I’m Bored Unless I’m Drunk, But Is That Actually a Problem?

If, for example, you know you get bored between 2-5 pm, then schedule an enjoyable activity to do during those times. To live a great quality sober life, you need to focus on building it. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that I say stopping drinking isn’t just about stopping drinking. Apologies for the crude example, but I don’t ever see advertisements that show the real side of drinking. But when alcohol is marketed as this fantastic product that can enhance your life, that’s another story.

Volunteering helps fill in stretches of boredom, helps you think about others, and can help you get a great night’s sleep. The information here on the Soberclear website is NOT meant to be used as a substitute for medical advice. If you need a medical diagnosis and treatment plan, you are advised to speak to a doctor or suitable medical professional. The mindset you use to stop drinking is extremely important. There is nothing wrong with being bored after stopping drinking.

The Mindset You Used To Stop Drinking

In particular, we used so-called “Model 4” (simple mediation model) methodology. Significance of mediated paths was assessed using the 95% bias corrected and adjusted confidence intervals from 10,000 bootstrapped samples. Like many people, it sounds like you initially sought alcohol because you thought it was a solution. It might have temporarily offered relief from boredom or loneliness. But over time, you may be noticing that alcohol is creating more problems for you—not actually solving anything. Fortunately, there are many different things you can do to curb your drinking.

Don’t assume people are too busy to see you, all they need is to know that you would like to meet up. Everyone reacts to boredom differently, but the way we react is vital to our health and well-being. The National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers is a nonprofit professional society designed to offer support to organizations across the continuum of care. Give us a call and we can help find the right treatment program for you or your loved one – even if it’s not ours!

Ask a Therapist: How Do I Know If My Drinking Is a Problem?

There aren’t many life experiences comparable to getting sober. When you decide to quit drugs or alcohol for good, you’re giving yourself a new lease on life that can be challenging, fulfilling, and even boring. So much of an addict’s life is spent drinking out of boredom thinking about, obtaining, or using drugs, but when that’s taken away when you go to inpatient treatment, you’re left with a lot of free time. No differences were found between genders, while in all the variables binge drinkers had higher scores.

Acute anxiety and depression from the withdrawal process can ease within a few days to a week. But for many people, lingering feelings of anxiety, depression, and general malaise can last weeks, months, or even longer. So it’s not that sobriety is inherently boring; it’s that your serotonin and dopamine levels are now very low. When you use alcohol (or any substance) to artificially boost serotonin and dopamine levels in your brain, you create an imbalance in the brain. Try and find ways to build other people into your daily patterns. Different activities will in turn create different thoughts and even the smallest change can start to make a big difference.

Why Are You Bored Without Alcohol?

If I buy those products and I use them, the marketing has served its purpose. I feel good about my buying decision and the product has added value to my life. Because I’ve experienced riding a motorcycle and I know it’s true. I know the product does what the marketing says it will do.

That I would be boring when I went out to events and gatherings. That I would be bored and suffer through situations if I wasn’t properly lubricated with alcohol. Fizzy pop is for kids, water is for nerds and drinking more than three cups of caffeine a day will ultimately turn you into a nervous wreck. Find yourself a non-alcoholic drink that feels grownup and a bit of a treat to enjoy at the end of the working day.

It’s the fine line at which point a person may cross over from casual drinking into having an alcohol use disorder. An almost alcoholic may engage in activities such as https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/total-alcohol-abstinence-vs-moderation/ or alone. Knowing how to identify the signs of heading toward alcoholism can allow you or a loved one to seek treatment and recover. When drinking becomes habitual, it eventually becomes the default choice, maybe the only choice.

• Interestingly, people who are prone to addiction are more easily bored.
• If you have been through an addiction treatment program, you probably learned quite a few of these techniques while participating in cognitive behavioral therapy or dialectical behavioral therapy.
• I want this beer about as much as I want to do my laundry.
• Second, results of our study may have implications for clinical intervention as well.

And while these things might sound serious and scary, it’s important to note that it’s one piece of a larger puzzle. It’s not as simple as “getting out there” and “trying something new.” It’s hard to do that when you suffer from extreme depression and anhedonia. The very things you should be doing to feel better require a level of motivation you might not be able to fathom. My friends and I got together for happy hours after work. It all felt normal, even the terrible parts like awful hangovers and hangxiety. Take control of the aspects of your life that you have some influence over and watch the world change around you.

It’s therefore no surprise that during the pandemic, the rate of alcohol consumption increased among people that reported COVID-19 related stress. The pandemic has been here and, at the time of this writing, is continuing to keep our world in a state of flux. This puts those who have formed an attachment to alcohol in a very vulnerable position. There’s a connection between consuming alcohol and boredom.