When you remove alcohol from your life, you free up all the time you spent drinking and recovering from drinking. If you ever sit down to do that math, you will shock yourself with how much time went towards drinking. Alcohol robs you of the ability to feel naturally motivated and inspired. Those feelings don’t come back immediately when you quit. The good news is that your brain can adjust and restore balance to your internal world. The longer you stay away from alcohol and give your brain some much-needed TLC, the less you’ll feel like life is dull and uninteresting. Dopamine is another neurotransmitter that is responsible for feelings of pleasure and happiness.

Beccaria F., Sande A. Drinking games and rite of life projects a social comparison of the meaning and functions of young people’s use of alcohol during the rite of passage to adulthood in Italy and Norway. Of course, stressful situations are also relapse triggers, but during treatment, alcoholics can learn how they can deal with these problems before it becomes a relapse. The problem is that drinking kills people, and it’s not particularly cool. People put family, friends, food, gym, banter on their Tinder profiles for a reason. No one writes getting slightly boozed whenever possible because I don’t find things as exciting as I did when I was a child.

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I now realize how MUCH alcohol was part of everything i did and how much time I floated around in the Sea of Drunk! Going out to eat doesn’t feel appealing because when we went out it usually involved drinks. Friday & Saturday was the big days full of drink so weekends have lost their fun. I know it will pass and deep down I KNOW with every bone in my body that I don’t want to go back to drinking but DAMN it is hard!

It can also be a good excuse to keep on returning to these substances. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ This can eventually meant that the individual develops a dependency.

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Of course, not every new activity will spark a positive reaction, so it’s important to not give up and continue to experiment if the first attempt falls flat. Shaw S.M., Caldwell L.L., Kleiber drinking because of boredom D.K. Boredom, stress and social control in the daily activities of adolescents. Cronin C. Reasons for drinking versus outcome expectancies in the prediction of college student drinking.

This one seems paradoxical, but if you try it, you might find it helpful. Part of the reason boredom is irritating is that we do something with the expectation that it will be fun and interesting but then it doesn’t deliver. However, when you vacuum the living room or put away your laundry, you don’t expect it to be fun; you just want the result. If you’re bored and nothing seems to engage your attention, pick something on your to-do list and do it. You may still find it boring but you’re bored anyway and this way, you’ll at least get something done. What’s more, you may find that doing something–anything–gets you out of your rut.