Are You an Almost Alcoholic? Drinking Out of Boredom Rehab

Don’t get your thrills from booze or heroin, get them directly from your own brain by trying new and exciting things. What can I do with a picnic to feel amazing? I have to say in sobriety, I do picnics in the orchard, by my house, but you could do it anywhere with my husband and by myself. We lay out a blanket, I get my favorite cheese and crackers, I put music on my phone.

I am not sitting on an ivory tower judging you. Let me assure you, I have been to rock bottom, denial is no stranger to me. I tried a thousand pointless ways to moderate my drinking. Some studies have found mindfulness is particularly helpful at helping people reduce eating in response to emotions like boredom (24, 25, 26). Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between hunger and boredom.

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But that is because it gave them a hit and a distraction. And it easily stopped them from being bored. And now, I want to talk about life after early sobriety after the law when you start to look around and try to imagine what your life is going to look like without alcohol.

It’s important to have the right mindset about sobriety. But I’m going to explore solutions for people who sit at various points along the “sobriety is so boring” spectrum. Take what applies to you and leave whatever doesn’t. I realized that sobriety was not fundamentally boring. Alcohol merely blurred my perception of social situations. My friends and I got together for happy hours after work.

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It wasn’t even something my kids wanted or my husband wanted. But I was like this, and I love them so much. I mean, whatever it is, they make me happy. And I know https://ecosoberhouse.com/ so many people have adopted dogs, or gotten puppies during the quarantine, but also in early sobriety, and just the joy that that brings you is wonderful.

• I’m not sure if doctors realise, but that line about how “there’s no way to say for sure” undermines a lot of health warnings.
• And by the way, I did a podcast interview just with Amanda and Jardine about their book, and you can go back and listen to that if you’re interested.
• And the call I just got off of what’s a zoom call and it was about the book, The Sober Lush.

And I would think about what else I could do with my afternoons and my evenings that didn’t center around wine. And I’ve wandered around there with my daughter. And it gave me what I drinking out of boredom call an anchor activity for the long days during the pandemic. And that’s what it’s like, when we take away our wine, Right? We’re like, there’s nothing to do if we’re not drinking.

Embrace being bored

So I wanted to start with the beginning, which is when you are in your first 15 days, 30 days, possibly even 45 days. And I want to ask you, if you’re there, are you feeling bored in early sobriety? Because if you are, that’s pretty normal, there is an “in between” time, somewhere between no longer in your drinking life. The truth is that you might feel bored, what you’re going through is normal, it happens to everyone. The truth is that not drinking right now is your entire job.