Are there more drug rehab options available than you think?

As thousands of people in North America consider the prospect of attending a rehab facility for relief from addiction, they are faced with some daunting questions:

• Can I afford it?
• Will there be space available for me?
• After all the time and money to be invested, will it work for me?

In light of these questions, there are options, even advantages, to be found in facilities outside of the US and Canada.

In this blog post I’ll share some thoughts on these questions as a coach in the transformational recovery and entheogen healing space, and offer my insights into the often unexplored and surprising benefits of international rehab.

Can I afford it?

This is the biggest barrier to rehabilitation for most people. It’s expensive! Many facilities in US & Canada charge $40k or more per month! The vast majority of people struggling with addiction cannot afford this. These rehab centers will tell you it’s worth it because it’s saving a life. And they tell you they will take some types of insurance. But how much of this is marketing and pricing strategy designed to support the business model of the facility?

At the end of the day, these North American rehab centers follow the “addiction is a disease” model. This way of looking at addiction is to a large extent a product of the American War on Drugs, and treats those struggling with addiction as a revenue source, not as human beings. And like the rest of the prescription-based treatment system, they are designed to support and take advantage of the pharmaceutical industry and health insurance system. Not to mention that similar to big pharma’s prescription model, addiction treatment centers profit on client retention – by finding ways to prolong the recovery process.

International treatment centers, on the other hand, can be much more affordable – sometimes as little as a third of the cost, even when you add round-trip travel. These centers based outside the US and Canada do not have to pay for the North American medical system overhead, including licensure, prescription medications, marketing and competing with other similar rehab centers. International rehab is a good option to consider simply based on price alone.

Will there be space available for me?

If money is not an object, what about time? Many North American rehabs have a lengthy intake process and months-long waiting list for entry. They simply do not have enough “beds” to support everyone that needs help. After all, this is an in-patient model, and everyone admitted will spend weeks or months 24/7 at the facility. Can you or your loved one struggling with addiction afford to wait for treatment following this model? Do you want to have to compete for entry to a facility like this?

Rehab centers based abroad have a much more rapid intake process, and often no waiting list. Again, this is largely due to the fact that they do not have to work within the North American prescription medical model and its dependence on pharmaceuticals and insurance. This means the person struggling with addiction can begin treatment a lot sooner, and get off of prescription abstinence medications like suboxone, methadone & naltrexone.

Will it work for me?

In North America we’re surrounded by the medical media model telling us that addiction is a disease, and that it’s only treatable by licensed professionals at approved facilities over lengthy amounts of time for large amounts of money.

Like so much else in the North American media landscape, a lot of this is fear-based marketing, and is designed to make the person struggling with addiction (and their loved ones) feel trapped with very few options available for survival. These centers tell you they offer the only option that will keep an addicted individual from dying.

International rehab centers are not part of this media model, and have not been built to support and profit from the pharmaceutical and insurance systems that surround us in the US and Canada. International rehab centers can offer many advantages in treatment that are simply not available in North American treatment centers. 

An international rehab center that I have visited and experienced is Sacred Rebels Recovery, an Ayahuasca & addiction recovery retreat center an hour from Iquitos, Peru.

Sacred Rebels Recovery provides non-addictive psychedelic therapy for addiction recovery. Like many other international rehab centers, Sacred Rebels Recovery provides access to services and features not available in North American rehab facilities. 

Sacred Rebels Recovery uses ayahuasca and other plant teachers as tools to help those faced with addiction to transform themselves. These natural psychedelic tools can truly change the addicted individual’s view of themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. This plant-medicine-based approach to addiction recovery is currently unavailable in the US and Canada, even in Colorado and Oregon where decriminalization is underway.

Centers like Sacred Rebels Recovery provide the opportunity to experience traditional indigenous healing practices using centuries-old plant medicines like oje, ajo sacha, bobinsana and ayahuasca. They offer land-based healing, with options for clients to spend time enjoying and working with nature, and with no access to addictive substances. 

Another advantage of undergoing recovery abroad is that clients can completely remove themselves from the environment that they used substances in, and do so for an extended period of time (1-3 months). Separating themselves from the city or town they used in — and the people that support their addiction — is essential to the success of recovery. In addition, time away gives the family or care-givers of the client in treatment a break and a healthy distance to allow space for healing on both sides.

Many international rehab centers also add a layer of adventure to the experience, within a safe container. Clients have the opportunity to experience a different local culture, art and spiritual perspective that is often helpful with transformational recovery.

Witter Coaching partners with Sacred Rebels Recovery, an Ayahuasca & addiction recovery retreat center an hour from Iquitos, Peru. I’ve personally visited the center, met the proprietors, and experienced the wisdom of their process of working with the medicine.

As we see in all areas of the psychedelic healing and therapy space, those providing transformational services must practice sound harm reduction. This is one of the most important questions to consider, and will be covered in my next post.

Upcoming post: Questions to ask when searching for international rehab