Breann McCulloch and her twin boys Valor and Rebel pose for a portrait in their home, Wednesday, May 13, 2020. McCulloch, who has been sober for five years, says the pandemic is reminiscent of some of her darkest days when she struggled with opiate and heroin addiction.
Monday, May 18, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Many in quarantine follow a similar routine: stay in bed, watch television, binge on junk food, search for new ways to be occupied and, most important, avoid interacting with others.
This reality is damaging for those grappling with addiction, who say that social interaction and staying busy are the only things helping them stay clean.
“We come from lifestyles before where all we did was get high, sit on the couch and watch TV,” said Breann McCulloch, a Southern Nevadan who has been sober for almost five and a half years. “Now you tell us to go back to the very thing that almost killed us.”
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McCulloch says the pandemic is reminiscent of some of her darkest days when she struggled with opiate and heroin addiction. The things that helped her back then — mentorship, community service, eating out and activities involving close person-to-person contact — have been severely limited for the past several weeks.
The opposite of the isolating aspects of addiction isn’t recovery, after all — it’s human connection, she said.
Still, McCulloch said she’s had the benefit of developing coping mechanisms over the past several years. Like much of the rest of the world, she fills her days with online video meetings and tries to stay busy where she can.
She tries to maintain a normalized schedule with her husband and four children: waking up, drinking coffee, meditation, exercise. She also mentors other women like herself who are in recovery, albeit from a distance.
She knows if she doesn’t keep up with these rituals, she’ll fall into that dark familiar place, a place from which she’s worked so hard to stay away.
“I can’t imagine trying to get sober in a time like this,” she said. “There aren’t as many freedoms available right now as I had when I was getting sober.”
Kelly M, who asked that her full name not be used, just hit her 90-day milestone of sobriety on Thursday. She said she’s spent the majority of her recovery journey in quarantine.
She attends video support meetings daily — sometimes three a day — and they’ve helped her immensely. It hasn’t been easy.
“I think last week was my hardest week,” she said. “It was one of those things where it felt like the devil himself was really looking at me in my eyes to tell that the only thing that was going to be here for me was alcohol … It was the most surreal thing ever. I didn’t cave to what my mind wanted to do, but I couldn’t stop it.”
‘Pandemic exacerbates substance use disorders’
Sober living facilities like CrossRoads of Southern Nevada remained open during the statewide shutdown of nonessential business. Still, because of virus concerns, residents were hesitant to leave the safety of their home quarantine for a treatment center, or any medical provider, CEO Dave Marlon said.
CrossRoads, which sits across the street from University Medical Center on Charleston Boulevard, is open 24/7 and admits anyone in need of a medical detox or addiction counseling. Over the preceding weeks, CrossRoads saw a significant uptick in admissions to its 182-bed facility, although numbers are still down, Marlon said.
CrossRoads founder Jeff Iverson said he’s seen a few of his clients relapse since the beginning of the shutdown order.
“It’s unfortunate but we don’t shoot our wounded,” said Iverson, who remembered how it felt when he was struggling with his meth addiction more than a decade ago. “We welcome them back with open arms and we never give up on our fellows.”
Marlon said the increased consumption of alcohol is a contributing factor in the relapse cases. By the end of March, sales of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. spiked 55%, according to market research firm Nielsen.
“With people out of work, I think they’ve been drinking more,” Marlon said. “I saw big lines at the dispensaries like I’ve never seen before. I think people with more time on their hands, if they had a substance abuse (problem) and they were keeping it at bay by having to work a lot, this pandemic exacerbates both mental health and substance use disorders.”
Liquor sales remained an option in most states during shutdown orders. As perplexing as it may be to some to keep alcohol deliveries and sales available, Marlon said keeping this avenue open actually helps those with acute alcoholism avoid severe withdrawal symptoms.
“If we did stop all access, it would have potentially made the problems more acute for some of those people,” he said. “Sadly, for the chronic alcoholics, if they stop without having treatment, up to a third of them could have seizures. So it is something that needs to be addressed medically and clinically.”
Addiction treatment while social distancing
Marlon isn’t certain when it will be safe to conduct in-person support group meetings at the facility because those are face-to-face. Instead, CrossRoads has enhanced its staff and technology to serve those battling addiction remotely.
While trained in telemedicine prior to the pandemic, Marlon said he only saw it as something that should be used for those who were incarcerated, or in rural parts of the state. Now he’s starting to fully embrace this method of mental health care.
“I have a Sunday evening group session with peers,” said Marlon, who is also in recovery. “We talk now regularly and I’m expecting to continue this. To me, instead of having to drive to a meeting, doing this from a laptop is something that will last post-pandemic.”
While a helpful tool, McCulloch said telemedicine is limiting, especially for women or mothers who may not be able to receive adequate treatment while at home with their children all day.
“A lot of women I work with get to bubbling breaking points where they need an outlet,” she said. “They need to be with other women. They need to be with other adults. They need a break.”
For some in recovery, self-care is leaving the house, even if for an hourlong support group meeting, she added.
While there have been a few ups and downs over the past few weeks, McCulloch said she remains strong by telling herself the current conditions are only temporary.
“Hopelessness on any level — pandemic or not — feels permanent,” she said. “But it’s not. Pretty soon, we will be able to meet again and spend time together.”
