Boredom is real, but it is rarely self-explanatory. There's always something else going on. Boredom may sound like a plausible reason to drink, but we all know better than that. The desire to drink reliably tunes out other options, allowing us to dismiss a lot of other activities. Leaving us in a state of boredom. Symptoms of anxiety, depression, and general restlessness can also leave us in a state of boredom, preferring instead to be bored rather than confront a condition or conditions that are even more undesirable.
I don't treat boredom as a feeling, just as anxiety and depression are not feelings, but instead are states of being. Whereas feelings allow for other emotional and cognitive processes to co-exist with fluctuating influence, states of being are typically exclusionary, and place limitations on what we do, what we think, and how we interpret our feelings. They can also free us to do and to experience things to which we don't ordinarily have access under "normal" conditions.
We don't naturally make the time for self-reflection. Where we are in our lives, what we want, what's "missing," and where we're headed. It usually takes an experience of loss, or some other event that shakes us out of our everydayness, that forces us to look at things more honestly. Or a sense of existential dyssynchrony: a sense that we're not exactly where we're "supposed to be" at certain times in our lives (one of the main reasons why people seek out psychotherapy). And there are just too many distractions. The endeavor itself can stimulate painful feelings. Feelings of helplessness only make it more difficult.
Experiences of boredom and loneliness aren't discussed or explored very much. We tend to take these things for granted; they just are what they are. They're not. The result is that we settle for less by "learning to live with" them, or by doing something to mute or run from the experience, such as drinking.
The fear of freedom often arises from the reality that we have many more choices in our lives than we allow ourselves to imagine. Imagine that.