Completing an addiction treatment program inside a drug or alcohol rehabilitation centre is an achievement which you can be proud of. You’ve virtually given yourself a second chance at life and the renewed hope is certainly something to be excited about.
However, as time goes on, it’s normal to for this excitement and euphoria to wear off and everything might start to seem boring.
The good news is that feeling bored with your addiction recovery is a normal phase that lots of recovering addicts go through at some point in their abstinence. The bad news is that if your boredom isn’t dealt with properly, it can easily lead to a relapse!
In this article, we are going to you how to beat boredom in addiction recovery so that you can stay motivated and driven to achieve long term sobriety.
Why Are You Feeling Bored in Early Addiction Recovery?
There are many reasons why you might be feeling bored in the early stages of your addiction recovery. Here are three of the most common ones:
- Since addiction is a brain disease, your think-tank could still be recovering from your excessive alcohol and drug usage making it harder for you to experience positive emotions and feelings.
- You may have run into a proverbial ‘wall’ in the first 5 months of your addiction recovery. The excitement and success of completing your addiction treatment program has now been dulled out now that reality has settled in again.
- You begin to think that your new life of recovery isn’t nearly as exciting as the times when you were drinking alcohol or using drugs.
What Can You Do?
If you are experiencing this kind of boredom, it may be time to create your own, healthy excitement. I’m not talking about all day, everyday enjoyment but it’s always good to have something to look forward to!
Here are some activities that you can do to make your addiction recovery efforts worthwhile:
Spend time with family and friends: Nothing beats boredom than spending time with the people you love, that can make you laugh and smile. It also helps to avoid feeling lonely, which is one of the reasons why many addicts relapse.
Try a new restaurant: Now you can use the money that you wasted on drugs or alcohol to spoil yourself and what better than spending on fine dining?
Go to a sporting event or movie/play: Watching your favourite team play live is always a great experience. If you’re not into sports, visit the movies or theatre – it’s always a good way to remain happy and content.
Take a day off work: Work can be very stressful (unless you have a job testing out the beaches of the Caribbean!) and taking a day off work is sometimes just the answer to give yourself some ‘me-time’ or you can even spend a day with family and friends.
There are so many fun things that you can do that don’t require you to use drugs or drink alcohol. Recovering from addiction isn’t easy; it requires lots of hard work and dedication, that’s why it’s important to reward yourself every now and then!