Recovering alcoholic worries AA meeting COVID shutdown could cause relapses

Alcoholism is always a struggle, but imagine throwing the stress of isolation during the pandemic on top of that.

Regina’s latest COVID measures closed down community centres in the city. Those facilities aren’t just used for swimming and sports: they host meetings for Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and other 12-step support groups.

980 CJME spoke with John Doe, a pseudonym we’re giving to a recovering alcoholic who we’re keeping anonymous.

He worries that the lack of in-person meetings could lead some people to relapse.

“The worst thing you can do is tell an addict or an alcoholic to isolate. Without that actual human interaction, it makes the chance of them being able to have a positive and good recovery a lot less. Statistically, we don’t have good numbers of actual, solid recoveries anyway. When you add different things like this to the mix, it really takes away from it as well,” he said.

“You add mental health into the mixture of it as well and it’s just that much greater of a chance of everything, from suicides to overdoses to just making bad decisions because we don’t have that contact with another addict or alcoholic.”

While Doe has been clean for about 25 years, he still relies heavily on meeting with his AA group and worries about others who don’t have as strong of a grasp on their addiction.

“The thing with alcoholism, it’s a life-long disease. There are no breaks. It’s forever. One of the things we say is that when we’re in a meeting, our disease is waiting outside for us in the parking lot doing pushups. It’s a forever thing and we always have to stay on top of it,” he said.

“I feel very secure with what I have going on in my life, but I feel really sorry for people who are new to recovering and trying to change their own lives.”

While AA is moving meetings online, Doe believes that isn’t enough to help as many people work through their struggles. He explained that keeping in touch over the phone with your peers has always been an important part of the program, but more is needed.

“Nothing replaces the actual, physical being in the same room with people. Feeling the emotion, seeing their emotion, just the trust factor and everything else.”