As the saying goes, “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.” Anyone with too much time on their hands may find themselves in hot water. People who tend to be bored may also be weary or restless because of a lack of personal interests. But people pleasing often just results in you doing things you didn’t want to in the first place – including getting on it. If your strategy to drink less didn’t work, don’t regret or give in to
guilt. How you respond to setbacks is crucial to succeed and to begin
making a change.
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People may turn to alcohol as a way to cope with these negative emotions, but in doing so, they may be putting their mental health at risk. Many scientific studies have proved a positive relationship between boredom/loneliness and excessive alcohol use. The main aim of the present drinking out of boredom research was to analyze the predictors of binge drinking focusing on boredom proneness and drinking expectations in a sample of Italian adolescents. In particular, we expected boredom to have a positive effect on binge drinking via the mediation of drinking expectancies.
Stopping at the moment to look around at what’s happening, what emotions
you are experiencing, sensations, and thoughts that are present, bringing
awareness, and then making a choice. Start consciously thinking about your
drinking routines and ask yourself what’s triggering that particular
routine or pattern. Workaround managing and coping with those triggers by
finding a different strategy that works best for you.
Drinking because of boredom happens because home is where we feel safe, unjudged – it’s where we can relax. But at home, it’s easy to get a bit too comfortable… you can get a long way down a bottle when you are sitting in front of the TV half-watching some series to pass the time. Make a commitment to allocate alcohol-free days and stick to them, keep alcohol and substances out of your home, make a schedule to structure your day, and connect with a supportive group regularly.
Who here watches The Great British Baking Show just to not have to think for a while? And when we turn off our brains, we tend to turn on an autopilot we can’t trust, one that keeps reaching for food until the bag of chips is empty. In that case, some of these tips to address boredom eating could work for you. Some studies have found mindfulness is particularly helpful at helping people reduce eating in response to emotions like boredom (24, 25, 26). If you tend to crave or reach for certain foods when you’re bored, you might be tempted to completely stop eating those foods to remove the temptation. Boredom eating from time to time can be completely normal and nothing to worry about.
Our founders, along with a team of researchers and medical advisors, analyze a wide variety of topics and summarize the information in a clear and usable way. Remember, how one adjusts to the circumstances of their life is more important than the circumstances themselves. Drinking is an easy solution to boredom, and it takes effort not to be bored. But maybe you’re unsure about quitting completely and don’t want to hold yourself to that goal. From monthlong sobriety challenges to the Sober Curious movement, more and more people are taking a closer look at the role alcohol plays in their lives.
Dean says that finding an alcohol-free alternative that you genuinely like is a great way to break the pattern of heavy drinking. “There are so many more options now than the days where, if you weren’t drinking, your only choice was a tepid orange juice or bleak watered-down Coke,” she says. Reducing alcohol intake may produce withdrawal symptoms such as sweating,
shivering, high blood pressure, vomiting, fatigue, etc. Psychological
symptoms like anxiety, restlessness, &
anger
outbursts, or irritability can be seen as an after-effect. A Qualified mental
health professional or psychiatrist can help and assist in managing these
symptoms.
Boredom can cascade into serious issues like battling loneliness, uncovering deeply seeded shame and self-loathing, and even feelings of high stress can become prevalent. Drinking out of boredom is how some choose to deal with the dull moments life throws at us. Drinking as a way to cope with boredom indulges in and perpetuates that passivity. It’s hard to think of a more passive activity than lying on a couch with a six-pack of beer. You may think you’re going to feel better after boozing, but in actuality, you’re reinforcing the notion that you need to wait for life to entertain you. Over time, this pattern of behavior can inculcate a kind of learned helplessness, so that every time a person drinks to relieve boredom, they reinforce this learned helplessness.
If you’re a casual drinker, you should understand the ramifications of regular drinking. Drinking to combat boredom can be problematic, but you can prevent long-term consequences if you identify it early. Drinking at concerts, sporting events, and dinner can, as one casual drinker put it, transform a situation into a moment.
