What We Treat
Ibogaine for behavioral disorders
No substance, same addiction. Gambling, sex and porn, food, the feed: different products, one reward loop, engineered by industries that profit from keeping it running.
Addiction without the substance
A behavioral disorder, in the sense this section means it, is an addiction with no drug in it. The loop is chemical anyway: anticipation, reward, relief, repeat, running on the same dopamine circuitry substances hijack, producing the same craving, the same loss of control, the same continuing long after it stopped being fun.⁷⁷
Psychiatry has been slow and careful here, and honestly so. Gambling disorder is the only behavioral addiction with full diagnostic status in DSM-5. The WHO added gaming disorder and compulsive sexual behaviour disorder to ICD-11, the latter filed under impulse control rather than addiction.⁶⁴ The pages below carry those distinctions instead of flattening them.
One review went as far as arguing that, counting behaviors alongside substances, nearly half of US adults show signs of at least one addictive disorder in a given year.⁷⁸ Loose definitions, and we quote it as an argument rather than a fact. The narrower point stands on its own: the loop does not need a molecule.
behavioral addiction holds full diagnostic status in DSM-5: gambling disorder.⁷⁷
American adults showed at least one sign of a gambling problem in 2024.⁵⁹
Americans estimated to face an eating disorder in their lifetime.⁶⁸
of US adults show signs of at least one addictive disorder in a year, by one deliberately broad review.⁷⁸
One honest sentence before the button
No clinical trial has tested ibogaine for any condition on this page, and we would rather tell you that in large type than have you find out later. The reasoning that brings people here anyway, the shared reward circuitry and the pattern-interrupt ibogaine is known for, lives on each page, next to the numbers. The consultation exists to work out whether any of it reasonably applies to you, and cardiac screening comes before everything, because it rules some people out.
Citations (12)
[59] National Council on Problem Gambling (2024). NGAGE 3.0 National Survey: Key Findings. National Council on Problem Gambling, survey fielded by Ipsos, January–March 2024. Read the source →
US national survey finding that roughly 8% of American adults, about 20 million people, showed at least one indicator of problematic gambling in 2024. NCPG separately estimates that about 1% of US adults meet criteria for a severe gambling problem. "One indicator of risk" is a much broader net than a clinical diagnosis, and the survey is self-report.
[61] American Gaming Association (2025). Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker, CY2024. American Gaming Association, February 2025. Read the source →
Industry figures showing US legal sportsbooks took nearly $150 billion in bets in 2024, generating a record $13.7 billion in revenue, up from roughly $13 billion in total handle in 2019, the first full year after the Supreme Court cleared states to legalize sports betting. Covers legal commercial wagering only; illegal and offshore betting sits on top of it.
[62] Karlsson A, Håkansson A (2018). Gambling disorder, increased mortality, suicidality, and associated comorbidity: A longitudinal nationwide register study. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(4), 1091–1099. Read the source →
Swedish national register study of 2,099 people treated for gambling disorder, finding a suicide mortality rate 15 times that of the general population; suicide accounted for 31% of all deaths in the cohort. A treatment-seeking clinical population in one country, representing the severe end of the spectrum rather than everyone who gambles problematically.
[64] Kraus SW, Krueger RB, Briken P, First MB, Stein DJ, Kaplan MS, Voon V, Abdo CHN, Grant JE, Atalla E, Reed GM (2018). Compulsive sexual behaviour disorder in the ICD-11. World Psychiatry, 17(1), 109–110. Read the source →
Documents the World Health Organization adding compulsive sexual behaviour disorder to ICD-11 under code 6C72. Worth being precise about: ICD-11 classifies it as an impulse-control disorder, not formally as an addiction, and DSM-5 does not include it at all.
[66] Bőthe B, Koós M, Nagy L, Kraus SW, Demetrovics Z, Potenza MN, et al. (2023). Compulsive sexual behavior disorder in 42 countries: Insights from the International Sex Survey and introduction of standardized assessment tools. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 12(2), 393–407. Read the source →
Survey of 82,243 people across 42 countries in which 4.8% scored in the high-risk range for compulsive sexual behaviour disorder, and only 14% of that high-risk group had ever sought treatment for it. A non-probability online sample, and a screening scale rather than a clinical diagnosis.
[68] Deloitte Access Economics (2020). The Social and Economic Cost of Eating Disorders in the United States of America. Report commissioned by STRIPED (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and the Academy for Eating Disorders. Read the source →
Modeled estimate that 9% of the US population, about 28.8 million Americans, will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. Includes subclinical presentations; strict DSM-5 survey prevalence runs lower, so cite as an estimate rather than a count.
[70] Arcelus J, Mitchell AJ, Wales J, Nielsen S (2011). Mortality rates in patients with anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders: a meta-analysis of 36 studies. Archives of General Psychiatry, 68(7), 724–731. Read the source →
Meta-analysis finding people with anorexia nervosa die at 5.86 times the expected rate, among the highest mortality of any psychiatric illness, with about one in five of those deaths by suicide. "Among the highest" is the defensible phrasing: mortality in some substance use disorders is of comparable magnitude.
[71] Juul F, Parekh N, Martinez-Steele E, Monteiro CA, Chang VW (2022). Ultra-processed food consumption among US adults from 2001 to 2018. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 115(1), 211–221. Read the source →
NHANES analysis showing ultra-processed foods supply about 57% of the calories US adults eat, up from roughly 54% two decades earlier. Based on 24-hour dietary recall and the NOVA classification, which some nutrition researchers contest.
[74] Meng SQ, Cheng JL, Li YY, Yang XQ, Zheng JW, Chang XW, Shi Y, Chen Y, Lu L, Sun Y, Bao YP, Shi J (2022). Global prevalence of digital addiction in general population: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 92, 102128. Read the source →
Meta-analysis across 504 studies and 2.1 million people estimating 26.99% of the general population screens positive for smartphone addiction and 17.42% for social media addiction. Almost certainly overestimates of anything clinically meaningful: low screening thresholds, enormous heterogeneity, and "smartphone addiction" is not a recognized diagnosis. Read as "screens positive," not "is addicted."
[76] Orben A, Przybylski AK (2019). The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(2), 173–182. Read the source →
Large-scale analysis finding the association between digital technology use and adolescent well-being is real but small, explaining at most a tiny fraction of the variance. The standard counterweight to strong causal claims about screens and the teen mental health decline; we cite it so the debate stays visible.
[77] Grant JE, Potenza MN, Weinstein A, Gorelick DA (2010). Introduction to Behavioral Addictions. American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 36(5), 233–241. Read the source →
The standard review showing behavioral addictions produce the same core clinical picture as substance addictions (craving, escalation, loss of control, continued use despite harm) and engage overlapping brain reward circuitry, including altered dopamine signaling in the mesolimbic pathway. The neuroimaging evidence is strongest for gambling; for newer candidates like porn and social media it is suggestive, not conclusive.
[78] Sussman S, Lisha N, Griffiths M (2011). Prevalence of the addictions: a problem of the majority or the minority?. Evaluation & the Health Professions, 34(1), 3–56. Read the source →
A provocative and widely cited review arguing that, counting both substances and behaviors, around 47% of US adults show signs of at least one addictive disorder in a 12-month period. A loose synthesis using generous definitions; we cite it as one review's argument, not an established prevalence figure.
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