Sober in Thailand

Paulgar

I am new to this forum but thought that I would jump right in at the deep end. I originally come from Dublin but have lived in Thailand for the last six years. For much of my life I was a drunk, but that all changed when I entered a temple in Thailand two and a half years ago.

From the age of about eighteen until thirty eight years old I was stuck in the revolving door syndrome of checking in and out of treatment programs in Ireland and the UK. I even moved to Saudi in the hope of curing my addiction. I did manage to stay sober in AA in my early twenties but ended up drinking again.

I had been living in Thailand for over three years when I heard about Wat Thamkrabok. It is know as the temple where you go to vomit away your addiction, but there is a lot more to the program than this. All I know is that I left the temple 10 days after entering it feeling cured from my addiction; I have not had the urge to drink since then.

The philosophy at Thamkrabok is that we become addicted because we have lost our way in the world; lost our path. The addiction is a tool we use to cope with this loss, but after a while this tool stops working. Wat Thamkrabok claims that if we stop our addiction then our path will find us again.

The most important thing at Thamkrabok is the satja vow which can only be made once; there is no revolving door policy at the temple. The deal is that if we keep the vow then good things will come into our lives while if we fail to keep the satja then it will lead to bad things coming into our lives. The monks at the temple are Buddhist but there is no need to convert to Buddhism or even be interested in Buddhism. Most of the monks at the temple are ex-addicts and even some of them have no real interest in Buddhism.

Anyway I just thought that I would share with people here something that worked for me. It might not work for somebody else. The monks at the temple were quick to warn me that there is no magic cure and at the end of the day it is up to us. Still I think that it is well worth thinking about for people like me who failed other treatments. I will always be grateful for Wat Thamkrabok who not only provide such great treatment, but also provided it for no financial reward; Wat Thamkrabok is offered to everyone for free.

Dave!

Thanks for posting, maybe it'll help someone here

Paulgar

Dave! wrote: »

Thanks for posting, maybe it'll help someone here

I do hope so. I well remember the drunken hours I would spend trawling the internet for any solution to my problem - drunk and no longer wanting to be drunk.

Paulgar

I started this thread a while ago but would just like to reintroduce it so that I can tell people that there is now an Irish web-site for the temple;
http://www.templedetox.ie/

mikemac

I seem to remember a singer from the band Aslan also talked about this treatment on the Late Late Show.

It worked anyway

Sparklingangel

I am one of the committee members of www.templedetox.ie and run the website for Irish people going to Thamkrabok. I was also an addict and I am an x patient. So I know it does work. We have been on the Gerry Ryan show recently I believe you can get a podcast. Since then we have had approx 10 new people going to the temple and doing very well. We have alot more booked and getting organised to go. The detox does work. Unlike Irish rehabs you do not have to have clean urine going in. You are not put on other tablets etc. You are not just taken of your drug. You are totaly detoxed from it. Our recent study has shown that the Irish in the past 4 years who we have been in contact with have a fantastic 79% success rate. We are hoping that will rise when we do our next report. Please feel free to check the website out www.templedetox.ie
I am on the about us page and you have a choice of who to contact on contact pages for any more information

Sparklingangel

forgot to mention. July 7th Tuesday 9.30 on RTE 1. There is a documentary I did. Now its about my life but I have included about my time in Thamkrabok. No idea how much of this is going to be shown as I have not seen the edited version. cheers. I am in the Sunday Independent this Sunday also and www.templedetox.ie is part of that interview. Cheers. Oh Paul your book was fantastic.