Over here at AfterParty, we receive an onslaught of questions from people about addiction and recovery. And well, our video series AfterParty Answers gives us an opportunity to address them. In this episode, Anna David and Danielle Stewart examine past AfterParty stories to answer a reader’s question: is it true that if you take Ayahuasca, you’ll never want to drink again?Want to see all of our AfterParty Answers videos? Good news! You can simply click here! You can also submit your questions for future episodes here.
Here’s the deal: plenty of people out there believe that a shot of Ayahuasca will cure people of the desire to drink. Anna and Danielle are unabashedly opposed to this idea, not only because having a shaman give you an herb so that you’ll vomit and trip out for hours sounds like their collective idea of hell but because they don’t believe that one shot of anything will cure an alcoholic or addict of the desire to use or drink.
Still, there are studies out there that support the positive impact this Peruvian herb can have, including one that Tracy Chabala wrote about where one participant had a reduction of 62 percent of depressive symptoms after just one day (within a week, this reduction climbed to 72 percent). Tracy concluded: “Respecting each person’s path to recovery is important to me, so if it’s something you want to try, be my guest.” Another essay we ran from a sober gal, however, had her concluding that a dose of Aya wouldn’t be okay for her sobriety.
There are, of course, many nuances to this query. So if you want our complete answer, check out this vid. While the girls aren’t in any way medical professions (emphasis on “aren’t in any way medical professionals”), they are sober folks who have not only grappled with some of the issues being asked about but have also written scads of articles for this very site on them. Tune in every Wednesday to see what you, our faithful readers, want to know.
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