Inside the Thai rehabilitation centre where Mitchell Pearce addressed his alcohol issues, more Aussies head to the retreat

GO inside the luxury refuge rehabilitation centre in Thailand where Roosters player Mitchell Pearce retreated to, to address his alcohol issues. Dozens of Aussies are going there to address their problems.

Roosters player Mitchell Pearce has had issues with alcohol. Picture: Dylan Robinson

DRESSED in full army fatigues, two former Thai commandos used chillingly sharp machetes to hack a makeshift path through the dense jungle in the hills outside of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

Following behind them were a motley crew of lads who hailed from all parts of the globe, but the most common accent among them was that of Australia.

The men, aged 19 to 34, all looked physically fit and strong as they swore and cried out in pain while making their way through the barbed branches and thick scrub of the Thai jungle.

Inside ‘The Cabin Edge’ rehabilitation centre in the hills of Chiang Mai. This is one of the bedrooms where addicts stay.

The retreat is tucked away in the jungles.

The luxurious centre costs at least $14,000 for a month.

They banded together to get through the tough sections of the track while almost simultaneously dishing out jibes to one another throughout the 10km hike.

With the gutter humour and perpetual grandstanding, this seemed like an end of season footy trip or boys weekend in the bush.

But these 15 men had something far more serious in common, an illness that had brought them together thousands of kilometres from their homes.

They were all addicts.

Ice, heroin, alcohol, cocaine. You name the vice and one of these guys had almost certainly been hooked on it at some stage of their young lives.

There was also another thing the group had in common.

Someone close to them — a parent, grandparent or maybe a sibling — had forked out at least $14,000 for them to be there for a 28-day stay at The Cabin, a unique addiction rehabilitation centre headquartered in Chiang Mai.

Those who sign up to go to the rehab centre have to hike through dense jungle to reach their secluded destination.

Once they’ve hiked through the jungle, they reach ‘The Cabin’.

It’s the luxury refuge that Sydney Roosters star Mitchell Pearce retreated to as he addressed an alcohol problem that culminated in that Australia Day video of him drunkenly simulating sex acts with a dog.

Former South Sydney forward Paul Carter, who will be teammates with Pearce next year, also headed to The Cabin earlier this year in order to get his life back on track.

Some of the Aussies in the group talked of having shared counselling sessions or a dinner table with the footballers, but the men were far more focused on their own fate than that of the celebrities who sometimes walk in.

Back in the jungle, the oppressively humid and sometimes claustrophobic conditions were the perfect setting for some of the Aussies to reflect on how they had ended up there.

Sydney Roosters’ Mitchell Pearce retreated to the centre after a video of him was released simulating sex with a dog. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Jackson, the oldest of the group at 34, opened up about the day his life began to spiral out of control.

“One day I went to buy weed from a guy near where I lived, but instead he shot me up with heroin,” he said. “I was only 13 and that was it for me.

“There were times, many times, where I would be lying in the gutter on the streets totally wasted, it had complete control of me,” he said.

“There’s almost nothing you wouldn’t do to get that next hit.”

As with the others in the group, Jackson looked outwardly fit and healthy and thrived on the physicality of activities like the jungle trek.

The fortnightly hike was part of their therapy — the alternate week involved the same treacherous backdrop but with the dangerous addition of a mountain bike.

The 15 men were part of The Cabin Edge, an offshoot that caters to those typically between the ages of 18 and 28, but whose counsellors look more at personality than date of birth when considering admission.

Muay Thai fighters train addicts at the gym to get rid of their addiction.

Where traditional rehabilitation tends to focus heavily on psychotherapy, The Cabin Edge adds wilderness therapy, sports training and social responsibility awareness on top of its counselling sessions.

Weekday mornings are spent at a local gym and the workouts are gruelling, with each of the men pushed to their absolute limit. Professional Muay Thai boxers then spar with the group, who get graded as their skills develop.

It’s not until after their lunch break — which involves the kind of buffet you might find at one of the local luxury resorts — that the group and one-on-one sessions take place.

The men have all been in the program for differing lengths of time, some for a few days, others for many months, but they immediately bond with each other, a mutual respect based on the similar cards their lives have dealt them.

“It’s so important to be with these guys because they’re going through what I’m going through,” Damien said.

In the grounds of the luxurious compound where they stay, the group often sits around smoking — the only vice allowed — and discussing their lives before rehab.

Instructor and owner of the gym Phil Burns.

Program director Alastair Mordey.

Christian, 26, from Sydney’s inner west, fell in with the ‘wrong crowd’ and soon found himself hooked on gambling and cocaine.

The young builder recalls how he became deceitful and dishonest at the height of his addiction, describing the person he became as “manipulative and scheming.”

It broke the hearts of his proud Lebanese-Australian parents who had worked hard to provide for their children.

“It’s been eight years of sleepless night for my mum. Eight years of worrying that the doorbell was going to ring, or am I going to get a phone call that something has happened to her son,” he said.

“I’m just glad that at the moment she’s been able to sleep for the last nine weeks.”

Many of the Australian men there went to ‘The Cabin’ after witnessing addictions slowly killing their parents.

The realisation addiction was slowly killing their parents was a common reason among the men for eventually taking the step to enter The Cabin.

Patrick, 19, from Perth never thought he had a problem with ice.

For years he was lying to his family and friends, often getting dressed for work then driving around the corner and getting out of his uniform.

He’d call in sick and then spend the day in an ice haze before getting back into uniform and returning home in the afternoon.

“I couldn’t take seeing my mum in tears every single day,” he said.

“Being here means she’s probably sleeping for the first time in years.”