Addiction
Recovery Tools » Addiction Recovery Boredom: Dealing
with Boredom
Addiction Recovery Boredom:
Does Sobriety Make You Bored?
When you are in addiction recovery,
keeping busy will help alleviate boredom.
Often people who stop using drugs and alcohol say life feels
boring. Some of the reasons for this feeling might be:
- A structured, routine life feels
different from an addict lifestyle.
- Brain chemical changes during recovery
can make people feel flat (or bored).
- Drug and alcohol users often have huge
emotional swings (high to low and back to high). Normal
emotions can feel flat by comparison.
People with longer sobriety rarely
complain of continual boredom, so these feelings do change.
Meanwhile there are some ways to help you deal with boredom.
Solutions to Deal with Boredom in Your Addiction Recovery
Process: Keeping Busy
- Talk about this feeling with a mate or
close friend. Does he or she have any interesting suggestions?
- Think about scheduling
your time: forcing yourself to write out daily activity
helps you see where you can schedule in more interesting
experiences.
- Do something challenging that will further
your personal growth.
- Plan something you can look forward to
doing. ( a vacation, movie, visit a sober friend).
- Start doing the things that you enjoyed
before using drugs or alcohol. Or begin new
activities that interest you.
Which of the above might work for you? Keeping
busy is the key. It is important to try new ways of fighting
the bored feeling. You CAN cure boredom. Untreated it can
be a trigger and move you toward a relapse.
Recommended Reading
First Year Sobriety
When All That Changes Is Everything
by Guy Kettelhack
This is the first in a series
of three recovery guides for the first three years of sobriety.
It it filled with stories of men and women who are struggling
through their first year of sobriety as they struggle through
life's challenges without drugs or alcohol.
|
