Why COVID caused serious drinking problems for so many people

Around half of the people who reach out to me for online sobriety support report their drinking problem really took off during COVID – and it didn't go away.

Summary

If your drinking quietly escalated during the covid lockdowns and refused to scale back down, you are far from alone. Developing problematic pandemic drinking habits was not a failure of willpower or personal ethics, it was a neurobiological adaptation to chronic stress, isolated environments and a total loss of daily structure. Over time, your brain physically rewrote its software to cope, leaving your nervous system hyper-stimulated whenever you try to white-knuckle it alone. Breaking this cycles requires moving past shame, understanding the science of neuroadaptation and utilising structured lifestyle medicine levers ,rather than exhausting, futile attempts at moderation.

"It started as a definitive off-unit switch," a client recently told me during a sober coaching session. She was reflecting on the exact moment her relationship with alcohol shifted. "During the lockdowns, my 5pm wine became 4pm wine. Then 3pm."

She was working from home via Zoom, trying to manage a demanding corporate career while simultaneously acting as a surrogate teacher to unmotivated, disregulated teenagers. The house was never tidy because everyone was always home, messing it up and not helping around the place. Stripped of her usual social outlets and missing her friends, she turned to a wine to cope with stress. It became a closer companion, helping her navigate the severe anxiety of a time of great uncertainty.

It worked well for a few months. Until it didn't. Her anxiety started to skyrocket, she'd put on weight, she was struggling with relationships and she had low energy. She began to feel hopeless about everything.

When the world reopened and life went back to 'normal', her drinking habits refused to scale back. What had once been a well-controlled, weekend-only or couple-of-glasses routine had quietly crossed an invisible line into an automated addiction. No matter what she did, she could not reduce how she wanted to, and she couldn't seem to stop on her own.

If this story sounds familiar, you are far from alone. Around half of the people who reach out to me for online sobriety support report the exact same COVID drinking problem. There is a sense of shame surrounding this but when we look at research, the reality is millions of people were caught in a perfect storm of environmental pressure and neurobiology and ended up with a stonking alcohol problem.

COVID drinking problems: the pandemic as an alcohol incubator

During lockdowns, the structural boundaries that naturally governed our drinking, like morning commutes, physical workplaces, and public accountability, completely evaporated.

Developing problematic pandemic drinking habits was not a failure of personal ethics; it was a predictable response to an unprecedented crisis.

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine tracked these exact behaviours. The researchers discovered that the sharp increases in both overall alcohol use and heavy drinking that spiked in 2020 did not just disappear when lockdowns ended – the elevated numbers actually persisted all the way through 2022 and beyond.

Other studies also show that the people hit hardest by this trend were females, individuals with children at home, and those experiencing deteriorating mental health or isolation.

During lockdowns, the structural boundaries that naturally governed our drinking, like morning commutes, physical workplaces and public accountability evaporated. 'Wine mum' culture problems spiked as society actively encouraged the escalation, normalising day-drinking as a survival mechanism for remote schooling. But while the cultural narrative treated it as a temporary safety valve, the human brain was rewriting its software.

Why willpower fails when your brain has changed

People often ask me why they could moderate easily back in 2019, but cannot seem to go back to the way they used to drink now. They wonder, "How did my drinking get this bad?"

The answer lies in neuroadaptation, which is the way the brain changes its physical structure to adapt to a repeated substance. Alcohol acts as a central nervous system depressant. It artificially boosts GABA, which is the brain's primary calming chemical, and suppresses glutamate, which is the chemical responsible for energy and alertness.

When a working from home drinking habit becomes a nightly occurrence to cope with chronic pandemic stress, the brain fights back to keep you conscious and functioning. To counteract the constant influx of a depressant, the brain turns down its natural GABA production and cranks up its glutamate production.

Once this structural shift occurs, your baseline changes. When you attempt to use sheer willpower to cut back or stop, your alcohol-adapted brain is suddenly left in a state of hyper-excitability. This manifests as profound, panic-level anxiety, restlessness, heart palpitations and insomnia.

At this point, you are no longer drinking for pleasure or connection. You are drinking simply to force an altered, over-stimulated nervous system back to a temporary state of comfort. Willpower is a cognitive function of the prefrontal cortex but chronic alcohol exposure actively degrades the neural circuits responsible for impulse control. Expecting a chemically depleted brain to 'willpower' its way out of an addiction it adapted to survive is biologically unrealistic. This is exactly why you cannot just stop on your own.

The danger of the stop-start cycle: the kindling effect

Think of it like adding dry kindling to a fire: each time the nervous system goes through the shock of intoxication and sudden deprivation, the subsequent withdrawal response burns hotter and more severe.

Many individuals who developed problematic pandemic habits find themselves trapped in an frustrating cycle of binging, white-knuckling a few days of sobriety, and then relapsing. This pattern introduces a neurological risk known as the kindling effect.

Research shows that repeated cycles of flooding the brain with alcohol followed by sudden, abrupt withdrawals progressively sensitise the brain's neural circuits. Think of it like adding dry kindling to a fire: each time the nervous system goes through the shock of intoxication and sudden deprivation, the subsequent withdrawal response burns hotter and more severe.

Over time, the neurological fallout compounds. What used to be a mild hangover transitions into severe, panic-inducing anxiety, physical tremors, or deep depressive episodes during days of abstinence. The kindling effect permanently changes the stakes, raising the physical and psychological barrier to sobriety higher with every single attempt to quit and restart on your own. This is why trying to moderate back to pre-pandemic levels repeatedly fails and causes escalating distress.

Moving forward without shame

If your drinking expanded to fill the void of the pandemic and has refused to shrink back down, know that your brain did exactly what it was wired to do to survive an extraordinary psychological environment.

The habits that migrated into the automated, deeper structures of your brain during that stressful period cannot be undone by resolutions, guilt or self-reproach. Because the underlying neural pathways have fundamentally changed, a clean break, rather than a futile, exhausting attempt at moderation, is almost always required to allow the brain's natural neuroplasticity to heal.

Recovery from alcohol addiction is not about finding the willpower you think you lost. It is about safely interrupting the physiological cycle, allowing your central nervous system to recalibrate and building a structured pathway back to yourself. You navigated a global crisis the best way you knew how at the time. If you are ready to make a change, a sober coach can help you build the practical, action-oriented plan you need to break the loop for good.

If you’d like to explore this in a supportive, judgement-free space, you’re welcome to book a free clarity call with me here.

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Frequently asked questions about how COVID caused drinking problems in people

Why did my drinking habits change so permanently during the pandemic?

During the lockdowns, many of the everyday structural boundaries that regulated our drinking, such as the evening commute or physical office spaces, completely disappeared. For remote professionals and parents juggling homeschooling, alcohol became an easy, socially encouraged off-switch to handle chronic isolation and stress. Over months of regular use, these repeated behaviours created deep, automated habit loops in the brain that remained locked in place even after daily life returned to normal.

Why can I not stop drinking on my own using willpower?

When you drink heavily and consistently, your brain undergoes physical neuroadaptation to survive the constant influx of a depressant. It reduces its own calming chemicals (GABA) and ramps up its excitatory chemicals (glutamate). When you try to stop using sheer willpower, this biochemical imbalance leaves your nervous system in a state of hyper-excitability, causing severe anxiety, insomnia, and cravings. Because chronic alcohol use also compromises the prefrontal cortex circuits responsible for impulse control, white-knuckling your way out is a biological mismatch.

How does working with a sober coach help compared to doing it alone?

Unlike traditional therapy which often focuses heavily on exploring past issues, working with a certified sober coach is an action-oriented, forward-focused partnership. We work one-on-one over practical sessions to actively interrupt the immediate physiological triggers, manage physical cravings, and build new, neuro-inclusive habits that protect your everyday professional and personal lifestyle. Having that private, expert accountability ensures you do not have to navigate the complex phase of early nervous system recalibration on your own.

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References

Ayyala-Somayajula, D., Dodge, J. L., Leventhal, A. M., Terrault, N. A., & Lee, B. P. (2025). Trends in alcohol use after the COVID-19 pandemic: a national cross-sectional study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 178(1), 139-142. https://doi.org/10.7326/annals-24-02157

Becker, H. C. (1999). Alcohol withdrawal: neuroadaptation and sensitization. CNS Spectrums, 4(4), 38-65. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1092852900011202

Becker, H. C., & Mulholland, P. J. (2014). Neurochemical mechanisms of alcohol withdrawal. Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 125, 133-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-62619-6.00009-4

De Witte, P., Pinto, E., Ansseau, M., & Verbanck, P. (2003). Alcohol and withdrawal: from animal research to clinical issues. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 27(3), 189-197. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-7634(03)00030-7

Kalivas, P. W. (2009). The glutamate homeostasis hypothesis of addiction. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(8), 561-572. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2515

Merlo, A., Hendriksen, P. A., Severeijns, N. R., Garssen, J., Bruce, G., & Verster, J. C. (2025). Alcohol consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic: a critical review. Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental, 40(2), e70004. https://doi.org/10.1002/hup.70004