Coping with Boredom in Addiction Recovery

“I have healthy relationships, a career that I can show up to every day, and a deep level of self-worth that I never imagined I’d ever have before I got sober, » Natasha says. Although it may seem challenging, even impossible, to make changes once alcohol becomes intertwined with many aspects of one’s life, breaking free is possible. Understanding the stages of alcohol misuse and recognizing our patterns can be the first crucial steps toward a better relationship with alcohol.

Alcohol artificially boosts serotonin and dopamine in your brain.

The average adult experiences around 131 days of boredom per year, so how you react to this boredom is critical to your mental health. If you justify to yourself, “I drink when I’m bored,” it can quickly lead to overindulgence and health concerns. If you’re a casual drinker, you should understand the ramifications of regular drinking. You might brush it off as “drinking gives me something to do” and overlook the seriousness of drinking due to boredom, but alcohol overuse accounts for more than 380 deaths daily, and the numbers continue to rise. With lower rewards, normal behaviors are less appealing, and people find themselves feeling bored. That unwanted feeling in addiction recovery is boredom, but it is fueled by the impact of substance use in the brain.

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• Maintaining open and honest communication with friends and family can be instrumental in building a strong support network during recovery.
• And the more I felt them, the more intense and blinding they would get.
• Above all, she found herself confronting parts of herself that she’d worked to avoid with alcohol.
• One way to practice mindfulness in recovery is through meditation.

Seeking out an intensive outpatient program may be another step you take to find lasting recovery. Julia Childs Heyl is a clinical social worker who focuses on mental health disparities, the healing of generational trauma, and depth psychotherapy. But living creatures are resilient, and even in captivity, animals such as elephants and birds have been observed to use tools when they don’t normally in the wild — perhaps as a means of keeping themselves entertained.

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In cultivating their own identity and preparing to leave home, adolescents may disavow everything they previously loved to make space for new interests, hobbies, and relationships. Frustration and confusion during this process can manifest in boredom. This can lead some teens to act out to relieve boredom or struggle internally with feelings boredom and alcoholism of hopelessness or despair. As a motivator toward change, boredom can lead to new ideas, reflection, and creativity. It can fuel the search for novelty, including setting a new goal or embarking on a new adventure. In today’s information-loaded world, allowing yourself to step away from screens can also help alleviate stress.

• Joining a meeting will cure the boredom for that moment and forming connections with others outside of the group setting can help reduce boredom throughout the days.
• By embracing the challenges and opportunities that arise during the recovery process, individuals can transform their lives and experience the profound benefits of lasting sobriety.
• We understand that the journey to recovery can be challenging, but we are here to guide and support you every step of the way.
• Such thoughts are likely to be followed by drinking, and the clients then contrast the previous perception of being in recovery with the current reality of renewed drinking.

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Eastern cultures have long understood the value of embracing boredom, believing it to be a path to a higher consciousness. In a situation that you can’t control, meditation can help you feel boredom less acutely. And in the case of a dull work task, simply getting it done quickly may be the best option.

The group may also be able to assist with providing or finding healthy, sober activities. Mindfulness is defined as the ability to be fully present and aware of yourself and surroundings, while not being reactive or overwhelmed by those things. Practicing mindfulness, a person gets in touch with their senses to feel, hear, smell, taste and see the world around them. They will also pay more attention to their thoughts and feelings to understand how people, places and things trigger boredom and the desire to use substances. It is a skill that takes effort over a long period of time to act and react to the challenges of recovery. When use ends, everyday actions seem much less rewarding and exciting due to the lower dopamine levels.

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Second, results of our study may have implications for clinical intervention as well. Modifying positive beliefs about alcohol may lead to less drinking. These expectancy interventions have been useful in both changing expectancies and beliefs about alcohol effects and in reducing alcohol consumption (Blume and Guttu, 2015, Fried and Dunn, 2012, Scott-Sheldon et al., 2012).

Perhaps your usual activities don’t promote ends you really care about or perhaps your values or priorities have changed in ways you haven’t acknowledged. Boredom is an opportunity to think these things over and possibly consider new directions. People may use alcohol or drugs to relieve boredom and avoid confronting painful emotions or thoughts.

You might not recognize how much you drink or how many problems in your life are related to alcohol use. Listen to relatives, friends or co-workers when they ask you to examine your drinking habits or to seek help. Consider talking with someone who has had a problem with drinking but has stopped.