The Virus

[gin]

Its the exact opposite for me, as a young person who went quite a lot before COVID it ended up with me being in a pretty dark place on terms of substance and alcohol abuse. The lockdown gave me an opportunity to clean myself up, I've slowed down on drinking quite heavily and have basically been drug free since August last year. Got a job and moved out of my parents house to live independently.

Of course I'm looking forward to going out again, but ultimately this lockdown ending will lead to mentally ill people not dealing with their situation in a good way in my opinion.

The lockdown has just effected me better than it did to most people I guess.

I use this opportunity to drink and enjoy things that I haven't considered before. I'm happy to see that you used this to get away from really dark things like drugs and high alcohol abuse. However, the lockdown made me do things I never did before. Before, I used to go out with friends and appreciate other things (sports together, meet new friends, watch cool new movies in the cinema and so on). I also started smoking, which I regret ever doing and never considered or even thought about doing pre-lockdown. Life of many people changed and made it become harder.

Yeah, stress (aka lockdown in this case) is a classic trigger of unhealthy coping mechanisms like high alcohol consumption, smoking, gambling, sex addiction, etc. It's the rat in a cage vs rat park experiment, just for humans. I find that these "signs" are easy ways to become aware of when you're being externally stressed, and thus it can be useful as a gauge. Thankfully for most people the craving for these things cease once the stress is alleviated.