Surviving Addiction In A Pandemic
You’re Gonna Need More Than Hope To Cope
I’m a chapter secretary in a 12 Step program that regularly meets somewhere in North America. I’m the guy with the meeting book. Today, we’re in the midst of a CV-19 pandemic. If you’re an addict, developments seem intimidating if you don’t know where to turn for solid self-care.
For the Old Heads out there and those new to 12 Step, here’s a truth— perhaps the paramount truth in 12 Step: the antidote to addiction is not abstinence, it’s connection. In any 12 Step program, connection is accomplished through meeting attendance, service work, support groups, personal program, and the sponsor/sponsee relationship, etc.
The global social distancing underway everywhere on earth is driving a lot of reactive decision-making. If you regularly attend meetings and need regular meeting attendance to remain sober, the stoppage of chapter meetings feels big and potentially overwhelming.
Undoubtedly, some number of 12 Step meetings in all programs (Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Sexaholics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous) will temporarily stop gathering. The reasons will be varied. For example, many chapters meet in churches that impose facility closure as a CV-19 containment precaution. Elsewhere, some groups will conduct a group consciousness meeting and conclude that based on prudence, their usual face-face meeting should be suspended.
If this is your meeting predicament, this may carry the anxiety of a car crash. What to do? Just because your face-face meeting is closed for the time being, you can get through this without losing your sobriety. Begin by looking for other local face-face meetings; this is the ideal opportunity to meet Steppers you otherwise would not.
Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears.
~ Marcus Aurelius
What to do if your meeting is the one that temporarily closed? There’s another option. Without a doubt, face-face meetings are the gold standard in recovery. But, face-face meetings are not the only ingredient in successful sobriety/recovery life.
However, if world events are impacting your sobriety routine (routine is huge for Steppers), take a look at what you can do to temporarily fill the void without allowing CV-19 to become a force that launches a chain of events that culminate in relapse. The next-best thing we can use — what Steppers in remote locations frequently resort to, are telephone meetings.
Below is information on finding a telephone meeting in your respective 12 Step program (copy & paste the URL then drop into your browser’s search box):
Hope at Home (AA): Mondays at 8:00 pm US CT. The call-in number: (712) 770–4010; enter access code 688–992.
https://www.sa.org/meetings_phone/
http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ga/locations
https://oa.org/find-a-meeting/?type=2
Lastly, a great one-stop shop source for all programs except SA:
https://meetings.intherooms.com
Granted, telephone meetings don’t have the texture and impact of face-face meetings, but this boils down to a state (yours) of mind issue. In other words, use what you have then stretch it in combination with the other activities such as literature study, regular sleep, good diet, frequent meditation, overwork avoidance, phone outreach, etc. Some of you may recognize this technique from gourmet cooking.
We must move in our recovery from one addiction to another for two major reasons: first, we have not recognized and treated the underlying addictive process, and second, we have not acurately isolated and focused on the specific addictions.
~ Anne Wilson Schaef
CV-19 is real. Steppers need to promote public health in meetings by appropriately limiting physical contact and protecting personal space distance to avoid respiratory transmission. But, in the opinion of a recovered addict who knows that addiction(s) don’t take a day off, the consequences of a relapse may be more imminent and dangerous than the perceived threat of the Corona Virus.
In closing, get on your cell phone. Take an active role in navigating this challenge, instead of getting steam-rolled by it.
Don’t worry about why something happened to you; instead, ask why it happened for you.
~ Elijah Cummings
I’m Mig. You can find me at: the.recovered.life@gmail.com
