Our relationship with drink and drugs is changing during the Covid-19 pandemic – for better or worse.
“What better time to take drugs than a hot April night at home, with the whole weekend stretching out ahead and not an inkling of pressing demands in sight,” says Jennifer*, 28, an occupational therapist from north London who has been taking psychedelics from self-isolation and having video calls with her friends.
“Acid plugs you into the beauty and hilarity of the world, and also enables you to explore big and scary notions, as does MDMA in a similar but softer way,” says Paula. “There’s this sense of heightened and intensified reality anyway, so being in altered states sort of aligns you with that.” Unlike Jennifer, the couple haven’t been using Zoom to connect with friends. “Zoom calls are totally overstimulating in the way that drugs are if you overdo it.
Jonathan*, 17, a student who lives with his parents, tells HuffPost UK he has been experimenting withhe wouldn’t usually try outside lockdown, but that his use has decreased as he can’t get to pubs and clubs. “In lockdown you can’t just walk round your house high if your family members don’t support drug use.
For a lot of people who haven’t seen their mates for a while, there’s enough to talk about and a desire to know what’s going on, without needing to take a bunch of coke,” he says “A very large percentage of people have more complicated relationships to drugs, using drugs because of unmanageable emotions, born of past trauma. That torment is louder and more persecutory when they are alone or isolated. They can experience an earnest compulsion to find distraction from those things.”
Many people will manage their drug intake sensibly, of course. But a spike in individuals contacting drug and alcohol charities is cause of concern.
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