For those struggling to stay sober, coronavirus shutdowns offer hope as well as temptation

CNN — There’s no easy time to get sober, but a global pandemic is tougher than most. One day, a snowstorm walloped the city, shuttering my office, and I pulled on my rubber boots with a sigh as if to say, “I guess I’m drinking now.” I didn’t want to be this person, passing out on the futon with the television flickering on her face, waking up to green empties mashed with cigarette butts, but I didn’t know another way. I didn’t understand when I first quit how few coping strategies I had, how much I had outsourced to the stress management system of “one more round.” I had an overthinker’s disdain for prayer and meditation and exercise, until I started seeing how useful they could be for lowering stress and anxiety, focusing the mind, finding calm in my own body – so many of the things I was drinking for in the first place. I’m sad to think of those rooms going dark right now, and how many people looking for help might find a locked door. One aspect of AA meetings I’ve always appreciated is that you have to stay quiet when someone else is sharing, no matter how much you disagree or want to interrupt.