The Luxury Detox Process: Step by Step

Understanding exactly what happens during luxury detox can ease anxiety and help you prepare. Here's a step-by-step guide to the luxury detox process at Sanctuary Tulum.

Step 1: Comprehensive Medical Assessment

Before detox begins, our medical team conducts thorough evaluations including blood panels, liver function tests, EKG, and psychological assessment. This ensures your detox protocol is perfectly calibrated to your needs.

Step 2: Supervised Withdrawal with Advanced Support

The withdrawal phase is managed with 24/7 medical supervision. NAD+ IV drips, amino acid infusions, and high-dose vitamin protocols dramatically reduce discomfort while accelerating your body's natural detoxification.

Step 3: Cellular Repair and Restoration

Once acute withdrawal is managed, the focus shifts to repair. Stem cell therapy, hyperbaric oxygen, and targeted nutrition help restore cells damaged by substance use.

Step 4: Transition to Comprehensive Healing

Detox is the foundation. From here, you transition into deeper healing at our luxury rehab center — which may include ibogaine treatment, ayahuasca ceremonies, and other powerful modalities.

Phase 1 — Medical Intake and Baseline

Before any therapy begins, guests complete a medical intake covering history, current medications, and substance of use timeline. Labs (CBC, comprehensive metabolic panel, liver function, electrolytes) and an ECG establish baseline. Withdrawal severity is scored using standard clinical instruments (CIWA-Ar for alcohol, COWS for opioids) per SAMHSA TIP 45 guidance.¹

Phase 2 — Acute Stabilization

The first 72–96 hours are the highest-risk window for most substances. Vitals are monitored hourly, and the ASAM alcohol withdrawal guideline informs medication decisions when a symptom-triggered approach is indicated.² IV protocols during this phase focus on repletion — thiamine, magnesium, B-complex — and neurochemical support with NAD+ and amino acid infusions.

Sleep, nutrition, and hydration are managed as clinical variables. Guests are in private suites with blackout capability so circadian regulation begins recovering immediately.

Phase 3 — Cellular Repair and Handoff

Once acute withdrawal has resolved, the program shifts toward cellular and neurochemical recovery: continued NAD+, glutathione, hyperbaric oxygen (HBOT), red light, targeted nutrition, and gentle movement. Guests transition into the broader luxury rehab arc — the point of detox is to make that work possible, not to be an endpoint on its own. Relapse rates for substance use disorders sit in the 40–60% range without structured continuing care,³ which is why the aftercare plan starts being drafted during Phase 3, not on discharge day.

What the Second and Third Weeks Look Like

Beyond acute stabilization, weeks two and three focus on the collateral load that long-term substance use creates: sleep architecture, HPA-axis regulation, cognition, and gut function. Guests continue on IV protocols on a tapering schedule while adjunct modalities — HBOT, red light, bodywork, colon hydrotherapy — layer in. Movement and breathwork are introduced progressively so the nervous system relearns regulation without pharmacological support.

Aftercare planning begins in earnest in week two: coordinated handoff to a physician at home, a maintenance nutrition and IV protocol, and structured integration check-ins. Related: what to expect at luxury rehab.

Guests frequently ask what makes recovery hold once they leave. The variables that show up consistently in the outcome literature are structured aftercare, continuity of a treating physician at home, sleep regularity, and a written relapse-prevention plan the guest actually helped draft. Sanctuary Tulum builds all four into discharge, and offers scheduled follow-up touchpoints — as brief phone check-ins or return booster stays — for the first year post-program.

The First 72 Hours — What Actually Happens

Hour zero is arrival, intake vitals, a full medication reconciliation, bloodwork (CBC, comprehensive metabolic panel, LFTs, magnesium, phosphorus), and an initial physician assessment. Withdrawal scoring begins immediately (CIWA-Ar for alcohol, COWS for opioids). IV thiamine goes in before any glucose in any alcohol presentation. Hydration and electrolyte correction start within the first hour.

Hours 12 through 72 are typically the peak withdrawal window. Vitals and withdrawal scoring run on a tight interval — every 1 to 4 hours depending on severity — and symptom-triggered medication doses are titrated to the score, not to a fixed schedule. Sleep is protected. Meals are small and frequent. Ambulation is encouraged as tolerated. The clinical team stays close.

Discharge Criteria and Aftercare Handoff

Detox is complete when withdrawal scores have returned to baseline for a sustained window, vitals are stable off medication, sleep is regulated, and the guest can hydrate and eat without support. Meeting those criteria is a clinical judgment, not a calendar date, and it varies meaningfully between guests.

Discharge planning is not a departure task — it starts in the middle of week one. Every guest leaves with a written aftercare plan: referrals for continued clinical care in their home city, a maintenance IV and nutrition protocol, and structured integration check-ins for the first months. See what to expect at a luxury rehab.