.
• This shift in routine, coupled with earlier darkness and cold temperatures, can lead to SAD.
• Physical activity is a great way to relieve boredom while also boosting mental and physical health.

Starting to drink gradually might be considered normal or appropriate, but it can quickly create a dependence and lead to a severe drinking problem. If you’re drinking out of boredom, read on to learn more about what this means. As humans, we’re meant to experience the full spectrum of positive and negative emotions – that’s how we’re designed. There can be a bit of stigma around boredom, but it can also fuel so much creativity. It is very common for people to replace alcohol with sugar in the beginning, which is detrimental not only to your waistline and physical health but your mental well-being as well. Getting outside and communing with nature is scientifically proven to reduce stress and improve mental health and cognitive function in both kids and adults.

Early sobriety is a critical period when community and support networks are critical. This can be hard if your social life previously revolved around drinking. It’s even harder if your loved ones don’t support your sobriety. When serotonin and dopamine levels are low, we become less motivated and less interested in our surroundings. Getting sober is like learning to walk again after a terrible accident.

You can learn more about the benefits of exercise and how to integrate it into your routine here. Finding a healthy activity that interests you can be a great way to break away from boredom and start enjoying your life in sobriety. By engaging in healthy activities such as exercise and connecting with other people in recovery, you can begin to build a new and more meaningful life without alcohol or drugs. But when dopamine levels artificially spike (like what happens when we drink alcohol), that’s when trouble starts. People often use alcohol to enhance experiences, but this kind of drinking is problematic because it makes you dependent on alcohol to not feel bored or to have a good time.

• Karlie says the best advice ever received is to not fall in love with potential.
• Most people drink in order to fill a void of some sort, e.g. an unhappy relationship, an unfulfilling job, loneliness or feeling bored with your daily routine.
• The reasons people start drinking alcohol is very different than the reasons they continue to drink alcohol.
• If those thoughts are very negative, then hanging out in your own brain isn’t going to be a great experience.
• “Almost alcoholic” is a term that refers to individuals who skirt the boundaries of having a drinking problem.
• Ignoring the harmful effects of alcohol consumption and regularly indulging can have short-term and long-term effects on your health.
• Reaching out to others will give you the proper support needed to get through this lull in your recovery.

She has a goal to visit every state capitol and has been to 29 so far! If Sober living house she won the lottery tomorrow, Chanel said she start a bookstore with a bakery inside for guests to enjoy their favorite books with an excellent coffee and dessert. Learning healthy coping skills, unfortunately, is not as intuitive as it might seem. Dealing with monotony and underlying mental health issues typically requires self-awareness and outside assistance through various forms of therapy addressing underlying conditions. If you’re not sure whether boredom is a drinking trigger, keep a running list of when you feel the urge to drink. If some urges seem to pop up “for no reason,” it might be because there was nothing else in those moments to occupy your mind.

You put off starting a new hobby or working on an existing one.

Drinking alcohol is often seen as a very social activity, but in truth for millions of people, it’s the total opposite. Always have a drinking out of boredom list of people that support your recovery available. This provides quick access to those who empower you on your recovery journey.