Ibogaine saved my family: A Mississippi veteran’s perspective

• Former Army Ranger Ben Bush says more Mississippi families deserve to experience the healing his has thanks to ibogaine treatment.

As a former Army Ranger whose life and mental health were dramatically improved when I experienced treatment with a psychedelic medicine called ibogaine, I urge the Mississippi legislature to continue moving House Bill 314 forward so more of my fellow Mississippians can have access to this life-changing treatment.

My family has been farming in the Mississippi Delta for four generations, but I grew up with my sights set on a career in the military. I was selected as an Army Ranger with the 75^th in 2011, but serving three combat deployments in five years and deploying five more times to Iraq as a private contractor took a heavy toll, and I left the military.  

Many veterans struggle with adapting to family life and everyday tasks when they come home, and I was one of them. You’re broken down and built up to be a combat warrior in military training, and suddenly it comes to a complete stop. I regretted getting out of the military and experienced survivor’s guilt when a Ranger buddy was killed in action. He replaced me in our sniper platoon and died one month after I came home. 

It was nearly impossible for me to sleep or relax, and I was extremely angry and always in physical pain. My doctor diagnosed me with severe depression and anxiety, and I took antidepressants for a while, but they didn’t help much. Running thirty miles a week and drinking alcohol heavily on the weekends became the only way I could find some peace. 

I couldn’t find a job to support our family, my marriage wasn’t going well, and our two amazing kids were not getting the dad they deserved. I’m very lucky to have a strong, God-fearing wife who held on long enough for me to get help. 

I first heard about ibogaine in 2020 and started my own research online, learning that in the 1960s, it was discovered to treat heroin addiction but was later banned in the 1970s in the backlash against all psychedelics. A Ranger buddy shared that he had been treated with ibogaine in Mexico, where it’s legal, for a lot of the same problems I was experiencing. 

He got me connected with a non-profit in 2021 that helps veterans access ibogaine treatment. The nonprofit helped me prepare for the experience before I traveled to Mexico with several other veterans. 

Doctors and nurses were part of our treatment team, as well as a therapist and a couple of volunteers who also had combat experience and had gone through ibogaine treatment. After completing the preparation, we took ibogaine in capsule form. I was in a safe environment that felt more like a spa than a doctor’s office, and I was medically monitored the whole time. The experience lasted about 24 hours for me, which is typical. The best way to describe the experience of ibogaine is like having dreams even though you’re awake and conscious. It brought back many difficult experiences from my life that I had been running from, and it helped me face them, process them, and heal from them. It was one of the hardest experiences of my life, but also one of the most transformative. Ibogaine gave me a fresh start. 

I left Mexico feeling like a huge weight had been lifted and a little bit in shock at how free I felt, but the healing that began there five years ago has continued. I haven’t touched tobacco since then and rarely drink alcohol now. The physical pain vanished, and I’m able to work through the challenges of life without living on the edge of explosive anger. This medicine bought me time to figure things out and learn how to live as a healthy person again. It saved my marriage and has given my kids their dad back. 

I’m the happiest I have ever been, and I’m lucky that I had the opportunity to experience treatment with ibogaine. Just like with all medical treatments, not everyone is a good candidate for ibogaine treatment, but many more of my fellow Mississippians could benefit from this tool if it was available here. 

The Army Rangers have a simple motto we live by: “Rangers lead the way.” I did that serving my country in combat on the other side of the world, and I hope my story can help lead the way for psychedelic medicine right here in Mississippi with the passage of HB 314. More Mississippi families deserve to experience the healing mine has. Mississippi, let’s lead the way on ibogaine.