Monday 7 January 2013

I've Been Offered A Free Trip To Thailand!



Cool huh!?

There is a catch though...

I'd be going to Thamrabok monastery.
It's the one where you purge and sauna for a couple of weeks to detox.

It's a drug detox, apparently it's in the middle of nowhere and you pretty much spend the trip drinking purgative tea and throwing your guts up.

Sound appealing?

I might go actually, although I'm not technically dependant on anything, I do still have days that I really struggle with cravings.
I don't know too much about the place, I've heard a few stories though!

The people that come through the other side swear by it so it must do something right?!

Maybe going to somewhere like this will be the kick up the ass I need to keep clean and sober, looking to the future instead of dwelling on the past and shrugging off this depression and lethargy I've had for months..

There's a charity called 'East-West Detox' based here in the UK. Run by a chap called Mike that I met a couple of months ago when I was speaking at a confrence about ibogaine, recovery and addiction.
East-West cover the travel expenses to get addicts over there, quite impressive really!

-Edit- I discovered that I made a mistake, they apparently don't pay for the flights and food. You have to pay for yourself! They just facilitate the process. Sorry!

Thamrabok is another 'extreme' detox, honestly, after ibogaine I don't think I'd be shocked or anxious about doing it.
Ibogaine visions along with the total inability to control your legs and arms are pretty bloody intense. Ibogaine induced vomiting anyway, been there done that. At least with the thamrabok method your not tripping your nuts off at the same time!

It seems too good an opportunity to turn down really, I've not been out the country since my 21st birthday. I've always wanted to travel India, Thailand and Nepal.
Seeing it as a holiday probably is very far from the truth though.
I did skim read the website and your pretty much whisked from the airport to the monastery and whisked back at the end.
No 'stopping at go to collect £50'
Can you imagine how many clients they must have 'lost' over the years!?
Haha, Thailand, the land of cheap china white heroin and OTC ketamine.

I've been told to let them know if I want to go.
I also want to start my music degree this year so it would probably be best to squeeze thamrabok in first!







9 comments:

karl said...

DO IT DO IT DO IT !
I was offered a chance to go there about 10yrs ago but as I was practically clean at the time I decided to give it a miss, that was one decision I soon came to regret.
DO IT SID DO IT

Sid said...

Yeah I think Im gonna mate, once in a lifetime opportunity!

Sid said...

As far as I know this offer is open to any addict too. Get int touch with 'East-West Detox' if anyone's interested ... http://www.east-westdetox.org.uk/

Fee said...

Go go go :) I want o go too..... How stunning would that be? Xx

Caz said...

I wld jump at the chance!! Let us no how u get on if u decide to go. U sound like an amaizing guy, just wanted to say without sounding creepy lol. I posted on another of ur blogs asking for some info in Ibogaine. Didnt realise u had done it. Does it fix ur mind so to speak like I have heard it does? Or rather reset it to b4 u became an addict with cravings ect? I'm down on the south coast of England. Love travelling, don't b put off by seeing India ect, people said I was mad going out there with a habit but every time I have got clean it had been by myself (no centres) in countries including Thailand, Cambodia and India.i struggle here in the uk but have no probs when I am in a warm paradise. Never give up giving up. U have hope and I hope u find happiness one day as do I hope that I too will one day shake this depression and the need to self medicate to get through some days. Take care and good luck!!

Caz said...

I just emailed the place that offered u ur trip to do the Thailand detox, I hope they r able to help me in someway. I'm not after a trip abroad but just some support wld b great, I don't no who I can talk too as I have a child and am on my own I am scared to b honest to people incase they take her away. I had to fight so hard to keep custody of her and I'm not gonna loose her now.

Sid said...

Hey Caz. Cheers for the comments :) re Ibogaine there's too much to tell you in one post! This blog goes back a few years now though and I wrote about each treatment, you'll find them in old posts, it's not an easy option that's for sure. And it's no golden ticket for most, not everyone has the full psychospiritual awakening with your life and problems flashing before your eyes. Some do and they're the ones that tend to stick it out. It's the easiest detox off gear that exists. You still got to put the hard graft in afterwards to stay off. You can treat at home with a responsible 'sitter' but it's not really advised. There is a lady in holland called Sara Glatt that's world renowned as an iboga provider. Look up 'Sara's house' .. There are providers in the UK but not so many. Are you on Facebook? If so come and join a group I started, there are lots of people there recovering from one thing or another and a lot of them used Ibogaine to detox. That will be the best place for you to ask questions. If not then you're just gonna have to google away and learn as much as you can. It's an amazing medicine with a lot of potential and I would not be where I am now without it. It had a much more subtle effect on me, no huge breakthrougs but I feel I still have mini ones even now. It went some way to unravelling the years of shit I have in my head anyway. Ok the group is called 'we're getting better (recovery group)'

Spencer Rollins said...

Hello Sid. I was reading your reply to the "Fellow Traveler" and you said that, "you have to put in the "hard graft" afterwards".

This is what I want to comment on. First of all that is a hard fact and seemingly the one that I am hung up on and I am getting increasingly afraid it will be my ultimate demise. The "hard graft" is the unringing of the proverbial bell and I am so afraid that's impossible for me. I have been at this shit, on and off, for 38yrs! I am currently "clean" but I am just replacing gear with Suboxone and that is just barely keeping me together. I dream of gear, I think of gear, it consumes my very being whether I'm actively using or not.

I know, whine, whine, whine. I do sound like a broken record - enter my life, A BROKEN RECORD!

I guess my question is - and I don't know if anyone has the answer or not - how long does one have to put in the "hard graft" to get the fucking ringing bell out of ones ears?

Sid your opinion matters a lot to me because I know you are a "fellow traveler" in this fellowship of suffering. You care enough to have this blog to try and make sense of the pain we all are trying to avoid with gear and in the process cause ourselves so much more.

Anyway, thank you for letting me vent and whine a little bit.

I hope you get to go do the detox - it sounds amazing and what an opportunity for you. YEA Sid!!!

Your Fellow Traveler, Spencer

IFA said...

Cool congratulations do visit detox in thailand