Tips to stop drinking out of boredom

She has a goal to visit every state capitol and has been to 29 so far! If she won the lottery tomorrow, Chanel said she start a bookstore with a drinking when bored bakery inside for guests to enjoy their favorite books with an excellent coffee and dessert. She is a trauma-informed clinician who prioritizes the relationship between clinician and client. Addiction impacted her own family and influenced her compassionate and empathetic relationship with clients.

• Self-medicating can drastically impact overall health and well-being.
• Once we see how deeply these messages are embedded, we can start questioning whether alcohol really “fixes” boredom or just masks it for a moment.
• We’ve also partnered with Moderation Management, a non-profit dedicated to reducing the harm caused by the misuse of alcohol.
• Serotonin is a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of happiness, well-being, and pleasure.
• Drinking out of boredom is common, especially among those suffering from other mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.

Why Do I Crave Alcohol When I’m Bored

But I PROMISE you, if you keep moving forward, things in your brain will start to click. And one day, it will occur to you that you’re actually happy and enjoying your life. One of the best things you can do for yourself when you’re feeling bored in sobriety is to find a way to serve others. What did you enjoy doing before drinking came around and took over your social life? If you must dig WAY back into childhood for this answer, then do that. Right now, you’re doing a very hard thing, and sometimes hard things feel lonely.

The reality is there are other, healthier ways both to celebrate that milestone and deal with the boredom trigger. Before you know it, your list of things to celebrate when bored gets longer, and the number of drinks you enjoy each week goes up. Describing her therapeutic approach as evidence-based, Courtney champions a humanistic or person-centered approach as the ideal foundation. Courtney’s professional experience in substance use treatment began in a holistic residential treatment center.

Without hobbies, it’s more tempting to take the easier route of having a drink. For many people, an antidote to boredom is picking up their knitting, grabbing a book, or writing in their journal. These healthy diversions fill a gap that drinking might otherwise fill.

From a cultural perspective, boredom doesn’t just feel uncomfortable—it feels wrong. Waiting for dinner guests to arrive, or helping your kids with math homework, the nagging restlessness that whispers“A glass of wine will make this better” is the same. Whatever your goals, it’s the struggle to get there that’s most rewarding. It’s almost as if life itself is inviting us to embrace difficulty—not as punishment but as a design feature. If boredom has been a major roadblock keeping you stuck in the drinking cycle, you are not alone. However, in our day, most of us don’t need to fight for food or shelter.

What Is Existential Boredom? (And Why We’re Not Going There Today)

While alcohol abuse is common, it doesn’t mean you have to face it alone. Downplaying the seriousness of alcohol misuse and addiction can have impactful ramifications. In fact, alcohol is connected to over 60 different cancers and diseases.

• There’s a very fine line between social drinking and problematic drinking, and one could easily lead to the other and cause serious health implications.
• Jeanette Hu, AMFT, is a decade-long daily drinker turned psychotherapist and the creator of the Empowered Alcohol-Free 4-Pillar System.
• We were all just sitting around and getting drunk, perfectly content to not really do anything together.
• Christy Schuett, originally from Aberdeen, South Dakota, holds a master’s degree in counseling from Northern State University.

Before finding her calling in the sober space, Jeanette once owned a tattoo shop in Beijing. These days, you’ll find her sipping tea with a good book in hand — and zero interest in hangovers. Many people I’ve worked with say that learning to say “no” gracefully is one of the most empowering skills of their alcohol-free journey. That’s why we have dedicated a lesson specifically to the skill of saying no.

Problems Caused by Drinking Out of Boredom

I’ve spent the last seven years researching and understanding alcoholism, addiction, and how people get sober. Additionally, I examine the way mental and physical health as well as our relationships with others impact the reasons people drink and their role in maintaining sobriety long-term. For other people, drinking alcohol out of boredom is a much more active choice – they drink to cope with negative feelings like anxiety or loneliness. Many people say that they drink alcohol to manage anxiety – to numb it or take the edge off difficult feelings. Most people drink to fill some sort of void, like boredom, loneliness, an unhappy relationship, job-related stress or anxiety. But drinking alcohol doesn’t solve any of these problems.

If you want to change something, you first need to understand what it is. This might be a bit uncomfortable, as we often drink to reduce the noise of our own thoughts. But if you can spend time with those thoughts, you will be better prepared to make changes that can positively affect them. If you’re having trouble making this change alone, Sunlight Recovery offers programs like individual therapy, group therapy and medical detox to help you with drug and alcohol treatment. Often, being bored without alcohol seems intimidating because when there’s no task to put your mind to, you’re forced to notice the things that are making you unhappy.

Danny spent the first nine years of his career working in youth residential treatment. After managing that program for six years, Danny moved to AspenRidge and now leads the clinical team. In her time here, Karlie trained as a clinical supervisor and an Acudetox therapist. She has a passion for working with clients to help them develop a more profound sense of identity to navigate depressive and anxious symptoms. She’s passionate about working with clients to work through trauma and improve mental stability. In her personal life, Karlie likes reading sci-fi and fantasy and going to Marvel movies.

Step Boredom-Drinking Interrupt Sheet

When I quit drinking, I was lucky to have a spouse that supported my decision. Your friends are out getting drunk, the same as they always do. Meanwhile, you’re at home wondering how many days it would take someone to find your body after you’ve choked on those peanut M&M’s you’ve been knocking back during your latest Netflix binge. Remember, it’s not that sobriety is terrible, but that your brain is trying to grapple with the sudden loss of dopamine. But I’m going to explore solutions for people who sit at various points along the “sobriety is so boring” spectrum. Alcohol merely blurred my perception of social situations.

How to Stop Drinking from Boredom: The 4 Pillars of an Alcohol-Free Life

And when the void creeps in, drinking becomes the easiest escape. Many ex-drinkers find that boredom after quitting alcohol is one of the hardest emotions to deal with—especially when alcohol used to be their go-to solution for downtime or restlessness. We’re wired to avoid boredom because it feels deeply uncomfortable—so much so that many people would rather endure physical pain than sit quietly with their own thoughts.

Alcohol is probably not the only indulgence in your life. Once your downtime ends, and you’ve made progress on your hobby or taken a walk, enjoy a piece of chocolate before your next activity. Bored drinking is a surefire way for sneaky calories to throw off your weight-loss goals. 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. Hobbies occupy the mind and give you a sense of accomplishment. Bored drinking might elevate your mood briefly, but it won’t ever match the satisfaction of mastering a hobby.

Your brain needs time to recover.

Boredom, a state we’ve all experienced, can be a tricky beast. But remember that, scientifically, boredom is an emotion — just like appiness or sadness. It typically occurs when we find ourselves disengaged from what’s going on around us or when there’s a lack of interest or enjoyment in our activities.