How the pandemic hurt — and helped — Islanders looking to stay sober

Chris Inman's day of reckoning with his substance abuse came almost exactly one year ago. 

The 26-year-old had been partying with a friend in Stratford, P.E.I., taking cocaine and prescription drugs (sleeping pills and Xanax), washing them down with alcohol. When his parents couldn't reach him the next day, they went to his apartment and found him unconscious, his clothes soaked in urine.

"That is what ended my addiction, was getting to that rock bottom," he said. "Knowing that I put my mother and father in that place." 

Inman had always been a recreational drug and alcohol user. When the pandemic began in March 2020, he said he became more of a "functioning addict" — he still had friends and held down a job. 

"I was using more and more. I was finding difficulties with lockdown, and losing work," Inman said. "Things that kept me in an environment that was healthy, they were kind of lost because of COVID."

He began avoiding people, trying to hide how bad his addictions had become. 

"My life was falling apart ... I was really recognizing that things were bad and I did not see an end to it." 

Inman is far from alone. 

Adrian Smith has been a private counsellor for seven years specializing in mind-body counselling. He's seen a steep increase in the number of people seeking help for substance abuse during the pandemic.

"In particular, the first year of COVID, I was overwhelmed with it. Almost 80 per cent of my new referrals were addiction related," he said. 

Most people had issues with alcohol, others with food addiction, overeating or cannabis abuse, he said. 

Many recovered alcoholics also feared relapsing. 

"People who normally relied on AA [Alcoholics Anonymous] meetings, that was a major issue," Smith said. "There were still AA meetings on Zoom, but it just wasn't the same thing, they weren't getting that sense of community, that sense of connection.

"It was very concerning."