Remember that one of the things we’re attempting to do is not only get out there and experience fun activities that don’t involve alcohol but also heal the underlying damage in our brain from drinking. Volunteering is a great way to reconnect with your community. Helping others actually boosts our own mental health and feelings of self-worth. Plus, it helps us with our emotional sobriety and wellness. Sometimes boredom in sobriety looks like not wanting to be around anyone. When serotonin and dopamine levels are low, we become less motivated and less interested in our surroundings.

What to Do When Bored in Sobriety

But for most people, staying sober isn’t that straightforward. The more strategies you learn to identify triggers, cope with stress, and manage your new sober life, the easier it is to prevent relapse. It is estimated that up to 80% of those who find long-term sobriety had at least one relapse along the way. Some people experience many setbacks before they find lasting recovery. Your intentions may be good, but it takes more than willpower to avoid having a relapse. If you’re in recovery from a substance use disorder, you already know how much work it took to achieve sobriety, and you’ll want to do everything possible to avoid having a relapse.

How to Celebrate Someone’s Sobriety Birthday

• These old unhealthy thinking patterns take time to break and put you at greater risk for relapse.
• When you get sober, you realize there is an entire daytime pulse in your city or town that you never really felt before.

A person who eats a good meal, exercises or has sex will experience a release of dopamine and other neurotransmitters to reinforce the positive action. There are tools you can utilize to set boundaries when in close proximity to drinking triggers. Here are a few tips shared by therapists on the Monument platform. No matter what you choose, the ripple effect of helping others can go far beyond what we even know. New Year’s Eve may be daunting, but by choosing to support someone else, we can gain perspective and distance ourselves from unwelcome thoughts about drinking.

Alcohol artificially boosts serotonin and dopamine in your brain.

We are stressed-out, overstimulated, tech-obsessed creatures. Pile on some sobriety struggle, and it’s a recipe for madness. I found myself planning little outings when I got sober because I needed to figure out what it meant to have fun again. Depending on where you live, various options are available to you. Choosing a new hobby to occupy your time is not always easy. It may require a bit of soul-searching, especially when your motivation is at historically low levels.

Sobriety Boredom Clobbering Club #3 – Meetings

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. So many people quit drinking and end up walking around in a dopamine deficit state, struggling to find joy in anything. I have gone to bars with people I genuinely like as a sober person, and I don’t stay for longer than an hour or two if nothing is happening. When I was a heavy drinker, everything involved alcohol.

Personally, I meet this demand by going to church, getting involved in community outreach (soup kitchens, homeless shelters, clothing pantries), and going to tons of meetings. Tack on years of using a substance to chase this feeling away and you have defcon 1 level stress. To be honest about your boredom, particularly in recovery can be teeth on wool, at least the anticipation that the collective response will be unfavorable. In the meantime, the Soberish community is here to support you and help you get there. It’s likely your doctor will order some bloodwork, which can be the start of your path to physical recovery. I over-identified with every negative feeling in my body.

Oftentimes, these groups have social events and activities ongoing for you to participate in, meet new friends, and relieve boredom. But what happens when you grow weary of these routines? It’s vital to be aware of this sometimes overlooked trigger. Boredom is part of everyone’s life, but it can be precarious for someone in early recovery from substance use. People who are newly sober find themselves with more time on their hands, time that used to be spent acquiring, using, or recovering from their substance of choice. Oftentimes people move away from healthier habits when they are actively drinking or using drugs, and it can be difficult to reestablish those habits in early recovery.

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Plus, you might meet some cool people, and that’s always a double win. But also, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and get involved in activities around your community. Don’t get down on yourself drinking because of boredom because you can’t get wasted at the bar with your friends anymore. But it’s comforting to know that you don’t have figure it out on your own. I realized that sobriety was not fundamentally boring.

Even if you have no idea HOW things can change, trust the process and keep working on it. It also opens up space to approach your internal world differently. One of the biggest impediments to my sobriety during my relapse days was my inability to avoid getting consumed by emotions. You have to understand what you’re feeling and WHY you’re feeling this way in order to change it.

• So your bold, life-improving decision to not drink will mean changes almost everywhere you look.
• Not exactly, but it can make you feel better, which has a ripple effect on whether or not you enjoy your life.
• I don’t think anyone is really a natural, but that’s another discussion.
• Activities that use both your hands and brain like crosswords, cross-stitching, and jigsaw puzzles can keep you occupied and your mind off any pain or negative feelings.
• This is an opportunity to assert for your needs, and therefore assert your worth.

The Early Recovery Journey

So much of an addict’s life is spent thinking about, obtaining, or using drugs, but when that’s taken away when you go to inpatient treatment, you’re left with a lot of free time. Handling emotions of any kind can be a relapse trigger, and this is especially true in early recovery. Boredom can bring unwanted feelings of restlessness, irritation, and low self-esteem, and it’s important to learn and discover healthy ways to manage these feelings. The mental obsession that can accompany substance use also takes up a lot of space in the brain, so as the mental obsession fades the feelings of boredom may amplify. Activities that use both your hands and brain like crosswords, cross-stitching, and jigsaw puzzles can keep you occupied and your mind off any pain or negative feelings.