Ibogaine

Day 20

As soon as I start to slow my life down, Linda begins to undergo a major shift around her health. For 12 years she has lived with Behcets Disease, an auto-immune illness similar to Lupus or MS. It leaves her in a state of almost constant pain. To help relieve that pain her doctors give her pain meds, gradually having to increase her dosage as her tolerance to the meds goes up. Now she needs enough medication to kill an elephant to keep the pain tolerable. Even with the meds (and partly because of them), her quality of life becomes barely tolerable. For days on end, she barely gets off the couch. She often longs for life to be over, so that she can escape from the constant pain. It is a nightmare of waking up every day with what feels like the flu, along with mouth sores, painful rashes, aching joints, and a swollen belly.

While searching on the internet, Linda comes across a treatment for chronic pain called ibogaine. Ibogaine is a natural substance made from the bark of the iboga tree in West Africa. It has been used for centuries by the pygmies in Africa for its healing properties. When taken, it provides a psychedelic experience, where many go through a “life review.” Only recently scientists have found out that it also is a highly effective drug for treating addiction of all kinds, from heroine, to cocaine, to alcohol, to pain meds, to gambling. It seems to “reset” the brain, taking away the cravings that drugs create.

Linda gets so fed up with her twelve-year dependency on pain meds that she calls the Ibogaine Clinic in Rosita, Mexico and decides to go next week for treatment. For Linda to make this choice, and get on a plane by herself, is huge. Believe it or not, she leaves tomorrow. It’s the first time we’ve been apart in six months, and the first time she’s gone anywhere on her own in the seventeen years we’ve been married.

I get to spend the week alone.