Boredom Series — Episode 5 | 10

“I don't know why I start again. It's not that I want to, it's just that I don't know what else to do.”

This sentence, gathered by clinicians working in addiction medicine, summarizes something that research is beginning to document seriously: behind many addictive behaviors, there is an emptiness that precedes the substance or behavior. And this emptiness has a name.

Boredom is not the only cause of addiction, nor even the main one. But it is an underestimated factor, often unnamed in treatment, and yet decisive in relapse phenomena.

Boredom as a vector for initiation

Research in addictology identifies several functions that psychoactive substances or addictive behaviors can fulfill. Among them, the management of boredom and the search for stimulation occupy a regularly documented place, particularly in research on the initiation of addictive behaviors in adolescents and young adults.

Boredom produces an unpleasant state of tension, a friction between the desire for engagement and the impossibility of achieving it. Faced with this discomfort, addictive substances or behaviors offer an immediate solution: they fill the void, rapidly raise the level of stimulation, and provide a temporary sense of control over one's internal state.

Alcohol, cannabis, video games, gambling, compulsive shopping, or pornography consumption can all fulfill this function of “self-medicating emptiness”.

It is not a moral weakness. It is an adaptation mechanism—imperfect, costly in the long run, but functional in the short term. Understanding this is the prerequisite for being able to respond to it differently.

Boredom proneness: a robust risk factor

Recent meta-analyses on digital behavioral addictions show that boredom proneness (this relatively stable trait referring to the tendency to get bored more easily and more intensely) is one of the significant predictors of problematic internet, social media, and video game use.

It often acts in synergy with solitude: boredom and subjective isolation reinforce each other to increase the probability of compulsive use.

This point is clinically important: a person with a high boredom proneness does not only suffer from an addiction to a substance or behavior. They also suffer from a more fundamental difficulty in inhabiting their own internal states.

Treating addiction without addressing this difficulty means removing the only available tool for regulation without offering any other.

The role of boredom in relapse

This is perhaps where the link between boredom and addiction is most documented and practically relevant.

Many people in recovery describe relapse moments associated not with intense emotional states (stress, pain, anger) but with states of emptiness: an evening with nothing planned, a day that stretches too long, an absence of meaning that lingers.

Boredom, in this context, is what clinicians call a trigger: an internal or external situation that activates the motivational circuitry associated with the addiction.

For people in recovery, learning to identify boredom as a potential trigger is as important a relapse prevention skill as learning to manage stress.

This work is based in particular on two areas:

→ Developing tolerance for boredom, learning to sit with the discomfort of emptiness without seeking to fill it immediately

→ Building an alternative repertoire of activities providing real engagement: physical activities, creative work, authentic social connections, mindfulness practices

Integrating boredom into treatment

For addiction clinicians, boredom deserves to be explicitly addressed in sessions.

Simple questions can open up this space:

→ “What happens in the moments preceding the behavior?”

→ “How would you describe your inner state when there is nothing to do?”

→ “What is missing in your daily life that the behavior comes to compensate for, even if imperfectly?”

These questions do not pathologize boredom. They name it, legitimize it, and open up work on the regulation of internal states that goes beyond just addictive behavior.

Approaches such as behavioral activation therapy or mindfulness programs often include this axis implicitly; it can be useful to make it explicit.

What this changes in practice

If you recognize boredom as a trigger for behaviors you would like to change:

Naming this connection is already a first step. Keeping a logbook of the moments preceding the behavior (noting the emotional state, context, what was missing) can make this mechanism visible and easier to work on.

For clinicians:

Integrating an assessment of boredom proneness and strategies for managing emptiness into addiction patient evaluations enriches the functional understanding of the addictive behavior and guides interventions.

For resources:

In France, CSAPA (centers for care, support, and prevention in addiction) and general practitioners are accessible, non-stigmatizing first-line resources.

In conclusion

Boredom is not the cause of addictions. But it is often a silent accomplice, a vulnerability that traditional treatments do not always address.

Naming it, understanding it, and learning to go through it without resorting to costly behaviors is one of the least visible, yet most powerful, levers of recovery work.

Next episode: Boredom is good for the brain.

⚠ In France, 3114 is the national suicide prevention number. For addictions, addictaide.fr offers online help and referral to specialized professionals.