Lockdown prompts surge in Germans seeking help for alcoholism

When the coronavirus lockdown started in Germany, all Marco wanted to do was get drunk. The musician from Berlin, 38, was downing roughly a bottle of gin every night. “I was like, why not, come on! It’s quarantine, let’s party!” But as the days went on, he started to see things differently. “Because of quarantine you’re forced to look at yourself and realize, wait a second, this is not OK. This is actually a problem, this is addiction.” Marco — speaking on condition of anonymity — reached out to a local Alcoholics Anonymous group and made the decision to get sober after 20 years of drinking heavily almost every night