Hope Dealers

If you find yourself on your third cocktail before noon and wondering if you’re drinking too much during the coronavirus quarantine, you’re not alone. Booze, it seems, is the go-to stress reliever during COVID-19. According to The Associated Press [1], “U.S. sales of alcoholic beverages rose 55% in the week ending March 21, according to…

You’d be wise to seek out mental health tips during the coronavirus: It is, after all, an unprecedented global event that is a cause for concern among mental health professionals. “This feels different, and it is,” Roxane Cohen Silver, a professor of psychological science, medicine and public health at the University of California, Irvine, told…

Staying connected in recovery during the coronavirus pandemic may seem futile. After all, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended canceling or postponing events with 50 or more people for the next eight weeks [1]. And while many recovery meetings around the world average less attendees than that, concerns over COVID-19 have led to…

It may seem like the absolute WORST time to get help for alcoholism during coronavirus, but stop, for a minute, to consider just how much humans turn to alcohol in times of stress or crisis. COVID-19 — a.k.a. the coronavirus — is no different. Consider: In early March, a group of New Jersey neighbors “gathered…

In the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, there may not seem to be any reasons why you should seek addiction treatment now. It’s understandable. Everything seems so … surreal at the moment. One moment, life is completely normal, and the next, you’re grocery shopping at 3 a.m. wearing a medical mask and rubber gloves…

One of the hallmarks of Hope Dealers is the reassurance that whatever you’re going through, you’re not alone. In the 12 Step program Narcotics Anonymous, participants often shorten the name to N.A. That initialism has lent itself to a number of creative interpretations over the years, and one of the more popular ones is “Never…

What is a “Hope Dealer?” Glad you asked, because like many things in addiction recovery, the answer is a simple one that belies a vast and lovely ocean of information beneath the surface. What is a Hope Dealer? It’s us. It’s you. It’s anyone in these uncertain times who can share a message of experience,…

Hope in the time of coronavirus can be a hard thing to come by, but consider this: Outside of China, where the COVID-19 pandemic began, no other country has been hit harder than Italy. This week, that nation lost 475 citizens to coronavirus in a single day. Despite a nationwide lockdown that’s been in place…