And the reason is that when I was drinking, I was literally recovering. Every single day of my life, I was recovering from a headache, hangover and watery eyes, and just trying to get through the day. The bored mind of an addict is a funny thing. 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.

• Think of times or places where alcohol is normally found.
• And I want to talk about that in this episode.
• If you want to track your days of sobriety and calculate the money you’ve saved, I recommend the Nomo app.
• That is not terribly exciting, or things that would happen, that weren’t positive.

And I walked past a store window, when we were about to jump on the ferry. And it said, if you are brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new Hello. And I keep it in front of me to this day.

What To Do When You Realize You Can’t Stop Drinking!

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. To unpack some of the underlying reasons you feel bored right now, it helps to understand what alcohol does to your brain. Facing your unhappy thoughts can be overwhelming, and it’s natural to need a break or a distraction from time to time.

I posted incredible pictures on my Pinterest board about beautiful vegetable gardens and flower gardens. I went to the garden store and I bought the seeds and the plants. I ordered the cedar raised beds from the gardeners supply company, I planted dahlias and then took pictures of them when they grew and gave myself bouquets of fresh flowers. I planted cherry tomatoes and ate them right off the vine. I planted strawberries so that I could eat them and gather them with my daughter and take pictures.

Boredom Drinking Alcohol Abuse Rehab Programs

Alcohol has a similar impact on the brain but to a much lesser degree. The glass of wine that you think is helping you relax is just slowing down and retarding the functionality of your mind. The result is you become less mentally capable. It clears my head, let’s me think, presents answers to questions that would never come when I’m sat at my desk. I listen to audio books or podcasts while I’m walking, I get too restless to do that while I’m sat at home.

It’s responsible for more than 95,000 deaths annually. You need to figure out the cheese and crackers sitting in your favorite chair and https://ecosoberhouse.com/ reading a book. Because you had a glass of wine next to you? Or is it just fun and fulfilling and it makes you happy without the wine?

Year Sober

You get to pay attention to things that interest you. You get to pay attention to things that bring you joy, you get to direct what happens and suggest things. In drinking, we often let things happen to us, we drink so that our life will be more interesting and exciting. I used to drink because I never knew what would happen. I felt like anything could happen when I got rid of my inhibitions.

That being said, drinking FOMO is real and must be dealt with. Sometimes admitting the truth to yourself is the first step. It’s important to have the drinking out of boredom right mindset about sobriety. But I’m going to explore solutions for people who sit at various points along the “sobriety is so boring” spectrum.

Cull your friends

But Pinterest for me is a great tool to learn and to dream. I like gardening and had a big 2020 plot of land that was just weeds and nothing else. And I turned it into a raised garden bed with beautiful salt and pepper stones in between them.

• But I didn’t know what to do with them besides feel them.
• What interests do they have that you admire?
• Self-medicating can drastically impact overall health and well-being.
• Different activities will in turn create different thoughts and even the smallest change can start to make a big difference.

As with anxiety, COVID has seen rates of loneliness soar, as people have been forced apart for months, or have lost connections to friends or social groups. Many people admit to drinking out of boredom because they feel lonely. But self-medicating like this is not just bad for your body, but it is also likely to make your mental health worse. 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. The association between drinking and having a good time has been perpetuated and promoted for years by companies marketing beer, wine, and spirits.

So many people quit drinking and end up walking around in a dopamine deficit state, struggling to find joy in anything. 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. When I was a heavy drinker, everything involved alcohol.