A Short Guide to Surviving the Stay-at-Home Order
Licensed Master of Social Work Aly Richardson works at the Marion County Jail and also works in private practice focusing on addictions and eating disorders. Richardson and Attorney Marc Lopez recently had the chance to speak about the mental health toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Marc Lopez
One of the things I want to ask you about—especially with your background with addiction issues and mental health and substance abuse—people who have been told, Okay, stay at home—how disruptive is that to them and their treatment? And then if they do have issues and they’re in recovery . . . With such a drastic change to their normal routine—how does that affect people?
Aly Richardson
Drastically, for sure—especially those who are involved in a 12-step program and used to clinging onto going to meetings, attending those things, being in community with people and now having those—of course those are all shut down now, as far as face-to-face meetings. The opposite of addiction is connection—not isolating and being by yourself and hiding. Now we’re being told to isolate and stay by ourselves, so it’s kind of counterintuitive to a lot of people’s recovery.
The good news is that all of the 12-step meetings have moved online now. So you can do phone meetings, you can do virtual meetings—things like that. The isolation is definitely going to be people’s biggest pitfall.
Marc Lopez
It’s just got to be so hard, especially if you were—I do mostly drunk driving, and people have alcohol issues—some of them do, not all of my clients. You see people doing so well, and then I just can’t even imagine such a disruption. It’s got to be catastrophic.
Aly Richardson
Mm-hmm.
Marc Lopez
Now, you’re talking about some of the options, like virtual meetings. One of the things that Governor Holcomb did in Indiana—he did say healthcare is essential. That includes mental health and whatnot. Even though they’re saying, Hey, you can come—who wants to travel in this climate? Who wants to take the chance of getting sick? Tell me some more about things that you’ve incorporated in your private practice to continue treating people.
Aly Richardson
As far as with my private practice, we offer TeleHealth services. So even though our office is closed, and we can’t do face-to-face, we are doing TeleHealth, which has basically become what me and you are doing—only on a more HIPAA-compliant platform. So far, it’s been going really well for people. It’s helped add to the schedule—staying in routine, staying in connection. And then, of course, we’d work on, What are some coping skills that we can do? Really coming up with a game plan, so to speak.
Marc Lopez
People that are struggling with addiction—overcoming addiction—what are some things they can do to help them stay on this good path?
Aly Richardson
Well, the first thing I say is be flexible. I think a lot of times, we stick in this rigid, This is my plan, and blah-blah-blah—but there is no game plan, so to speak, for a pandemic. Nobody knows what to do right now. So being flexible—Okay, my meeting might not be in person. Or, I might not go to the same church. Or, My therapist is online now, this is weird. Be flexible with what that’s going to look like.
The other point I say is stay connected. Now is the best time ever to have a pandemic, because we have so many platforms that it’s hard to be like, Well, you know, there’s no one to talk to. That’s not true. We have social media. We have video. There’s FaceTime. SnapChat even has video. Facebook. All those things. There’s plenty of ways to stay connected to people.
The other thing I’d say, though, is get off the devices. What I mean by that is—let’s not panic scroll. How many times a night are we sitting there, and we’re panic scrolling through the news or through Facebook, getting freaked out on our phones? Limiting that time—instead of staying caught up in, Oh, my gosh! It’s the end of the world! We’re all going to die! Because that’s not going to help.
Another thing is do stick to a schedule as much as you can. If you normally get up at 8:00 a.m. and eat oatmeal, get up at 8:00 a.m. and eat oatmeal, and then go about your day the best that you can. Of course, again, going back to tip one—there’s going to be some flexibility in there. Like, Oh, my kid needs me to help with their school versus me going and watching my YouTube video. You’re going to have to be flexible in that.
And the last thing I would say is really work on being mindful. What is going on in your mind, but also with your feelings. It’s normal to feel scared, overwhelmed, and confused, even. Be mindful of how you’re feeling, because that’s going to be a really big help, especially when you struggle with substance use. To be able to be like, I’m getting that red flag. I’m getting triggered. I’m feeling those emotions come up that typically lead to me drinking. I feel isolated and alone. I feel stressed. Okay, those are the top big three things that lead me to going and getting that drink.
Marc Lopez
Just listening to you talk, I feel like I’m learning some skills, and it’s really cool, because this is such a—an Indiana Supreme Court Justice said he refuses to call this the new normal. He’s referring to it as a temporary abnormal.
Aly Richardson, MSW, LSW can be reached at 317-474-6448, x108 or at aly@groffandassociates.com.
