Play trivia with your friends or family — or just listen to a podcast like Triviality for casual and less competitive trivia. Or, cut down your food waste and toss your veggie scraps and ends into the freezer, then make a stock! Let ‘er simmer all day long and enjoy the aromas that come with it.
Building a Supportive Social Network
With understanding and a few targeted strategies, you can retrain your brain to seek healthier, more fulfilling ways to escape boredom. These stories remind us that boredom isn’t merely a state of inactivity or idleness — it can also be a time for reflection, creativity, and unexpected discovery. So, when we’re bored and our brain is looking for that dopamine hit, it can often recall that alcohol was a past source of reward. That’s why we might find ourselves reaching for a drink when we’re simply sitting and not doing much. Are there certain days where boredom is more likely to sneak in? At the beginning of those days, plan to work on a hobby or some other activity when nothing else is scheduled.
Being Bored When You’re Quitting Drinking
It can be a pain when all you want to do is veg out on the couch, but you’ll sleep soundly and wake up feeling refreshed. How often does a social night out get in the way of your grounding routines? If you’re an introvert like me, spending a couple of hours alone can help recharge and reset you on the path towards your goals. Take a creative writing workshop, or organize a writing group of your own. Communicating about each other’s work and facilitating feedback are excellent skills to practice.
What to do instead of drinking at night
You can even join a league for a social outlet. Explore a new area of town and meet folks through Meetup’s sober activities in drinking out of boredom your city. Take archery lessons and head to an archery range to practice what you’ve learned. Brush up on your basic survival skills and create preparedness plans for any emergencies in your area.
- Karlie says the best advice ever received is to not fall in love with potential.
- These activities are not only healthier than drinking, but they’ll leave you feeling better in the long run.
- It’s essential to understand the link between boredom and alcohol consumption to take control of your life and prevent drinking out of boredom.
- When you get sober, you realize there is an entire daytime pulse in your city or town that you never really felt before.
Tips For Addressing Boredom in Early Recovery
- If every day was the same we’d soon get bored.
- Spending time with a friend or loved one without alcohol and just going for a walk or a bike ride could help to forge a much deeper connection.
- We can’t describe our feelings and our desires which leaves us feeling stuck.
- It’s easier than most of us will admit to default to a glass of wine or a beer out of habit.
When you don’t feel you have anyone to talk to or anywhere to go, drinks can feel like a constant, a friend. Though boredom in early recovery can be challenging, remember that many before you have figured out how to sustain the changes they want for themselves. Each person who succeeds at modifying, ending, or improving their relationship with alcohol must find ways to handle boredom, and any other unpleasant feelings connected with new habits. There are many reasons for this, from previous patterns of alcohol use to brain chemistry. There is a sense in which dopamine and serotonin—two essential brain chemicals that influence our sense of pleasure—are on hiatus from their normal function when one is drinking excessively. It can take time for both our personal habits and our physical bodies to adapt to not using alcohol.
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