Buffalo Bills Pro Bowl safety Jordan Poyer has overcome some demons in his life and credits ayahuasca to putting him on a path to better understanding, which allows him to perform better on the field.
Is this the new trend for pro athletes?
“People try to control it, but you can’t,” Poyer told The Athletic. “It took me about five or 10 minutes to figure it out. The ego has to die so the medicine can work. In order to let go and let the medicine do what it’s supposed to do, we have to just breathe.”
Poyer Dealt With Alcoholism
Poyer entered the league in 2013 as a heavy drinker and kept it up throughout his first five years in the league, developing a dependency.
During those years he got married and he and his wife Rachel had a child, but the drinking continued and he was close to losing his wife.
“I’d find him drinking in crazy places, like under the bathroom cabinets, hidden like a child,” Rachel says.
Poyer went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and got his drinking under control and at a gathering at a teammate’s house in 2020 he made a significant step forward, refusing a drink.
“When I put that drink down for the first time, it was almost like I overcame a demon,” Poyer said.
He had no desire to drink and the smell of alcohol now activates his gag reflex.
Despite the major step in sobriety, Poyer still dealt with feelings of anxiety and depression. The alcohol was used to medicate and manage those feelings.
Beginning The Path To Self Improvement
After the 2022 season with the Bills, Poyer found Resonance Costa Rica, a retreat in the Central American country that invites you to “move to a Higher Vibrational Living.”
It was during a visit to the center that Poyer tried ayahuasca for the first time. Initially he was very skeptical. Poyer also changed his diet and physical activity to include yoga and specific breathing exercises to deal with his anxiety.
He was given the psychedelic brew by a shaman and began his path to better self understanding.
“It’s brownish and really thick. It almost looks like oil, but it’s darker and thicker. It’s one of the worst things you could ever taste…At first what it felt like was my soul left my body for a good two minutes,” Poyer said.
Poyer said the highest version of himself lectured the current version on how to be present and thankful for what he had.
“He was basically saying, ‘Jordan, look at your life, bro — what are you mad at?'” Poyer said. “It was what I needed to hear because I wasn’t appreciating anything — not my wife, my daughter, my family, my house. It was all about me and what I wanted.”
Poyer credits the experience with making him a more selfless teammate and good human.
“After he did ayahuasca, he became like my dream husband,” Rachel says. “I was nervous about what it would do to him, but he came back a totally new man, so appreciative of me and our family.”
Poyer is more appreciative of his family, and he is a better leader on the Bills as one of the team captains.
Pro athletes are no different than people in other professions. Theirs just pays them well and there is a relative amount of fame. They are not immune from the challenges, problems, etc. that come about in life.
If Poyer believes ayahuasca was the key to taking him down the path of enlightenment and it helps him deal with his anxiety and depression and allows him to be a better husband, father and teammate, who are we to say no?
