Despite its prevalence in the world, the cognitive aspects of boredom remain poorly understood. Some research looking into adult diagnoses of ADHD has suggested that there might be a link between sustained attention and boredom. Individuals who are highly prone to boredom often report feelings of apathy towards certain activities or agitation, where an individual wants to engage in certain activities but encounters a lack of satisfaction despite repeated attempts. We might then think of boredom in this way as attentional dysregulation, which can also manifest in individuals who are depressed or anxious, and this can provide some more insight into understanding how psychedelics might potentially change our relationship to boredom.
It could be that something such as an adult diagnosis of ADHD has its roots in traumatic life events, ultimately leading to the individual not feeling safe in their surroundings, and looking for something outside of that situation to focus their attention on. There is some evidence to suggest that microdosing psychedelics, such as LSD or psilocybin, can assist with bringing us more into the present moment and allow us to be more mindful of our surroundings.
While boredom might be linked to attentional dysregulation among certain groups, it can also provide a motivational aspect to our lives. We might experience reduced agency as a result of feeling bored, and then seek out new challenges that move us towards engaging in pro-social behaviour as well as non-social activities. When we’re in a state of boredom, we might perceive time in a way where it seems to drag or stall – short tasks like waiting in line for 10 minutes at the Post Office, for example, might feel like an eternity, whereas time seems to pass quickly when hanging out with friends. This kind of boredom relates more to the situation or environment we find ourselves in, but the side which involves more existential exploration might allow us to understand boredom on a deeper level when it comes to the impact that psychedelics can have on our relationship with it.
Existential boredom is more complex, where we can see boredom as revealing key aspects of the human condition, such as meaning, ontological freedom, and our sense of finitude. The Roman philosopher Seneca spoke of tedium vitae, which relates to the tiredness of life or a feeling of general restlessness. We might also experience this as weariness or annoyance, with a life marked by a sense of unease or senseless attitudes. Boredom can be more than just a fleeting sensation, as it has the potential to transform into a state where we are faced with the potential to either explore our authentic self or evade this exploration and escape the responsibility for our own being. The potential of psychedelics to create more of a state of openness can bring us to this point where the reduction in our ego state leads us to what philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch referred to as ‘unselfing’, which creates space for us to attribute meaning to the world around us outside of an egocentric lens.
We can look at boredom in this sense as a search for meaning, where it acts as a psychological signal to disengage us from what we’re already doing and move us towards new possibilities. I’ve had jobs in the past which felt totally soulless and devoid of meaning, but I was always struck by how bored I was. The lack of meaning in these jobs was almost painfully felt when I was so bored, rather than just me recognising that there was a lack of meaning.
I would often be in shock when I worked in an office and met people who had been there for 20+ years – I always wanted to ask, “But how?? Don’t you get bored of coming into the same place every day for that long?” Maybe they didn’t, and they were just comfortably living a life which they didn’t give much thought to. I never managed to stay in these jobs for very long (my record length of time in an office environment was just over a year), as the boredom became overwhelming at times, where I just thought “this can’t be it”. Even with this recognition, it’s still taken many years to shift my mindset to the point where I can’t endure the boredom any longer, and I credit my experience with psychedelics for allowing me to recognise the boredom and discomfort.
The ability for psychedelics to enhance our perception of meaning can potentially allow us to create a life which we don’t ever find boring. The disruption of the Default Mode Network under the influence of psychedelics can provide us with new insights and pathways to explore, often putting us into states where nothing ever feels boring. My experiences on something such as LSD, for example, have always been interesting, even if they’ve been difficult or challenging, and perhaps psychedelics such as this have a certain quality which takes away the possibility of being bored.
share your toughts
Join the Conversation.