#57 - Lee Bowes: The Fighter's War in the Head

A UK boxer feels like his brain is failing and his life is closing in. Lee Bowes (@leebo4080) shares what it is like to live with chronic TBI symptoms, and what changed after ibogaine.

Host Talia Eisenberg speaks with Lee about the hidden cost of boxing: memory loss, confusion, depression, anxiety, panic, PTSD symptoms, and early cognitive decline. Lee traces how trauma shaped his nervous system long before the ring, then describes the years of head impacts, a brain bleed that ended his career, and the spiral into isolation when conventional options did not work. Lee explains why he chose ibogaine at Beond, how the coaching helped him stay with fear during the experience, and what shifted afterward in clarity, mood, hope, and his ability to speak, plan, and feel a future again.

Lee Bowes is a UK based boxer from Middlesbrough who participated in Beond’s athlete cohort. After years of competition and daily sparring, he developed severe neurological and mental health symptoms consistent with chronic traumatic brain injury, including panic attacks, cognitive disorientation, mood instability, and PTSD. He now speaks publicly about athlete brain injury and the need for accessible, restorative treatment options.

Timestamps

• (02:00) Boxing background, identity, and what happens when the lights go off
• (03:30) Lee’s first major trauma
• (07:00) Losing his mother, becoming caretaker, and channeling pain into fighting
• (10:00) Brain bleed, surgery, rehab, and the first panic attack from disorientation
• (13:00) Medication, isolation, and self medicating
• (18:00) How he found ibogaine
• (21:30) Inside the experience
• (28:30) What changed after
• (31:00) Lee’s message to fighters