GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Dealing with addiction during coronavirus has a recovery group moving in-person meetings online.

“As alcoholics and addicts, we joke about it, but it’s absolutely true that we would crawl through broken glass in the middle of a tornado to get to the liquor store, so there’s really no reason that we don’t get to our meetings,” Leonard Misner said.

As a recovering alcoholic, Misner is one of the many loyal members at Alano Club of Kent County.

Alano Club of Kent County is one of the largest recovery communities in West Michigan and held dozens of daily recovery meetings, until recently when the club temporarily closed out of concerns of the coronavirus.

Recovering communities across the nation are facing this same reality.

A meeting room at Alano Club of Kent County. (March 18, 2020)

“It’s not necessarily that we as a recovery community want to shut them down,” Sarah Frank, a recovery coach in West Michigan, said. “It’s the places that we hold them are shutting down and its respectable, people are getting sick.”

Misner said fighting one battle could bring back another, as too much space can threaten hard-earned sobriety.

“One of the worst things people in recovery can do is isolate,” Misner said. “A lot of us like to isolate. We like to be alone, that way we can tell ourselves what we should and shouldn’t do.”

Which is why recovery groups are finding a new way to connect, moving meetings online.

“It’s uncharted territory,” Alano Club of Kent County board member Brent Doornbos said. “So, the first thing we thought of was can we do online? And that’s how this thing evolved.”

Doornbos said just a few days in to this new normal of online meetings, members are grateful and relieved for the on-screen support system.

“As soon as people’s pictures started popping up, you realized even in that short time (apart) we all missed each other,” Misner said. “We truly are a fully-connected family.”

A connection so strong that some West Michigan recovery groups are reluctant to go remote.

“There are some people who are still willing to go meet in the parking lots and sit in their own chairs, five or six feet away from one another,” Frank said. “So, there’s no physical interaction, but you’re still sitting with people who understand what you’re going through.”

More information about online meetings can be found on Alano Club of Kent County’s website.

If you need to talk to someone immediately, you can call the 24-hour hotline at 616.913.9149.