caring crashes back in
After so long not caring, and then now the caring crashes back in and turns so easily into obsessive worry, in sobriety.
Context
Sobriety's first and least advertised gift, stated as the scene's thesis: for years the drug bought the luxury of not caring, and when it lifts the caring returns all at once and with nowhere to go but obsessive worry. Recovery does not arrive as relief; it arrives as the reinstatement of the dread the using was medicating.