Stress management techniques can also help you manage difficult situations without alcohol. If you know you will feel lonely or down, try and plan some interactions to reduce those feelings and your reliance on alcohol. 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. If you take alcohol away, but do nothing to change those other factors, you’re probably going to feel it. Ignoring the harmful effects of alcohol consumption and regularly indulging can have short-term and long-term effects on your health.
Why Do People Think Alcohol Relieves Boredom?
Another way to fill time meaningfully is by connecting with others. Socializing doesn’t have to involve alcohol, and there are many ways to engage with friends, family, or new acquaintances in a sober setting. Whether it’s a game night, book club, or even a group walk, spending time with others can make the days feel more fulfilling and purposeful. Drinking alone can become problematic when a person has a habit of doing it. You may believe you must hide your drinking from others, so you drink solo.
Why Do I Crave Alcohol When I’m Bored
- The accessibility of alcohol makes it that much harder to refrain from drinking to cope with these difficult feelings.
- Boredom and stress are two emotions that can feel as if they are never going to leave.
- Plus, you might meet some cool people, and that’s always a double win.
- That overcorrection is what you’re probably feeling right now.
- With self-awareness, you’ll be better equipped to understand and address your habits.
- Because I’ve experienced riding a motorcycle and I know it’s true.
Other tasks like laundry and cleaning the house can cause boredom and be a source of anxiety. Not to mention alcohol also suppresses hormones related to appetite. If you do manage to meet your friends, the added drinks from socializing might affect your ability to get home, placing a burden on your friends.
Now it is suddenly fired up and engaged, yet you’re not doing anything with it. BPS, The Boredom Proneness Scale, measures our level of boredom; the average boredom number is 81 to 117. Interestingly, people who are prone bored drinking to addiction are more easily bored. It takes more dopamine to trigger the dopamine-related emotions that you would be having in people more prone to boredom. Studies have shown people with fewer dopamine receptors are also often more prone to pleasure-seeking and with that comes addiction.
Warren is a Licensed Master Social Worker, who specializes in substance abuse and mental health treatment. Clinically, Warren has developed a therapeutic skillset that utilizes a strengths-based perspective, Twelve Step philosophies, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing. If your boredom drinking has become unmanageable or is causing an addiction, seek professional help right away. This cycle can lead to unhealthy consumption patterns when feeling anxious or overwhelmed. Eating well, staying hydrated, getting physical activity, and not stocking up on alcohol for the winter are other helpful strategies to stop drinking out of boredom. This proactive approach will empower you to break the cycle of loneliness, addiction, and more loneliness, ultimately leading to a more fulfilling life in the present moment.
Advertisements show joyous gatherings, laughter, and carefree moments—all centered around drinking. This portrayal creates a strong association between alcohol and enjoyment in our minds. However, it’s important to recognize that alcohol might actually be hindering your ability to enjoy experiences genuinely. You’re going to get bored with doing all this shit and 2 things that could happen, either you carry on being bored and eventually you’ll probably go back to the booze or you’re stuck into the pub. First of all, boredom has a lot to do with your energy levels, so if you’ve got a lot of energy and you have no way of expending it, if you’re sitting around you’ll going to feel bored.
The very things you should be doing to feel better require a level of motivation you might not be able to fathom. It all felt normal, even the terrible parts like awful hangovers and hangxiety. It’s why nothing seems fun or exciting, and you struggle to motivate yourself to have a good time. Christy Schuett, originally from Aberdeen, South Dakota, holds a master’s degree in counseling from Northern State University. Her journey began with crisis intervention for families, evolving into roles in community counseling, corrections, and residential facilities.
If you have stopped drinking, and you leave your days up to chance, it can be detrimental. Apologies for the slight tangent, but it’s important to understand that drinking again will do absolutely nothing to relieve your boredom. That being said, if you are able to start your sober journey with a feeling of happiness, these challenges can be easily overcome. Alcohol’s reinforcing effects can be attributed to the way cortisol interacts with the brain’s reward system, causing a person to feel pleasure and therefore reach for more of it when stressed. Swapping our routines and habits that are damaging you for ones that can strengthen your body and soul will give you a really clear reason why you want to stop drinking out of boredom.
Between post-graduate work and additional training courses, she honed her skills in treating first responders and military personnel from a trauma-informed perspective. In 2023, Jordan joined the clinical team at AspenRidge Recovery. Studies have shown that drinking as a coping mechanism is strongly linked to depression, anxiety, and emotional instability. When combined with the isolation or loneliness that often accompanies boredom, alcohol can push people further into mental health issues that require professional help to resolve.
Seeking Treatment
If you’re an artist you can always go and paint; if you’re a gamer there’s always going to be a game that you can play. These are the things where there’s not an infinite amount of leeway in them, I mean, if you sit and do these things all the time you’re going to be bored with them. Boredom is what can occur when you feel like you’ve got nothing to do and no real agency in changing that fact.
That being said, drinking FOMO is real and must be dealt with. Sometimes admitting the truth to yourself is the first step. But it’s comforting to know that you don’t have figure it out on your own. But I’m going to explore solutions for people who sit at various points along the “sobriety is so boring” spectrum.
The Boredom Drinking Loop
- One of the best things you can do for yourself when you’re feeling bored in sobriety is to find a way to serve others.
- But if you enjoy alcohol, and boredom suddenly strikes while isolated, reaching for a drink is an easy way to satisfy the need for stimulation.
- She furthered her education by completing a master’s of science in clinical mental health counseling from Capella University.
- The only triggers that ranked higher are unwinding after a long day, habit, relieving stress, and celebrating something important.
Always have a backup soft drink just in case you reach the bar and they are out of stock. Drinking out of boredom can reinforce negative feelings and self-medicate. When referring to alcohol addiction, some may conjure up an image of a person consuming multiple daily bottles of low-end vodka and struggling to hold a steady job. Alcohol use disorder impacts millions across the nation, many of which are considered high-functioning. One of the best ways to deal with bored drinking is to anticipate it — why is not always easy. Sure, having a single drink while alone might not seem like a problem if you eat well and exercise.
Promises Behavioral Health Addiction Treatment Centers
It typically occurs when we find ourselves disengaged from what’s going on around us or when there’s a lack of interest or enjoyment in our activities. If you’re having trouble making this change alone, Sunlight Recovery offers programs like individual therapy, group therapy and medical detox to help you with drug and alcohol treatment. It also opens up space to approach your internal world differently. One of the biggest impediments to my sobriety during my relapse days was my inability to avoid getting consumed by emotions. When you get sober, you realize there is an entire daytime pulse in your city or town that you never really felt before.
Sometimes boredom in sobriety looks like not wanting to be around anyone. When serotonin and dopamine levels are low, we become less motivated and less interested in our surroundings. Justin was born and raised in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he began his clinical education at Colorado State University. He received his bachelor’s in health and exercise science with a concentration in sports medicine and eventually earned a master’s of psychology in addiction counseling. During his time as a therapist, Justin has worked in a residential addiction treatment facility, private practice, and outpatient settings. Originally from Chino Hills, California, Chanel began her education at Gonzaga University, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Philosophy.
A life vision is a blueprint of what you want to achieve in life, who you want to be, how you want to live, what you want to do with your time and who you want to spend that time with. Join our next free coaching session with the Stop Drinking Expert and unlock the secret to lasting sobriety without the struggle. Our admissions team is available 24/7 to listen to your story and help you get started with the next steps. In physics, the law of inertia states that a body at rest stays in rest unless acted on by an outside force.