Bored After Quitting Drinking: How to Overcome It

If you or a loved one is struggling with alcohol use, we can help. Footprints to Recovery offers alcohol addiction treatment that’s evidence-based and personalized to your clinical needs, preferences, and life situation. We don’t just treat the symptoms of addiction; we address underlying issues like co-occurring mental health conditions and trauma that perpetuate substance use. We’ll also teach you healthy coping skills that support long-term abstinence from drugs and alcohol. 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.

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. 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. Alcohol can be in a unique position of being both the solution to and the cause of pain. Yet, no matter how much pain it causes to the individual or family, alcohol is one of the most difficult substances to remove.

Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation Techniques

When I quit drinking, I was lucky to have a spouse that supported my decision. And yet, he still had no idea how to support me. Sobriety is a major lifestyle change. There is an initial learning curve. It’s important to have the right mindset about sobriety. So many people quit drinking and end up walking around in a dopamine deficit state, struggling to find joy in anything.

Continue this practice until you feel all tension dissipate. Online therapy can help you with long term addiction support. Connect with a Talkspace therapist anytime, anywhere. Prescription drugs, including opioid pain killers, ADHD medication, and anti-anxiety medication are also widely available. Their uses can range from numbing pain or relaxation to increasing focus and energy. Just as the reasons for seeking comfort in drugs or alcohol vary according to the individual, so too can the methods of self-medicating.

Does Alcohol Show Up On A Drug Test? (It depends.)

Learn all you can about the person’s underlying mental health issue that’s causing them to self-medicate. The more you understand what your loved one is going through, the better able you’ll be to support their recovery. When you’re depressed, it can feel like life is hopeless and helpless, with no light at the end of the tunnel.

• With one glass, two, three, I’m finally free, looking down at the me that nods and listens.
• They are just part of who I am as a person.
• Drinking out of boredom is how some choose to deal with the dull moments life throws at us.
• Mindfulness teaches us to comfortably be in the present moment.
• Apologies for the crude example, but I don’t ever see advertisements that show the real side of drinking.

It is not alcohol itself that brings people down… Have to be kind of naive if you can’t have fun without alcohol. Very bad substance and I know what I’m talking about. There’s no reason in the whole world to drink.

Staying Social When You Quit Drinking

For several weeks, make a note of when you use alcohol or drugs, how much you use, and how you’re feeling when you start—stressed, anxious, sad, bored, for example. Reviewing the drinking out of boredom results, you should be able to identify patterns and mood triggers in your substance use habits. The third and final way a drink can help you enjoy yourself is psychological.

• Always have a list of people that support your recovery available.
• Not on its own, but maybe it starts a conversation and a friend comes over just to sit with you and make sure you’re good.
• Or do you think they’re enjoying themselves 100% as they are?
• So many people quit drinking and end up walking around in a dopamine deficit state, struggling to find joy in anything.
• Other tasks like laundry and cleaning the house can cause boredom and be a source of anxiety.

Take away the pleasures of drinking for the boredom of sobriety? Imagine; being fully present all the time? It’s good to get out of your head every now and again; to not be… yourself, all the time.

Years, 3 Months Clean And Sober. A Million Times Happier!

You need to know that what you’re doing is really important – and it’s not easy. In the meantime, the Soberish community is here to support https://ecosoberhouse.com/ you and help you get there. This is the part where you figure out how to enjoy life without a little something extra to help loosen you up.