I wear ear plugs during my sessions, but every once in awhile, my head will get so incredibly loud. Normally it is just music or whatever, but today it was screaming. Not pleasant. Has this happened to anyone else?
I am doing another IM KAP session tomorrow. My therapist provides music during, but won't provide me with a list of what they use, tells me "you can find stuff on YouTube, that's what I do" and the last few sessions I did (been a few months now) the music wasn't contributing much, though it has in the past.
I guess I am asking if anyone has any good recommendations for something more engaging, or better information on what to avoid.
Im just looking to see if there are other people out there who have done more long term ketamine infusions. I’ve been doing them for almost 2 years. I started with doing 2 treatments a week for 4 weeks and then have slowly gone to 1 treatment every 6-8 weeks depending how I’m doing.
I guess what I’m wondering is if anyone else has done treatment for this long? everything I seem to find talks about doing maybe 12 treatments total and that they are “cured“.. it has made a significant difference to my life. I just am wanting to know if anyone else has had this kind of experience with it.
I've done 5 Ketamine infusions at a clinic and my anxiety has increased so much! Tomorrow I'm doing my 6th and what if it gets worse? If that's possible. A trauma has come up during my infusions and I'm working with that with a psychologist to intergrate. The clinic still thinks I should do the last one tomorrow and I want to because I still have a little bit hope.
What if I'm damaged for life after this? What if the Ketamine put on an anxiety that will never disappear? I'm so so scared and it feels like I'm living in a constant panic attack.
I’m waiting for my ride after my IV infusion. I’ve been going for quite a while and just had the most unusual “nothing” experience. I called the staff in a few times to ensure the IV was actually working. They even pushed it through more rapidly.
At the start of the session I thought I had a brief feeling the sensations beginning (but that might just have been because I had my music on and in the dark).
Quick background: I’ve been going for a couple years. One time about a year ago, I went into a session after an extremely stressful/scary incident a family member earlier in the day. That session I didn’t think it was working and they pushed it through slightly quicker and I broke down crying and screaming (not angry, just broke down overwhelmed and stressed).
I thought that’s what was going on today. I expected to breakdown crying or have a rush of emotions, but nothing came of it.
And then the infusion was over. I don’t feel impaired or loopy. The doctor and nurse checked everything and it appears as if the infusion went through normally.
I’m slightly baffled as I usually have disassociations and intense visuals (wear an eye mask and listen to music during session). And afterwards I’m a tad loopy, off balance and vision is slightly blurred. But I feel 100% normal and unimpaired.
I’ve been more stressed and anxious than I have been in such a long that I’m wondering if my body was just staying super alert and powering through.
Has anyone else experienced this?
I’m on my 5th of 18 weekly sessions to treat my treatment-resistant depression. I also have CPTSD.
The first week was emotional. I cried a lot. The second week was much better and I was more productive. I even went to the gym for the first time in over a year.
But for some reason, the 3rd and 4th weeks, I just tanked hard. I've felt numb and uninterested in talking with my friends. I've had the committee group chat muted for two weeks now. I haven't gone to the gym. I just don't want to go anywhere or do anything.
I did daily journaling for the first 3 weeks but this week, I just couldn't bring myself to write about how I truly feel.
This doesn't feel like depression to me. It feels like my brain is rebooting but something went wrong and I'm just stuck in the middle of the reboot. They assured me this is normal to be "emotionally flatlining" but they didn't really suggest anything I could do to get out of this funk.
I understand that my brain is rewiring but does this improve over time? I don't want to feel like this long-term.
Wondering if anyone has done this and what your experience was like. I'm going to be doing a psycholytic dose in a clinic using troches in a few weeks. I'll be doing talk therapy during the treatment with a psychotherapist.
I'm very nervous but so hoping this will help my extreme anxiety and depression. I'm also curious how many sessions are usually necessary for this kind of treatment. They're $740 a session so I'm hoping it won't be something I have to do too many times.
I have read all the mixed reviews about joyous, and here I am. I was approved on Friday, have not received any information. I reached out through the patient portal to ask if I would receive a shipping confirmation or anything. By Tuesday today I have not heard anything. I went to log back into my patient portal and it says it has been disabled. Anybody have any experience that
I luckily got approved for Spravato through my insurance in Massachusetts and it’s fully covered. However, I am a chronic weed smoker and it’s been my way to cope for the last 10 years. Wondering if there’s anyone else who smokes and has done Spravato and whether you were able to improve your symptoms? I am utilizing treatment for depression, anxiety, and rumination.
I don’t have a therapist during the session but plan on journaling and meditating. Would love to hear other experiences. Thanks!
How do you do it frim powder to in there, with water
Trying to understand were ketamine lies in terms the traditional medicine vs. "journey" therapy medicine. By which I mean...
Traditional medicine you take periodically and it operates biochemically on the problem or easing symptoms -- aspirin, xanax, SSRIs. Take the pill at the right time, done.
Then on the other hand there is medicine used for "journeys" a psychedelic experience where you become aware of a memory, insight or perspective that allows you to make breakthroughs along the lines of psychotherapy, working with parts of your psyche, defenses, unconscious etc. ... that classic example for this would be MDMA for processing trauma - it isn't about the chemical or the serotonin it causes it's how inward empathy, fear lessening (amygdala), memory changes allow you to get closer to trauma memories and process them. It's not ongoing treatment it's one-off or a few times -- cycles of journey followed by integration to make sense of and benefit from the insights.
Those are 2 different mechanisms and I guess they can co-exist...
I've generally only heard of MDMA as a "journey" medicine.
I've heard classic psychedelics mushrooms, LSD, various plants (and frogs :-) ) - those seem like journeys with associated integration.
Mushrooms interestingly can cause neurogenesis and that is the proposed mechanism as I understand for treatment resistant depression. So mushrooms can be a journey medicine as well as regular.
Which brings me at last to my question -- trying to figure out where Ketamine lies in these terms. Clearly it is used as a regular medicine for treatment resistant depression, via neurogenesis (like mushrooms but I don't know exactly the same or not).
As the same time I hear people say it helps with PTSD which I assume is via a journey + integration mechanism.
In this sub I'm reading both reported. I'm trying to figure out whether its one or the other or both. I don't see much talk of the journey + integration framing I read for others.
Thanks in advance for thoughts.
Hi I have a kind of weird question I’m not able to find a good answer for, I was hoping someone might have run into something similar.
I got my tubes tied 6 months ago - then 6 weeks ago I had my first 4 ketamine infusions over the course of 2 weeks
Mentally they really helped me, but I’ve been having weird physical reactions - my last two periods were very off (when I’ve been steady all my life), and I feel like my organs are feeling similar to how they did immediately post surgery - tingling at the cauterized site ( I am 100% sure I know where that is internally), and general soreness in my organs.
My hypothesis is that when the ketamine “refreshed” my brain, it also forgot i had a surgery, and is making me extra sensitive. I also have a history of being incredibly sensitive to my body, even in ways that medically aren’t normal.
While do have bipolar , I can control that very well with medication- ive been using the ketamine treatments to reset my nervous system. It took me a long time to realize my nervous system was fried, because I had been in that state for so long, probably since childhood (I’m 30). I think that also might be making me extra sensitive, since I’m not feeling the constant discomfort of an unrelated nervous system, and I can feel my body more acutely. I’ve also heard weird periods can be a symptom of releasing trauma from the body.
Just wondering if anyone had any experiences that would relate, I’m kind of a medically weird case at this point so I can’t just google it. Happy to answer any follow up questions.
Hello!
I am currently running a study on set and setting within psychedelic experiences.
Obviously there is quite a few aspect to explore on the topic, though in particular I am interested in:
Most of the research on set and setting in the psychedelic field comes from more clinically orientated trials, which can be lacking in terms of nuance and real lived experiences. So it would be great to reach out further in the communities surrounding these substances!
If you've had a particularly positive, or even challenging experience, I'd love to hear your stories!
Fully anonymous
Takes around 15-20 minutes to complete
There's also an optional follow-up interview if you'd like to share your experience in more depth
Full study details and ethics information are provided in the info sheet at the start of the survey
Requirements: 18+, have had a psychedelic experience in a clinical or non-clinical setting
If you have anything you feel is important to say about psychedelics, this is your chance!
I'm happy to answer any questions about the study. You can reach us at:
Warren - plks55@durham.ac.uk
Dr Marco Bocchio - Marco.Bocchio@durham.ac.uk
Thank you for your time and support! 🙏
This survey has been approved by the moderators
I’ve been doing IV sessions since last December, and I’m currently on 6 week schedule. My clinic and providers have been great, but today seemed off. I saw a new provider, I forgot my headphones and the ones they gave me weren’t noise canceling, and the office was louder than usual. My anxiety spiked and I had them add magnesium, which normally helps. After 5 more minutes of distress, I had them stop the IV altogether (about 17 minutes early).
I’m not quite sure what happened, but regardless, I’m feeling low. Has anyone had this experience before? If you did, how did you help your brain recover from it? I feel disoriented and discouraged.