Addiction to drugs and alcohol is a big problem all over the planet. One form of treatment that has helped many people is ibogaine therapy. While the compound is illegal in the United States, many patients are treated successfully at ibogaine clinics around the world. Many say that the ibogaine detox process is easier because ibogaine can help with the painful withdrawals that prevent many from trying to quit using drugs or alcohol.
The compound is harvested from the bark of a West African shrub. In the areas where the plants grow, iboga has been used for thousands of years in spiritual ceremonies and is often considered integral to person’s passage into adulthood. It is widely considered to be one of the strongest psychedelic substances on the planet.
In the 1960s, scientists began to look to the substance as a way to treat addiction to drugs and alcohol. It has also been looked at as a treatment for depression. The ibogaine detox makes it easier for people to stop taking opioids and other powerful drugs. It has also been found to be useful in treating addictions to alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine.
How does ibogaine drug treatment work?
For many people, one exposure to heroin is enough to become totally addicted. Looking at how the brain responds to this powerful drug can give you an idea of how the ibogaine detox process works and why this can be such a successful way to treat addiction.
When ibogaine therapy is attempted, the compound effectively resets the brain chemistry to a point before it was exposed to drugs or alcohol. This is similar to the way heroin changes the brain chemistry to make it crave heroin. The ibogaine detox works like heroin in reverse. While the exact mechanism of action is not yet fully understood, the results of ibogaine therapy speak for themselves.
What is the ibogaine treatment process?
After a patient is given ibogaine, the body converts it into nor-ibogaine. This is stored in the fat cells in the body. The impact of the ibogaine can be felt within 72 and 96 hours after it has been administered. The patients to whom it has been given stop feeling the need to take the drugs or to drink alcohol. They also experience fewer thoughts of using than people who try to recover from their addictions in other settings.
How does the ibogaine detox process occur?
There are several stages to the ibogaine treatment process.
- Early ibogaine impact comes between one and three hours after it has been ingested. After a patient is given the ibogaine, the impact of the compound takes between one and three hours after it has been taken. People, during this phase, will experience a reduction in the physical and psychological symptoms that are often associated with withdrawal.
- The next phase starts between four and eight hours after ibogaine is administered. This is the most intense part of the treatment. This is when most people experience the hallucinogenic effects of the ibogaine treatment. If the person undergoing ibogaine detox is going to experience any ataxia, this is when that would occur.
- The third stage of the treatment lasts from eight to 20 hours. During this part of the treatment, the center will work with the patient to deconstruct and make some sense of what the person experienced in the second stage. There may be a lot of issues and emotions that come up that need to be addressed and dealt with. Most people prefer to have some quiet reflection time during this part of the ibogaine drug treatment.
- The last stage lasts anywhere between 24 and 72 hours. Most people are pretty tired by this point. This is a less introspective part of the treatment. People start to “rejoin” the world at this point.
Like any drug or alcohol recovery process, the ibogaine detox process and experience is very different for everyone who goes through it. It is very important for people, who are going through any detox and recovery process to let it happen in the time they need it to. It is important to not expect to have the same experience that another person has had. When people try to impose an artificial timeline on the recovery process, it only makes it much more difficult.
