Hmmmm. I agreed with the OP's statement that people need to "have some accountability with your sobriety. Stop making those excuses." This whole "COVID made me do it" thing is just an excuse. And I would never tell an addict that his or her excuse is valid. That wouldn't be fair to them. Just because a person believes their excuse to be true (a reason), doesn't make it so. To me, addiction makes an addict do his drug of choice. And this I will always proclaim.
And, I agree, no help is done by blowing smoke and false positivity. In fact, harm can be done, right?
If it's smoke and lies, that is.
That said, when a poster does keep climbing back on a horse named Recovery they feel bucked off from (although they actually hopped off, even though they feel bucked off), I must applaud them, because they ARE trying to get back up. They are here, writing, and reading, and trying to grasp the reigns. We might realize the sad truth and shake our heads because we see that they are actually on the wrong end of the ring away from the actual horse, but
they don't know that and they are in the ring trying. And that is to be commended. God knows when I fell off the wagon last I certainly wasn't here. You all would've been a buzz kill.
When I came back, though, I needed the people who asked me about my plans of recovery, what I planned on changing to stay sober this time, etc. I I needed just as much, more actually, the people who heard my pain and believed in me and boosted me up with cheers and pats on the back and hope. People who truly believed in me because they'd already witnessed the seemingly impossible with themselves through their own recovery, so they could convince me the impossible was, in fact, possible. I attribute much of my 351 days of success to those cheers. I needed those cheers more than the plan talk, although I certainly know others need the plan talk more than the enthusiastic cheers.
So I think all of our comments combined together (some perhaps harsh, some uplifting, some informative) create the perfect mix to helping the largest group of people. I guess I'm trying to say: Everyone's key to sobriety is just a little different.