Beating Alcoholism and Beating Boredom - Ways to Stay Sober Once You've Quit Alcohol

Many alcoholics live structured and full lives while they drink; this is because their days are spent drinking and their life revolves around the pursuit of inebriation. Once this destructive cycle comes to an end some find this sudden lack of purpose and newly found free time to be quite stressful. Unless some way can be found to fill this time many newly recovered alcoholics will inevitably return to their previous heavy consumption of alcohol. So what are some of the activities and hobbies recovered alcoholics can take up to avoid becoming drunk again?

Take up a sport.

Many newly recovered alcoholics find that after quitting drinking they are filled with an excess of energy. Although this is often a positive thing, sometimes this energy can become too much and makes some people suffer from a nervous anxiety. One of the best way to burn off some of this energy is by participating in a sport; physical exertion is widely accepted as great natural way to burn off excess energy. Recovering alcoholics need however to be careful about what sports they decide to partake in. Certain sports such as snooker or golf have a slight element which is connected to drinking - everybody knows what happens at the 19th hole! Those in recovery are much better picking sports such as badminton or ultimate frisbee which have fewer connections to the bar.

Become a tea connoisseur.

Alcohol is a harsh substance and its prolonged use can damage the mucous membranes and taste receptors in your mouth. Over time you may begin losing your sense of taste and eventually you will begin to require more salt and other additives to even taste your food. Thankfully, upon stopping imbibing alcohol, much of the damage caused by drinking will begin to reverse. Now that you can appreciate the taste of things once more why don't you treat yourself by drinking some luxury loose leaf teas? Loose leaf tea is growing in popularity all over the world with high-end tea shops opening up in most major cities. Whether you are a fan of green tea, oolong or the classic black tea loose leaf teas provide a healthy alternative drink to alcohol and cost a fraction of the price.

Learn to fly.

While learning to fly a real aircraft takes many years of practice and a lot of money, model airplane and helicopter flying is becoming increasingly popular as a hobby. For many years flying a remote controlled aircraft required a large initial capital investment and then the upkeep of maintaining your model could prove to be costly too. Crashes inevitably frequently occur when learning to fly and will usually require at least a few spare parts to repair your aircraft following one! As technology has become cheaper there are far more beginner aircraft kits created in Asia that are appearing on the market. Such kits provide aircraft in all sizes and so have made model aircraft flying much more affordable and accessible for the general public. Now everyone is literally able to go away and learn to fly!

Over the course of a decade James managed to hold down a successful career as a tea importer before no longer being able to hide his addiction. Having explored various treatment options, and regained his sobriety, he has once again rebuilt his career and hopes to help others do the same.

You can read about James's alcoholism and the methods he uses to remain sober on his alcoholic blog

On his alcohol blog you can also read about James' passion for loose leaf tea.