The jokes around stocking our bar carts and drinking wine with lunch are hitting a little too close to home these days. When the world shut down in spring of 2020, there really was nothing to do except have a glass of wine, binge Tiger King, and hope for better days ahead. Call it anti-social drinking. And it’s the driving factor behind record levels of patients seeking treatment.
“Of all the drugs, alcohol is the most accessible, affordable, and socially acceptable, and it is part of the story for 90 percent of the patients we see,” says Jeremiah Gardner, director of communications and public affairs of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
Before the pandemic, alcohol use was already on the rise. Isolation, working from home, increased online ordering, and general uncertainty created a perfect storm, especially for people already at risk.
Working outside the home can be a built-in deterrent to alcohol use, according to Gardner. “It may be the one place 40 hours a week where you are not drinking,” he says. “With that protective factor gone, people who were maybe struggling already or at risk started to drink more. We heard that time and again.”
Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge has seen the same storyline in its post-pandemic patients. “There were many avenues created for online liquor sales, delivered right to your door, all of which you can do surreptitiously,” says Tim Walsh, MNATC’s senior vice president of mental health and long-term recovery.
Everyone put things—ahem, health care—on the back burner during the pandemic. “Because of that, folks were a lot sicker when we saw them—they had waited until their drinking had progressed so far, they had no other options,” Gardner says.
But with pandemic conditions improving, people are finally seeking help. “In March 2022, across our national system, Hazelden Betty Ford welcomed more people into residential care than in any other month in our 73-year history, and we saw similarly historic numbers in April and May,” Gardner told us in June.
“For many people who struggle with alcohol use, work outside the home is a protective factor. It may be the one place 40 hours a week where you are not drinking.” —Jeremiah Gardner, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation
Things We Drink About
The normalization of drinking in our culture remains problematic. Alcohol is part of everything we do. Sports game? Beer. Brunch? Mimosas. Movie and popcorn? Wine goes well with that. Happy hours are everywhere, every day. There’s even alcohol-free beer, wine, and spirits, to give the illusion you’re drinking when you’re not. It feels like alcohol is a food group—a daily staple of a balanced diet.
“Studies show that one in eight adults in the United States meet the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder based on binge drinking or episodical alcohol use,” Walsh says. “We have an epidemic of alcohol users.”
The team at Hazelden is working hard to bust the myth that you need to hit ‘rock bottom’ to seek help. “That’s absolutely not true,” Gardner says. “You don’t need to get arrested, get fired, or lose your family before making the healthy decision to change your relationship with alcohol and other drugs.”
The Next Round
Looking forward, Gardner is most worried about youth—a vulnerable population that’s been the focus of mental health conversations over the past few years. “The pandemic took a heavy toll on youth mental health,” he says. But by most reports, overall drinking among youth actually declined during the pandemic, for some because of restricted access and lower peer pressure.
“So now, we have a young population that is struggling with mental health and getting back to their social circles and gaining access once again to substances that may help them temporarily escape the depression, anxiety, and other things they’re dealing with,” Gardner says.