quote

‘ Add to the long list of celebrities who have struggled with drug addictions, the recently deceased 27-year-old British soul diva Amy Winehouse.’

‘ The problem of treating drug addiction is neither simple nor straightforward. A person’s entire biology and psychology play into addiction and dependence, and the threads that weave a tapestry of drug troubles are usually highly complex. Amidst the panoply of offerings, treatments with potent psychedelic substances suggest another line of potentially effective treatment for drug problems. The term psychedelic means soul-manifesting, and was coined in 1957 by psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. These psychedelics include LSD, peyote, ayahuasca, iboga, and other plant or fungus drugs, such as Psilocybin mushrooms. As strange as this may seem at first blush, there is a great deal of work happening in this field.’

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/07/25/psychedelics-for-drug-addiction/

Kev

There was documentary on some years ago about a hippy chap in Kings Cross who offered addicts a route out by taking them to near death on a drug used by jungle tribes for initiation purposes. Sounds odd but this thing nearly killed people but then their dependancy became less and less each day and after a week they were basically clean.

I was quite taken by it, seemed nasty but appeared to work. I cant remember what it was but id be interested to see if anyone else saw it or knows about it

local council funded scheme down south somewhere paid to send some addicts to a monastry in Thailand I think it was to clean up. Very regimented and they had to drink this vile natural substance which basicly made them sick everyday.

apparently had good results, if thats the case then money well spent imo

[Edit] Here’s the article on the BBC [/Edit]

Amy died as a result of attempting to withdrawal from physical alcohol dependance without medical supervision and assistance causing her body to go into shock.. according to the post mortem.

Alternative therapies worked for me.. I had an intravenous methamphetamine habit in my late teens and early twenties and I also abused a bizzarre array of other drugs in mind boggling quantities.. it finally caught up with me as it will inevitably do and I sought professional help..

I tried the prescribed western philosophy of abstinence and MTFU for over 10 years becoming increasingly more depressed and mentally unfit..

heavy psychedelic therapy helped more than anything else had..

interesting responses, not what I expect to read!

bland.. that may have been Iboga.

Yunki, glad to hear that something like this has helped you.

I’ve been to the amazon myself several times to drink ayahuasca, not because I needed to cure myself of drug or alcohol addiction at all but just out of curiosity after hearing about it’s ‘magical’ healing powers. I can honestly say that I’ve felt much better about my life since I first partook of the stuff four years ago. I’ve also met several people who are now cured of addiction to opiates and alcohol from pataking in ayahuasca and iboga ceremonies.

I hope work in this area continues as there sure are benefits to be had from these plant medicines if used in the correct context.

Kev

Amy died as a result of attempting to withdrawal from physical alcohol dependance without medical supervision and assistance causing her body to go into shock.. according to the post mortem.

The post mortem was officially deemed inconclusive, was it not, pending toxicology results?

My therapy was very backstreet and I wouldn’t recommend what I did for anyone.. it was a pretty terrifying time and some of the antics could be extremely dangerous in the wrong environment.. I was lucky..

I gained extraordinary benefits though and would wholeheartedly support more research in that area..

The post mortem was officially deemed inconclusive, was it not, pending toxicology results

I guess that depends what you read..

I guess that depends what you read..

True, I read reports from several of the major news agencies. Where did you get the info?

I saw it out of the corner of my eye on a headline of a redtop in a service station.. In fact.. I tell a lie.. I actually only saw a similar sounding claim and embellished it a little.. 😉

This is a really interesting question Kev and I was wondering this myself.

I have of course written the book The Shaman and Snow White: Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Shamanic States of Consciousness and Certificate 18 Healing which is about this very subject and based on my masters degree research.

Obviously I had no funding, and my book was more an exploration of the subject, as opposed to a scientific study with medical evidence, but I do have a friend who herself was a alcoholic, and who has now undergone training to be a counsellor and who also runs a healing centre in the Amazon for drug addicts.

I also have another friend who is going down this healing route after many years of both adusing substances and having been abused.

Would Amy have been saved? Maybe, but the thing with using natural plant hallucinogens is that it is quite possibly one of the most demanding experiences that you can, well, experience, and your motivation to heal yourself has to be sky high. It is also not a miracle cure solution, and treatments will often last for a few months, so it is not a solution for people of modest means, or who do not have the support mechanisms in place for this.

There is no definitive medical evidence to say it works, but there is extensive testimony from Stanislav Grof who pioneered the use of LSD therapy, and I have gone down this route myself, to solve many deep routed issues in my own life.

You also need to be fairly strong physically I would guess, to deal with all the vomiting and other forms of purging that come out of your.

So who knows, but maybe we will become a slightly more enlightened society in the future in order to at least make scientific and medical studies of these natural plant medicines legal.

If anyone is interested you can read an in-depth review of my book here.

It’s a broad subject with many avenues to be explored I think.. Just the whole psychology of rejecting puritanical christianity is useful in itself probably..

add the rejection of ego etc and the medicinal properties and like I say.. the subject is huge

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/amy-winehouses-alcohol-withdrawal-affects-thousands_1237405

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delirium_tremens

“Unlike the withdrawal syndrome associated with opiate dependence, DT (and alcohol withdrawal in general) can be fatal. Mortality was as high as 35% before the advent of intensive care and advanced pharmacotherapy; in the modern era of medicine, death rates range from 5-15%”

If thats what happened then yes she could die of it. I have seen people in acute alcohol withdrawal and it is dangerous, far more so than opiates and makes a mockery of anyone who claims to be addicted to cannabis.

Alcohol withdrawal – life threatening

Opiate withdrawal miserable as sin

Cannabis withdrawal – don’t be a bloody drama queen

You have to admire the idiotic upside down logic applied to this.

“Stopping drinking killed Amy Winehouse”.

Drinking an insane amount in the first place seems at least to be a contributing factor, but not considered.

but not considered

Really ? No one has mentioned the ‘insane amount’ that Winehouse was drinking ? ….. where do you get your news from then ?

It seems to me that Winehouse’s alcoholic intake has in fact been considered a great deal. Even though it has been suggested that it wasn’t an insane amount which killed her, but stopping abruptly that did it. It’s a pretty simple concept which I can get my head round – nothing “idiotic” about it at all imo, and I’m surprised if anyone has trouble doing so.

I very much doubt anything could have helped her in the long run, if she had managed to go clean then I suspect the levels of damage that she must have done to her body would get her in the end. Same with that other one Docherty

Alcohol, cannabis, coca & opium & their derivatives are all natural remedies in their own way. They didn’t seem to be much help in the end.

As a long time social drinker I have thought about cutting out the booze.

Given that my social drinking is beyond reasonable but I don’t chose, or an able, to stop it then what would SimonRali and TJ suggest?

Serious question.

Please email me, as per profile.

Lost cause!!

ernire – kind of proving my point there.

Stopping abruptly from having one glass of red wine an evening will be fine. Poisoning yourself over many years and then ditching it will probably have cause stress to the body.

The root cause of the problem is not the stopping, it’s the starting in the first place.

If you really can’t understand that, I may need to draw you a diagram.