Finding Support

Medical care and medication

Support to stop safely, with care that looks beyond the substance.

Reaching out can be an important first step, especially when you need support with withdrawal, cravings or understanding what is happening in your body.

Medication can help people get through withdrawal and, for certain addictions, reduce cravings and serious harm. But your care deserves to include more than a prescription. There also needs to be space to explore what keeps drawing you back: the triggers, distress, habits or circumstances that make escaping feel necessary.

For some people, medication is temporary. For others, particularly those recovering from opioid dependence, longer treatment can be lifesaving. The right duration should be decided together with your clinician, with regular reviews and a clear understanding of its purpose. Taking medication long term does not mean someone has failed at recovery.

The goal is to build a life you can cope with, connect with and feel present in, with support that helps you get there.

You can change

We’re often told that change is hard, that we’re wired a certain way, or that trauma leaves us damaged for life. But the truth is far more hopeful: our brains can change, and so can our habits, behaviours and patterns.

The patterns that have kept you stuck may be deeply ingrained, but they are not who you are. With time and the right support, you can learn new ways to respond to triggers, manage impulses and find relief without reaching for the same things.

That might involve therapy, medication, rehabilitation, a recovery community, or a combination of approaches. It can also include working with your mindset, the language you use with yourself and the everyday habits that support your healing.

Change takes commitment, but it also takes compassion. It may not happen in a straight line, and setbacks don’t erase the progress you’ve made. You don’t have to figure it all out alone.

You are more than the thing you keep reaching for. Your patterns can change. Your life can change.

Therapies that may help

Different approaches can support different parts of recovery. Some help us understand our patterns. Others help us cope with the feelings, triggers and urges that make those patterns so hard to change.

Psychedelic-assisted therapies

Making room for different possibilities

This subject matters deeply to our founder because psychedelic-assisted therapies are what helped her the most, so we are hoping for better conversations, better research and better access to appropriate care. It also makes it important to distinguish personal testimony from what we can confidently say will help someone else.

Psilocybin: studies have explored its use alongside psychological support for alcohol use disorder and tobacco dependence. A 2022 randomised trial involving 93 adults with alcohol use disorder found fewer heavy drinking days in the psilocybin group than in the active-placebo group; both groups received psychotherapy. Early smoking studies have also shown encouraging results. These findings support further research, rather than a promise that psilocybin will work for everyone.

Ibogaine has shown encouraging potential to reduce withdrawal and cravings and help some people interrupt persistent patterns of substance use. Research has focused largely on opioids, but studies have also explored benefits for cocaine, alcohol and use of multiple substances, with some participants reporting reduced use or periods of abstinence after treatment. These findings deserve attention, although larger, controlled studies are needed to establish how reliably the benefits last.

Some people also report stopping smoking or vaping after ibogaine, although clinical evidence for nicotine dependence remains particularly limited. Those experiences matter, while being distinct from established research findings.

Its potential extends beyond getting through withdrawal: for some, it may offer an opportunity to step out of a deeply ingrained cycle and begin building a different relationship with life.

Ibogaine carries serious risks, including potentially fatal heart rhythm complications. Specialist medical screening and continuous cardiac monitoring are essential but cannot eliminate those risks. Preparation, follow-up care and ongoing recovery support also deserve a central place in any treatment approach.

Other substances: LSD, MDMA, Ketamine and other approaches are being investigated in different contexts. Evidence for one condition cannot automatically be applied to another.

“Aren’t you just taking another drug?”

That question can carry a great deal of judgement.

A carefully assessed therapeutic intervention can have a very different purpose and context from repeated use to escape everyday life. People deserve room to explain that distinction without having their recovery dismissed.

At the same time, therapeutic intention does not remove risk. Classic psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD do not typically lead to addiction; other substances in this conversation have different risk profiles.

An honest discussion needs room for both possibility and caution. Some psychedelic experiences can be deeply confronting, bringing you face to face with grief, fear or parts of yourself you have spent years avoiding. These sessions may be far from enjoyable, and some people describe them as among the hardest experiences of their lives.

For some, working through that material with skilled support can lead to meaningful change. But distress alone does not mean healing is happening, and a breakthrough does not have to involve an overwhelming experience.

These treatments are not for everyone. Their potential for compulsive use also differs: some substances, particularly ketamine, can become addictive, while repeatedly seeking another experience can become a way of avoiding the work of bringing change into everyday life.

Explore your options. Plan for what comes afterwards.

Psychedelics can open the door. What you do afterwards helps turn that opening into lasting change.

Psychedelic-assisted therapies have been transformational for some people, helping them recognise patterns, connect with difficult emotions and see possibilities that previously felt out of reach. They are not a magic pill. An experience can reveal something important, but recognising a pattern and changing how you live with it are different parts of recovery.

Access differs around the world. The rules depend on the substance, country and sometimes the state or region. Australia has specific prescribing pathways for MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression, rather than general access for addiction treatment. In the Netherlands, psilocybin-containing truffles can be sold legally, while psychedelic mushrooms are prohibited. Legal availability of a substance does not automatically mean a service is regulated medical treatment.

Stay curious and do your research. Google can be a starting point, but check current information with health authorities and qualified professionals. Look beyond a retreat’s testimonials: ask about screening, practitioner qualifications, emergency care and the support available when you return home.

The experience is only part of the work

In How to Change Your Mind, Michael Pollan shares researcher Mendel Kaelen’s metaphor of fresh snow covering well-worn tracks. It offers a way to imagine loosening familiar thinking patterns and finding another route. It is a metaphor for possibility, rather than a promise that the brain has been permanently reset.

That is where integration and aftercare come in. What did you notice? What needs attention? What will you practise differently when stress, cravings or familiar triggers return?

Therapy, connection, rest, nourishing routines and practical changes to your environment can help you work with what emerged. Plan that support before treatment, including who you can contact if you feel unsettled afterwards. Returning to everyday life can be challenging, even after an experience that felt profoundly helpful.

Your recovery does not need to follow someone else’s path to be valid.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

CBT can help you recognise the connection between thoughts, feelings and behaviour. In addiction care, this can mean identifying triggers, noticing the thoughts that pull you towards using and practising different responses. It gives you practical tools to use when an old pattern starts to take over.

Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT)

DBT builds skills in emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness and relationships. It may be particularly helpful when intense emotions or difficulty coping with distress contribute to substance use. The aim is to build ways to get through painful moments without making life harder afterwards.

Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP)

MBRP combines mindfulness practices with relapse prevention skills. It helps you recognise cravings, emotional discomfort and automatic reactions, and practise responding with more awareness. You learn to notice an urge without immediately having to follow it. Randomised research supports its potential as continuing care after initial addiction treatment, although outcomes vary.

Trauma therapy and somatic support

Where trauma or PTSD is present, appropriate trauma treatment may be important alongside addiction care.

Somatic therapy brings attention to what is happening in the body as well as the mind. For some people, noticing tension, shutdown, agitation or overwhelm can help them recognise a trigger earlier and practise ways to feel more grounded.

For me, somatic therapy has been about gently lifting layers and building my capacity to cope. When a trigger rises, or pain surfaces and I want to run towards something that will numb it, I am learning to recognise what is happening and support myself through it. That capacity has grown through ongoing work, at a pace I can manage.

Evidence for somatic approaches as addiction treatments is still developing. They can sit alongside established care, rather than carrying the whole weight of recovery.

You should have a say in the pace of this work. Feeling pushed beyond what you can manage is something to discuss, not something you must endure to prove you want to heal.

Rehabilitation and what comes afterwards

Residential rehabilitation offers a structured setting away from everyday pressures. Outpatient treatment allows people to receive support while living at home.

Ask what the program actually provides. Who delivers the care? How are trauma and other health conditions addressed? What happens if someone struggles? What support continues after discharge?

Recovery needs somewhere to go when the program ends.

Over the coming months, we’ll build a directory of rehabilitation programs, addiction treatment centres and other supportive settings. We’ll include options for people seeking treatment and for those looking for ongoing support as they return to everyday life.

Community and belonging

Connection can give recovery somewhere to land. Being around people who understand, having someone to call and finding places where you can speak honestly can make difficult moments less isolating.

These are peer communities, rather than individual therapies. Different groups offer different ways of finding support:

• SMART Recovery: a practical, skills-based approach to changing addictive behaviours, with online and in-person meetings. It focuses on motivation, managing urges, thoughts and feelings, and building a balanced life.
• Recovery Dharma: a peer-led approach inspired by Buddhist principles, using meditation, self-inquiry and community to support recovery.
• LifeRing Secular Recovery: a secular peer-support community that encourages people to build their own recovery plans through shared experience and practical support, including online meetings.
• Through the Door: a peer-led group that helps with recovery but also allows the exploration of psychedelic-assisted therapy support, aftercare and integration
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA): a Twelve Step fellowship for people who want to stop drinking, built around shared experience and mutual support.
• Narcotics Anonymous (NA): a Twelve Step fellowship supporting recovery from drug addiction.

Connection can also grow through sober friendships, volunteering, creative groups, movement and shared interests. Recovery needs room for belonging, purpose and enjoyment.

Groups vary, including in how conversations about medication or emerging treatments are received. You are allowed to look for a space where you can speak honestly and be treated respectfully.

Keep looking for support that fits. A treatment that hasn’t helped enough does not mean you are beyond help.