It’s the simple, casual interaction — the chats, the hugs, the certainty of seeing a friend — that Jane misses most.
Jane has been a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for almost 33 years. She last went to an AA meeting at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic but felt uncomfortable there because of a lack of mask-wearing and social distancing. So, she’s been participating only in virtual meetings since then, forgoing hugs but thankful that an alternative exists.
Nearly a year into the pandemic, AA members in Southern Nevada are as likely to be attending virtual meetings as live ones. And while live meetings are returning, what began as a pandemic-prompted alternative may remain as a recovery tool even after the pandemic ends.
Keeping connected
Jane had been attending live AA meetings four or five times weekly. (She and other recovering alcoholics in this story are identified solely by first names, since a guiding principle of AA is anonymity.) When the pandemic forced her to stop, “I’d tell myself, ‘You’ve got this. You’re 32 years sober. You’re not going to drink. You’ll be fine.’ ”
A few weeks later, Jane was watching a TV show and saw someone “pouring a glass of wine or a drink, like they do in every show you watch, and it came over me. It was unbelievable. All of a sudden, (having a drink) became such a good idea.
“I’d never experienced that before. I hadn’t thought of drinking in 25 years. So, I set my alarm and went to my first Zoom meeting the next day, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Jane considers Zoom meetings a good, hopefully temporary, alternative but said, “I miss getting hugs and seeing my friends.”
Key element
Meeting regularly with others who share the same battle with addiction is a key element of Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step groups that have adopted the AA model for such issues as narcotics abuse and compulsive gambling.
Meetings offer “a degree of active support from other people who could understand what individuals are going through,” said Dr. Michael Levy, founder and medical director of the Center for Addiction Medicine.
Donna Wilburn, a Las Vegas licensed marriage and family therapist, said meeting with others promotes support and accountability. “A lot of these folks don’t have support in their lives, people who are supporting healthy decisions. And accountability is someone there to help keep you on track with how you’re doing.”
But, when the pandemic arrived, in-person meetings were “disrupted,” Levy said, leaving in place “isolation and a lack of socialization.”
Live meetings never completely disappeared, said John, an AA member and public information chair for AA in Las Vegas. He estimates that at the pandemic’s start, about 1 percent of meetings held each week in the Las Vegas Valley continued to meet in person.
Then, “out of nowhere, within a few weeks, everybody went to Zoom.”
Going virtual
Diane has been in AA for about five years and also didn’t feel comfortable attending live meetings. It took her about a week to find a virtual meeting to attend.
“I know that doesn’t sound like a long time, but for me it felt like forever,” she said.
Diane felt “skeptical and a little uncomfortable at first” but found the camaraderie of a virtual meeting close enough to that of a live meeting. She now attends Zoom meetings several days a week and facilitates one Zoom meeting weekly.
Its not entirely the same, she said. For example, at one point during meetings, participants join hands to say a prayer.
“That’s a very powerful feeling. Everybody is in the room holding hands and saying it together,” she said. “But I still feel a connection on Zoom.”
“I think one of the things we have learned about recovery is those relationships and those connections really do make a difference,” said Jody Marshall, clinical director at Community Counseling Center of Southern Nevada. “Having those…
Read More: Alcoholics Anonymous meetings go virtual during COVID pandemic