Try having a conversation with a drunk and you’ll know exactly what I mean. If I buy those products and I use them, the marketing has served its purpose. I feel good about my buying drinking out of boredom 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.

bored without alcohol

That overcorrection is what you’re probably feeling right now. When you use alcohol (or any substance) to artificially boost serotonin and dopamine levels in your brain, you create an imbalance in the brain. BPS, The Boredom Proneness Scale, measures our https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/what-to-do-if-you-cant-sleep-without-alcohol/ level of boredom; the average boredom number is 81 to 117. Interestingly, people who are prone 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.

Healthy Hobbies to Replace Drinking

Take the time to explore your world and your likes and dislikes. Find the courage to take chances, try new things, and dare to live your best life. Anyone who has been in the grips of addiction knows firsthand how difficult it can be to break free. Once you’ve broken free, make the effort to create the life of your dreams to further ensure your recovery. However, what happens after someone successfully completes clinical treatment and goes out into the ‘real world’? Drinking because of boredom happens because home is where we feel safe, unjudged – it’s where we can relax.

How can I have a fun life without alcohol?

  1. Get out into nature. Go camping.
  2. Take in some culture. Take a night tour of a museum or art gallery.
  3. Enjoy some sport. Watch a sporting event – there's always something on in Australia!
  4. Party at home. Host a themed movie night.
  5. Get your game on! Compete with friends at an arcade game night.
  6. Expand your horizons.

To unpack some of the underlying reasons you feel bored right now, it helps to understand what alcohol does to your brain. 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. One of the reasons you might find you are bored without alcohol is because you need more stimulation. For the longest time, you numbed your brain rather than engaging it.

Reasons Going Alcohol-Free Will Change Your Life

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. There’s a connection between consuming alcohol and boredom. You may be a single parent, widowed, or unmarried and living alone. You might be retired or house-bound due to a medical condition or injury.

But on the other hand, Dr Stephens did mention my favourite excuse—luck. I’m not sure if doctors realise, but that line about how « there’s no way to say for sure » undermines a lot of health warnings. I got on the phone with Dr Amelia Stephens who is a GP in Brisbane. I described my drinking habit, and asked her how many years I might get. She said it was hard to say, but admitted—as a medical professional—she « would be concerned. »

Staying Socially Engaged When You Really Don’t Feel Like It

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. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of happiness, well-being, and pleasure.

What’s more, you may find that doing something–anything–gets you out of your rut. These days, most of us immediately reach for our phones when we feel the slightest bit bored but this is really only a superficial solution. It turns down your boredom from a distressing eight to a tolerable six. These kinds of time-wasters are fairly mind-numbing and will probably only make you feel more agitated in the long run. Drugs, unlike the natural reinforcers in life, create a huge release of dopamine in the brain that promotes strong feelings of pleasure, happiness and satisfaction.

But I PROMISE you, if you keep moving forward, things in your brain will start to click. And one day, it will occur to you that you’re actually happy and enjoying your life. 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.

  • To stay sober, you must break your nasty habits or once-comforting rituals by replacing those bad habits with good ones.
  • But on the other hand, Dr Stephens did mention my favourite excuse—luck.
  • I want to take the trash bag out of the can before it rips again and buy more sparkling water before I grab the last cold one.

Everyone has their own choice to make, and no explanation is needed. Facing your unhappy thoughts can be overwhelming, and it’s natural to need a break or a distraction from time to time. But you should turn to other, more productive ways to cope with your boredom that won’t be detrimental to your health. 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. 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.

Choosing a new hobby to occupy your time is not always easy. It may require a bit of soul-searching, especially when your motivation is at historically low levels. And while these things might sound serious and scary, it’s important to note that it’s one piece of a larger puzzle.

bored without alcohol

If you’re bored in recovery try some of these tips and remember, it’s not uncommon to get bored in life whether you’re sober or not. And, more than anything else, keep staying sober as your number one goal and you’ll not only accomplish that but so much more. Anything to change up that routine of drinking out of boredom and make it harder for drinkers to find a place to get comfortable. Whatever the reason for your boredom, drinking can create a negative cycle around it.