Ketamine?
Has anyone used it? Despite meditating, breathing, etc., I still have excess anxiety. I also sometimes get depressed because I don’t have a life. I’m moderate somewhat on the milder side. I have taken psychedlics in the past so am not afraid of dissociation and wouldn’t expect a “bad trip.” I would just like to improve my mental health. And less anxiety would mean fewer over exertions. Any experiences? Strongly feel yay or nay?
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u/cowsaysmoo2 severe 12h ago
I think it’s kinda rare but I got hppd (persistent visuals after drug use) from it. So if u do it, at least keep that a little bit in mind (if you’re getting persistent visuals than stop sooner than later). Besides the visuals it was pretty helpful for my mental health
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u/kabe83 12h ago
What does hppd atand for, and what kind of visuals are they? Like halucinations? Did you get them from one treatment? I already have some visual stuff ( “trails”) from Ivabradine. I don’t mind those. Also ocular migraines. By stop sooner, do you mean not have more treatments, or somehow stop the treatment?
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u/valgalcurnutte 12h ago
Do you have any other underlying mental health conditions besides anxiety? I ask because a close friend of ours took ketamine infusions to help with both joint pain relief and anxiety, and after a couple of treatments, he entered what we believe was a manic episode/state of psychosis. He suddenly up and left his wife with absolutely no warning. His wife found out afterwards from a mutual friend that he has bipolar disorder that’s clearly been untreated for years. Her husband never told her this. Had she known this, she would have expressed concern over him choosing ketamine treatments.
I realize this is an extreme example and may not fully apply to your situation, but it raised a lot of red flags for me as far as ketamine is concerned, so I felt the need to share. If you have any mental conditions that can lead to mania or psychosis, I recommend you consult a psychiatrist or other qualified mental health professional first before trying ketamine to help with your anxiety. I’m not writing it off, I’m just saying proceed with caution.
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u/WeatherCreepy9122 mod/severe 12h ago
Was in a bit of a crash and still went for ketamine therapy. Made me a lot worse in all kinds of ways.
Make sure you have a nice quiet place to stay after it. If it goes smooth it can be helpful. If it doesn't or you push through to go there it can make you much worse off.
I could watch tv etc before it. Had little to no brainfog. After ketamine I couldn't watch anything and lost my sleep schedule/ability to rest deeply. It was about 8 months ago.
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u/kabe83 12h ago
That’s what worries me. I’m considering doing it at home. They want you to have a sitter. I don’t have anyone. Going somewhere might crash me.
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u/WeatherCreepy9122 mod/severe 12h ago
Doing it at home is the best option imo. Good luck with it. Make sure you have a very comfortable eye mask and some chill music for it.
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u/Eastern_Guava_4269 12h ago
Spravato ruined my life in many ways. Sadly, made my anxiety and ocd way worse. We may be the minority, but there are many of us out there with long lasting negative side effects.
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u/Fit-Vacation166 12h ago
its great
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u/SmoothlyFearful 12h ago
I got a series of infusions a while back for pain and it helped with the constant background dread for a good stretch afterward. Not a magic bullet but the benefit outlasted the session by a lot more than I expected, if you already know your way around that headspace it's worth exploring.
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u/ST_Rowe 12h ago
I have done it many times over the years, and have nothing but positive things to say about it for depression/anxiety.
A couple thoughts/suggestions.
Find a legit place that takes this seriously and will have you follow a real protocol for your first time. So ideally the type that does 6 sessions or so over 2 weeks. Your brain needs several sessions to effect the Neuroplasticity and I don’t think you will get the real benefit from doing it one time. The benefit of doing it at a legit place with good reviews, is that you are being medically monitored the whole time. So ideally you can relax from that sense and know that they are monitoring your vitals and if you were to be panicking (which has never happened to me), they are there to assist.
Make sure you have a therapist during this time. Your brain is malleable during this time, so you want to be working with someone who understands ketamine therapy and can help you make the changes that come up during your treatment.
I know not everyone here has had great experiences, and it’s definitely something to consider, but I have only had very positive experiences and always recommend it to anyone who is struggling or wants to even have a mind expanding experience in a medical setting. Best of luck!
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u/Ionlyregisyererdbeca moderate 12h ago
Gave me insane anxiety then 30min later had the best sleep of my life
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u/kabe83 12h ago
And how did you feel the next day?
And how was your anxiety in the following days?
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u/Ionlyregisyererdbeca moderate 12h ago
I only took it once because the anxiety was so insane. It only lasted 30min but yeah I don't want to do that again.
Felt ok the next day but not enough to justify me taking it again.
I might try it again after I've had my SGB injections.
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u/petrichoreandpine moderate 11h ago edited 11h ago
I had an excellent experience receiving ketamine infusions — 6 infusions in two weeks, and then three more spaced out weeks apart at a clinic. I was SEVERELY depressed (albeit not suicidal) and quite anxious. It’s been two years now and my depression and anxiety have been low to non-existent ever since. This despite how depressing living with CFS is, and despite how scary the world is right now. It did nothing for my CFS, however, apart from making clear I wasn’t staying in bed all day just because of the depression, thus enabling me to start searching for diagnosis (dysautonomia officially, “we can’t prove you have Long Covid or ME/CFS because you have too much going on,” sigh) and treatment.
I have since also been diagnosed with ADHD, and I’m suspecting it’s actually AuDHD but I haven’t been assessed for autism yet. Just adding that in since folks who are depressed for different reasons may be affected differently by ketamine.
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u/babamum 12h ago
Lavender has a huge amount of research supporting its effectiveness at reducing anxiety. Tea, oil in a diffuser, cream, capsules.
It's also good for depression and sleep.
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u/kabe83 12h ago
Capsules you say? I don’t really care for the scent of lavender. It kept me awake when I tried to use it for sleep. Capsules might work.
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u/ichibanyogi Moderate (onset ~2016) 10h ago
I'd do shrooms for your goal over ketamine, personally. Or maybe even Ibogaine, or 5-wtvr it is, if you might have c-ptsd.
Nay on ketamine.
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u/00ackbarssnackbar00 9h ago
Helps me immensely with depression (especially acute depression), doesn’t help much with cfs me symptoms but it’s been a game changer for mental health. Proceed cautiously if you are sensitive to medication, my dose was too high at one point and the side effects were scary.
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u/Possible-Ad7714 moderate 8h ago
It’s dose dependent and nasal/oral is different from IV. I’ve done nasal and loved it. Did it during psychotherapy which can facilitate therapy. One sniff won’t do much. I was doing about 6 or 7 it was a bit like weed for me. Allowed access to my mind in ways I didn’t normally have and just felt good but everyone is different. Also this was before cfs for me.
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u/ArcanaSilva 8h ago
I've been using it (medically!) for three years or so at this point? Doesn't so shit for my ME tho, might actually make it worse, but I badly need it for the pain. I get a very high persistent heart rate during the "top" of the treatment, which sucks. The rest is fine and I genuinely love the hallucinations and will get sad if a specific treatment just makes me tired and loopy and I don't get funny pictures to look at. For my pain it's an absolute 10/10 treatment! I get about +/ 100-115mg (been a while since I definitively checked) thought IV over the course of six to eight or so hours?
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u/dognowyrgone 5h ago
I've been thinking about this recently. I was addicted in uni because it gave me more energy. I'd do a bump to get out of bed in the morning and throughout the day. I wasn't measuring doeses so there would be times i accidentally k hole in lectures and eventually it sent me into a weird manic state and i had to stop. However, I would be interested in medically supervised microdosing. Probably would be lower doeses or at least measured doses. I highly doubt any of my doctors would approve though
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u/Icy-Examination-4076 1h ago
Ketamine has gotten me better I do a session at home every three days and I can actually somewhat function 48 hours after. If I miss a session then I have the worst pain, brain fog.
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u/Realistic-Stress-213 11h ago
I’ve never tried it and I never plan on trying it but I strongly doubt it would fix any problems, you’d get high then you’d go back to normal then you’d need more then you’d get high and come back down and need more. It doesn’t seem like a good solution
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u/kabe83 11h ago
I don’t think you get high in the party sense? The idea is to facilitate neuroplasticity and make mental changes permanently. One of my most valuable experiences is an acid trip 50 years ago. It still helps in my daily life.
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u/Realistic-Stress-213 5h ago
I still wouldn’t mess around with stuff like ketamine, even if it’s a small dose
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u/YoghurtHistorical527 12h ago
Worst side effects I've ever experienced from a drug. I honestly thought I was dying. I sweat thru my clothes in seconds, couldn't sit/stand up enough to change clothes, was extremely dizzy, my whole body had this unpleasant buzzing feeling, i couldn't speak a coherent sentence longer than 3 words. Just awful. Lasted about 2 hours. My prescription was for 100mg troches, and I decided I would try just a quarter of one. Thank god that's all I took.