Why you might be drinking too much during Coronavirus lockdown

Adult libations retail sales are up.  Way up.

– News covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added  

Are you down and out?
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Why you might be drinking too much during Coronavirus lockdown.

Condensed from a BBC article

Confined to our homes with little else to do during the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown, it is tempting to turn to the bottle for entertainment or at least a break from it all.

Unfortunately, rather than making us feel better, turning to a bottle may be doing us harm.

One of the Quincy Quarry News crew having a brew
A Quincy Quarry staff member headshot

From Quincy Quarry’s media brethren across the pond, the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation comes a comprehensive presentation that many of us are drinking more, if not a lot more, during the Coronavirus pandemic and a number of reasons why this might not be a good idea.

Not that the hard-drinking crew at Quincy Quarry are going take heed of the BBC’s admonitions if for no other reasons that they probably could not drink any more than before COVID-19 broke out of Wuhan China.

The world has been plunged into a vortex of uncertainty with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With governments urging people to stay at home to help control the spread of the disease and the prospect of varying levels of “lockdown” for months to come, most of us are searching for ways to help us cope with this “new normal”.

W.C. Fields on day drinking during the work day
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Behind the joking and humor about day drinking and quarantinis, we are in a period of collective anxiety, with little idea of when it might end.

Around the world people are being stricken by COVID-19 and many are dying.

Healthcare services and other front line workers are under enormous pressure and many of us are separated from our loved ones. 

Also, many of us are, working in isolation at home,working at home while home-schooling children, living alone, losing someone you love or your job and maybe even both.

Is it any wonder that many of us are turning to the bottle?

But the relief is transient.

Taking a break at the end of another tough day
A Mira Luna vineyards image

In fact, says Michael Farrell, Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, instead of reducing their anxiety over the medium term, alcohol actually makes the anxiety worse.

That and excessive drinking poses all manner of other health problems.

Fueling things is how one’s usual weekly schedule is completely upended.

But ossifer, I only had one drink
A file photo

In turn, such gives rises to the sentiment that It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere rather than Waiting for the Weekend.

Plus, notes Annie Grace, author of This Naked Mind:Control Alcohol, “if all our friends are posting about their ‘quarantinis’ and their Zoom happy hours, it’s very easy for us to justify drinking even when it isn’t serving us.”

“Social media has a lot to answer for in this context,” Grace adds. “it is the perfect example of what’s called confirmation bias, which means we look for evidence around us to validate that what we are doing is normal.”

Virtual cocktailing
Conjoined images from the BBC

In turn, Quincy Quarry is always at the ready to blame social media and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in particular for many of today’s societal ills.

Additionally, the health dangers of excessive drinking as regards COVID-19 are well-known.

Further, recent research from researchers in Italy suggests that even but moderate drinking may increase the risk of being infected with Covid-19 as well as can aggravate the infection.

Given concerns over the way people are turning to alcohol during the pandemic – including inaccurate claims circulating that booze can protect you from COVIC-19 – has led the World Health Organization to issue a two-page statement encouraging at least temporary temperance. on the topic.

Stuffed with clowns and heading to a social distancing protest
a dippedmoon42.blogspot.com image

And then there is the problem of mixing alcohol with problematic interpersonal situations while stuck in confined spaces.

Additionally, there are concerns that COVID-19 pandemic-fueled changes in drinking behavior could have dire implications upon drinking habits after the pandemic moderates and then might even be squelched given the development of effective vaccines.

Further, for those who are are in recovery or already struggling with alcohol dependency, quarantine-fueled temptation will surely prove to be considerable.

The good news is that there is still help available for those who want it.

For but one example, Alcoholics Anonymous has rolled out online meetings.

The bad news.  Says Farrell, “it takes something like 15+ years from the time a person develops a significant alcohol problem to seek help.”

Source: Why you might be drinking too much during lockdown

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