‘The only thing missing are the hugs’: How people fight addiction amid Coronavirus social distancing

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Common Sense and Vigilance –

March 13, 2020 – Lowell Cauffiel, a true crime author, screenwriter and producer in Hollywood, attends 12-step support meetings there and said he hasn’t seen a drop in attendance.

“I haven’t noticed any difference other than lack of handshakes and people putting their arms around each other during prayer,” Cauffiel said. “I find people have a positive attitude as a big part of recovery is not embracing fear.” … In The Rooms has nearly 600,000 online members who participate in 131 recovery meetings a week. Remote access is available around the world.

AA remains the biggest, with 66,345 groups in the USA totaling 1,361,838 members, it reported in January. The service office said groups make sure meeting hospitality tables are sanitary or they are temporarily “suspending food hospitality.”

In Savage, Minnesota, Vanessa Van Vorst said early this week that at the 12-step recovery meetings she attends, “we have hand sanitizer all over.” She and others worried that the sanitizer “smells like vodka,” which could trigger people new to the program to relapse.