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By Gina Christian • Posted December 22, 2020
A Christmas season amid COVID can make recovery from addiction even more challenging – but not impossible, said local experts.
For those wrestling with substance abuse, memories of “past holidays have always included a drug of choice, alcohol or compulsive eating, and that has become an integral part of the holiday,” said permanent Deacon Dan Giblin, a certified recovery specialist and full-time spiritual advisor at the St. John Vianney Center.
Located in Downingtown, the facility provides behavioral counseling and addictive disease treatment for clergy and religious nationwide.
Even absent a pandemic, the holidays tend to enhance an individual’s mood of the moment, said Deacon Giblin, citing an observation made by his pastor, Father John Newns of St. Ann Parish in Phoenixville.