The coronavirus pandemic is tough for recovering addicts

With lockdown causing havoc at 12-step meetings, Charlotte Cripps looks back at the early days of her recovery when it was all about hugs not drugs

Illustration by Amara May

With everything under lockdown – including 12-step meetings – it’s not easy for recovering addicts. Especially for those struggling to get a few days clean and sober. It’s meant to be all about hugs not drugs – but that has fallen by the wayside. Now it’s all on zoom, which is not ideal as I found out last weekend when we were photo-bombed by outrageous porn.

Then there are the small private meetings. I’d been invited to one called LA/London/Prague – only because I have an A-list sponsor. But all the members are rich and famous. These recovering addicts are sitting in their gated communities looking bedraggled, a bit like Tom Hanks at the end of Castaway, and they are only in week four. They are worrying about what’s happening with their £3m paycheck: there is no contingency fund for celebrities. They may have to slum it for a while and face the reality of doing their own housework.

In NA these sorts of issues are called “high-class problems” when compared with somebody shaking in the corner who can’t get clean. Nevertheless, recovery is “a bridge to normal life” – whatever your normal is.