Lowering the Bottom –
MAY 19, 2020 – EJ: Have you experienced that the pandemic is pushing people towards addiction who haven’t struggled with it before?
TR: It’s pushing people towards it, because what’s happening is, take the husband or wife or the twenty-some-year-old that would get home from work, maybe have a few drinks. Well, now they’re isolating at home, working through Zoom, starting to drink at three o’clock, starting to drink at one, starting to drink at ten in the morning. People are self-medicating due to the quarantine. And they’re drinking more, and abusing more, and relapses are through the roof right now.
EJ: What is it about the circumstances of being isolated in a home or in an apartment that can push people towards substance abuse?
TR: So what’s happening is people need purpose, they need connection, they need fellowship. Now they’re all alone. Even the people that are crossing that line now, they don’t realize. And what happens is people aren’t saying anything. You know, you see people, “Hey, it’s a Friday night drinking party. Let’s have a Zoom drinking party.” And people are embracing this. I mean, alcohol sales are up 250 percent.
But what else it’s fueling is domestic violence, child abuse, neglect, suicide, because people are in so much panic they don’t know how to put up their hand and ask for help if they’re crossing that line. Their family members need to be cognizant of it and reach out for help.
