As the 12-step program -- whose branches include Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous, among others -- continues to be a huge part of the worldwide recovery landscape, there rages the inevitable debate over whether this long-standing phenomenon is really the best avenue for people seeking help from substance addiction and other problems.

With the nation’s drug problem attracting huge media attention, and having spent 11 years addicted to opiates myself -- now three years clean -- I’ve increasingly come to consider what addiction is, exactly.

I was once in a rehab in California where a counselor -- speaking about the tranquility of our surroundings and the friendly people within -- remarked, “If you’re not happy here, I suggest you take a good long look in the mirror because you’re not gonna find a nicer place than this.” Well, great! I was still miserable.

For all the magic that ibogaine can perform on an opiate dependency, it lacks the same facility with benzodiazepines, another highly addictive class of drugs that has also cast notoriety on the pharmaceutical business.

Though iboga is something of a miraculous plant, this world is not one of panaceas — and iboga is no exception. Iboga is a time-honored medicine from Gabon, Africa, historically used in adulthood initiation rituals. In the United States the 1960’s, iboga was accidentally discovered to have a very peculiar quality: it reverses many of the symptoms of opiate withdrawal, and ultimately helps to revitalize the brain from damage exacted by drug use. In recent years, studies have shown Ibogaine (the medical term for the iboga-extract that is widely used in treatments) to be effective in treating conditions ranging from addiction, to depression, to Parkinson’s Disease.

Traditional addiction rehabs have long been based in the 12-step approaches of alcoholics and narcotics anonymous, yet such channels, while effective for some, are not a good fit for every person. For some people, the methods of 12-step do not resonate in any significant way, and may even feel off-putting; among those who are attracted to the 12-step method, many have trouble sticking with the process long enough to reach a place of stability.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, depression is a condition marked by sadness and a loss of interest in activities that a person once enjoyed. Clinical depression tends to differ from normal sadness in that it is more permanent, and may linger independent of any specific trigger or event. People with depression may experience a general low mood or periods of lethargy, disinterest, low self-esteem, changes in sleeping, eating and lifestyle, and/or sadness that last days, weeks or months.