The good news is that your brain can adjust and restore balance to your internal world. The longer you stay away from alcohol and give your brain some much-needed TLC, the less you’ll feel like life is dull and uninteresting. So it’s not that sobriety is inherently boring; it’s that your serotonin and dopamine levels are now very low. Our brains don’t like imbalance and will work very hard to correct it. That overcorrection is what you’re probably feeling right now.
If you’re not sure whether boredom is a drinking trigger, keep a running list of when you feel the urge to drink. If some urges seem to pop up “for no reason,” it might be because there was nothing else in those moments to occupy your mind. In this article, we’ll unpack bored drinking and help you figure out whether boredom is a drinking trigger. Then we’ll show you how to better manage boredom and avoid unhealthy drinking patterns.
Understand your triggers that led to drinking out of boredom
Right now, you’re doing a very hard thing, and sometimes hard things feel lonely. Fortunately, there are more ways than ever to connect https://ecosoberhouse.com/ with like-minded people who are fellow travelers on this path. Your friends are out getting drunk, the same as they always do.
If you know you will feel lonely or down, try and plan some interactions to reduce those feelings and your reliance on alcohol. Whatever the reason for your boredom, drinking can create a negative cycle around it. So whether you are an absent-minded drinker or a lonely or anxious one, what can you do to prevent drinking out of boredom?
Seeking Treatment
Over time, with regular alcohol consumption, our brain starts to adapt. Our reward system gets recalibrated to account for the frequent dopamine hits coming from the alcohol. Our brain starts needing more and more alcohol to experience the same level of reward or pleasure, resulting in increased alcohol consumption. Eventually, feeling bored all the time leads to increased alcohol consumption. With time, you’ll start to develop that aforementioned tolerance, which means you have to increase the amount you drink to get the desired effect.
- Once SAD and downtime collide, bored drinking can result.
- As humans, we’re meant to experience the full spectrum of positive and negative emotions – that’s how we’re designed.
- If this topic interests you, I highly recommend listening to this interview with Dr. Anna Lembke, the author of the best-selling book “Dopamine Nation” (also recommend reading).
- With understanding and a few targeted strategies, you can retrain your brain to seek healthier, more fulfilling ways to escape boredom.
- Are you just feeling overindulgent, the way we just said?
Be ready to stay the course and support them as they work on themselves and seek treatment. Have some concrete next steps for them to choose from, in case drinking out of boredom they’re ready to get help. Look for local Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, find counselors that fit their insurance plan, and research treatment facilities.
Ways to Stop Drinking Out of Boredom
With understanding and a few targeted strategies, you can retrain your brain to seek healthier, more fulfilling ways to escape boredom. Boredom has an emotional quality to it, and cognitive behavioral therapy teaches that feelings are an outgrowth of thoughts. Someone who’s bored and drinking on a couch probably didn’t get there by accident.
- Forming healthy connections with other people is an important of this process.
- “Almost alcoholic” is a term that refers to individuals who skirt the boundaries of having a drinking problem.
- There are many reasons for this, from previous patterns of alcohol use to brain chemistry.
- Parties, seasonal events, family meals or work gatherings might spring to mind.
Here are 5 tips to help you make changes to your drinking habits that could help you feel better, for good. When you don’t feel you have anyone to talk to or anywhere to go, drinks can feel like a constant, a friend. Unfortunately, drinking alcohol because of boredom makes you feel worse which in turn, makes you feel even less confident about going out and making new connections. 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.
Get Alcohol Addiction Treatment at Promises
Things that people do during that day that don’t involve recovering or boozy brunch. Before I started drinking too much, I loved to write. I kept a notebook and pen beside my bed in case I woke up in the middle of the night with a brilliant song lyric or poem. 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. It’s particularly therapeutic to find something to do with your hands.
- Plus, it helps us with our emotional sobriety and wellness.
- They give you alternatives to drinking to fill gaps in your life.
- After a while, you’ll notice that your interests start to narrow, as does your social circle.
- If you do manage to meet your friends, the added drinks from socializing might affect your ability to get home, placing a burden on your friends.
- You feel more relaxed after that drink and look forward to the reward.
