Cravings and boredom
 

I'm a couple of days short of 7 weeks sober and I've been really lucky so far in that, aside from the first week or so during which I felt pretty rubbish, I've found living without alcohol really easy and have not missed it at all.

I had no cravings, not even in that first week when I was feeling paranoid and crazy and generally exhausted.

But then last night and just a few minutes ago I experienced 2 very small cravings.

Last night I just tried not to give it much thought and it went away. At the time I didn't even notice how long it took to pass - I just suddenly realised I had completely forgotten about drinking later on.

The same happened just now.

Both times I was bored.

I have some free time today and I have been relaxing and reading a book and I put my book down and thought about doing something different and the thought of alcohol came into my head like yesterday evening.

I don't have much to be responsible for today, I have no work until Tuesday and I want something to do to relieve my boredom.

I'm not going to drink and it's now not an actual consideration for me like it was a few minutes ago so I don't feel like I'm battling against a craving.

Like I say, I think in almost 7 weeks I'm quite lucky just to have a couple of small cravings and have been able to just let them pass.

I don't feel like I'm struggling right now but how do you guys deal with them?

I usually get under the headphones and blast some music ;)
Call me suspicious though but are you SURE you're ok? You seem to repeat quite a few times that you're not craving/going to drink - just wondering if you're trying to convince yourself more than us? :)
Just a thought Xx

Yeah, I'm fine but it's the first time the idea of drinking appealed to me within the last 7 weeks whereas before the idea never came into my head.

I'm not going to go out and buy anything to drink though. It's not worth what it might result in.

It will pass and the cravings will get further apart. Every time I get a craving, I fast forward in my mind to how I am going to feel the next morning and this usually works. Thinking about how I will feel after rather than how I feel now has been the best way I have found to extend sobriety.

Great Croydonlad :) Xx

Every time you beat the cravings, they will get less and less.

Congrats on your seven weeks! :)

If whatever it is you are feeling will be relieved by drinking, then it's not boredom. Drinking isn't an activity. Drinking only relieves the obession to drink. What you might be feeling is discontent in your sobriety.

What are you doing for your recovery besides abstaining from alcohol? You may have to step it up.

I wouldn't say I don't feel content. I've felt very content since I stopped drinking.

It was a thought that lasted a few seconds.

I felt bored, was thinking what to do next and, before, a serious option would have been to head out to buy something to drink. It wasn't a serious option today, just a passing thought.

It was more of a habitual thought that I almost instantly disregarded than something resulting from a feeling of discontent.

Could it not be something as simple as boredom and old habit?

I've been dealing with similar small cravings, also when I don't have much to occupy my time. For me this is during the evening when the "busyness" of the day comes to an end. One of the things I've done is to put off many of the household chores until the evening. Laundry, cleaning bathrooms, ironing, etc I used to do during the daytime while everyone was out of the house. Now I do them in the evenings so I have something to occupy my mind/hands/time. The other night I cleaned the bathroom, but stretched it out over a couple of hours - i cleaned the toilet, then 30 minutes later swept the floor, then an hour later, wiped down the sink area- you get the picture.

Also, I'm avoiding doing the things I used to do in the evening with a glass of wine glued to my hand, just to break up the familiar pattern of events of my formerly inebriated evenings.

The other thing I'm doing is coming here and jumping on and off the site, for moral support.

Croydonlad, 7 weeks sober is FANTASTIC. Congratulations. The cravings are just your brain trying to get you to do what you had repeatedly done, time after time after time. The boredom, well, that's on you. I have continuously talked about how I just "suffered through" the temptations, urges, and cravings. Today at 3 years 4 months sober had I gotten busy building a life, I doubt I would have suffered so much. There is bound to be something you want to do with your life, so please get busy doing it. Rootin for ya. :egypt:

That, ultimately, is a question you will have to answer for yourself. It's good to be vigilant of the thoughts of drinking that pass through your mind.

My relationship with alcohol was not rooted in boredom and habit. Any thoughts of drinking were related to my addiction, no matter how innocuous they seemed.