Evoo

Curious folks thoughts. Has anyone actually found it *easier* to stay sober the last year? I've found a report that alcohol consumption is through the roof, as are health problems associated with it. I think I'm realizing how many of my triggers were family/social and FOMO-related. Working from home, taking care of my kid, investing in hobbies like cooking and health... I haven't even missed it. I can see a place in my past where it could have gone the other way and actually been very difficult to manage (say, if I lived alone like I did in my 20s and didn't have so many responsibilities, health concerns, etc).

Long story short, how are folks doing with addition and this odd new paradigm? And how do you feel about things shifting back to a new kind of "normal?"

RenewalOfLife

I’m an introvert through and through, so social distancing for me was like my own personal nirvana. In 2020 I used the additional “cover” of the pandemic to drink more for sure. Now that I’m 19 days sober, I’m still welcoming social distancing - hubby and I don’t go out to eat or attend social gatherings - that in turn is giving me more practice being sober.

I’m feeling a bit apprehensive about shifting back to whatever the new normal will be as I’ll have a slew of “first sober ________” to address. But at the same time, I know I have no desire to poison myself any more than I already have.

Congrats to you on 2 years plus!

Aellyce

I will raise my hand at least 10x!! Also an introvert, but in many, many other ways as well. I got sober during the pandemic and have also made a lot of other, constructive changes in my life, during this time. No matter how unpopular, but I actually feel 2020 and now what we have from 2021 have been, by far, some of the best parts of my life so far.

Aellyce

I also have zero desire for anything to shift back to any pre-2020 "normal".

advbike

I had a pretty good year health-wise - drank a total of 178 beers or glasses of wine (yes I track it) which was down from the prior year. Several months of no drinking at all but had a few Covid scares and picked back up out of OCD-related anxiety. I also cooked every meal but three for myself since March, and did a lot of cycling. The financials improved significantly from all that. The only downside for me personally was the isolation from living alone and not being able to spend my fall and winter overseas as I normally do.

ScottFromWI

Last year was really bad for me from an anxiety standpoint, which in turn could have been bad for my sobriety if I would have let it. Thankfully I did not.

When I was drinking though, the lions share of my consumption was done at home/in privatej. And at least around here, the liquour stores, convenience stores and grocery stores were always open - even during the height of lockdowns. So access to alcohol itself would have never have been a problem. Also, other than during a few months in the spring, even the bars around here were open during most of it - including all of last fall when the really big surge of cases was happening.

Scd619x

Nope i've found it much easier to drink more and more frequently unfortunately as have quite a few people i know. Looking to turn that around.

Libby06

For me, I don't think it is much different. I have learned that my sobriety is no longer contingent on AA meetings like it was in the beginning, but I sure did miss the people.

It hasnt made me want to drink, or regret that I stopped.

tornrealization

I was furloughed for six weeks. We thought it would be two, then 3, then --- you get the idea. My favorite time of drinking was when I had the house to myself and nobody or job to report too. Husband was at work. I double-downed on sobriety. The AV would've loved this. I wish I could say it didn't cross my mind. It certainly did - and I'm excited to report I did not cave. I can deal with the pandemic stuff better sober. I also felt if I got Covid, with my previous pneumonia I've had (twice), I wanted odds in my favor by not having an immune system compromised by alcohol. I didn't want that in my care equation.

MantaLady

Found it harder. Much harder x

Mizz

The pandemic ramped up my drinking BIG TIME and then I got off the drunk train in the first week of October. This second year in the pandemic has been peaceful actually. Anxiety is way down. Productivity is up. Im feeling really good about it.

Scott2295

The pandemic made it easier as time went on. My wife and I are retired and it got harder and harder to find an excuse to leave the house to buy booze.

Evoo

I love the quote in your signature, "sobriety delivers everything alcohol promised."

Obladi

I’m a COVID baby, recovery-wise. Everything shut down at the very same time I came out of rehab. Well, everything but liquor stores and food markets.

I’ve absolutely thrived emotionally during this time, even though there have been some significant personal challenges. I’m fortunate to be able to work from home and for me, absolutely nothing was lost when I ceased the time-suck commute and no longer have to deal with many of the social aspects of working in the office.

I consider myself to be fortunate indeed to have stopped drinking just before lock-down. Seems to me I would’ve taken the situation as a gift from the universe otherwise. (Whoo hoo! I can drink around the clock - no withdrawals, no worries about being smelly and shaky and sick around other people because I can’t drink at work!)

Rather than wishing for a return to ‘normal,’ I’m starting to plan how to avoid that. No way do I want to go back to how it was.

O

advbike

I was drinking on and off early in the pandemic and at one point had made the decision to go buy some beer. We were in the middle of a huge surge here and I thought to myself "do I really want to risk my life for some beer?" So I didn't go.

But of course I was only thinking in the short term because of course we put our health and lives at risk all the time when we drink. Duh!

Hodd

I’d have drunk at least twice as much during the various lockdowns if I hadn’t thankfully quit 2 years ago.

It’s a tricky one, but on the other hand it’s incredibly tough to give up drinking when working full time. Your sleep is massively affected for one, and the cravings are excruciating. Anyone still drinking excessively during a lockdown somewhere is wasting a golden opportunity to quit right now.

And to those who have used lockdowns to quit, huge well done.

I studied three sciences to a high level during lockdown. I had the time and it’s paid dividends in my new career. Don’t make excuses and waste your lockdown time by drinking.

b0glerd69

I managed to stay sober throughout the pandemic and now have 3.5 years. I was aware that drinking would make things immeasurably worse. When a bit of time passes, drinking is not the huge mental distraction it is in the early days. You get used to life without alcohol and can focus on other things. I feel like I've never worked harder in my life.

lessgravity

In my humble opinion, as with so many things in life, Victor Frankl had the answer:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”