Living Substance Free: How to Cope With Boredom in Recovery

Kenny has made incredible changes to his life after he quit drinking and he’s shared with us his newest before-and-after photos to show how much he’s changed his life for the better. Back in 2016, Kenny was drinking 12–24 drinks a day and was blacking out 3–4 times a week. Fast forward to 2020 and he’s not only fulfilled his longtime goal of launching his podcast, ‘What’s Next?

What to Do When Bored in Sobriety

• 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.
• Use of this site constitutes acceptance of Sober Recovery’s «Terms of Use», «Privacy Policy», «Cookie Policy», and «Health Disclaimer».
• Fucking around on my phone while drunk was so entertaining.
• When an individual has an issue with alcohol or drugs and decides (or is forced) to get help, much attention is focused on this phase of recovery.

Not on its own, but maybe it starts a conversation and a friend comes over just to sit with you and make sure you’re good. Remember, it’s not that sobriety is terrible, but that your brain is trying to grapple with the sudden loss of dopamine. My social circle changed when I got sober because I realized that many of my relationships were based on getting drunk together, and that was it. I realized that sobriety was not fundamentally boring.

The quality of his life has improved immensely now

The material on this site is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment provided by a qualified health care provider. Recovery is about getting to know who you really are while remaining clean and sober. Part of discovering who you are is by trying new things. Make a list of new things you would like to try – a hobby you have always wanted to take up or visiting places you have always wanted to go. Boredom in recovery can be alleviated by learning more about yourself and the things you enjoy. I have since learned I am not alone in experiencing this phenomenon.

How to Rewire Your Brain Without Overhauling Your Life

Once all those are taken away addicts are left with plenty of spare time. As mentioned early spare time is usually bad for recovery but you can re-devote yourself to your hobbies to fill the void. You can also join interest-based organizations like book clubs, movie clubs, and volunteer programs.

• When you’re in the early stages of recovery from drugs and alcohol, this can be a risky situation to be in.
• Just like with any feeling, we can respond to it adaptively or maladaptively.
• As long as the person knows there is still hope for recovery, an intervention will usually lead to positive outcomes.

Start journaling.

This can be a huge hurdle to overcome for many, as it is honestly quite uncomfortable to do something outside of our norm to make a change. Change can be hard, as habits are ingrained in our psyche. And one has to be willing to feel uncomfortable to make those changes happen for oneself. I would like to invite anyone reading this to be patient with themselves, and to find ways to adjust to their boredom and discomfort with doing something different. It has enabled me to forge genuine and healthy relationships.

Addiction Info

• Finding friends who share an interest in a sober lifestyle can feel intimidating, but it may be easier for you to open up to someone who can relate to your experience.
• Overcoming boredom is an essential coping tool in early recovery.
• Active alcohol and drug use can also bring a lot of chaos to someone’s life, and it can be an adjustment to get used to sober life at a more predictable pace.

For a vision board, you can use images or even words that illustrate your dreams. For example, if you want to travel to a certain area of the world, put pictures of that place on your vision board. If you want to spend more time with family, put pictures of your own family and also families engaged in fun activities on your board. However, what happens after someone successfully completes clinical treatment and goes out into the ‘real world’?

Sometimes, having all this unscheduled time can feel a little … boring. Those in recovery can expect boredom and listlessness while the body readjusts its dopamine production and intake to a state of sobriety. Remember that recovery from substance use is a physical process with mental effects caused by alterations in  brain chemistry. After transitioning from treatment to the home environment it is common to experience feelings of boredom and loneliness. While in treatment, your days were jam-packed with therapeutic activities, and now that you are home life can feel a bit dull.

Sober For The First Time In Ten Years

When she quit drinking in 2019, she dedicated herself to learning about alcohol’s influence on the brain and how it can cause addiction. Today, she educates and empowers others to assess their relationship with alcohol. Gill is the owner of the Sober Powered Media Podcast Network, which is the first network sober and bored of top sober podcasts. With some perspective — which you usually obtain after certain periods of sobriety — you start to understand that life is, on occasion, mundane. That’s not the same as boring, but the routine of work, of bills, of family obligations, of doing it all over again every day can seem quite tedious. So, for a lot of us, when we’re in treatment for drug and alcohol addiction at a drug rehab, we’re often surprised at all the time we suddenly have on our hands.

We’re here for you when you are ready.

The early stages of sobriety can be tough when drugs or alcohol are no longer part drug addiction of the picture. Old habits are hard to break, and without them, free time can feel like an empty void. But here’s the good news—sobriety doesn’t have to be boring. Overcoming boredom in recovery might not just serve to change your life for the better and keep you on track, but may also be able to positively affect the lives of others as well.