Existential Void: Why Drinking Is Not the Answer to Boredom

Do you know that uncomfortable feeling when the busyness of life slows down?

Maybe it’s a slow Sunday afternoon, or a weekday evening that’s unusually quiet. When the noise of the day settles, it can feel like something is missing.

Suddenly, the urge to find a distraction—any distraction—rushes in. We instinctively reach for the smartphone, the remote…and, for many high-functioning drinkers, the bottle.

Let me know if this sounds familiar: For a moment, the drink seems to help. The nagging discomfort fades, replaced by a buzzing numbness. You exhale, “Now this feels better,” and conclude that a glass of wine is the cure for boredom.

But the next day, you find yourself back in the same cycle.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. There’s a deeper kind of boredom many high-functioning drinkers face—one that goes beyond passing time.

What if the drink wasn’t the answer we thought it was, but the very thing keeping us stuck in the existential void of boredom?

What Is Existential Boredom? And Why Does It Fuel the Urge to Drink?

Psychologists call this deeper state existential boredom. Existential boredom is different from everyday boredom, like being stuck in traffic or waiting in line. It’s not about having nothing to do, but about not knowing why you're doing anything.

If situational boredom comes from a lack of stimulation, existential boredom comes from a lack of meaning.

Viktor Frankl, the founder of logotherapy and a Holocaust survivor, believed that existential boredom signals a crisis of meaning—what he called the “existential vacuum.” Frankl argued that humans are driven by two powerful instincts:

1. The will to survive
2. The will to find meaning in that survival

Back in the day, our ancestors didn’t have time to be bored. They were hunting, gathering, building fires, and defending themselves from wild animals or rival tribes. Survival was their purpose.

But in the modern day, for many of us, survival is already secured. And we’re left with a quieter, more haunting question: "What’s the point of all this?”

Philosopher Martin Heidegger described this as a profound form of boredom—a state in which nothing captures your interest, and even the busyness of life starts to feel pointless.

Many people I work with know this feeling well. We perform our jobs to earn money, use that money to escape on vacations, and then rise and repeat through the same loop again.

And when the void creeps in, drinking becomes the easiest distraction.

Why Alcohol Feels Like a Quick Fix for Boredom, but Isn’t

Boredom is essentially an empty space—empty of activity, engagement, or purpose. In a life that’s constantly packed with the next errand to run, the next social obligation to show up for, the next goal to chase, a sudden emptiness can feel almost terrifying.

“What do I do with it?”

It’s kind of like a hamster stepping off the wheel for the first time and freezing in paralysis: “I don’t run on the wheel anymore… but what now?”

So we reach for something—anything—to fill the space. Alcohol becomes one of the easiest solutions. It takes the edge off the discomfort and lets us avoid the most terrifying question:

“What’s the point of all this?”

But little did we realize that the real answer lives on the other side of boredom.

Albert Camus explored the tension between repetition and meaning. He suggested that when life feels absurd or when the daily repetition seems pointless, we’re faced with a choice: We can despair, or we can decide to make our own meaning. Because within the void of boredom, there’s a hidden freedom, the freedom to choose and create your own meaning.

The Illusion of Relief: Alcohol as a False Cure for Emptiness

Boredom is like an empty house waiting to be filled. Standing in front of the entry, you might feel a little paralyzed by the overwhelming possibility: “I can fill it with anything I want?” It feels a little terrifying… but the good kind. And it will take time and energy to fill it in a way that reflects your wildest dreams.

But would you really want to rush into the nearest dollar store and start grabbing every item in sight, just to skip the work? Or would you rather take your time and fill it with things you actually love?

Most of us would choose to invest the time and care to decorate and fill that house with intention.

But when it comes to the empty house of boredom, we often reach for the low-hanging fruit—the first options that come to mind: the phone, the remote, the wine bottle.

After all, boredom is uncomfortable. And many of us were taught that if we’re bored, we must be doing something wrong. Naturally, we try to avoid it at all costs—and alcohol seems like one of the easiest answers. Just one glass gives the illusion that boredom has disappeared.

But in reality, we’re filling the space with distraction, not meaning. And that keeps us from searching for what actually brings us real satisfaction.

Like treating a broken bone with painkillers, the vacuum of meaning can’t be healed by numbing or noise. When we keep reaching for distractions, we end up living a life filled with unfulfilling.

4 Pillars to Fill the Void Without Alcohol

The only true thing that can fill the void of existential boredom is meaning. And paradoxically, meaning often lies on the other side of boredom.

In Sober Curiosity, we believe that to break old drinking patterns—whether we’re using alcohol to avoid boredom, seek relief, or feel more alive—we need to focus on more than just “stopping drinking.”

It takes four core sobriety pillars to create a thriving alcohol-free life:

Pillar 1 — Value Discovery: to reconnect with what truly gives you satisfaction and fulfillment

Pillar 2 — Belief Upgrade: to rewrite the story you’ve been told about alcohol and about yourself.

Pillar 3 — Skill Building: to replace alcohol with empowering tools to meet the needs that alcohol once helped you meet in life.

Pillar 4 — Mindset Shifting: to cultivate a mindset that allows you to turn any setback or challenge into stepping stones.

Filling the void of existential boredom asks us to upgrade the beliefs that alcohol is the answer to boredom, to build the skill of leaning into rather than turning away from boredom, and to reconnect with the unique things that give each of us real joy and deep fulfillment.

To explore this further, try this 3-step boredom drinking interrupt strategy and take your first step toward a more intentional life.