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Xanax and alprazolam
Xanax addiction treatment in Spain
A licensed 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, run by an English-speaking team, for dependence on alprazolam, whether it was prescribed privately or bought online.
A private room as standard, a price published in full, and no referral fees paid to anyone for sending you here.
Checked for accuracy on 28 July 2026. Next review due July 2027. This page is general information about our programme and is not a substitute for advice about your own situation.
Xanax addiction is treated at Sierra Recovery as a 28-day residential programme in the Málaga countryside, published in full at £9,900. Alprazolam withdrawal can cause seizures, so it is never done abruptly: a medically supervised taper, usually after conversion to a longer-acting benzodiazepine, is completed in an appropriate medical setting before you arrive, because we are a registered health centre and not a hospital. What follows is three structured group sessions a day, one-to-one therapy and a seventeen-module curriculum aimed at the panic or anxiety the tablet was covering. Below is what that actually involves, who it suits, and when it is time to stop reading and make the call.
Programme
28 days residential
Published price
£9,900
Group work
3 sessions a day
Room
Private, as standard
Language
English throughout
Registration
N.I.C.A. 67331
What Xanax addiction actually is
Xanax is the brand name for alprazolam, a short-acting benzodiazepine prescribed for anxiety and panic disorder. In the United Kingdom it is a class C controlled drug and it is not available on the NHS, which means most of the Xanax in circulation here has been bought privately or online. That matters, because tablets sold as Xanax frequently are not alprazolam at all: counterfeits have been found to contain other benzodiazepines at unpredictable strengths, and in some cases synthetic opioids.
What makes alprazolam harder to come off than most of its relatives is how it behaves in the body. It acts quickly and clears quickly, so relief arrives fast and leaves fast, and the return of anxiety between doses is sharper than with longer-acting benzodiazepines. That short half-life is why tolerance builds quickly, why interdose withdrawal is so pronounced, and why alprazolam has a reputation among clinicians as one of the most difficult benzodiazepines to taper.
Dependence can form within weeks of continuous use. That is a property of the drug, not a measure of the person taking it.
Stopping alprazolam abruptly, or reducing too fast, can cause seizures, delirium and severe psychiatric symptoms, and it can be fatal. Any reduction must be a medically supervised taper, and with alprazolam that usually means switching to a longer-acting benzodiazepine first. Speak to your GP before changing anything. In an emergency call 999 in the UK or 112 anywhere in Europe, or NHS 111 for urgent advice that is not an emergency.
The signs people recognise too late
| What you might notice | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Anxiety spiking a few hours after a dose | Interdose withdrawal. The drug is now producing the symptom it was taken for. |
| Needing a higher dose for the same calm | Tolerance, which arrives faster with alprazolam than with longer-acting benzodiazepines. |
| Taking one before anything difficult, in advance | Avoidance has become chemical. Panic treatment relies on learning the fear passes, and this prevents that learning. |
| Buying online or from someone else | Very common in the UK because there is no NHS route, and the highest-risk pattern because the contents are unknown. |
| Counting tablets, rationing, planning around supply | The medication has become the structure of the week. |
| Memory gaps, or being told about conversations you do not recall | Alprazolam impairs the formation of new memories, particularly at higher doses or with alcohol. |
| Taking it with alcohol or opioids | The most dangerous combination, because all of them suppress breathing. |
If several of those land, our four-question self-check takes under a minute, stores nothing, and will tell you whether a fuller conversation is worth having.
Where the treatment actually happens
People ask for photographs before they ask about therapy, and they are right to. You are deciding whether you could live somewhere for a month. This is the place, not a stock library.
See the full gallery · how people get here.
The taper comes first, and it happens before you arrive
Sierra Recovery is entered in the Registro Andaluz de Centros, Servicios y Establecimientos Sanitarios (the Andalusian register of health centres, services and establishments) under N.I.C.A. 67331, authorised by the Junta de Andalucía for the care unit atención sanitaria a drogodependientes (healthcare for drug dependency, authorised care unit U.71). That is a registered health centre with a supervised treatment residence. It is not a hospital and it is not a detox unit.
Where you are physically dependent, a medically supervised withdrawal is arranged in an appropriate medical setting and completed before admission, billed separately from the programme fee. With alprazolam that almost always means being converted to an equivalent dose of a longer-acting benzodiazepine such as diazepam first, then reducing in stages over weeks. Trying to taper alprazolam directly is possible but far harder, because the peaks and troughs of a short-acting drug make every reduction feel like a crisis. Qualified nursing is part of the team during your stay. If the assessment says a more intensive medical setting is the safer choice for you, we say so and we do not admit you. You can check our registration yourself on the Junta's public register.
Be prepared for the honest version of the timeline: benzodiazepine tapers run in weeks and sometimes months, so the residential programme often sits alongside the later stages of a reduction rather than immediately after a short detox. We will tell you that at assessment rather than after you have booked a flight.
Not sure how a taper and a programme fit together?
The assessment sorts the sequence before you commit to anything, and it happens before you travel. A clinician will tell you honestly if we are the wrong setting for you.
What a day here looks like
Nobody arrives knowing how twenty eight days are actually spent. This is the real timetable, Monday to Friday.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| 08:00 | Breakfast, cooked by a Michelin-trained chef |
| 09:15 | Planning: the day is set out together |
| 10:30 | Process group, the harder one |
| 12:00 | Therapeutic group |
| 13:15 | Lunch |
| 14:30 | Psychoeducation, working through the curriculum |
| 16:00 | Group activity, often outdoors or with the horses |
| 18:30 | Dinner |
| 20:00 | Day closing, together |
Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based work. Sundays are a supervised excursion, because reconnecting with the world outside a clinic is part of the treatment rather than a break from it.
What the treatment actually involves
The programme runs Monday to Friday on a fixed structure, with Saturdays given to holistic and body-based work and Sundays to a supervised excursion. Rather than list therapy names, here is what each part of the week is for.
Three group sessions a day, five days a week
The day opens with a process group at 10:30, a second therapeutic group runs at midday, and a psychoeducation session follows lunch. A group activity fills the late afternoon and the day closes together in the evening. That is roughly fifteen structured group contacts a week, which is the part most people underestimate before they arrive and value most afterwards.
Groups are small, in English, and run by the clinical team. Hearing someone else describe your own thinking back to you does something that individual work cannot, and it is the fastest route out of the isolation that Xanax use builds.
A seventeen-module curriculum, not a rest cure
The psychoeducation strand moves through a fixed seventeen-module curriculum written by our clinical director. It is the core of what we call the Regulation Model, which is our adaptation of the PROMIS Clinics methodology to this centre rather than a model of our own invention. It covers skills training, communication styles, boundaries and decision-making, trigger recognition, self-esteem and self-concept, dual diagnosis, self-care and habits, emotions, crisis identification and management, suicide prevention, goals, grief, values, trauma and relapse, perfectionism, loneliness and isolation, and cross-addiction. Every module runs the same structure: check-in, theory, an experiential dynamic, shared reflection, and a commitment carried into the week.
The cognitive work uses the ABC model, the same structure that underpins cognitive behavioural approaches: the event, the belief you attach to it, and the consequence that follows. It is taught, practised, applied between sessions and reviewed, rather than talked about once.
Individual therapy alongside the group programme
One-to-one sessions run three times a week and are where the material that will not surface in a group gets worked. For most people that is the thing underneath the use rather than the use itself.
You are treated by the same small team throughout, in the same house. Nobody is handed between departments, and there is no rotation of therapists mid-stay.
Yoga, meditation and body-based work
Saturdays turn to holistic and body-based practice: yoga, meditation and mindfulness, breathwork, art, and time outdoors on the land. This is not decoration and it is not a spa timetable. Early recovery is a physiological event as much as a psychological one, and sleep, appetite and the ability to sit still are usually the first things to return.
The self-care and habits module runs alongside it, treating rest as a right rather than a reward and food as connection rather than control.
Equine therapy on working farmland
The horses live here, on the forty hectares around the house, and equine work is part of the working week. Horses respond to what you are actually feeling rather than what you say you are feeling, which is why the work reaches people who have learned to talk their way around a therapy session.
What happens when you go home
Aftercare is planned before you leave rather than mentioned on the last day. For clients returning to the UK, care continues online or in person at the PROMIS clinics in London, with a weekly session for a full year, more than 48 in the twelve months after discharge, and a written handover to your GP so nothing has to be explained from scratch. For clients elsewhere in Europe we arrange continuity online and help find local services.
Alongside that, mutual-aid groups are free, run everywhere, and are worth using whatever else you choose.
Who will actually treat your Xanax dependence
A small team, in one house, in English. You are not handed between departments and there is no rotation of therapists halfway through your stay.
Nerea Encinas Sánchez
Director · General Health Psychologist
MSc General Health Psychology. Leads clinical standards, the assessment you have before you travel, and admissions.
Berenice Paramés Jones
General Health Psychologist
Individual and group psychological work inside the house, crisis follow-up and coordination of the group programme.
Marta Leal
Social worker
Family mediation, links to services back home, and preparing for independent life after discharge.
Robin Lefever
Founder of Sierra Recovery; MD, PROMIS Clinics UK
Founder of Sierra Recovery and Managing Director of PROMIS Clinics, whose method this programme adapts. PROMIS has been treating addiction in the United Kingdom since the mid-1980s, and Robin has worked in addiction treatment for around 35 years, with thousands of patients treated with the PROMIS method in the United Kingdom.
Meet the whole clinical team and their qualifications.
What is treated, and what that looks like day to day
| What you arrive with | How it is worked |
|---|---|
| Withdrawal | Managed as a medically supervised taper before admission, usually after conversion to a longer-acting benzodiazepine. Never abrupt. Qualified nursing on site throughout the stay. |
| Panic and anxiety | The centre of the work. Exposure-based and ACT-informed practice in group, the emotions and crisis-management modules, and individual therapy three times a week, so that the fear stops needing a chemical answer. |
| Insomnia | A fixed sleep and wake time, daily outdoor activity and the self-care module. Sleep is the slowest thing to return and that is stated in advance so it does not trigger a relapse. |
| Memory and concentration | These improve off the drug, though slowly. The curriculum is repeated, applied between sessions and reviewed rather than delivered once, which is deliberate. |
| Trauma | The trauma and relapse module, run alongside the addiction work rather than after it. See trauma and addiction. |
| Alcohol or opioids alongside | Assessed before admission. This combination drives the overdose risk and changes the detox plan entirely. |
Treatment options for Xanax and alprazolam dependence, and how they compare
Residential rehab is one treatment option among several, and it is not automatically the right one. Being straight about that is more useful to you than a page that pretends otherwise.
| Option | What it involves, and who it suits |
|---|---|
| Medical detox | Always required. Conversion to a longer-acting benzodiazepine and a gradual supervised taper, never an abrupt stop, before admission and billed separately. |
| Residential rehab inpatient treatment | Living at the centre for the whole programme. It suits people whose taper has failed at home, or whose panic disorder needs intensive treatment while the dose comes down. |
| Outpatient treatment day programmes and therapy sessions | Attending sessions and going home between them. Often the right route, because alprazolam tapers are long and are usually managed in the community. |
| Community and NHS services | Free local drug and alcohol treatment services, reached through your GP or by self-referral. Waiting times vary and residential placements are rationed, but the support is real and it costs nothing. For many people this is the right first step rather than a lesser one. |
| Mutual aid and support groups | Free peer support meeting in person and online, everywhere, with no waiting list and no cost. Worth using alongside whatever else you choose rather than instead of it. |
A treatment plan should be built around your circumstances. If an outpatient or community route fits you better, we will say so at assessment and we will not charge you for the conversation.
The therapies used, in plain terms
Every centre lists the same acronyms, so here is what each one actually is and where it appears in the week.
| Therapy | What it is, and when you would meet it here |
|---|---|
| Cognitive behavioural therapy CBT, and the related REBT | Evidence-based work on the link between an event, the belief you attach to it and what you then do. Taught through the ABC model in psychoeducation, practised in group therapy and applied between sessions. It is the backbone of the cognitive work rather than an optional extra. |
| Acceptance and commitment therapy ACT | Learning to have a difficult feeling without having to act on it, and choosing behaviour by your values instead. Module eight, on emotions, is built on it. |
| Dialectical behaviour therapy DBT | Distress tolerance, emotional regulation and interpersonal skills, used where emotions arrive faster and larger than they can be managed. See DBT. |
| EMDR | A structured trauma therapy, used where trauma is driving the use and always after stabilisation rather than before it. See EMDR. |
| Group therapy | Three group sessions a day, five days a week: a process group, a therapeutic group and psychoeducation. It is the largest single component of the treatment programme. See group therapy. |
| Individual therapy one-to-one counselling | Three therapy sessions a week with the same clinician throughout, where material that will not surface in a group gets worked. |
| Family therapy | Offered where it is wanted, in person or online, because the people around you are part of what happens next. See the family programme. |
| Motivational interviewing | Used throughout rather than booked as a session. It is the stance the team takes: working with your reasons for change rather than arguing you into someone else’s. |
| Holistic therapies | Yoga, mindfulness and meditation, breathwork, art and equine work, on Saturdays and through the week. See equine therapy and all our therapies. |
Every element above is delivered by the clinical team as part of the residential programme. Your treatment plan sets out which of them apply to you, and it is reviewed during the stay rather than fixed on day one.
Where else to get help, free
Not everyone needs residential rehab, and nobody should be waiting on a private programme before they get any support at all. Everything below is free, and none of these organisations pays or receives a fee from us.
| Organisation | What they do |
|---|---|
| NHS talking therapies | Free psychological therapy for anxiety and depression in England, available by self-referral without going through your GP first. |
| Mind | Mental health information, advocacy and local services across England and Wales. |
| Samaritans | Free and confidential, 24 hours a day on 116 123, for anyone struggling to cope or having thoughts of suicide. |
| NHS drug and alcohol services | Free local treatment services, reached through your GP or by self-referral. The usual starting point for community-based drug and alcohol treatment. |
| We Are With You | Free, confidential support for drug, alcohol and mental health problems, in person in many areas and by webchat. |
| Adfam | Support and information for families and friends affected by someone else’s drug, alcohol or gambling use. |
Sierra Recovery neither pays nor accepts referral fees, so nothing on this list depends on where you go. If a free or community service is the right fit for you, use it.
How to get ready
- Compare on licence, not on photographsAsk any centre abroad for its registration number and the register it sits on, then look it up yourself. Ours is N.I.C.A. 67331 on the Junta de Andalucía register.
- Get the medical picture togetherCurrent medications, any previous withdrawal, and any diagnosed conditions. This is what the pre-travel assessment needs, and it is what decides whether a detox is required first.
- Ask what the price actually includesOurs is published: private room, meals, the core therapy programme, and a year of weekly UK aftercare, with medical, psychiatric, laboratory and hospital costs quoted separately. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
- Be honest about where the tablets come fromPrescribed privately, bought online, or from a friend. Nobody here is interested in judging that, but counterfeit alprazolam is common and it changes what the medical team needs to plan for.
- Do not reduce on your own before assessmentA common instinct and a genuinely dangerous one with alprazolam. Tell us the real dose and let the reduction be planned properly.
How Sierra compares with private Xanax rehab at home
| What you get | Sierra Recovery | Typical private residential clinic |
|---|---|---|
| 28-day residential programme | £9,900, published in full | UK £12,000–£40,000 · Australia A$30,000–A$50,000 |
| Is the price on the website | Yes, in full | Usually "contact us for pricing" |
| Your own private room | Included as standard | Often an upgrade |
| Referral fees paid to third parties | None | Common |
| Written itemised quotation before admission | Yes | Varies |
| Distance from the people and places tied to use | Rural Andalucía | Usually close to home |
| Medically supervised detox | Arranged and quoted separately | Quoted separately |
Comparison figures are the published ranges collected on our cost calculator: the United Kingdom at roughly £12,000 to £40,000 a month, Australia at roughly A$30,000 to A$50,000, and the United States at roughly $20,000 to $40,000 for a 30-day programme. New Zealand, South African and Canadian ranges are set out on the country cost guides. Indicative, not a quotation. Every clinic sets its own fees.
When Xanax sits on top of something else
It always does, because there was a reason for the first tablet: panic, anxiety, insomnia or trauma. Treating the dependence while leaving the panic untouched is why most tapers fail and why so many people restart. At Sierra the emotional and trauma work runs alongside the addiction curriculum rather than after it. Our anxiety, dual diagnosis and trauma and addiction pages explain how the two are worked with together. Where psychiatric care or medication is part of your treatment, it is arranged through the appropriate medical route.
When is it time?
If the dose has climbed, if the anxiety between doses is worse than the anxiety you started with, or if you have tried to stop and could not, that is enough. Alprazolam is a drug that creates dependence quickly and reliably in people who took it exactly as they were told to. There is nothing here to be ashamed of, and a great deal to be gained by not leaving it another year.
Talk to a clinician today
You will speak to our admissions team, all of them clinicians. Confidential, no obligation, and we will tell you honestly whether this programme fits or whether something closer to home would serve you better.
Questions people actually ask
Can I stop taking Xanax on my own?
No. Stopping alprazolam suddenly can cause seizures, delirium and severe psychiatric symptoms, and it can be fatal. Any reduction must be a medically supervised taper, and with alprazolam that usually means converting to a longer-acting benzodiazepine such as diazepam first. Speak to your GP before changing anything and let the withdrawal be arranged as part of your assessment.
Why is Xanax harder to come off than other benzodiazepines?
Because it is short acting. Alprazolam takes effect quickly and clears quickly, so anxiety returns sharply between doses. That drives tolerance up faster, makes interdose withdrawal more pronounced, and makes each step of a direct taper feel like a crisis. Converting to a longer-acting benzodiazepine smooths the curve, which is why it is standard practice.
Do you carry out the detox at Sierra?
No. Sierra is a registered health centre, not a hospital or a detox unit. Where a medically supervised withdrawal is needed it is completed in an appropriate medical setting before your residential stay begins, and billed separately. Qualified nurses are part of the team during your stay.
My Xanax came from the internet. Will that be held against me?
No, and it is extremely common in the UK because alprazolam is not prescribed on the NHS. What matters clinically is that tablets sold as Xanax are frequently not alprazolam, and may contain other benzodiazepines at unknown strengths or, in some cases, synthetic opioids. Telling us plainly is what makes the withdrawal plan safe.
How long is the programme and what does it cost?
It is a 28-day residential programme, published in full at GBP 9,900. That covers a private room, meals, the core therapy programme, and a year of weekly UK aftercare. Medical withdrawal is arranged and billed separately, as are psychiatric and laboratory costs. You get an itemised written quotation before admission.
What happens to my panic attacks without it?
They are treated rather than medicated. Panic responds well to structured psychological work, and a large part of why it persists is that the tablet prevents you ever learning that the panic passes on its own. That learning is built deliberately in group and individual work from the first week rather than added at the end.
How do I get help for Xanax addiction?
The first step towards recovery is an assessment, and ours is free and carries no obligation. You can also seek help through your GP, through a free local drug and alcohol treatment service, or through a mutual aid group, and none of those routes costs anything. If you want to talk it through with a clinician, call +44 1202 653136 and you will reach our admissions team.
What does Xanax addiction treatment involve, from start to finish?
The course of treatment runs in four stages. An assessment before you travel, which decides whether a medically supervised detox is needed first. Any detox, completed in an appropriate medical setting and billed separately. Then the 28-day residential treatment programme itself: three group therapy sessions a day, individual therapy three times a week and the seventeen-module curriculum. Then aftercare, agreed before you leave and continuing online or in person in London. With alprazolam the taper usually begins with conversion to a longer-acting benzodiazepine, and it runs for weeks or months, so the residential stay is scheduled around it.
How much does Xanax rehab cost, and what affects the price?
Sierra publishes a single figure: GBP 9,900 for the 28-day residential programme, with a private room included. What changes the total is whether you need a medically supervised detox, which is arranged and billed separately, and any medical, psychiatric or laboratory costs. Private residential rehab elsewhere commonly runs from around GBP 12,000 to GBP 40,000 a month in the United Kingdom and from roughly A$30,000 to A$50,000 in Australia. You get an itemised written quotation before admission, and we neither pay nor accept referral fees.
What are the signs and symptoms of Xanax addiction?
The signs are anxiety spiking a few hours after a dose, needing a higher dose for the same calm, taking one before anything difficult, and memory gaps. Xanax withdrawal symptoms include rebound anxiety and insomnia and, if stopped abruptly, seizures.
Is lasting recovery from Xanax addiction actually possible?
Yes, and the evidence is better than the public conversation suggests. What predicts long-term recovery is not willpower but what is in place afterwards: continuing therapy, a treated mental health condition, a support network and a relapse plan that was written before it was needed. That is why completing Xanax rehab matters less on its own than what follows it, and why aftercare is planned during the stay, so it is in place before you leave.
How can I help someone with Xanax addiction?
Start by getting support for yourself, because living alongside someone with an addiction is its own burden and Adfam and Al-Anon exist for exactly that. Beyond that: raise it when they are not intoxicated, be specific about what you have seen rather than general about what they are, and offer a concrete next step such as an assessment or a call to a free service. Ultimatums delivered in anger rarely work. We speak to families every day and that conversation costs nothing.
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Talk to a clinician today
You will speak to our admissions team, English-speaking clinicians who know the programme and the people in it. Callback within 24 hours.
Registered health centre. Authorised by the Junta de Andalucía, N.I.C.A. 67331.
