Ayahuasca showed a very positive impact on people with alcohol problems and we had many stories of people quitting alcohol thanks to Ayahuasca.
In this episode me (Sam Believ) will interview Damyn on how he stopped drinking after his first Ayahuasca retreat at LaWayra
LaWayra Ayahuasca retreat http://www.lawayra.com
Transcript
Sam Believ: You’re listening to ayahuasca podcast.com.
Hi guys. Welcome to ayahuasca podcast.com. Our guest, today’s Damon from Canada, originally, currently in Panama. Damon was our guest at the retreat in December, about what, five months ago.
Yeah. Almost exactly five months ago.
Sam Believ: Perfect. And the subject of our conversation today is that Damon had the little problem with alcohol, or will, maybe not that little.
We’ll go into that in a second. And after attending Ayahuasca retreat, the problem seemed to have went away. Welcome, Damon.
Thank you for having
Sam Believ: Damon. First of all. When you came to the retreat, was the alcohol like your main intention or was it just a side effect?
No, it wasn’t a main intention.
It was in there, but it also wasn’t to quit. At that point it wasn’t I didn’t look at it as a big problem yet, even though I knew at some level obviously, that it was something that was affecting my life in a negative way. But the way that I worded my intention was I wanted to rework my relationship with alcohol.
’cause, and the reason why I did that is honestly, I just, I never thought I was ever gonna quit. I’d ever be able to quit, so it was a more of a, excuse me, more of a soft alright, like I just, this is something I know it’s. Starting to become an issue. I was still pretty high functioning during that time, but but yeah, then I was able to finish it.
Sam Believ: Sorry, I just received my breakfast and but, so it was basically like lowering your expectations, right? Just not drink that much and it’s better than, it’s a smart, it’s a smart decision actually. ’cause if you go, if you ask for something big and then it doesn’t come to you, then you get, you can get frustrated all it doesn’t work.
So it’s like starting with the lesson and actually getting more. Nice strategy, but how do you, how would you describe the way it feels now? ‘Cause whenever you have an addiction, be it alcohol or something else, you could just choose not to do it. And then you feel the desire to do it all the time.
But I’m assuming it feels different for you. Like how, can you tell us more about that?
Yeah, definitely. I. I truly feels like it changed something in my brain, like on a physical level because like I’ll tell people that and I’ll be like, oh yeah, I’ve stopped drinking. It’s been six months now.
Six months because I challenged myself not to drink for a month before the retreat. And that was really difficult. But but yeah, I, I feel bad when people like congratulate on that now because I genuinely just don’t have the urge anymore. I still, I go to bars, I hang out with my friends.
I, go out, that sort of stuff. And before ever since I was, 16, 17, when I started drinking, if I saw someone drinking, I was like, I have to have a drink this crazy urge over me. And yeah, it just, it’s just literally not there. It’s just not a part of my body. I don’t have that feeling.
Sam Believ: Your alcoholic muscle was was alcoholic. Gene was removed. Interesting. Yeah,
I guess yeah,
Sam Believ: from what I know about addictions and you can be addicted to literally anything. Alcohol is a popular one because it does. Help really nicely to numb. Numb the feeling.
So what I’ve learned so far, addiction is a symptom of pain. It’s kinda like when you’re in pain for some reason and you feel discomfort you do something to that helps you get rid of the pain or distract yourself from the pain. That mostly leads to more pain afterwards. I currently have.
I wouldn’t say addiction, but my mechanism for pain right now is when I’m uncomfortable, I realize I go on my phone and I start scrolling through like reels or shorts and that kinda stuff, and I feel that it kinda distracts me. And I notice, okay, if I’m doing that, then I notice I have pain and then I can go and find why do I have pain?
What’s discomfort? So it’s that’s my mechanism now and, yeah. But in case with alcohol, a lot of times it you use it to run away from pain, but then you feel worse next day, so you get even more pain and then it becomes this weird cycle. Did you were you able to identify the pain in your life that maybe so yeah.
Yeah, definitely. Like during the retreat my work was all very. Internal some people they go see other planets and all that kind of stuff, or they’re in different places. But all of my work during the retreat was all like inside of me. Like I, and I knew that to the point, even there was one time when oh, this was the second retreat, but it was that I thought I was going to blast off, if you will.
And I even was like, no, I’m good. Like I, there’s still work here. But yeah, for me it was like, I honestly, I’ve had a very fortunate life. I’ve been able to travel a lot. My parents are awesome. All this stuff. But for me it was a lot of the just kind of self hate that I was working on.
Why that is what it is. Like I’m sure there’s lots of reasons and need to dig deep into that, but yeah, just always not feeling adequate. Not good enough is was a big thing overblown the failures I have had and also looking at the failures as a reflection of my worth rather than just a part of life.
Yeah, those were definitely all the things. And then also, like I, I just, I get anxious a lot and but I like being around people, so it is one of those, it was definitely a tool I used for more social interactions, that sort of stuff. One thing I have noticed now, like I’ll go out and hang out with friends, but I also, I I get my cup gets full a lot quicker when it comes to people. So usually I’m, if I’m going out with people like I’m gone, but like 10, 11 o’clock, I’m like, all right, it’s been fun. See ya. Where before like I was the last person up, but also the most drinking, so
Sam Believ: the social the social lubricant aspect of alcohol is pretty useful, I might admit.
You mentioned second retreat. Damon liked it so much that I think it was four months later he came back with fiance.
Yeah. With my fiance. Yeah.
Sam Believ: Do what about her? She had her process. How was your relationship afterwards? How does she feel?
Yeah, it was an interesting one.
Feels there’s still a lot more work to do and we’re working on that for sure. One thing that’s changed a lot was my communication. So essentially what happened is I did the first retreat my fiance, she really saw. What changed in me, how I was interacting with her differently.
Like I was, being more affectionate. I was being more present, I was paying more attention to the way she said things to make sure, I was showing more love essentially. And so after a couple months of that, she was like I want to try this too. It seemed that a lot of things were better with me and I just seemed a lot better.
So yeah. So then we wanted to go, for myself personally doing it, it was actually like almost exactly three months later. It was that, that we came back it was a little bit sooner than I wanted to, but like I knew I was gonna do it again anyway. And it was just, situational wise, it was, we’re back in Columbia, so it was like might as well do it now rather than having to wait a year.
Who knows how long before coming back. So I guess she was really excited about it.
Sam Believ: Yeah, that’s a great by the way, guys, this is a great note on how to, if you want somebody in your life to drink Ayahuasca, this is the best way to convince them. As Damon described, he just became such a best version of themselves that she, she was like I want that, what you’re having it’s just, it becomes so obvious that you have improved, that you don’t need to say go drink ayahuasca and stuff like that.
It’s funny. Would like to say. Couples that drank together, stayed together. And we’re talking about ayahuasca, not not anything else. Because you do it’s not an easy process, but you do grow together and relationship also improves, but, there’s ups and downs. Definitely.
I noticed that when me and my wife are fighting, a lot of times I just say go drink ayahuasca. You’re not in a good place. Interesting.
How often does that work out for you?
Sam Believ: No, it’s kinda it’s the same. It’s not a, it’s not a good one. It’s the same as saying, just calm down.
That’s, that doesn’t work. Yeah. How did you find about ayahuasca?
Just so my psychedelic journey or like into plant medicine journey started, I guess about four or five years ago now. And it’s, it started because actually I was getting really bad panic attacks.
And they just came seemingly outta nowhere. But looking back on it now, it’s like I was a lot of stress. I own a company and I was again, very hard on myself with all the failures that came with that. So yeah. So I started having panic attacks.
From all the research and people I knew that were on like prescription medication, I was just not, some, not worth the trade off for me because I was having panic attacks really sucked, but they’re only happening like once every two months or once a month, once every two months. But yeah, so I started looking into alternatives and POC was.
A big thing that was coming up there. There also just happened, like it seemed to coincide with this kind of new renaissance with psychedelics in general and the plant medicine in general. So it was like listening to lots of podcasts, listening to Joe Rogan and Paul Sta not Stamos, what’s his name?
Oh. I’m
Sam Believ: blanking now. The mushroom guy.
Yeah. Stems. Yeah. Okay. So right name. So yeah, so listening to his stuff, and so I started microdosing actually I wasn’t even taking full amounts, but I started microdosing, psilocybin and after three weeks I just, I had this kind of realization and and yeah, and I’ve didn’t, I haven’t had a panic attack since.
And I don’t continuously micro or anything like that, haven’t done medicine for. A year and a half now
Sam Believ: and how are you
big? But yeah, I still, I’ve, I haven’t had one since then so yeah, so that’s what got me into it. And then obviously as you’re looking into that stuff, researching Iowa came up and, yeah, and we were just in a place or yeah. And then, so for the Ayahuasca, I was looking at spots. I’m currently living in Panama, and we live in north of Panama, so very close to the Costa Rica border. And there’s lots of retreats up there. And I don’t, I, I don’t know. I don’t have any, reason, but I was just, none of them grabbed me, I guess is the best way to say it. And then Nicole and I, we decided to do this trip to Columbia. I was like, okay. It one those things. I put it aside. I was like. About the Ayahuasca thing for now, and I just looked it up and yeah, the Ayahuasca in Columbia came up, read the reviews.
I was like, oh, okay. And yeah, just, it just made sense. It really, and it literally lined up where we had a two week trip and at the end of the two week trip was a one week retreat and I was like, oh, I can just stay an extra week. And it was actually like, it just one of those things that just, hi Adrian hello.
One of those things that just worked.
Sam Believ: Yeah it finds yourself, you you find it and you find the medicine finds you as well. The what other benefits except for the, quitting alcohol, did you did you experience from the, from doing ayahuasca?
I think, I don’t like, I’m obviously not a scientist or anything, so I don’t know if this is a hundred percent accurate, but it definitely seems in general that all just dopamine control.
So going back to the scrolling through, that sort of stuff, I still do it from time to time, but there’s, it, I have the thought first where I’m like, okay, why am I scrolling right now? Like it’s, it just exactly what you were saying, where it’s like. You can still get into it, but it’s okay, am I doing this?
Because I literally, I have nothing else to do. I’m just hanging out which that, yeah, fine. Go for it. But but yeah, that’s,
Sam Believ: could you do me a favor? Please? Bring him to the kitchen. Sorry. Technical issues, guys.
Yeah, exactly.
Sam Believ: Yeah, you can just catch yourself, I guess when so it’s like. I think the personal growth is not about people think that you will forever be, become this perfect thing or something that the nature will still win and you will get occasionally like desires to do things you don’t, you need, you don’t, you don’t need to do or you even catch yourself doing it.
But then as you said, you catch yourself and you analyze why am I doing it? And then you try and find the core of the problem. ’cause I ask as well, right? It’s it’s not just gonna. Automatically remove all your pain, it will just show you the problems and then you process them.
So it’s just this human human sort of growth growth situation. And interestingly regarding alcohol, right? And any other behavior. What makes it an addiction is what makes it a problem is an addiction. And what makes it an addiction is the pain. But if the pain goes away.
Sometimes you can actually do things that you are addicted to, but not really have the same, don’t do it in them in a bad way. It’s kinda let’s say something neutral like food. Food is not bad inherently, but you can get food addiction and then you get different problems like either bulimia or anorexia, whatever.
You get a problem with food. But if you’re not in pain and if you’re not using food as your escape mechanism. Then you can eat food and be okay. And I’m not saying you need to go and grab a beer, but I think that it’s it’s good to come back to that point where a thing is just a thing and not your, runaway mechanism.
And then and then you can like. Do different things without being addicted to them. Because people so one question have you tried quitting alcohol before? Without before you, no.
No. No. Be like I’ve done like kind of breaks, like I’ll do like a month and that kind of stuff.
But the reason I haven’t, because I. I hadn’t hit rock bottom yet, essentially. It’s actually this is essentially the thought pattern that, that started all this during my experience was like my dad and both of my granddads on grandfathers on both sides, like my mom and my dad’s side were just extreme alcoholics.
All three of them had to literally almost completely ruin their lives and probably ruin a good chunk of their life before they had to quit. And so the thought, like this came my head and the thought was just like, I don’t, I have a good life. I don’t have to destroy it to to make myself quit this.
I am justto now. So yeah. ’cause I drank a lot a lot. But I’ve always just been a pretty high functioning alcoholic so it was, it definitely deteriorated some relationships and all that stuff, but it wasn’t where it’s oh, I lost absolutely everything and I had to change.
And I think that was obviously the one for me, the biggest positive about doing it this way. Whereas it’s, it I’ve seen how bad it can get if if you don’t don’t control it. Yeah. So yeah, so that was just the thought. And then oh,
Sam Believ: go ahead. No, that’s, I just wanted to congratulate you, man, because it’s a great realization and I’m just happy for you because like, why wait till it’s too late or till you’re so ruined and let’s say your relationship failed and then you fix yourself.
It’s kinda like after you have all this chronic health issues and stuff like that, congratulations, man. It’s a great really great thing that happened to you and yeah glad to have been a part of it. I know it, I know in the end you did the work and and Ayahuasca is just a tool, but really makes me happy, stories like yours.
And the reason I wanted to do interview with you is because we recently had few people like this that started reporting. The same thing. And one of them actually I don’t know if I’ll be able to get him on, but he said that he didn’t even think about alcohol in his intentions or in the preparation for the retreat.
He just noticed months later that he stopped drinking and it was like, yeah. And he told us that because we met at while we were traveling, and then I remembered about you ’cause we spoke about it. So I just wanted to record this episode to see maybe some people there that are struggling with alcohol addictions or other addictions.
What, whatever it is, you can you can see Ayahuasca as a tool. And maybe give it a try, ’cause why are people not drinking Ayahuasca? Some obvious reasons are, you need to travel and it’s expensive. Our retreat is, I think, is as as affordable as it gets.
And then and another reason is they’re just afraid. They’re afraid that, it’s not gonna help them or it’s gonna make them worse. Or it’s that, it’s painful and stuff like that. So that’s why we wanna get the stories of, as we call survivors and their progress.
Yeah. ’cause yeah, it’s like you, you did one retreat and then you stopped drinking for three months and even if that point you would go back and start drinking again, that’s still totally worth it. Like it’s it’s three months of your liver saved.
Yeah, definitely. How many years of life?
Yeah. Yeah. And going back to that point, I do agree, like I, I haven’t felt the want to drink again, but I definitely feel that it’s like, because of that, I feel like, oh, okay, if I. If I do have a drink, it’s not like gonna ruin me. Which, and that’s the thing too, ’cause I’ve spoken to a couple alcoholics that have really struggled with it.
And that’s the thing, it’s always over top of their head. They’re like, if I have one drink, like my life goes back to absolute hell. And it’s just which Yeah it’s, I try again, try not to force anyone obviously. ’cause everyone needs to make their own decision. And I feel if you do something as big as, ayahuasca because it’s a big thing because you feel pressured to, then it, I assume it wouldn’t be as effective.
Maybe it would, I don’t know. But but yeah that’s definitely one thing that I’m not concerned about. If I do have a drink, if I’m like, hey. I think the way I said it, I think to you actually was like, yeah, like I’m gonna stop drinking. But mistakes are, or rules are made to be broken. So if it happens then you know, it’s, it is what it is.
But I’m definitely not gonna ever go back to where it was. That’s for sure.
Sam Believ: Well, lemme know how it goes. I do have a feeling because you got rid of the pain and that, compulsive urge to drink. I’m pretty sure you can have a drink or two and just be normal and not want to do it next day.
At least I think that, let’s say you go to a wedding and they give you a glass of champagne and you just have it because there is a part of it when you really make something completely prohibited, then there’s this psychological tension that starts building up. So kinda it’s an interesting way, but it’s, I think there is this balance point where the substance is no longer an issue because you don’t have that pain to run away from and you can really.
Just, not saying that alcohol is healthy, but have a healthy relationship with alcohol. And if somebody says oh, here’s a beer. You can drink a beer, but not really necessarily ask for another one. I think that would be a really great point. But, it’s not, it’s your life.
Not mine. But do let us know how it goes and worst case you can always come back, have somewhere else.
Yeah. We’ll be back in January. I’m pretty sure that’s the plan anyway, so
Sam Believ: yeah, you and your, by that time, probably wife,
We’ll see plans. Planning a wedding in Canada from Panama is pretty, is a lot.
Yeah, no pressure. We’ll see by then.
Sam Believ: Why don’t you have the wedding in Panama anyway? It’s better weather.
Yeah, family. Just wanna make sure everyone can get there. So yeah that’s the most important thing.
Sam Believ: Well, Damon thank you so much and thank you for sharing your story. I really, I’m sure it will convince some people here that, that will listen, that have problem with alcohol, to maybe give it a try and, maybe we can save couple lives, just just easy as that.
Yeah. That’s the goal.
Sam Believ: Thank you Dam Damon. And it was a pleasure hosting you at the retreat. You’re a really cool guy and it was a pleasure talking to you again. It always is.
Yeah. Thank you, Sam. Appreciate it.
Sam Believ: Have a good day.
You too.