Addiction Treatment in Thailand

Thailand is famous as a party destination, in places like Pattaya and Phuket there are literally thousands of bars with rivers of alcohol flowing. If you travel to other parts of Thailand you will find foreigners taking all manner of drugs; despite the stiff penalties they could face if caught. Thailand's reputation might give people the idea that it must be the worst place in the world to stay if you have an alcohol problem or drug addiction. In fact there are a few options when it comes to addiction treatment in Thailand.

I was a habitual drunk when I first arrived in Thailand and for the first few years you could see me partying along with the rest. I finally had enough one day; or should I say that there were many days where I had enough but this time there was action on my part. I was worried that Thailand would prove to be a terrible place to get sober, but to my joy it proved to be the opposite. People do manage addiction recovery in Thailand and many of them stay that way.

My greatest discovery was Wat Thamkrabok; a Buddhist temple that specializes in addiction treatment. I heard about this place on the internet and it sounded promising from the start. You can only go through treatment one time; there are no second chances. The temple is famous for the fact that you need to take medicine that makes vomit; you take this herbal concoction in a ceremony in front of the rest of the temple population for the first five days of the treatment. It is believed to speed the detox process along, and it made me humble enough to learn. It might sound like a harsh alcohol treatment option, but I was vomiting almost every day anyway and had been in and out of other treatment places in the west. It is now almost three and a half years since I left the temple and my addiction recovery remains solid.

There are also other drug and alcohol treatment options in Thailand; including other temples and addiction treatment centers run by non-Thais that have a more western approach. Alcoholics Anonymous is available in parts of Thailand where there are a lot of foreigners. I have only ever spoken to their members on the phone or through online chat rooms, but they seem like a really friendly lot who would go out of their way to help you.

If you find yourself needing drug or alcohol treatment in Thailand it is there, and many of these places offer their services for free.