About 20% of Americans with an anxiety or mood disorder such as depression have an alcohol or other substance use disorder. Sunnyside is the leading alcohol health platform focused on moderation and mindfulness, not sobriety. On average, members see a 30% reduction in alcohol consumption in 3 months, leading to improved sleep, diet, and overall wellbeing. One of the best opportunities to practice mindful drinking is Dry January. While the holidays are indulgent, there’s also plenty of downtime (hint, hint) for learning how to deflect urges to drink. Simply asking these questions might be enough to take the edge off the urge to drink.
Your brain needs time to recover.
If you’ve created an entire social life around drinking, it is drinking because of boredom natural to be afraid of life without it. One of the sneakiest causes of boredom after cutting back on drinking is simply poor planning. You know the window of time when you’ve historically poured a drink? If you’ve reached a point where you can’t experience joy in anything and use alcohol as a way to escape, don’t brush it off as a rough phase.
Why Do I Crave Alcohol When I’m Bored
When you use alcohol (or any substance) to artificially boost serotonin and Alcohol Use Disorder dopamine levels in your brain, you create an imbalance in the brain. That latter experience feeling like everything is gray and dull and lacks meaning? Dopamine is another neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of pleasure and happiness.
Finding Healthier Ways to Cope with Boredom
- Any of these activities are natural mood lifters and a much better option than drinking to pass the time.
- She enjoys playing board games and having home karaoke nights with her friends.
- When you’re drinking out of boredom, that easy ‘high’ can feel like an effective solution to the dullness or lack of stimulation that’s bothering you.
- These activities can help you stay busy, improve your mental health, and provide a healthier alternative to boredom drinking.
- People who drink alone may decide to drink and drive because they might not know how drunk they are.
The pandemic has been here and, at the time of this writing, is continuing to keep our world in a state of flux. This puts those who have formed an attachment to alcohol in a very https://dev-soluandbids.pantheonsite.io/the-12-steps-in-depth-step-nine-first-step/ vulnerable position. Warren is a Licensed Master Social Worker, who specializes in substance abuse and mental health treatment. Clinically, Warren has developed a therapeutic skillset that utilizes a strengths-based perspective, Twelve Step philosophies, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing.
- Recognizing and addressing personal triggers that lead to boredom drinking is crucial for maintaining a sober lifestyle.
- The average adult experiences around 131 days of boredom per year, so how you react to this boredom is critical to your mental health.
- However, drinking alone can signify deeper emotional, psychological, and mental health problems.
Socialize Without Alcohol
But the thing is, drinking out of boredom is a type of drinking that can quickly spiral out of control if you aren’t careful. Apologies for the slight tangent, but it’s important to understand that drinking again will do absolutely nothing to relieve your boredom. Drinking alone regularly and excessively could be an early sign of alcohol use disorder (AUD).