ciowa

Its worked out really good for me. I was less than a year into recovery when the pandemic hit.

When I was drinking, almost all of my binge drinking started at the neighborhood bars and I was fully immersed in the nightlife. As for my day job, I traveled a lot and didnt get a chance to take care of myself and was very unhealthy.

When I got in recovery, I temporarily moved to another city over 1000 miles away to get away from the neighborhood scene. When the pandemic hit, my job went remote and that gave me a chance to start eating healthy and getting physical exercise again. I was able to catch up on sleep and rest in regular patterns because I didnt have to travel anymore. I also was still thinking about my previous drinking life and the night time scene and that whole scene was wiped out by the pandemic. Therefore, it was no longer something I was thinking about because it was gone.

So, unlike others, the pandemic has been one of rest, stability, cash savings, relationship mending and a bunch of other positive things.

As for boredom Im one of those people who tends to burn the candle at both ends so I dont get bored because there is always something to do. I have a whole stack of books I want to get to one day along with a bunch of movies I dont have time to watch. The pandemic has made me slow down just a little and enjoy things instead of constantly moving and feeling like im on the edge of burnout.

DriGuy

I am in rural Virginia and lock downs are not enforced. There are rules about wearing masks and distancing. Stores post signs that masks must be worn inside, but if you don't, they don't say anything. My county is not densely populated with only 18,000 people county wide, but we have the highest Covid mortality rate per capita of any county in Virginia,and there are 90+ counties.

So any lock down I experience is totally my own doing, and I am strict about it. I do not go into stores. All my groceries are bought at a store 40 miles away that offers curbside pick up. A guy loads my trunk while my windows are rolled up and my credit card does not change hands. That's all done on line. I only have one social contact with a woman I hike with. We take separate vehicles and meet at the trailhead about 3 days a week.

And I do get antsy, miss eating a meal out, or going into a store for just a quart of milk, but I plan ahead and get a week and a half's supply, and then I isolate. I do not go in a store of any kind. I don't touch anyone, entertain visitors, or go to someones house to "stop by." So of course I'm affected by this, but my recovery is not affected in any way. My recovery is about never drinking, even during adversity, so my recovery has always remained in effect. It was part of my plan from the start. Drinking because of adversity was never in my plan.

Mizz

The start of the pandemic was really brutal for me personally. My work became increasingly stressful as each day passed. I was not handling my emotions and mental space in a healthy way and I was also taking in a lot of fear and stress from the public. A lot of abuse from the public. A lot of craziness and insane behaviors from the public that were hard to navigate and hard to understand. I became sicker and sicker mentally, emotionally and my drinking increased to a level I had never known. I was really scared that I may have crossed into a place that I would not recover from. I had suicidal thoughts. Anxiety was at an all time high. I was in a deep depression. My life was falling apart at the seams. I needed to change......Mainly because I kept waking up and I could not go on living how I was living. I can honestly say that my last week of drinking was the darkest I had ever been. Scary dark. It was hell.

I got sober in October of 2020. The first few months were an EPIC ride of anxiety and emotions. My S.O. got COVID in December and I was put into a quarantine for 21 days. Still was not sober emotionally or mentally. I was physically sober though so at least I had that going for me. Also an attitude of "fake it till you make it" ..... Not all of it. Just a lot of it

Its March 2021 and the difference is like night and day. I'm not in fear or anxiety. I am focused. I am alive and happy to be alive. I have hope. I have this community. I have so much. I can see it now. My hobbies are back in my life full force. I am so happy to be sober and to see myself again. So, I guess this pandemic has had some positives. Its been a nightmare but it has also given me a giant gift that I do not take for granted......

Did I even answer the original question?

Hodd

Personally, I’d been 17 months or so sober (still am) when the first UK lockdown started so nothing changed. I’m not anti-alcohol. If a healthy occasional drinker (that’s none of us here) wants a glass of wine, that’s fine, but I was appalled to see the boxes of alcohol stacked up all over the supermarkets. They knew full well people wouldn’t be going to work and many would drink more. The number of new alcoholics created during that first lockdown must be astronomical. I really felt for those trying to give up at that time as the odds weren’t in their favour. Huge credit to anyone who has quit during Covid times as I don’t think I could’ve done.

I was also working remotely during the first lockdown and also studying a lot for a career change. I always say that’s the key to getting/staying sober - have a new activity going on. If you’re chilling out every evening with Netflix and beers, steer clear of Netflix to start as it’ll be a huge trigger. Do something different during those early weeks.