r/Spravato

I have a therapist I could see virtually during the session. My dosing is at 3:30 and I could get online with her at 4:30. Does this seem like a good idea?

Well, I had consultations and initial appointments with 2 therapists and neither worked out. I told them up front I want to work on early trauma during the Spravato treatments. The first one was going to be perfect because she was a psychologist w/ a doctorate, and she heard my story and was ready to go forward. But then, she told me at my 2nd appointment she had second thoughts and couldn’t continue because she’s close to retirement and she said she was worried Spravato was going to bring up trauma that would make me suicidal and I’d end up in the psychiatric hospital. She was 75 and pretty much told me to leave the trauma where it is. She called my psychiatric NP to tell her why she wasn’t doing it and later my NP told me she was selfish!

The second therapist’s bio said she was trauma-informed and on the phone she said she was interested in the experience of Spravato, but during our first appointment there were red flags that she didn’t like mental health meds. She was 55 and brought up that she isn’t on any meds, mentioned her father was on all these meds and they found out the meds were interacting so he stopped all of them and now he’s doing great. She asked me about my meds and her question was, “do you want to get off them?” Feels like the wrong time to focus on my meds when I’m starting Spravato. They need to be tapered over weeks. And she asked what I ate (because I’m overweight) so she wanted to change my diet and get me walking. She asked what type of bread I use on my sandwiches. What? The lady was very chatty about her life and we wasted a lot of time talking about her.

I start Spravato the 19th and I won’t have a therapist and I live alone without support. My NP offered to talk to me on the phone right afterward and I’ll see her every other week. What do you think about doing Spravato w/out a therapist? I was freaking out about this (in an earlier post) but now I think I’ll be okay because I won’t trust a therapist right away, anyway. I’m self-protective and trust takes awhile to develop. I love mindfulness meditations, embroidery, my fish tanks, walking and my cat. They keep me busy but I’m still in my own thoughts a lot!

Any thoughts? Should I wait to do Spravato?

I've done three complete treatments and overall I feel lots better. Depression is lifting and I actually am enjoying life. Heck, I'm even learning to like myself all over again. But, the way things are being handled at my clinic concerns me. There is no doctor to be seen or spoken to if I have concerns, only a seemingly overwhelmed and inexperienced young nurse practitioner who can never give me a straight answer. There are up to four people in the same room zoned out on esketamine where we hear every cough or chatting from the NP and medical assistant. There is no privacy so you smell your neighbor's stinky feet and the other ones sobs. To be fair, I cry too. But this can't be how it is in other clinics I've seen the pictures and heard the commentaries. For all the money we pay and insurance covers, you think they would at least have some kind of curtain to separate the patients.

All the while I have had clonidine to lower my blood pressure on two separate occasions just to lower my 210 over 100 blood pressure. After attempting the fourth session, I stood up and said I was just going to go home if that was okay. The NP agreed, and said that was protocol. But wasn't that protocol during the first and third treatment days as well? This all is starting to feel kind of dangerous. Are we all guinea pigs of sorts? Are we part of an experiment? I don't know. A big part of me feels like quitting now that I still have most of my brain cells intact. Thoughts?

I’m wondering if there’s any Spravato users out there who have taken acid whilst being a Spravato patient? I don’t mean taking acid right after, or before the appointment i mean just in general are there any people on here who have taken acid recreationally on days you’re not getting spravato treatment? I’m wondering how that would affect the acid trip, if there’s any serious risks? I haven’t been able to find anyone’s personal accounts of reactions etc

I have done probably 15 sessions so far and two and a half months in. My depression feels like it is getting worse not better. Anyone else have a similar response. Very depressing to be depressed again. lol

Has anyone heard that taking 3-4 sniffs of an alcohol wipe when you’re feeling nauseous will make it go away?

I’m kinda nervous to try it but if it works…

6 months in and I’m noticing a real difference. I was so tempted to give up earlier because things really fluctuated and even regressed for me a couple of months ago. I’m glad that I stuck with it. My mind feels more clear and I’m ruminating less on negative thoughts. That urge is still there to think about the negative, but I’m able to choose not to. It doesn’t feel as automatic and out of my control as before. If you’ve just started or having been doing it for a couple months, I really recommend to stick with it. If it’s really adversely affecting you then you should be talking with your providers to come up with a plan of action of course. Me and my therapist came up with a before and after care plan, and that made the experience more comfortable and less negative. It’s okay to tweak things or adjust the dose, but I really hope you stick with it and notice a real difference at some point in your journey (hopefully sooner than later).

The place I’m getting my Spravato treatments is just an urgent care. At my last session someone was loudly playing their phone in the next room. This time there has been a baby screaming bloody murder for at least fifteen minutes. I genuinely am trembling and on the verge of tears because of how overstimulated I am. I can even hear it over my noise canceling AirPods. I like just gentle music but I have to play loud music to even begin to block it out right now. I don’t know what to do.

Anyone else feel like their trip is much more intense if they are also sick? I had a cold about a year ago and ended up unable to move. Last week i had a sinus infection and I had such a strong trip i ended up bawling my eyes out and it was so intense. I have a few more similar stories. I only get big reactions like that when im sick. Anyone else go through something similar?

I've been in treatment for about six months and it's been a game changer. I know that the "trips" aren't necessarily the point. And of course there is a lot of debate on this subject. But I do believe that there's a correlation in the benefits. That the insights, perception change, trip whatever happens in there mixed with what the medicine also does chemically to work on depression creates a symbiotic relationship.

I do once a week treatment currently and curious if you gain a tolerance and this fades. I don't experience the dissociation as much as I used to, but the trip is definitely still there as well as the epiphanies. Then I'm free of depression and a noticeable decrease in anxiety during the week. What is your experience with this in the long term, months, 1 year, over etc?

Here in spain via public health system treatment is fixed as follows:

- For 6 weeks - twice weekly

- For 4.5 months - Once weekly

- For 6 months - Once monthly

- 1 year mark - end of treatment - ( no renewal )

It makes no sense to me at all as there is no room for change the schedule and after one year you are without spravato.

Also seems a lot of people is in maintenance for years...

I just got accepted into an apprenticeship program for HVAC&R that I’ve been trying to get in for the last two years. I just got signed up at the school today and they had me take a saliva drug test which was labeled 9SAP+SYN OF. I’ve been doing Spravato treatments for the last four weeks and had a treatment yesterday. I’m worried about failing am I protected in any way if I have a positive? I’ve seen that It can throw a false positive for PCP and I am very anxious about that. I got the RX # for the prescription ready just in case, is there any reason that they could tell me even with a valid prescription?

I assume everyone has to do pre and post treatment questionnaires of some sort, as I think it’s a REMS requirement? Could be wrong about that. My clinic has a really dumb 5 question one for pre and post and also do PHQ9 before each one. The 5 question one has 4 response choices for each one and is like “I do /do not feel sad…I do / do not feel tired…I feel equally deserving of love and acceptance as anyone else…
Does anyone else have that one? I find it very dumb because I don’t think those answers really change in the 2 hours. Except for tired…that is always a yes after!

IV ketamine helped me a lot with treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, and OCD, but the cost just isn’t sustainable long term. I’ve also used 200 mg troches in between infusions, and now I’m seriously considering switching to Spravato.

For anyone who’s tried IV ketamine and/or troches before Spravato, I’d love to hear how they actually compared. Did Spravato help your depression, anxiety, or OCD as much? Did the benefits feel weaker, stronger, more gradual, or more consistent?

I’m also really curious about the treatment experience itself. How did the Spravato “trip” compare with IV ketamine? Was it less intense, shorter, more dissociative, more emotional, or just totally different?

What made you switch, how long did it take before you knew whether Spravato was helping, and did you end up sticking with it?
Most importantly, if IV ketamine worked for you but was too expensive, did Spravato feel like a good long-term replacement?

Got a appointment with a clinic soon, i tried offing myself before think i have brain damage from it, wanted to try something other than ssris . maybe induce neuroplasticity or something BDNF related

Its not like major brain damage or anything its like minor stuff but it affects my daily life with mild headaches, balance issues, difficulty reasoning , anxiety, etc

this happened in 2022, i admit its gotten a little better but i still suffer daily, i no longer do anything no weed no pills i only did the pills a total of 12 or 14 times anyway most were taken within a week in 2022 february .( only had 10 or 12 in total)

sober from weed 5 months as of today, smoked my whole life until the overdose happened now it causes anxiety sometimes makes symptoms worst so i stopped.

before i try it i figured id ask people here my insurance covers it so it would be free

I had my first treatment at 84 dosage two days ago. It was OK during. I mostly just felt drunk, which i didn't care for (i don't drink because I don't like that feeling). I got terribly nauseous afterward and slept for over 10 hours that night. Now I'm back to my normal bad sleeping overnight (usually awake by 3am, and it happened last night despite my best efforts to go back to sleep). I woke up horribly depressed and it's scaring me. I feel like I read the depression is somewhat normal as we get started and I searched some through the sub too. But I feel a bit discouraged and scared that the depression is going to continue. I guess I'm just looking for support and encouragement because right now I feel an overwhelming need to sob at nothing at all, just like I had been feeling before treatment.

(Adding here that I am also on Lexapro and Vraylar and have been otherwise doing ok on that till today since starting those two almost 6 weeks ago)

I've completed two months of Spravato and its going well so far. The effect for me is that the objective facts of my life that were making me miserable haven't changed at all but I'm not ruminating on it endlessly. I find myself losing interest in chronic maladaptive daydreaming escapism that has been a lifelong avoidance and dissociating coping mechanism from childhood violence and resultant complex trauma . One interesting thing is I feel the physical effects in my body more strongly than when I started Spravato and I think its allowing me to experience things somatically that I couldn't before. Along with septoplasty three months ago I'm sleeping better than I ever have although I still struggle to fall asleep averaging about 1.5 hours to sound sleep but once I do I really sleep. I'm hopeful for the first time in my life that at minimum I won't be miserable forever. In January I wasn't planning on not being alive for my birthday in August so this is a breakthrough for me. I also recently got a stellate ganglion block on the right side and next week I'll get it on the left side. It’s hard to tell what the effect has been so far for that because what I'm getting from Spravato is comingled with the SGB procedure. I wish everyone who has suffered from treatment resistant depression could try Spravato.

Is it a conflict of interest for a provider at your clinic to be the prescriber? I’ve done TMS and Spravato both at at this clinic. I love the clinic but I do have to wonder sometimes about the conflict of interest. Keeping me coming for one or both treatments obviously benefits them as they only do TMS/Spravato. My insurance pays $1600 each Spravato and $700ish for TMS.