Day 2 of self-isolation and the people have resorted to cannibalism after one inmate ate the last turkey dinosaur.
Ok well it’s not quite that bad…yet.
After reading the latest guidance from the UK government I decided to self-isolate myself for the next week. This is mainly because through my work with a local outreach charity I know a number of high risk people (unfortunately years of alcohol abuse means you have a higher risk of dying from things like this coronavirus). While I feel somewhat fine in myself at the moment I didn’t want to risk transferring it to someone else – and have that on my conscience.
So I am self-isolating. While at the same time trying to maintain my own sobriety. This is going to be a challenge. Particularly since I know how easily I get bored when I’m stuck in the house.
If you are also self-isolating – or if you just need someone to talk to about alcohol abuse and sobriety – then reach out to me. I answer every email I get personally so you know you will always have someone you can reach out to.
Contents
Why boredom is the enemy
Boredom is one of the biggest causes of relapse. When you are just starting out it can be difficult transitioning from a life consumed by drinking to a life with a lot of free time.
All that free time makes it difficult to stay busy and engaged all of the time. Throw in the mix the coronavirus and having to stay at home and you have yourself a perfect recipe for poor decision making, restlessness, loneliness, anger and finally relapse.
So while we are self-isolating it is important we keep in mind that boredom leads to relapse and take steps to mitigate this risk.
Get in the right mindset
Self-isolation isn’t easy. Going sober isn’t easy.
Trying to do both at the same time – isn’t easy.
It’s important that you realize this so that you can properly prepare yourself. Any relapse prevention plans you have made for yourself may need to be re-evaluated.
In previous posts I have talked about how you are allowed to be a little bit selfish when it comes to your sobriety. By that I meant that you should not feel bad about saying ‘No’ to friends and family if what they are asking of you is likely to threaten your sobriety.
Unfortunately that doesn’t really apply in the current situation. If you are in isolation because you are showing signs of having the virus (or if you know you have the virus) then purposely coming into contact with other people for any reason is more than a little bit selfish.
That’s just the way it is I’m afraid. I am in isolation myself and I know that I could really do with getting out the house and sitting in on a meeting. However I know that there are one or two elderly people in local meetings and I would feel awful if my going to the meeting caused them to fall ill.
Telling a friend you can’t drive them to the pub because you are uncomfortable being near pubs at the moment – little bit selfish, but needs to be done
Leaving the house when under self-isolation to sit in an enclosed space with high risk members of the public – more than a little bit selfish, bit of a dick move, don’t do it.
Putting yourself in the right mindset ahead of time will help you down the road. Knowing what is to come will allow you to prepare mentally to get through it.
With that in mind here are some of the things that I have been doing while cooped up.
Get rid of any booze in the house
Fairy typical step when going sober is to get rid of the booze in your house. There will be times when you are tempted to take a drink and the best thing we can do for ourselves is to make it difficult to give into that temptation.
Now that we’re confined to our home for the next week or so we should look to do this again. Since I have been sober for a while now I no longer feel tempted by having alcohol around the house. And since I am not the only person living here there is sometimes alcohol around the house.
Having said that though, this is new territory for me. I do not know how I am going to feel after being stuck here for a week or longer. With that in mind I have spoken with the people I live with and asked for all alcohol to be removed until I am no longer under self-isolation
Asking for there not to be alcohol around the house while you are quarantined – a little bit selfish (allowed)
Be online
Meetings, podcasts, blogs, ebooks. Everything can be done online these days.
A lot of food delivery companies are even doing contactless delivery in response to calls for ‘social distancing’. They come to your house, place the food on your door-step, ring your doorbell and then take off. So you can still get your favorite meals while you are on lock-down.
Sneaky via GIPHY
Many meetings are also looking at switching to online. My local meeting has been called off for at least two weeks. However they have setup a Whatsapp group for all of the members to keep in contact and help where they can.
If you can I suggest you reach out to the co-ordinator of your meeting and suggest they take your meetings online as opposed to outright cancelling them. Better a temporary online group than no group at all.
There are also some support groups that are always online:
/r/stopdrinking – one of my favorite subreddits. They have a 24/7 chat room for visitors to talk through their issues. Check that out here
Intherooms.com – Hosting 15+ video meetings a day Intherooms is a great replacement for live meetings. Just log-in find a meeting for you and join. If you have a webcam/microphone then you will be able to live share, otherwise you can sit back and listen (what I mainly do in meetings anyway).
SoberRecovery Forums – Or if old school forums are more your style the community over at Sober Recovery boasts over 168,000 members. Why not get started in one of their Newcomers threads?
Or if just listening is your thing check out this great post on the best sobriety podcasts
Be productive
You are stuck in the house, may as well make the most of it.
Are there any chores you have been putting off? Maybe now is the time for a big spring clean.
Is there anything you can be learning that will help your future career prospects? Maybe taking an online course to gain some additional professional qualifications would be a productive use of this down time.
Is there a home improvement project you have been thinking about? I’ve been eyeing up the spare room the past couple of days. It definitely could do with the wall paper being re-done. Maybe a couple of shelves being knocked up as well.
Artists rendition via GIPHY
Is there a new skill you have always wanted to learn? Literally anything can be found on youtube these days. As long as you have the time and space to practice why not give it a go. Just imagine how good you will feel leaving isolation with a new skill under your belt, instead of having just killed the time off with netflix. Or worse…drinking.
Keep entertained
There are 24 hours in a day. Assuming you sleep 8 hours a day that leaves 16. That is 16 hours we need to fill from morning through to night.
If you can fill this time with productive activities without going crazy then I tip my cap to you.
For the rest of us mere mortals we will need something to keep us entertained after we grow tired of being productive.
What I have done is pull both TV’s into the one room and have set up my playstation on one and Netflix on the other. Currently I am doing another run through of the latest Spiderman game while watching season 2 of Altered Carbon. Not a bad way to spend your day I tell you!
The number of entertainment services we have available to us these days is truly crazy. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Youtube, Podcasts, Ebooks, Xbox Live, PSN, Steam.
And that’s just online services. Don’t forget about board games, DVDs, books, card games, magazines. With same day shipping you can get whatever you want delivered to your house in next to no time.
Just one or two of the above could be enough to keep you entertained for a week or more.
Be active
Alcohol is a poison. We all know that.
After years of abusing our body it is important that in our sobriety we do all we can to reverse this damage by eating right and by getting exercise.
Self-isolation is absolutely no excuse to start slipping on this. There are plenty of exercises that you can do from your own home.
This is the one that I have been doing the past two days:
This is where the internet is our saving grace once again. Youtube has literally millions of exercise and training videos for you to workout to. The above is just the first one I found and liked the look of. Try it out for yourself. Use the search function to find the exact type of workout program for you.
As an example you could search for:
“Advanced Yoga Workout” – which would bring you to this video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A56qWHCTP6w
“Indoor Dumbbell Workout” – brings you to this fella – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQZJlSAuOTc
“Overweight Cardio Workout” – everyone has to start somewhere – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ploouAfWI
As you can see all you need is an internet connection and a small area to workout in and you can get just as good a workout as you can elsewhere.
If you still miss the outdoors remember that you are self isolating from other people. Not places. So the gym is a no go as there will always be other people there. But is there somewhere you can jog that will have no-one around?
I have been getting up at 4am (time has no meaning when you are in the house 24 hours a day) and going for a run. I have only seen one other person while I have been out and I made sure I took the long way around them.
And finally. Just because you can’t take visitors doesn’t mean you can’t keep in contact with the world at large. Keep in contact with your friends on social media. Get onto face time with your family. Start a whatsapp group with your sponsor and other sober friends.
And keep sober 🙂
IWNDWYT
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