How to Stop Drinking Out of Boredom Alcohol Addiction Treatment Denver, Chicago, and New Jersey

All these tips are here to help you prevent drinking out of boredom. They give you alternatives to drinking to fill gaps in your life. If you want to get better control of your drinking, you need to think about what your future drink-free life will look like.

Ditch Boredom and Explore New Possibilities With Reframe!

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. The winter months often meet a halt to favorite outdoor activities. This shift in routine, coupled with earlier darkness and cold temperatures, can lead to SAD. Once SAD and downtime collide, bored drinking can result.

Why Do I Crave Alcohol When I’m Bored

We often say “well, don’t think about drinking.” But it’s almost impossible not to. The more you try not to think about it the more it comes into your mind. That’s why it’s important to try and change your environment in the early days as much as possible.

Tip 4: Reach out to others

As these nights add up, you’ll wake up with less energy, a clouded mind, and the inability to perform at your best. Say you have downtime on a Saturday afternoon after a challenging week at work. “Getting through the week” might be your rationale for pouring a glass of wine.

Avoid tempting situations.

• Pursue outdoor activities like kayaking or fishing.
• When boredom strikes and you find it more difficult to muster the motivation to work on your hobby, read these journal entries.
• If “for no reason” pops up frequently in your list, it might help to seek a CBT professional to understand your why in those situations.
• An urge to drink can be set off by external triggers in the environment and internal ones within yourself.

Explore a new area of town and meet folks through Meetup’s sober activities in your city. Call your parent or grandparent, cousin, aunt, nephew—you get it. Get in touch with your family (chosen family works too!), and ask them how they’re feeling right now. Brush up on your basic survival skills and create drinking because of boredom preparedness plans for any emergencies in your area. Additionally, recruiting a friend to join them may also lift a person’s mood and help them commit to sustaining the new activity. Exercise releases endorphins and “feel-good” chemicals, such as serotonin, and can alleviate anxiety and stress.

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. When feeling bored, many people turn to drinking alcohol as a way to enhance their experience and provide an enjoyable sensation. However, this can often lead to overindulgence, resulting in numerous health risks. By participating in addiction treatment programs, you can effectively address your boredom drinking and take the necessary steps towards a healthier and more fulfilling life. Most people drink to fill some sort of void, like boredom, loneliness, an unhappy relationship, job-related stress or anxiety.

Use Sunnyside to track your drinks and better understand the connection between how much you drink and how you feel. Also, if you have that extra drink, Sunnyside lets you interact with others who struggle with bored drinking. You’ll feel empowered to resist the urge next time. And to stay motivated, take a moment to jot down in a journal how you feel after making progress in your hobby. When boredom strikes and you find it more difficult to muster the motivation to work on your hobby, read these journal entries.

• So often, our lives are full of distraction, social interaction, entertainment, and things we consider fun.
• People who have symptoms of anxiety or depression should seek guidance from a doctor.
• But it’s only my second day and I can’t help but think about having that ice cold gin and tonic.
• If these problems persist, professional help may be needed.
• Boredom can unexpectedly become a cue for sensation-seeking behavior.

If your boredom drinking has become unmanageable or is causing an addiction, seek professional help right away. Eating well, staying hydrated, getting physical activity, and not stocking up on alcohol for the winter are other helpful strategies to stop drinking out of boredom. As humans, we’re meant to experience the full spectrum of positive and negative emotions – that’s how we’re designed.

Emotional Triggers for Boredom Drinking

Not only this, self-medicating can lead to and exacerbate mental health conditions leading to a dual diagnosis condition. 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. Hobbies give you goals, and if you especially enjoy them, you’ll be motivated to reach these goals. Without hobbies, it’s more tempting to take the easier route of having a drink. It clears my head, let’s me think, presents answers to questions that would never come when I’m sat at my desk.

Poor emotional regulation could potentially lead to an increase in eating when you’re feeling bored (22, 23). A great therapist I met at a retreat told me it’s normal to use “things” to dull emotional pain. “It’s just human nature,” she said, and that really helped me realise my worst fears weren’t true – I wasn’t uniquely mad.