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. Now that you know the chemical reason for your boredom, let’s explore additional drinking out of boredom factors that might be contributing to these feelings.
How to Stop Drinking from Boredom
So it hit everything I needed to do to keep me amused. Next time you feel bored, take a few minutes to think about how you’d really like to be spending that time. Consider replacing mindless eating during screen time with another activity, such as knitting, doodling, or playing with a toy or piece of jewelry, to keep your hands busy while you watch TV. Break associations you might have between eating and screen time by making a point of eating meals at a table — not in front of the TV — and putting your phone away while you’re dining.
What is the Difference Between Bipolar Disorder vs Borderline Personality Disorder?
Understanding this relationship between boredom and alcohol is crucial for breaking an unhealthy cycle of drinking out of boredom and finding more fulfilling ways to spend our time. And again, it was something that I’d never done. I also redecorated my bedroom, and I painted the walls because I wasn’t just passing out there anymore and leaving my clothes on the floor. I bought a beautiful photo of an ivory blanket for the top of my bed which was soft and decadent.
Treatment
Managing our expectations can relieve boredom as well as the unhealthy compulsions to relieve it. This subreddit is a place to motivate each other to control or stop drinking. We welcome anyone who wishes to join in by asking for support, sharing our experiences and stories, or just encouraging someone who is trying to quit. Please post only when sober; you’re welcome to read in the meanwhile.
Why Shouldn’t You Drink Out of Boredom?
You might plan to start learning a new language during downtime, but put it off in favor of having a drink. Or you lose interest in an existing hobby because it’s easier to drink. There are plenty of situations where having a drink is a great way to celebrate an accomplishment. Unfortunately, problems can surface if you use “I deserve it” to justify bored drinking. If your dose of stimulation is mostly a walk to the fridge, you might be a bored drinker.
4. Maintain a healthy diet
And if you routinely drink on other occasions too, you’ll experience worse sleep disruptions. Moderate alcohol consumption has the potential to enliven social situations. But when you add bored drinks to social drinking, alcohol has the opposite effect. Sure, having a single drink while alone might not seem like a problem if you eat well and exercise.
- This cycle can lead to unhealthy consumption patterns when feeling anxious or overwhelmed.
- Finding a new activity and hobby such as working out can provide something to look forward to each day.
- Every month, we launch fun challenges, like Dry/Damp January, Mental Health May, and Outdoorsy June.
- Now, I personally love Pinterest, and I don’t know if you guys do, too.
#1 Remove Alcohol and Substances From Your Home
The best approach to treatment includes access to follow-up therapy, management of skills, group or peer support, strategies to prevent relapse and prescribed medications if needed. Such a comprehensive treatment is most effective in achieving recovery. Replacing boredom drinking with enjoyable and fulfilling activities can help you maintain a healthier lifestyle and improve your mental health.
Accept that you are in a transitional phase, which will take time.
Chanel completed internships at AspenRidge during her studies and eventually joined the team as a full-time primary clinician. 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. An estimated 15 million people throughout the U.S. struggle with alcohol use disorder, but only 10% receive treatment. Alcoholism profoundly affects the entire body, especially the brain, heart, pancreas, mouth, liver, and the immune system. Despite its negative impacts, more Americans than ever consume alcohol regularly, especially women and minorities.
Still, a little boredom is OK and normal to experience from time to time. Any of these activities are natural mood lifters and a much better option than drinking to pass the time. This is what happened to me towards the end of my drinking days, I didn’t want to do anything that didn’t involve getting drunk. That would just get in the way of being able to drink as much as I wanted. And the thing about alcohol is that it is way more efficient and reliable at creating this effect than natural rewards like having fun with friends or eating a delicious meal.
And not only did Jardine Libaire and Amanda Eyre Ward were the authors contributing great ideas on this. And by the way, I did a podcast interview just with Amanda and Jardine about their book, and you can go back and listen to that if you’re interested. So this is the perfect time to record this episode. The quote is something I had on my vision board when I was quitting drinking, and I still have it on now.