Drinking When Bored? What It Could Mean Boca Raton Rehab

And the more I felt them, the more intense and blinding they would get. I over-identified with every negative feeling in my body. So much of this list is not just about finding things to do, but treating the underlying causes of extreme boredom in sobriety. I kept a notebook and pen beside my bed in case I woke up in the middle of the night with a brilliant song lyric or poem.

Alcohol and Boredom: A Loop You Can Break

Sometimes boredom in sobriety looks like not wanting to be around anyone. If you quit drinking and experience any new or worsening mental health symptoms, please consider therapy. Let’s address another reason life without alcohol feels boring. If you’ve created an entire social life around drinking, it is natural to be afraid of life without it.

You exhale, “Now this feels better,” and conclude that the ad is right — a glass of wine is indeed the solution for boredom. If boredom already makes us squirm, then alcohol culture helped position drinking—especially boredom drinking—as an easy solution (one much preferable than zapping ourselves). The truth is, most of us didn’t just stumble on “using alcohol to solve boredom” on our own.

Sure, having a single drink while alone might not seem like a problem if you eat well and exercise. But if you add it to the drinks you have with friends and that everyday glass of wine with dinner, your total number of weekly drinks can increase rapidly. If your dose of stimulation is mostly a walk to the fridge, you might be a bored drinker. And while bored drinking isn’t necessarily problematic, it can sneakily become a serious health risk. Jill is a Colorado native who received a master’s in clinical psychology with an emphasis on women’s studies from the University of Houston.

If you have been around Sober Curiosity drinking when bored for a while, you know that alcohol’s “help” often comes with fine print. So let’s take a look at what tends to happen when we use alcohol, or any distraction, as a way to respond to these two different types of boredom. Bite-sized sober curious tips + inspiration you can read while waiting for your morning coffee to brew. Twice a week, straight to your inbox—helping you effortlessly drink less without sacrificing the joy of life.

Why do we resort to drinking out of boredom?

Volunteering is a great way to reconnect with your community. Helping others actually boosts our own mental health and feelings of self-worth. Plus, it helps us with our emotional sobriety and wellness. 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.

The Dopamine Connection

Simply asking these questions might be enough to take the edge off the urge to drink. But if you end up drinking anyway, mindfulness also means forgiving yourself and learning from the experience. One of the best ways to deal with bored drinking is to anticipate it — why is not always easy. Say your main drinking occasion is when you socialize with friends. A drink or two while bored might make you too tired or too wary of driving to meet your friends.

• Whether it’s boredom at home, stress from daily routines, or a need for excitement, there are healthier ways to fill the void.
• In modern life, when survival is mostly guaranteed, boredom gently jogs us to search for meaning and a deeper sense of purpose.
• If you’re drinking out of boredom, read on to learn more about what this means.

The Existential Fear Behind Boredom (and Why We Drink to Avoid It)

The longer you stay away from alcohol and give your brain some much-needed TLC, the less you’ll feel like life is dull and uninteresting. Our brains don’t like imbalance and will work very hard to correct it. That overcorrection is what you’re probably feeling right now. Dopamine is another neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of pleasure and happiness. It is also responsible for regulating movement and emotional response. Dopamine depletion can cause apathy, boredom, and lack of motivation.

When serotonin and dopamine levels are low, we become less motivated and less interested in our surroundings. It’s pretty normal to reduce the entire experience of boredom in sobriety to missing alcohol and believing that getting drunk is the primary way you (and everyone else) have fun. Mental health needs as much attention as physical health, so if you are suffering, go and talk to your doctor.

How to Break the Boredom Drinking Cycle

• The only triggers that ranked higher are unwinding after a long day, habit, relieving stress, and celebrating something important.
• This might be a bit uncomfortable, as we often drink to reduce the noise of our own thoughts.
• As these nights add up, you’ll wake up with less energy, a clouded mind, and the inability to perform at your best.

Be ready for these moments when they arrive, and they will, give yourself a wry smile, then make the choice that fits with your goals. Various factors lead individuals to abuse alcohol, including genetic traits, environmental reasons, and societal factors. Still, alcohol is a highly addictive substance that can lead to dependency, especially when consuming frequently and in large quantities. Drinking out of boredom may indicate a deeper issue at hand. Self-medicating can drastically impact overall health and well-being. It’s also a common reason many become dependent on substances.

How to Break the Boredom Drinking Habit with These 4 Tools

It’s very common for people, especially those with additional mental health issues like depression and anxiety, to drink out of boredom. Many people claim that they drink for the totally opposite reason – they find themselves drinking out of boredom. Here are some tips to stop drinking alcohol out of boredom. Regularly consuming alcohol when you’re bored has both short-term and long-term effects on your health, even if it doesn’t lead to a drinking disorder. If you find yourself bored without alcohol or drinking simply because you’re bored, you might be developing an unhealthy relationship with alcohol.

The drinking culture and alcohol industry offered us a big nudge. Alcohol feels like the easy fix for boredom because we’ve been trained—by culture, media, and marketing—to see it that way. From sitcoms to beer ads, we’ve absorbed the message that a drink can turn dull moments into enjoyable ones. Jeanette Hu, AMFT, is a decade-long daily drinker turned psychotherapist and the creator of the Empowered Alcohol-Free 4-Pillar System. She helps high-achieving individuals break old drinking patterns and create a fulfilling and empowered alcohol-free life. To explore this further, try this 3-step boredom drinking interrupt strategy and take your first step toward a more intentional life.