Depersonalization and derealization
Since 2012 we have held a medically supervised iboga retreat on the Mayan Riviera near Cancun, Mexico: a traditional Missoko Bwiti ceremony, a psychologist, then three months of follow-up at home. If you feel unreal or far from yourself, the first way we help is by being honest. Cannabis and psychedelics are common triggers of DPDR, so we screen with great care. For many people, the right first step is a specialist, not a ceremony.
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Feet on the Ground
Depersonalization and derealization: the ceremony, the numbers, the research and how to prepare.
How it works
Feeling detached from yourself, or as if the world sits behind glass, is frightening. What we offer is a supervised setting, a team that asks the right questions, and a straight answer about whether iboga belongs in your path at all.
No study has tested iboga or ibogaine for depersonalization-derealization disorder. What follows comes from our experience with 7,677 guests since 2012. For anyone we accept, it is a supervised opening alongside therapy, never a replacement for it.
Every guest has a medical screening and bloodwork before travel. The physician reviews every medicine and every substance you have used, then stays in the room through the ceremony.
The Missoko Bwiti tradition of Gabon is held with music, a fire and a practitioner beside you. Guests often describe a long, dream-like night of looking back at their life. That intensity is exactly why the screening for unreality comes first.
Tania, our psychologist, asks about any lasting unreality after cannabis, psychedelics, ketamine or ecstasy before anything is booked. If you come, she prepares you and works with you the day after. Three months of integration calls follow at home.
How iboga acts on the brain
In lab studies, ibogaine binds a site on the brain's NMDA glutamate receptor, the same kind of site where ketamine acts. In theory that matters for DPDR: ketamine can produce dissociative feelings of unreality in healthy volunteers. Whether ibogaine can start or worsen DPDR has never been studied, so we read that gap as a reason for care.
In a small supervised study, people described closed-eye visions, vivid memories and wakeful dreaming for three to seven hours. Animal studies also suggest effects on serotonin and on growth factors linked to plasticity, but none of this shows a benefit for DPDR. The strongest human study so far (Cherian et al., Nature Medicine, 2024) followed 30 veterans with brain injuries; it was not a study of DPDR.More on how iboga works.
What we have seen since 2012
Since 2012, with 7,677 guests, we have seen a traditional treatment help people with this kind of struggle, sometimes profoundly and lastingly. Most often these were guests who arrived numb, flat or far from their own lives after trauma, grief or depression, without a diagnosis of DPDR.
They describe feeling present in their body again, faces seeming closer, emotions coming back, sometimes more strongly than they expected. Others felt little change, and some needed weeks of integration to settle. This is our experience, not a clinical study. It does not apply to DPDR that began with a drug.
Who holds it
Michael and Cory open and hold the ceremony. Tania, our psychologist with close to a decade at Mexico's National Institute of Psychiatry, screens for dissociation and carries the integration. Dr Villarreal keeps the body safe, in the room all night.
Safety
Cannabis and hallucinogens are a common trigger of depersonalization-derealization disorder. In a survey of 394 adults with chronic DPDR, about half said a drug started it, most often cannabis or a hallucinogen. Iboga is a powerful psychoactive plant, so this risk is real.
Please do not come if your DPDR began with cannabis, psychedelics, ketamine or ecstasy, or if you feel unreal or detached most days right now. In both cases we recommend specialist care first, with a psychiatrist or psychologist who knows dissociation. We will tell you so kindly and plainly, even after a discovery call.
For every guest, the physician reviews your medicines. The psychologist screens for panic, depression, suicidal thoughts, trauma and psychosis. Guests must be 18 or over. Read how we protect your heart.
Who it is for
The psychologist and the physician decide together. A no today is not a judgment of you; it is the safest answer we can give.
Adults 18 or over whose moments of unreality were brief and passed fully, with no drug at the start. People coming for something we work with, such as trauma, grief or addiction, with their own clinician informed.
Current DPDR or active dissociation, DPDR that began with cannabis, psychedelics, ketamine or ecstasy, active psychosis or recent mania, acute suicidal thoughts, a medicine that cannot be tapered in time, or pregnancy. For DPDR, the better path is specialist care first.
Why it is hard
Fear of going crazy, checking yourself for symptoms and avoiding situations can all keep DPDR going. Stress, anxiety, poor sleep and substance use make it stronger. It usually starts in the mid-teens, around 16 on average, and often lasts for years.
Brief moments of unreality are very common: 26 to 74% of people report them at some point. The disorder itself affects about 1 in 100 people, men and women equally. One recent review links it to avoiding overwhelming emotion and to changes in brain networks, not to a brain that is broken.
How to cope
Start with the most reassuring fact: in DPDR, your sense of what is real stays intact. You are not losing your mind, and the feeling is not psychosis.
See a psychiatrist or psychologist who knows dissociative disorders. CBT has the most support so far: in one open study of 21 patients, 29% no longer met the criteria afterwards. The evidence is still thin, with only four randomized trials among 41 studies.
Medication results are mixed. Lamotrigine helped in one trial of 80 men but not in a smaller crossover trial, and no medicine is approved for DPDR. Ask your doctor before starting or stopping anything.
At home, work on what feeds it: protect your sleep, lower your stress, step away from cannabis or psychedelics. Try to notice the feeling without checking it or fighting it.
If you have thoughts of ending your life, call or text 988 in the United States, or 9-8-8 in Canada, at any hour. In the US you can also text HOME to 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.
To find a therapist or psychiatrist in the US, the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) gives free, confidential referrals 24/7, and findtreatment.gov lists services. In Canada, dial 2-1-1 for referrals to local services.
Dates
Open retreats and the dedicated veterans' dates. Eight guests each; full list on the schedule.
With unreality, the kindest thing we can offer is an honest screening. Sometimes the right first step is a specialist, and the ceremony waits.
Pricing, US dollars
All inclusive from Cancún airport: screening, ceremonies, room, meals, three months of follow-up. All payments are final, see the terms. Full pricing.
Questions about depersonalization and derealization
Feeling detached from yourself, as if you were watching yourself from outside, with emotions muted or numb. It can come in brief moments or last for long stretches.
The world around you feels unreal, foggy, distant or dreamlike. Many people have both, and the WHO groups them as one disorder, depersonalization-derealization disorder.
No. In DPDR your reality testing stays intact: you know the feeling is a feeling. That is one of the things that sets it apart from psychosis.
Yes. In a survey of 394 adults with chronic DPDR, cannabis was the most common drug trigger, followed by hallucinogens and ecstasy. Most had used only modestly before it began.
Hallucinogens are a known trigger. Whether iboga or ibogaine can trigger DPDR has never been studied. That is why we screen so carefully, and why we say no when DPDR began with a drug.
It is often long-lasting, but it can change. In one survey, cases that started with a drug improved more over time. Stress, poor sleep and substance use tend to make it stronger, so easing them is a sensible place to start.
No study shows that it does, and given how often drugs trigger DPDR, it may carry real risk. If you have DPDR now, or it began with a drug, please see a specialist first. We would rather lose a booking than make it worse.
CBT has the most support, though the research is small: 41 studies with about 300 people in total. A psychiatrist can talk you through medication options; none is approved for DPDR.
Tell us on the health form and the discovery call. The psychologist asks how it started, how long it lasted and whether any trace remains. If it began with a drug, the answer is usually no.
You've carried this long enough. Start with a conversation with our medical team.
