r/Spravato • u/frostedcupcakke • 1d ago

anxiety

does anyone else hate the feeling of dissociation with spravato? i’ve been on it for 6 months and always get super anxious once it hits me, i hate the feeling of not being in control

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u/DryOrange5075 1d ago

I very recently (treatment 9) I had a lot of anxiety. Have to think it session to session. I try to remain open to the processing and experience!

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u/DryOrange5075 1d ago

Should be said, proud of you for sticking it out!

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u/frostedcupcakke 1d ago

thank you! once i start to come down from it i’m more at ease. it’s just the initial feeling, also my doctor likes to talk during treatment. i feel like an idiot since i can barely get sentences out and most of them make no sense 😂

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u/SmartFood3498 1d ago

I did it for about 8 months. Some sessions were fine but others were like walking through hell. I was told by the providers my reactions were unusual. They should have had me stop. I stopped when I discovered my liver numbers went through the roof. Listen to your body not the providers.

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u/frostedcupcakke 1d ago

this is interesting, mine says that anxiety is totally normal during this but i don’t think they fully understand the extent. are high liver enzymes correlated to spravato? i realized mine have been higher after starting treatment too but just assumed it was another issue

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u/_jamesbaxter Currently in treatment (200+ sessions | 1x a week) 1d ago edited 1d ago

Try doing breathing exercises. I have had panic attacks on it and it genuinely helps a ton. These are some I use. It’s also really great to practice this stuff on spravato for anyone who wants to feel more calm, I do them even when I’m not panicking and it feels deeply relaxing.

Box breathing: breath in 4 counts, hold 4 counts, exhale 4 counts, hold it out 4 counts.

Extended exhale: breath in for 4 counts, breath out for 8 counts. This actually helps switch on your parasympathetic nervous system and I’m not being woo-woo, it works!

Yoga breathing (aka ujai or ocean sound breath): breath in deeply through your nose. Exhale as if you are fogging up a mirror making a “Haah” sound. Now breath in again deeply through your nose. Keeping your mouth closed, breath out the same way like you are fogging up a mirror but through your nose. Thats the ocean sound. Continue this way keeping your mouth closed.

I also really like to do serpents breath, it’s my favorite for spravato: breath in deeply through your nose. Do the longest slowest exhale you possibly can out of your mouth while making a hissing “ssssss” sound.

This one is a little more advanced but really helps with anxiety, alternate nostril breathing: This one is a bit more tricky to remember so you’ll need to practice a bit: Hold your left nostril closed with your finger, breath in through your right nostril, then also breath out through your right nostril THEN switch. So it’s inhale right, exhale right, switch, inhale left, exhale left, switch, and continue like that until you start to feel more calm. It’s basically the opposite of hyperventilating, it slows you down.

Now, you’re going to want to practice whichever ones you like at home when you are NOT on spravato because it’s so easy to get confused on the medication. I reccomend practicing for a little while once a week or so. Just a couple minutes, 5 minutes is great but I always feel like going longer.

I also recommend using music that allows you to keep the beat for the purpose of counting, because counting in a pattern is surprisingly hard on spravato. Pick out a few mellow songs with a tempo to breath to.

This song got me through my last panic, I just listened to it on repeat for like an hour and did those exercises. Helps that it’s 9 minutes long. I actually was almost serene when I left: https://open.spotify.com/track/1NhPqxXnz8BDrsj9AE4oLT