I did ibogaine in 2014 for opiate/polydrug addiction (but specifically for opiates, I did not intend on quitting all drugs). It worked tremendously well, in fact it was never hell for me either, it was a really interesting experience. I wrote about it. Honestly it changed my life a lot, I came out of it (it was a week-long experience all things told, I did a follow-up dose 6 days layer, days 4-5 were rough and I had a bit of a relapse, but it all came together on day 7) with absolutely no desire for opiates and a strong desire to get to bed early, wake up early work out every day first thing, eat well... I was coming out of an abusive long-term, relationship and I felt like a new man, I went out into the world, rediscovered music (my passion), deepened my friendships... the 2 years afterwards were incredible. I did psychedelics sometimes and drank sometimes, but I had a good relationship with things.
It's been over 6 years and unfortunately a few years ago I started experienxcing some of the worst emotional pain in my life... the past 2, 2.5 years have been really rough, my dad slowly wasted away and died horribly, painful divorce, financial issues from divorce. I slipped back into old patterns to deal, eventually, when it got too much. Relapsed on opiates for about 8 months (that's past), been abusing gabaergics mostly. I'm trying to dig myself out of that now.
I will say I feel like my life is subdivided into pre and post iboga. I was in a MUCH worse place before iboga, I basically wanted to die every day, and had no hope that things could improve. Now I will always know that I can be who I want to be, I just have to work at it.
I think a flood dose is a once in a lifetime thing for most people... I strongly feel that I should never do that again even though I loved my experience and it altered my life (my subconscious behavior especially, and also my dream architecture seemingly permanently). It's rather harrowing and it also seems to affect different people differently, for me it made me dream whether awake or asleep for 3 full days and then had a lot of different slowly fading more subtle effects. It was kind of a miracle, and seemed utterly miraculous at the time. But you have to be very ready to change, I was primed for change, having just split with my abusive ex wife. I put in the work right afterwards and my life blossomed, but I think it would have been much less powerful if I had just kept on doing the same stuff afterwards.
Its most profound effect was not in quitting opiates (though that was profound - and I was VERY ready to quit I should add - because I literally did not want them at all once the experience fully sunk in. No cravings for 5+ years). The most profound effect was how it seemed to deprogram what was then my entire adult life's worth of bad mental patterns. I reconnected with the child me, the part that believes anything is possible and knows what he wants. It was like a switch flipped and the way I approached life and thought about myself changed in a very positive direction, and that's the part that I still carry with me.
