There is a strong relationship between boredom, stress, and drug or alcohol use. It’s therefore no surprise that during the pandemic, the rate of alcohol consumption increased among people that reported COVID-19 related stress. The pandemic has been here and, at the time of this writing, is continuing to keep our world in a state of flux. This puts those who have formed an attachment to alcohol in a very vulnerable position.

Several things might make you feel lonely when you quit drinking. For some people, the loneliness might be because they no longer have the alcohol to push down their feelings or to act as a distraction. This can mean dealing with tough emotions, including loneliness. Particularly between 2020 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, many people reported increased feelings of boredom and altered eating habits, as well as side effects like weight gain (1, 27). To prevent boredom eating from becoming habit, try to keep your days from becoming too tedious or repetitive. Activities like talking a few short walks or periodic stretch breaks during the day provide a mental and physical break from usual routines.

Depression in Older Adults

But a lot of it was also a lot of internal work. Their cognition improves, their negative affect improves. I know plenty of people have alcohol use disorder who will throw up and then go right back to the bar to continue drinking, because that’s part of the problem. It turns out that there is a hormonal component specifically for females during pregnancy, beyond pregnancy, that could play a role in why females are able to stop drinking.

When I started to get sober, there was no desirability that was included. It also didn’t necessarily meet people where they were at. I’m an assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, where I practice women’s health, internal medicine and integrative medicine. I am always reading and I love discussing books with my patients, my professional colleagues, and now with you. One can form a habit out of being bored because it can present a degree of comfort and safety.

1. And the more I felt them, the more intense and blinding they would get.
2. Once we have a clearer picture of our reasons for using alcohol, we get to decide when, where, and how much we use, with added insight.
3. When I was a heavy drinker, everything involved alcohol.
4. This is where some of the research was exciting for me because I found all these old studies of women who had struggled with alcohol use disorders.

Build a strong support network.

Conversations are a great way to distract your mind from eating when you’re not really hungry. Tracing this back to eating out of boredom, Carnell added that it’s very likely that when we are bored or unhappy, our dopamine neurons are inactive. When we eat due to boredom, this can be a way of “waking up” our dopamine neurons so we can feel excited again. There are many reasons why you may find yourself illuminated by the refrigerator light every time you’re feeling a bit restless. You might even want to vocalize when you’re done drinking.

If you have a hard time moderating your pace, try to stick with drinks that have low alcohol content. Understanding the effects of binge drinking can increase your motivation to cut back on how much alcohol you consume in one sitting. You feel guilty or ashamed about how much you drink. You might arrive at a friend’s party drinking because of boredom in an upbeat and energized mood, but by the end of the night, you’re feeling sick and regretting your decisions. You might wonder why you always seem to make the same mistakes.

Signs and symptoms of binge drinking

But it’s comforting to know that you don’t have figure it out on your own. It’s not as simple as “getting out there” and “trying something new.” It’s hard to do that when you suffer from extreme depression and anhedonia. The very things you should be doing to feel better require a level of motivation you might not be able to fathom. Getting drunk did not magically change the dynamics of that situation. We were all just sitting around and getting drunk, perfectly content to not really do anything together.

Try to make those types of activities take a backseat to other hobbies. Watching a friend or family member struggle with a binge-drinking habit can be difficult, even heart-wrenching. You’ll likely be there to witness their most reckless behavior, painful hangovers, and their sense of shame and depression afterwards. If you’re having a hard time shifting your focus from internal to external, consider the quality of your inner self-talk. Are you beating yourself up for a mistake you made earlier? Dissect and challenge those worries with more realistic thoughts.