Is being sober boring? A look at life after addiction and alcoholism

• Posted on 12/11/2021
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But don’t make hollow threats or set rules that you cannot enforce. When you have a full vision board, begin taking active steps to make these dreams come true. For example, if you want to travel abroad in the next year maybe get a second job to start saving for that trip, begin looking at flights, hotels, attractions in that area, and plan. This will not only help keep you from being bored now, but also in the future as you plan fun things to do like a trip. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, there are more than 20 million Americans with some type of addiction issue. Start with small things such as complimenting yourself in the mirror or treating yourself to your favorite lunch. Over time you will see how to fill your spare moments with healthy activities and take care of yourself simultaneously.

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’? Many things can help you heal from addiction, but there are also numerous threats to your recovery that you must look out for. One of the most common threats to sobriety is boredom, something everyone experiences at different points in their life. The key to not letting boredom severely impact your sobriety is having a plan in place when it strikes. A plan will not only help you maintain your sobriety, but it can help you progress in your recovery as well.

Tips For Overcoming Boredom in Sobriety

I realized that sobriety was not fundamentally boring. Alcohol merely blurred my perception of social situations. When you remove alcohol from your life, you free up all the time you spent drinking and recovering from drinking. If you ever sit down to do that math, you will shock yourself with how much time went towards drinking. The good news is that your brain can adjust and restore balance to your internal world. 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. Boredom is totally natural and we all feel it, but it can be hard to find a way out of your rut. So seek the help of other, non-judgy supportive people.

It’s good to get out of your head every now and again; to not be… yourself, all the time. You get to go somewhere outside yourself. A little way to cope with the daily drudgery of everyday; an addition to mundane nature of reality, not an addiction. And I need some self moderation, some feeling regulation. Some extra to the ordinary… and why the hell not? It’s not worth it if you can’t enjoy the moment. And you can’t enjoy the moment, fully, especially, without… alcohol. Historically, many artists, musicians, and comedians have turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with anxiety and depression. Many of those same creative geniuses either died as a result of substance abuse or found sobriety was their only hope of surviving and continuing to have success in their field. If you find yourself drinking to promote creativity, chances are that you are actually limiting your full potential.

You Really Do Need to Start Thinking Positively About Aging

Take responsibility and choose the more creative and productive path. Drugs or alcohol can seem like the answer to boredom or emotional pain. Alcoholrehab.com needs to review the security of your connection before proceeding. “It became sort of harder for me to be at peace with the idea of continuing to drink, especially because of the other ways that it was making me feel,” she says.

However, recovery gives you the perfect opportunity to rediscover old passions and find new ones. The bored mind of an addict is a funny thing. Despite all the pain or suffering addiction has caused, when you’re bored your brain will make you rehash drinking because of boredom all the ‘good’ times you had while using or will draw up painful and dark memories. The longer your thoughts go untethered, the more likely they’ll venture to a dangerous place. To stay sober, you must keep yourself and your thoughts occupied.

Healthy Hobbies to Replace Drinking

All these tips are here to help you prevent drinking out of boredom. They give you alternatives to drinking to fill gaps in your life. If you want to get better control of your drinking, you need to think about what your future drink-free life will look like. 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 change your drinking. Find a support group and make contact with them regularly. This consistent connection will help foster healthy relationships in recovery with people who can support you and what you’re going through in the present moment. Losing relationships to the substance can be challenging but anchoring to others in recovery can be the very thing you need to feel worthy of recovery. According to Medical News Today, the average adult in the United States experiences around 131 days of boredom per year. How we react to the state of boredom is critical to our ongoing mental health, experts state.

You’ll lose time and feel much calmer and refreshed after you’re finished. Learning a new skill is going to take 100% of your undivided attention. The time you spend learning to knit is time you are NOT spending thinking about how much you want to drink. We don’t have to deal with horrible hangovers or hangxiety. Sometimes we would watch a show, but even that become untenable for me after a couple of drinks because I did not have the attention span for it. It’s hard to fill that time, especially when dealing with alcohol cravings and triggers. You create an imbalance when you use alcohol to artificially boost serotonin and dopamine levels in your brain. If you have someone you trust, let them know if you are feeling down or lonely — so they know you won’t mind if they check in with you more often. See if there are organisations around you where you could help out, that would love to use your skills and talents.

I see how normalized alcohol addiction is. Attending a 12-step program or other support group is one of the most common treatment options for alcohol abuse and addiction. AA meetings and similar groups allow your loved one to spend time with others facing the same problems. As well as reducing their sense of isolation, your loved one can receive advice on staying sober and unburden themselves to others who understand their struggles firsthand. Most people who are in recovery report that their greatest fear is facing the boredom they once felt while they were still using. Unfortunately, boredom is reported as one of the biggest reasons many people who are in recovery experience relapse.

“But they can also be a way to kind of check out — am I able to manage my drinking and get control over my habits? 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.» • I’ve made a conscious effort to not “screw over Tomorrow Gil”. What I mean by that is, if “Today Gil” doesn’t drink, then “Tomorrow Gil” won’t have a hangover, get a DUI, be fat, etc. But I didn’t know what to do with them besides feel them. And the more I felt them, the more intense and blinding they would get.

Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

However, learning to be present through practicing mindfulness can help you slow down and identify these triggers that lead to boredom. When you practice mindfulness, you become more aware of yourself and the world around you. This allows you to identify better people, places, and things that may serve as a reminder of boredom and thus threaten your recovery. Even the most seasoned individuals in recovery will have experienced boredom from time to time that threatened their healing progress. This means Sober Home that you have numerous individuals you can turn to for advice and support when sobriety becomes boring. You can go to support groups, talk to your sponsor, or reach out to recovery chat rooms online. If you’re feeling a bit agoraphobic or shy when first getting sober you should still reach out to online support groups. Any outreach and connection will help you get outside of yourself and will dash away boredom. SMART and AA offer both meetings along with 24/7 recovery chat and message boards.

Many people use alcoholic beverages to enhance experiences. Drinking at concerts, sporting events, and dinner can, as one casual drinker put it, transform a situation into a moment. The problem is that overindulgence or even regular drinking is known to cause a number of health issues. Alcohol is one of the leading causes of preventable death in the United States. It’s responsible for more than drinking because of boredom 95,000 deaths annually. While it’s important to be open and honest about your concerns, you need to remember that you cannot force someone to stop abusing alcohol. As much as you may want to, and as hard as it is to watch, you cannot make someone stop drinking. Take time to rediscover who you are, what you like, what you want to try, what you want to accomplish, and remember to dream big!

Is it any wonder that recovering alcoholics lose all their friends when they start recovery? Would my friends still be my friends if they weren’t my drinking buddies? Did conversation matter or did the alcohol consumption make it easier to keep chatting, repeating, forgetting? Plan ‘fun times’—drink to create ‘fun times’, discuss past ‘fun times’. All the good stuff that came with it—the dance moves, the greasy hangover food, the men.

• In a nutshell, mindfulness involves being fully aware of your moment-to-moment experience.
• Their work provided a compelling look into the fine line that may pinpoint where a person can cross over from casual drinking to being well on their way to full-fledged alcoholism.
• With one glass, two, three, I’m finally free, looking down at the me that nods and listens.
• However, this seemingly tiny issue can cause significant destruction in your healing process.
• Having a professional on your team guiding you through it can help you navigate things in healthy ways while providing you with tools to manage the process without drinking.