1. Start slowly. Have a glass of wine with friends, and eventually another one.
Don’t think about it twice.
2. Tell yourself it’s been such a long time (you had fun) – you deserve it.
3. Convince yourself you can def handle another one after that other one. Only tonight.
3. Repeat the same activity twice or three times a week, for a week or two.
4. Wonder what is off. Lose your balance.
5. Start the day with a headache and slowly detach from everything you have built for yourself in order to stay sober.
6. Stop working out, or reading your books at night. Become restless.
7. Go to a party or beergarden, drink a little more / take a pill / do a line.
8. Go to a party with people you don’t feel entirely comfortable around, drink half a bottle of wine, forget you can’t have hard liquor, drink all the shots you’ve been offered in order to appeal polite and black out at 3 am
9. Embarrass and vomit the shit out of yourself / run away / call your ex / dealer
10. Wake up at your friends couch, still wearing your contact lenses (and hopefully, your underwear) / wake up in your flatmates bed, not knowing where you’ve left your bag / Wake up next to a stranger you’ve apparently been flirting with after the lockdown ended because you felt like you’ve had “a lot to catch up”
11. Remember you can’t have “another one” / take a pill / do a line.
12. Remember that relapse is part of recovery and that you are not less of a person because you couldn’t handle the social pressure when Ausgangsbeschränkungen ended.
The end of Ausgangsbeschränkungen and Lockdowns can be especially challenging for (socially awkward) addicts.
Send this to a person you know who’s struggeling right now.
Tell them you love them, and it’s not their fault.
Addiction sucks.
