Activities to kick 'Boredom' away...?

Leading from another posting on here would really love to hear from people about activities that kick boredom (one of my biggest problems) away. I feel that as ex gambling addicts, we may be a group that are prone to boredom more than most. We were fed a buzz, an excitement and living on the edge for so long our brains may be easily led into a boredom state without that stupid buzz.

I am employed (for some of my time), but when that lapses I constantly feel a need for something to defeat boredom.

Do others have this issue? And have you found any things that were specifically good?

Boredom and gambling addiction go hand in hand. Early on I went to a lot of movies since they cleared my head and by the end of a movie my urges had passed. I also treated myself to a nice dinner at a restaurant once a week and spent a lot of time cooking. After the first year I put a gym into a spare room in my house and began working out regularly. I also started reading The Bible and began trying to fix my flaws other than gambling. I still work out a lot and work on being a better person.

It's weird but I can't figure out how I had the time to gamble as much as I did.

Exercise is the main one ! Do it. Get into running. Sign up for 5k's, then 10k's and then half marathon etc

Read books

Watch loads of boxsets.

Go out. Have fun. With your friends and family.

Yes you will still have bored days, but embraces them.

Start cleaning up your life - all those little loose ends that you've never had time for or put off until "some day " .

I have :

Weeded out a ton of junk and clothing that I no longer use or have a need for .
Made a will and set up Power of Attorney for my estate and medical needs .
Organized my online accounts , eliminating the ones I rarely go to anymore .
Finished half-done home projects .

Next on my list :

Scanning my print photos to a hard drive file and ridding myself of about 20 shoeboxes of old pictures . There will be a lot of weeding out there too . Who needs 10 pictures of a scenic vista I stopped at in 1982 ?

Interesting. Was thinking about this myself. Yeah gambling will leave a void when you stop and may leave that need for a rush. That's not reality though nor sustainable. Boredom is a part of life.


Movies
Relaxation
Exercise for fitness but for general health and to relieve stress.
Movies
Dinner, breakfast or lunch/coffee with friends
Holidays
Bike rides
Bowling
Box sets
Go to a sporting event ( no gambling )
Fishing
Study and learn new things like another language, how to dance, cool, self defense.
Yoga meditation and stretching
BEACH AND POOL/WATER - huge way de-stress and reset

Accept that you are going to be bored at times. GAMBLING IS NOT FUN AND WILL ALWAYS LEAD TO STRESS AND TENSION.

Gambling is not fun and nothing is good about killing time gambling because ultimately you don't kill time. You kill you.

Thanks all for those great replies - some great points and suggestions! Feeling a little more positive about addressing my boredom issues already!

-- Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:11 am --

buster1969 wrote:It's weird but I can't figure out how I had the time to gamble as much as I did.

It's funny, I sometimes feel that way now with my employed work buster! - amazingly, when I was at my gambling peak I was actually more fully employed and busy with work than I am now, but I do wonder how I actually managed my job at all, like you say!
Now I can dedicate so much more time and effort to the work that I do (though it's somewhat limited these days for me, sadly). I think I only got through both work and gambling in the past (as well as bringing up my children!) by going rather mad - this fed the gambling behaviour in itself, a vicious circle that was partly why my career broke down through stress of it all.

Anyway, on more positive note I agree about exercise (as MT also highlights) as a good one - I started to use that one previously, but easy to lapse - may move back towards that again as one area, thanks.

I took up my knitting needles again and this last few days I have taught myself to crochet! NSR you will be pleased to learn. I also enjoy adult colouring I find it very relaxing. And to stretch my brain cells I try and do a cryptic crossword everyday, if I manage to finish one I feel pretty pleased with myself. The rest of my time is taken up with looking after one two or occasionally all five grandsons!
Like buster pointed out it's amazing I ever had time to gamble, but in the first few months of recovery I did really struggle with not so much boredom but a complete lack of any ability to sit and relax, I felt restless and agitated, thankfully that passed.

gran wrote: I did really struggle with not so much boredom but a complete lack of any ability to sit and relax, I felt restless and agitated, thankfully that passed.

Hi gran - yes, I think that's an aspect of this too. The need for something that actually excites/engages you, without it being gambling of course!

Doing housework etc is fine for temporary distraction, but can still leave some times feeling rather flat. Sorry if I'm not explaining very clearly, just my thoughts really.

One thing I'm considering is developing a new project, e.g. writing of some sort (a previous life and activity of mine) which might actually get me engaged again, or looking for more self-employed freelance work online. These might have the added bonus of improving finances too if I can manage them!

Wow betterchange writing sounds good, I think if we can be creative in any way it can only be good for our frazzled brains. For me gambling was like novocaine for the brain and as such I think any attempt to do something creative and stimulating can only be good. I wish you well in your endeavour, throw yourself in to it, fire up your grey matter and let us know how you get on. This is becoming a nice positive post, hoping it is helping all out there just starting on their road to recovery.

I always enjoyed reading and lately I have been downloading ebook and audio book from the library and playing the audio on the smart phone and ebook on the iPad simultaneously, (same title of course), it is refreshing.

Keeping active at least 5 to 6 days a week set my head and body right.