Digital life · Doomscrolling
What many guests describe after the retreat is a quieter mind: mornings that do not start with the worst news of the day, and room to care about the world without drowning in it. Since 2012 we have held a medically supervised iboga retreat on the Mayan Riviera near Cancun, Mexico, where a traditional Missoko Bwiti ceremony is paired with therapy and three months of follow-up at home. If you keep scrolling bad news late into the night, you are not alone.
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Room to Look Up
Doomscrolling: the ceremony, the numbers, the research and how to prepare.
How it works
Doomscrolling is not a medical diagnosis, and no study has tested iboga or ibogaine for it. So we never promise a change in the habit itself. What we offer is a supervised opening alongside therapy: days away from the news feed, a long night of reflection held by a tradition and a medical team, then three months of support at home.
Before you travel, our physician reviews your health and your medicines. On the night she and the medical team are in the room. The practitioner gives the medicine in steps, watching each guest.
In the Missoko Bwiti tradition the ceremony begins with the person, not the habit. Guests often describe a long, lucid review of their life, sometimes including the fear that kept them scrolling, and what is truly theirs to act on. Belief is not required.
You keep your phone until the first ceremony, then it goes in a drawer until the last integration day. Around that come screening with our psychologist, the ceremonies, a life review the next day, then three months of integration calls.
How iboga acts on the brain
Doomscrolling runs on threat: bad news grabs attention, checking feels like control, and the loop tightens as worry grows. In theory, the iboga alkaloids touch systems tied to that loop. Ibogaine and its long-lived metabolite noribogaine act on the serotonin transporter, which is tied to mood. Noribogaine also acts on kappa opioid receptors, part of the brain's stress system. In animal studies, a single dose switched on growth-factor genes in reward circuits, which may relate to the brain's capacity to change a habit.
None of this has been tested for doomscrolling. The best human data come from small open-label studies, such as one of 30 veterans published in Nature Medicine in 2024, which had no control group. Read it as theory, not proof. More on the science in how iboga works.
What we have seen since 2012
Since 2012 we have welcomed 7,677 guests. Many arrived carrying the news of the world in their pocket. In that time we have seen a traditional treatment help people with this kind of struggle, sometimes profoundly and lastingly.
Guests describe the first days without headlines as uneasy, then lighter. Some say they went home still caring about the world, but able to choose when to look, and to put the phone down when it was enough. This is our experience, not a clinical study.
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 what iboga cannot hold and carries the integration; Dr Villarreal keeps the body safe.
Safety
Three things matter most: your mental health history, what may surface during the night, and an honest medical screening.
Your mind. We screen for anxiety, depression and PTSD, including after exposure to disaster or war. We also ask directly about thoughts of suicide or self-harm. A history of psychosis or bipolar disorder usually means this is not the right path: mania has been reported after ibogaine, even in people with no earlier diagnosis.
What may surface. World events, and the fear or grief they carry, can come up during the ceremony. Our team is ready for that. The next day you talk it through with the practitioner and the psychologist.
Your body. Every guest has a medical screening before travel; read how we protect your heart. Tell us every medicine you take, and never stop one on your own. Guests must be 18 or older.
Who it is for
The retreat suits people who want a real pause from the news and are ready to keep working after it.
Adults who lose hours to bad news, feel anxious or low after scrolling, and want a long, honest look at the fear underneath. It fits best if you are in therapy or ready to start.
Active psychosis or recent mania, acute suicidality, PTSD that is not yet stable, a medication that cannot be tapered in time, pregnancy, or a serious medical condition. The psychologist and the physician decide together; sometimes the answer is a later date.
Why it is hard
Doomscrolling is a popular word, not a diagnosis: it is not in DSM-5-TR or ICD-11. Researchers describe it as compulsive scrolling through negative news that starts as staying informed. In one US study it was less common than media reports suggest. Men and younger people reported more of it.
Threatening news grabs attention, and checking feels like control. Feeds remove the natural stopping points. In randomized experiments, 2 to 4 minutes of COVID news lowered positive mood compared with a control group. Many studies link doomscrolling with anxiety and low mood, but they cannot yet say which comes first.
How to cope
No trial has targeted doomscrolling itself. Psychological treatment for problem internet and smartphone use does help in studies. Anxiety or depression underneath responds to standard care. The steps below are low risk, even if the evidence for each one is thin.
Turn off news alerts. Pick one or two set times a day for the news, and keep them out of bed. Choose a source with an end, such as a daily summary, over an endless feed. When you notice the pull at night, put the phone in another room and do something with your hands.
Change what you scroll, too: in the same experiments, stories of kindness did not lower mood. If the feed in general is the trap, read our page on how to quit social media. If worry or low mood stays with you, see a therapist; CBT is a good place to start.
If you are thinking about ending your life, call or text 988 in the US, or 9-8-8 in Canada, today. In the US you can also chat at chat.988lifeline.org or text HOME to 741741. For free referrals to mental health care in the US, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357); it is not a crisis line.
Dates
Open retreats and the dedicated veterans' dates. Eight guests each; full list on the schedule.
The world will still be there in the morning. Come as you are; we will hold the night with you.
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 doomscrolling
Compulsively scrolling through bad news, often late at night, long after it stops being useful. The word became popular in 2020. It is not a medical diagnosis.
It is not a diagnosis, and it is not in DSM-5-TR or ICD-11. Researchers study it as a problem habit, with their own questionnaires, but there is no agreed cutoff for when it becomes a problem.
Threatening news grabs attention, and checking feels like control. Feeds have no natural end, so there is nowhere to stop. Anxiety and doomscrolling may feed each other.
It is linked to anxiety, distress and lower well-being in many surveys. Most were snapshots in time, so the cause is not proven. In experiments, a few minutes of bad news lowered mood for a while.
There is no official limit. A useful test is how you feel after: if you come away more anxious and no better informed, set a time and a stopping point.
In one US study, younger people and men reported more doomscrolling, with no difference by political ideology.
No study has tested iboga or ibogaine for doomscrolling, so we do not claim it does. A news-free retreat is a pause, not proof of change. What we offer is a supervised night of reflection inside a tradition, with a psychologist before and after.
Mostly, yes. You keep your phone until the first ceremony, then it goes in a drawer until the last integration day. Tell us if anyone needs to reach you, and we will plan that before you arrive.
You've carried this long enough. Start with a conversation with our medical team.
