Eight Tips for Coping with Boredom in Addiction Recovery

Helping others actually boosts our own mental health and feelings of self-worth. Plus, it helps us with our emotional sobriety and wellness. Sometimes boredom in sobriety looks like not wanting to be around anyone.

It may take months before the brain changes enough that anything besides drugs and alcohol become interesting again. Getting involved in support groups in both early and long-term recovery can be key to not only staying sober but also feeling connected and having fun in sobriety. Oftentimes, these groups have social events and activities ongoing for you to participate in, meet new friends, and relieve boredom. It’s vital to be aware of this sometimes overlooked trigger. It doesn’t help that although alcohol may be the world’s most commonly accepted drug, it’s also regularly left off the list of drugs that negatively impact people’s lives.

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Boredom is not fundamentally different from any other challenging emotion. It’s typically some mix of restlessness, dissatisfaction, and lethargy. You can cope with boredom and the distress caused by boredom using the same techniques you would use to cope with other challenging emotions like anger or anxiety.

• Learning healthy coping skills, unfortunately, is not as intuitive as it might seem.
• Fortunately, there are many different things you can do to curb your drinking.
• That being said, drinking FOMO is real and must be dealt with.
• Why is it your usual ways of occupying yourself are suddenly inadequate?
• This puts those who have formed an attachment to alcohol in a very vulnerable position.

Things that people do during that day that don’t involve recovering or boozy brunch. But if you can’t or aren’t able to do a group class, at the very least, take a tech-free 30-minute walk every day. I promise it will do wonders for your mental health, which, in turn, will help you feel motivated to do more drinking out of boredom things. Exercise is critically important in early sobriety and for ongoing mental health and wellness. It’s a great way to boost dopamine and endorphin levels naturally. Staying busy is a great way to stave off boredom and create space for healing the parts of your brain that took a walloping from drinking.

I drink because I feel lonely

However, it should be noted that no differences in regard to age of first drunkenness were found. The main aim of the present research was to analyze the predictors of binge drinking focusing on boredom proneness and drinking expectations in a sample of Italian adolescents. In particular, we expected boredom to have a positive effect on binge drinking via the mediation of drinking expectancies.

Some drink for pleasure or at social events, while others find themselves drinking for no reason at all.. Regardless of the intent, there are significant health implications that arguably make alcohol the most dangerous substance on the market. Self-medicating can drastically impact overall https://ecosoberhouse.com/ health and well-being. It’s also a common reason many become dependent on substances. Not only this, self-medicating can lead to and exacerbate mental health conditions leading to a dual diagnosis condition. These official guidelines come from the non-profit Moderation Management.

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A new challenge or a break from your normal routine can give you a fresh perspective. When you’re bored, chores are probably the last thing you want to do. If your options are to sit there and be bored or wash the dishes and be bored, you can at least accomplish having clean dishes if you choose to wash the dishes. While this may not sound too enticing, picking something off your to-do list and just doing it can break the spell of boredom and lead you to something more engaging.