Grit and Grace: Overcoming COVID-19 with Angie and DallasGrit and Grace: Overcoming COVID-19 with Angie and Dallas
The Elevate Experience
Angie and Dallas share how catching COVID-19 reminded them of withdrawal, stirred up old insecurities and tested their recovery skills. They talk about grace, dry January, grief and gratitude, and how to stay sober and kind to yourself through illness and tough seasons.
46:18•1 Feb 2022
Grit, Grace and COVID: Angie and Dallas Talk Illness, Triggers and Staying Sober
Episode Overview
- Illness like COVID-19 can feel very similar to withdrawal, triggering old thoughts and memories even after years of sobriety.
- Being sick in recovery is often more of a mental battle than a physical one, especially with isolation and disrupted routines.
- Grace and patience with yourself are crucial when your usual coping tools (like exercise and productivity) are temporarily unavailable.
- Short-term goals such as dry January can open the door to questioning alcohol’s place in your life and considering longer-term change.
- Gratitude for health, connection and the chance to live sober can help put setbacks and difficult seasons into perspective.
“"How do you restart with grace?"”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey when life throws in a curveball like COVID-19? This chat between Angie Manson and Dallas Terrell from Elevate Addiction Services takes you right into that messy mix of illness, recovery, and real life. Both caught COVID at the start of 2022, and they compare the symptoms to the worst parts of their former addictions.
Dallas jokes that his flu-like aches and restless legs felt "like I was freaking up at Elevate in the detox cabin," even catching his mind drifting to old solutions like heroin or Suboxone despite nearly eight years sober. Angie, on the other hand, talks about dizziness, memory lapses and a strange detachment she likens to being awake for days on meth: present, but not really there.
They talk honestly about how triggering being sick can be for people in recovery: the isolation, the brain fog, the boredom, and the way old insecurities sneak back in. Angie shares how being stuck in bed poked at old fears of becoming "that fat, lazy person" again, while Dallas reflects on losing his usual sharpness and drive.
Both keep circling back to the same message: grace, patience, and using recovery tools still matter when the problem isn’t drugs, but a virus. The conversation moves into parallels with relapse, the pressure of New Year’s resolutions, and how dry January can be a starting point for longer-term change. They also pause to honour a former colleague who died from cancer in sobriety, highlighting the importance of gratitude for health and time.
If you’ve ever felt rattled by being sick in sobriety, or worried that old thoughts mean you’re slipping, this honest, slightly scruffy conversation might be exactly the reminder you need to give yourself some grace and keep going. How might you treat yourself differently the next time life forces you to slow down?
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