I Can’t Get Sober, It’s Too Boring! The Truth About Sobriety

In Sober living by amyLeave a Comment

When you come to Herren Wellness, you become part of a vibrant and thriving community that doesn’t end when your stay ends. Once the fun and novelty of being in recovery wears off, you can be left feeling bored. After all, much of the entertainment and socializing you did was centered around alcohol and drugs. Now that this is gone it can feel like you are living a quite boring life.

Eventually, the day comes when you realize that the drinking isn’t worth it. And that’s when a whole different struggle began. Research by the National Institutes of Health , not only are there millions in long-term recovery, but these individuals have also reported significant life improvements in recovery. With more than 20 million people in recovery, the need for resources for this group has never been greater.

Feeling great the next day is not at all boring

Perhaps at one point in time they may have been accomplice to my addictions, but they never made choices for me. I made the decisions to indulge in extracurricular activities that happen at those events. I try not to be judgy now, but my values have changed since my drinking days. How to meet new friends who don’t drink and have new adventures without alcohol. How to edit your social media accounts to inspire you about how good life can be without alcohol vs. making you feel like you’re missing out on something . Why part of the work of early sobriety is learning to sit with feeling “blah”. Why all of us have tunnel vision when we’re drinking.

  • Don’t get your thrills from booze or heroin, get them directly from your own brain by trying new and exciting things.
  • Im awaiting a hip replacement so I’m home a lot at the moment, during the day it’s fine I keep busy but the evenings are slow and boring.
  • This will not only help keep you from being bored now, but also in the future as you plan fun things to do like a trip.
  • These healthy coping mechanisms are more sustainable than numbing pain or trying to drink away your past challenges.
  • In the same way that we might say, “skydiving is stupid” without ever having gone.
  • When people drink or use drugs, it frequently starts as a way to deal with hardships but becomes a primary coping mechanism.

But the problem with working so hard on the weekend is that you feel burnt out going back to your “real job” on Monday. Whatever you do, please don’t reply with the https://ecosoberhouse.com/ suggestion to seek counseling. That is such a cop-out by people who think they’re helping and just can’t admit that they don’t have an answer b/c there isn’t one.

What has to Change

It lead to a friendship and deeper conversation that night that I’m it sure left a mark on her as it did me. Start small, like going for a walk around the neighborhood, with the plan to one day try jogging. Set challenging, but obtainable, goals for yourself and stick to them. BPS, The Boredom Proneness Scale, measures our level of boredom; the average boredom number is 81 to 117. Interestingly, people who are prone to addiction are more easily bored. It takes more dopamine to trigger the dopamine-related emotions that you would be having in people more prone to boredom. Studies have shown people with fewer dopamine receptors are also often more prone to pleasure-seeking and with that comes addiction.

And that started months and months before I started drinking, so it’s not the alcohol that made it that way. I want to stop drinking but without it there literally is nothing for me to enjoy except sleeping.

Being Drunk or High Wasn’t Always Bad

Going on a tour is like a “staycation” — it lets you see things with fresh eyes so you can embrace what was previously mundane. This is especially good when longer term travel is difficult. It also opens new doors of social interactions with people who are living a sober life unfamiliar with your city or are from out of town. Gaining a new perspective on your home can enrich the mind, body, and soul. Without the influence of substances, you have the opportunity to enjoy sober relationships while ending toxic relationships.

How long does alcohol induced depression last?

The actual duration of alcohol-induced depression can greatly vary. Depressive symptoms that are associated with alcohol-induced depression have been shown to significantly improve after an individual has abstained from alcohol for a certain period. It is typically 3-4 weeks in a variety of cases.

And, according to research, about one third of those in their first year of recovery will relapse. What’s more the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism reports that about 90% of those individuals who were in treatment for alcoholism relapse within four years. These statistics are somewhat discouraging but it’s important to realize that relapse doesn’t have to be a part of recovery. With a solid support group, an understanding of one’s own personal triggers, and plans to counteract temptations, you can enter recovery once–and remain there. When drinking takes over the majority of your time it can feel as though you lose days to things like hangovers.

Alcohol didn’t make life fun. It just made you not care.

Rather than criticize living a sober life, we should ask questions. There are a lot of misconceptions regarding sobriety. Partially because the people who tend to “get sober” don’t do so voluntarily. In movies , people who “get sober” tend to hit rock bottom and are pulled unwillingly to rehab, or jail and then rehab.

  • In this program, I’ll work with you to help re-build your sense of self-worth to the point that you’re comfortable without alcohol in your life at all.
  • If a show – or if I’m being completely honest a commercial – played inspirational music and started to make me tear up, I’d push the feeling down and bury it.
  • Not only am I having fun but I’m never bored and I’m making a living.
  • They are achieving goals and becoming a person they like.
  • One way to have fun is to get a pet or volunteer to work with animals.
  • Friday & Saturday was the big days full of drink so weekends have lost their fun.

I was smoking an ounce of weed a week, and upon quitting, everything around me just seemed so bland. It most certainly wasn’t that way before I started — just something that happened upon years of marijuana consumption.