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Writer's pictureEvangelia Vensel

Coping during dark times.

At the onset of this plandemic, I noticed myself being pulled back into a fearful mindset behavior. The negativity that all this false fear is being put on us and our energy fields is so heavy. While I don’t want to drink or get high, I do want to numb out in some way — and I felt I could easily slip right back into old controlling patterns. But I thank God every day for energy work and prayer! Mindset is everything and our subconscious beliefs matter.

If I was feeling this way with 14 years of recovery behind me, I could only imagine how hard it is right now for other addicts during this time.

The plandemic took our sense of safety, security and control away from us. And when we feel out of control, we act out with addictive patterns. Each time we’re triggered, we turn to these patterns as a way to numb the feelings we don’t want to face. But only if you don’t have healtheir, safer, alternatives which I am grateful have!


This plandemic has been and continues to be a traumatic event for everyone, yet each person is going to have a different response to the same experience. If an individual already has underlying issues such as substance abuse or mental health issues, they’re probably already coming into it with some underlying trauma. We can thank the deep state and our corrupted system for that.

Even though some people have been able to work from our homes like me and my husband, we know to be mindful and breathe through this unprecedented experience. We’re using most of the techniques we hear about so frequently on the news: Breathwork, meditation, praying, going outside for fresh air and short walks, exercise, connect to friends and family on FaceTime, and Zoom. I do energy alignment daily and remove any negative attachments from the fear and beliefs of others and my own. As an Empath and lightworker, I am being attacked daily. I need protection!

These are the folks who are at that place where they can say, “Okay. This is a big pause. I’m going to go inward and do some work on myself, now that I have some extra time.” They’re capable of that. For others, though, the isolation and uncertainty we’re living in trigger a real trauma response. It basically hijacks your nervous system and blocks your crown chakra that helps us think creatively and stay connected to our higher self and God. As a result, they go into a state of freeze, fight or flight which requires another level of care. This state of being is called ‘’ fight or flight “ and we become separated from our rational thinking. Leaves our nervous system under attack.

They may be really destabilized and suffering. This is when it can be easy to turn to outside coping mechanisms — like their addiction — to try and get through that pain, discomfort and trauma. Or turn to toxic people.

You can’t say to the person who’s in a real trauma response, “Just do this, just do that.” The coping mechanisms that work for non-triggered people don’t work. You can’t just breathe through a trauma response. Going outside isn’t going to fix it. It’s not that simple. It’s why I try so hard daily to drop tips and ways to help. It’s why I became a mindset coach.

Toward the beginning of the plandemic, I was seeing a lot of clients who were suffering from severe depression, suicidal ideation — much more on the mental health side of things. And then, of course, the trauma underlying all of it.


It’s not a surprise that a lot of people want to drink to numb out stress. Stress will definitely get people looking to something outside of themselves to feel better, and when you’re not identified as an addict the drinking jokes can seem really funny. But it’s less funny when you are at risk of sinking into the disease of addiction.

People who know that addiction is an issue for them have to be extremely mindful about where they’re putting their attention on. I would almost equate it to not having the news cycle on 24/7. It’s too triggering, and often you don’t even realize that it’s sinking in. STOP WATCHING THE FAKE NEWS.

The jokes and Instagram posts that are just like, “Oh let’s just all get high and have a glass of wine and knock yourselves out” are dangerous for people who are already on that trajectory, or who are trying to live sober or abstinence-based.


“How do you become an addict?” There are a couple of different ways. Unhealed, unresolved trauma and suppressed negative emotions is just one way. Childhood abuse, neglect and abandoment is another.

But It’s also partly biological, so you can genetically have a disposition to it. If addiction runs in your family and you’re finding yourself drinking too much, you’re very close to crossing that line from “use and abuse” into a disease of addiction.

Then there’s the psychological aspect to it. Do you find yourself needing something to make yourself feel better? Are you actively seeking to numb out? You might want to sit with that and look at that for a minute. This is when we have subconscious, negative and self sabotaging core beliefs that need to be transformed. being overly exposed to negative energy and frequencies can also lead someone like an empath to become an addict to numb out the pain. All of this leads to dis-ease in the mind, body and soul. Leasds to illness.

Second: Are you in an enormously stressful environment where you’re going to keep going up and up and up? Is your tolerance increasing? Are you noticing that you need more of the same thing to get the same result? Are you having withdrawal from that substance or from that alcohol? Are you finding yourself hungover? Are you experiencing blackout? Are you not feeling well the next day? Is it starting to affect your life? Is there any unmanageability creeping up?

People will often say when we talk about the unmanageability of it, “Well, I’m still going to work and I’m still doing what I need to do and this and that.”

Then I ask, “Well how’s your marriage?”

“Oh, terrible. We’re not speaking. My daughter hates me. I’ve gained 75 pounds.” And so on, whatever it is.

There’s not always going to be unmanageability in all aspects of your life, but the keyword is “yet.”

The plandemic took our sense of safety, security, and control away from us. And when we feel out of control, we act out with addictive patterns. Each time we’re triggered, we turn to these patterns as a way to numb the feelings we don’t want to face. But only if you don’t have healthier, safer, alternatives which I am grateful to have!ve!ystem and blocks your crown chakra that helps us think creatively and stay connected to our higher self and God. As a result, they go into a state of freeze, fight, or flight which requires another level of care. This state of being is called ‘’ fight or flight “ and we become separated from our rational thinking. Leaves our nervous system under attack.

When things like this happen, we can be experiencing a dark night of the soul, which is an opportunity for us to really sit still. If we’re not having a trauma response, we can sit still for a second and not be afraid of the dark. And instead be able to go, “What is going on right now? Be curious. Let me sit here and have my aha moment.”

In order to have that aha learning moment, you need to be present for it. You need to be clear. You can’t have that conscious attachment with higher power or others or yourself if you’re clouding it with substance. Because that is only going to work short term. It’s not meant to be maintained or sustainable. You have to have the need to want to change.


So my advice to you is get started on honoring your fears and emotions. It’s when we run from them that we create chaos. It’s when we stay engaging with the wrong people that trigger us into old patterns. If anyone out there that’s reading this is struggling, please set up a free discovery session with me and lets get you empowered to take your power back and get out of fight or flight. It can be done and you can live without addiction.

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From trauma to profound freedom.

Hope you enjoy reading my latest published article for Brainz magazine! https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/from-trauma-to-profound-freedom

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