Luckily my brother passed before the pandemic, in 2019. When we talked on the phone, he would talk about how much the arbitrary insanity of the modern world bothered him, things like Trump and school shootings and medical insurance and global warming. I've wondered whether the pandemic would have put him right over the edge. I'm grateful he missed it.

Of course, those reading this were not spared. When 2020 hit and all of us were force-fed isolation, there were many news stories about the increase in isolation and resulting which as expected made things worse. The data and studies of pandemic-era substance use are just now starting to come in, and the numbers are startling.

Deaths involving alcohol (from alcohol alone or alcohol mixed with other drugs) jumped 25.5% from 2019 to 2020, and drug overdoses (excluding alcohol) increased 30% that year. Devastating numbers.

https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/news-events/research-update/deaths-involving-alcohol-increased-during-covid-19-pandemic#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20deaths%20involving,(from%206%2C302%20to%2010%2C032)

Older Americans are not exempt. Alcohol-induced death rates in the 65-and-older population tripled between 2000 and 2019, and rose another 18% from 2019 to 2020.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2022/20221130.htm

The data differentials pre-pandemic vs. during the pandemic substantiate the worst fears put forward in the media while we were all stuck at home, that isolation would accellerate deaths from substance mis-use, a huge accelleration on top of a high rate of case growth since 2000. Only time will tell whether numbers will go back to previous levels.

What I take from the pandemic outcomes are two things:

• one, that reversing isolation is an area we need to focus on to stem the tide of these deaths and addictions, and,

• two, that if you see isolation existing and/or growing in someone you care about who is using, take that as a serious warning sign indeed, and take action to reverse the trend. Right away.