SoberRunner

This resonates with me, although I never felt depressed as a child; I just loved sports. I was a tri-sport athete in high school and was offered two (full) athletic scholarships in two of my three sports. I played college sports for 4 years and was recruited to try out overseas to play professionally. I was burnt out on my sport and turned down the opportunity and went to grad school instead... Grad school was the first time (since 3rd grade) I wasn't on some form of competitive, athletic team so this is when "boredom" kicked in. I tried adult teams but they weren't very competitive so I stopped joining those. I tried skydiving and bungee jumping and REALLY liked those, so I guess adrenaline sports are my new hobbies. I'd love to SCUBA, paraglide, go shark diving, etc. but these are expensive hobbies so I can only go a couple of times per year.

Troy and FirstTmer, thank you for the welcome...and I'm glad I'm not the only one who stuggles with boredom. I agree--when sober for a while I'll have a lot of energy to do things so I'll probably get creative and stop talking about boredom.

Well, I'm off to the beach for a beach run! The ocean/water is always a mood lifter for me.

Dee74

hi and welcome Sober Runner

I found SR was a great help in those early weeks - you'll find a lot of support here.

The loneliness and boredom you speak of are pretty common - I found I was still living my old drinking life in my head - sitting around waiting for the fun to start like it used to be with the bottle.

I had to get a little more proactive in recovery.

Start building a sober life you love

D

Iconoclastic

I understand, I didn't feel depressed as a child also, because what I was feeling was covered-up with my activity. My depression was unsuspected, latent. I didn't have a comparison for what I was feeling until I began psychotherapy and 12 Step programs i.e. AA, Al-Anon and ACoA (Adult Children of Alcoholics).

These programs helped me uncover, discover and discard many myths about myself and others and helped me realize the subtle forms of childhood abuse that shame me.

Examples of shame based ideas of self, are perfectionism, from my father who was an intellectual and the Church of Rome where I was psychologically sexually shamed.

The list goes on....This is what my real recovery is about, it's not about not drinking or using, these a just symptoms, as my extreme activity and behavior were symptoms.

PS....I ran on Santa Monica Beach for 25 years from Santa Monica Pier to POP Jetty in Venice!!

SoberRunner

Oh, ok. I understand now. I'm pretty sure I could use a little psychotherapy but I don't know much about it and if my employee benefits cover it; even if it did, I'd wonder if my company would find out. I wouldn't want them to find out and judge me.

I'll probably look into it one of these days...

Wow, I never thought about it like that but it's so true! Our "instant fun" came in a bottle so now we have to learn how to create our own fun. I will start trying to be proactive!

Thank you for the welcome!

Hevyn

It's so good to meet you SoberRunner! You're never alone - you have us. Congratulations on wanting to leave that mess behind and have a better life. You can do it, there's no doubt.

least

Welcome to the family. There's a lot of support and useful info here.

damascus1986

I'll be honest that first month or two i ate tons of chocolate, played lots of xbox, did whatever i had to to keep my mind off using. the longer i stayed straight the more i was comfortable not under the influence

thomas11

I'm kind of stealing this from what others have said from time to time but when the desire to be sober outweighs the desire to be drunk or hungover things will start coming together. I had not heard that before, but I really believe it is true.

sober4

Welcome sober runner, i am new here too, but have 5 years sobriety behind me, got their one day at a time. I also know that my next drunk is just a arms length away. Sounds like you already have a good hobby (running) I use to do that but only picked the races that had beer wagons at the finish line. So please be carful crossing those finish lines.My best 1/2 was a sub 6 ( by 3 seconds ) anyway. Most hospitals have great admiration for sober folks and like volunteers. I did my fist year and a half, got to volunteer in the recover section a couple of times. Helped me stay sober. Also hanging out at coffee shops around the game or puzzle tables found me some new friends too. Just some thoughts

SoberRunner

Congrats on 5 years sober! That's amazing, yet so far away for me. I'm just focusing on making it to Day 30--I'm only on Day 2 right now--because I haven't been sober for 30 consecutive days since the last time I was sober, which was 5+ years ago.

Luckily for me, I hate beer so I've never been to any of the (race) beer gardens. SoberRunner left plenty of free beer for other runners I guess.
Now, if there were free wine at the end of the race--then, it'd be a bit tempting...so I don't sign up for those. (Even when I wasn't trying to stay sober I skipped those races because Me + Free Wine = Bad News!!!)

SoberRunner

I'm on Day 2 and will be journaling my days on my blog, at least until I get to Day 30. I know Day 31+ isn't smooth sailing but the first 30 days are going to be the hardest for me; especially Day 4-14!! Eeekkk.

Hevyn

Two days - very nice SR! You're doing this.

firstymer

SoberRunner is a cool screen name. You wouldn't want to have to change it to DrunkRunner, or RumRunner, or something dumb like that.

So, keep doing what you are doing. We are pulling for you.

SoberRunner

HAHA!! That's is so true. SoberRunner will stay strong... I want tomorrow to be Day 3, not a Depressed and Guilty Day 1...and a screen name change.

ru12

Hey. I'm a sobER runner as well. Doing another marathon next month.

Boredom just is. Have you ever just sat with the boredom and observed it? Sounds weird I know but it was useful to me to come to grips with the fact that sometimes I'm going to be bored. And that is ok.

SoberRunner

A marathon is impressive! I'm not much of a long-distance runner so I stick to 5Ks and try to get a PR every race. My favorite 5Ks are ones like Tough Mudder, Spartan (Sprint) Race, etc. I might add a half marathon to my bucket list though...

Yes, I've tried to embrace boredom and just sit there and say to myself, "OK SR, you're bored--it's not the end of the world." Usually, it works for a bit but I usually end up doing something...and that something eventually ended with wine in the picture sooner or later. Now, I just make myself go running or run an errand.

But, you're right--I just need to accept the fact that sometimes I may be bored and it's ok.

FreeOwl

Run longer.

Just try it.

You can kill boredom with running and turn it into freedom.

SoberRunner

Ok, I'll try it today. Usually, I run a mile as fast as I can then do jog-walk intervals until 30 minutes is over. I usually stop at 30 minutes because running/working out solo is boring. That said, when I had a running partner, I used to run 3-5 miles per day.

Today, I won't focus on speed--let's see how far I make it.

FreeOwl

Speed days are fun... and good.... but there is something truly powerful about going the distance where anxiety and boredom and sadness and negativity are concerned.

1-2 hours on the trail makes a new man of me.... every. time.

Shoot for a 10 minute pace - 12-14 if you're on technical trail. Slow it down, focus on each present moment, allow thoughts to arise and then move on.... moving meditation.

It's magical.

SoberRunner

Do you listen to music or is it just you and nature?