Harm reduction and psychotherapy

Recently it was brought to my attention that some one struggling with addiction was denied psychotherapy because the therapist did not believe that therapy would be affective while the person was still on drugs. I find this difficult to swallow since most people develop a tolerance and end up only taking drugs to function. Then there is also the double standard that therapy is acceptable if the patient is on anti depressants which can also impede or repress emotion; I regard them as opiates on a receptor level.

This is the kind of outdated thinking that needs to open the doors to harm reduction; anything which minimises risk to the patient.

I also think its counter productive to remove some ones coping mechanism before you have some thing to replace it with.

In a collection of case studies by Andrew Tatarsky "Harm Reduction Psychotherapy" the studies showed that once the patient began psychotherapy and started to work on the issues which lead to or surrounded addiction they were quite willing to change their destructive drug or alcohol usage without coercion.

The point I am getting to is that there is too much emphasis on the drugs instead of the behavior. For instance some one can be drug free but still exhibit the addictive behavior by compulsive shopping; over eating or even using work as a means of escape or to avoid facing the issues that need dealing with. In the end the drugs have little to do with the situation; its all about the behavior; which reminds me of the "dry-drunk" joke: I am still the same ass-hole I just have fewer dents in my car.

In my opinion there is not much point to being drug free unless you are prepared to deal with the issues that brought you to that place. I listen to endless accounts of people who are now drug free but they are not happy in their lives or their work; they have a hard time convincing themselves that everything is better since they are now "on the wagon". To me its about enjoying life without the fear of facing yourself or your baggage.

I would recommend reading anything on harm reduction as an alternative to self help groups that require you to conform to a preset standard which is non-negotiable and turns away people wanting help who do not conform to that standard.

more ibo-illuminated space imagery from my own first experience: Preston Peet

more ibo-illuminated space imagery from my own first experience:



http://www.drugwar.com/pkickingdrugswithdrugs.shtm



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I do, gratefully, get to experience the "movies" I have heard so much about from so many other initiates and various published and anecdotal reports. I keep looking in my mind's eye for some kind of silver screen unfolding across the horizon in front of me, hanging in the vast starscape I keep coming back to each time I drift away, but that isn't what's happening at all. I don't even realize I am experiencing the movies at first, probably for hours and hours, because that's not what they are-they are, to quote PK, "a fucking HoloDeck dood! Yur There muther fucker!"

He is right, I'm right there, but where I haven't much of an idea most of the time, unable to remember much of anything too clearly when I come somewhat to my senses from out of the visions which completely take me away. I do know at one point I'm 5000 years in the future. Again floating out in space, feeling the emptiness and knowing I am ALL ALONE, I can see a bright thin line growing across my view way off in the distance, floating thousands of miles, light years, in front me. I watch as it grows in brightness and turns on end, becoming the tip of a cathedral-like building, very futuristic with weird angles and sharps edges and tall reaching stretching points, all on the vastest of scales, like nothing we can or do manage today. I descend through the air towards an open chamber at the very top of this beautiful building which itself sits at the very highest point of this huge sprawling and towering city. I can see teeming masses of people of all shapes and colors and sizes, but not like in any Sci-Fi movie I've ever seen-this is REAL. I enter the room and see these three gods, or so I perceive them, superhuman, all three so beautiful, with shining alabaster skin, perfect form and spirit, sleeping or hibernating in these cryogenic type coffins or boxes. The woman, whose name I even know but cannot later remember, though it makes my heart ache still to think of it, is the Queen or some kind of noble, with her male consort and advisor lying at each side of her in the other boxes. I think I'm supposed to wake them, or someone is and I'm just along for the ride. The "plot" as it unfolds is that they must somehow combine together to save humanity from utter destruction, as time is ending at the final Big Crunch if they can't bring forth this strange form, this thing that I simply haven't exact words for. I spend a long time living and talking with these three (V tells me later that at one point during the night I spend about 5 minutes speaking rapid fire in some strange language she can't recognize not matter how hard she listens but that I sound completely fluent), taking part in their lives in this far future utopia. What this life-saving thing is they have to guard, to release, this force or being is actually I do not discover because it doesn't make it all the way out of it's cocoon before the end comes. A black, ugly boiling rent in space opens up above the city and its planet and destroys everything, including this beautiful cloud-like, almost fetus-looking massive being thing, gross in its seriously bizarre alien form but not at all icky. It begins to spread wings, pumping out a hot, pure white silver light, full on power and beauty-but this fucking evil darkness, this hole in space eats it all, this new being, these three human/gods, all their peoples, and me.
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p, l, and lr
Preston

Iboga experience report

i just wanted to share my process a bit around having experienced an iboga initiation recently. All i can say is that I am completely blown away by this plant spirit and the incredible container that bwiti has perfected to deliver it. It was probably the most physically and emotional intense experience of my life. Traveling the universe and playing with time and space. Meeting people " ancestors". Insight upon my life. Unlocking my fear and stuck negativity. Cleansing and awakening. What a lesson on taking control of my life and never playing the victim game. It's like an ecstatic explosion over the head. Wake the eff up it screams. no time to waste on bullshit. there is nothing like it. this plant spirit has an uncanny affinity for humans.
I am feeling the beauty and tragic nature of life so intensely. every little speck of life and human interaction makes me tear up, and smile. I can usually be kind of a bitter asshole! I have had a long hx of depression and anxiety in my life and this just snapped me right out of it. I know i have a ton of work to do, but i feel motivated and confident. The self hatred has lost its edge because the illusion of it all has been pierced. Forgiveness of myself is hard. Just act with integrity in the future and don't beat yourself up was the message. It keeps you from sharing the gifts you have with others to tear yourself apart.
And talk about a physical cleansing. the GI health it brings alone is enough for it to be revered as medicine. Also it has a power full effect on libido. I almost feel like it completely reprogrammed my HPA axis. Which might explain how it normalizes infertility perhaps. It scrubbed out my brain. A prismatic collection of alkaloids and metabolites in that sacred root. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I feel weak right now but clear and calm.
And the root bark combined with the ibogaine takes you light years beyond just ibogaine in my opinion. if you can keep it down!. I barely made it, but then i just grabbed it and off i went.
i am so grateful for this medicine.
not to mention it was a blast.

after the ecstasy the laundry.....back to daily life now. but somehow i am a different person. hopefully i can keep that juice alive.
i wish the means and opportunities to all those wanting it.

Also do it with a master like i did. don't do it alone! this experience needs to be more affordable to those who need it in my opinion. although i think it is worth every fucking penny. its too intense to be taken lightly, and bringing down the cost does do that. I see the value in maintaining it's value. those who need it most don't seem to get it though. like most things in this capitalist mess.

just wanted to wax poetic about my iboga initiation

basse!