Feeling Bored or Blah in Early Sobriety

Alcohol becomes a problem when it causes social or relationship problems. Perhaps you argue with your partner when you’re drinking, or maybe you become the loud person who embarrasses their friends in a restaurant. I’m not suicidal, I’m just extremely unhappy and alcohol was a way out for me; a bandaid to mask whatever was/is going on. I can have a million hobbies but it does nothing, no matter how interesting they are. I want to drink, I always want to drink…but I’ve already made it 20 days sober and I don’t think it’s possible for me to have just one drink.

It’s working on your goals each day that brings happiness. Most people set goals and think they will achieve happiness when they reach their goals.

Holiday Binge Drinking and Nervous System Damage

Create a list of reasons why you want to cut back/stop. What are the reasons you want to stop drinking? List the benefits of not drinking and the reasons you’d like to stop. When you’re tempted to reach for alcohol, read over the list. It’s easy to underestimate how much you’re consuming, especially during the pandemic where you may be drinking at home. Writing down how much and how often you’re drinking can raise your awareness.

It doesn’t make any sense to search for solutions there. It’s like trying to find an apple on an orange tree. Now the hours before going to bed are boring and during these cold winter months all I can do is stay inside and surf the web / watch movies. The great news is that you now have many options, an endless supply of options. When you were drinking, cracking open a bottle was the default option, now that you can’t go there you have to think about other things to do.

Does Champagne Have Alcohol? Breaking Down Your Bubbles.

If you have someone you trust, let them know if you are feeling down or lonely – so they know you won’t mind if they check in with you more often. See if there are organisations around you where you could help out, that would love to use your skills and talents. Try and find ways to build other people into your daily patterns. Different activities will in turn create different thoughts and even the smallest change can start to make a big difference. If you are filling voids in your life with alcohol, then you need to decide what else can fill you up instead. This conversation made me think I should find a different expert. But on the other hand, Dr Stephens did mention my favourite excuse—luck.

It’s just made everything grey and lifeless. Even the things I only ever did sober are unbearable now. Often times, I’ll be at work daydreaming about wanting to go home.

Nothing Else Has Changed

SMART and AA offer both meetings along with 24/7 recovery chat and message boards. Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders are instrumental in quelling the devastation of the virus, and there is nothing more important than preventing more deaths. Almost a year into the UK’s pandemic, however, the government still can’t say for certain whether people will be able to mix with their loved ones outdoors by Easter. In these conditions, drinking has become a respite that offers a sense of fun, and a way to relax. I know that my increased dependence on alcohol during the pandemic pales in comparison to the challenges faced by those with alcohol addiction.

• If you want to change something, you first need to understand what it is.
• AspenRidge Recovery methodologies prove to support clients through recovery and long-term care.
• If you can distract yourself with a long walk outdoors and burn some calories, so much the better!
• Unstructured time leads to unpredictable behaviors, which are problematic in recovery.
• Write down all the things you have to do the next day, and write down the time for each activity.
• But the fundamentals of our lives will pretty much stay unchanged until we actively try to improve them.

More important though is learning to sit with myself even when I feel bad. Finding that space between the bad feelings and the bad actions and being able to stop the first from turning into the second is the key to this whole riddle. On the one hand, you drinking because of boredom have no idea what you’re supposed to do with yourself. A lot of people don’t feel good when they first get sober so it’s totally understandable if your feelings are all over the place. Let’s address another reason life without alcohol feels boring.

Seeking Treatment

And I already have a dog if I just wanted someone to listen to my problems. 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. You have to understand what you’re feeling and WHY you’re feeling this way in order to change it. Your friends are out getting drunk, same as they always do.