The Trouble With Pandemic Drinking
I have a confession to make.
I’m currently twelve days sober. It seems like forever and no time at all.
I’ve been told before in AA that alcoholism is lifelong. There is no cure for it. It’s something that has to be maintained on a daily basis. I guess I believed it when I first heard it, but I have proof of it now.
In the last nine months, I’ve probably abused alcohol more than at any other time in my life. Sure, I could blame it on the pandemic and the intense fear that came along with it. I could say I drank excessive vodka shots because I’ve been cooped up in the house all this time. I could claim I was trying to calm myself down after the latest horrible thing I heard on the news. It seems like every day the stories have been more tragic. While all of these things are true, the real reason I drank heavily had nothing to do with any of this.
I drank too much alcohol because I am an alcoholic.
Right now, the idea of drinking anything at all feels like I’d be poisoning myself. The catalyst for quitting this time was a severe intestinal flare that hurt worse than childbirth. I should have gone to the hospital, but my fear of COVID-19 outweighed my intense pain. Instead, I quit drinking alcohol and treated my symptoms with lots of…
