The My name is Kathleen Parker and I have nine years of sobriety as of September 8th of this year.

So today we'll be talking about addiction and alcoholism and getting help and working through it during this pandemic.

What can you tell me about what it's been like working a program

during the pandemic? Yeah it was really weird because when it all happened for me is when you know I live in Nashville as of right now I'm trying to make my way back to Alaska my roots of course but in the midst of the pandemic there was a tornado that also came through Nashville which I was living in the area that got hit so there was that and then the pandemic and you know it's been really

difficult at times with emotions being up and down and trying to find

trying to find a routine around meetings and also you know AA has kind of gone on to Zoom you know so I have

had to really try to understand and get used to going to meetings on Zoom, which is really weird, but it's been working, you know?

What do you think has been the most difficult part about doing virtual meetings?

The lack of connection, it's so hard. It's, it feels like there's a veil in between me and this group that's happening and it's, I don't know,

it's, I will say that a lot of people I know and myself I I really miss going to the places that I usually go you know having our coffee together and meeting up and all of that and but I will

definitely say it's it's just been harder not to see people in person for

meetings I know that there are some meetings that are opening back up in person for meetings.

I know that there are some meetings

that are opening back up here and there,

which I have gotten to go to,

which has been really nice,

but again, there was social distancing that was taking place and then you know the next week this was when I was in Nashville

we hear that somebody in that group had COVID and then we decided to not have the meeting anymore. So there's just a lot of

things that keep changing throughout this whole time and just to try to stay safe and have that

distance between people is like so important right now. But I still do go to

meetings throughout the week on Zoom and it's been really helpful because at the end of the day like we are seeing each other, we are connecting and it's been a's been a godsend really thank God for Zoom.

So you mentioned the physical meetings, the in-person meetings during the pandemic that you've been to, what did those look like?

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