Ketamine Therapy

Anyone ever try ketamine therapy? I know it is outrageously expensive but would be willing to try it if I thought it would work. Thanks

[eharvey8]

I'm interested too. I've read into it and it seems really effective for those who are approved for it, but I realized you have to go in regularly for treatment (it's not an at home supplement) which is interesting and a bit of a challenge. Additionally, I live in a city yet there's only around 2 providers I can find near me and I just feel weird about it (feels almost like I'm cherry-picking my own treatment). I also wonder what severity of depression is appropriate to try it. Anyone else have thoughts or experience so far?

[Kaytee1981]

Morning,

I've had ketamine infusion therapy in the UK, I was an inpatient at a mental health hospital for several suicide attempts but you dont need to be a inpatient or that severely depressed (if that's how your defining it).

I found the process very gentle and the staff very supportive and accommodating. For me however the treatment caused unwarranted effects- so the first time I had the infusion I went into a severe dissassociative state and had to be sedated, the second time I felt like I was dying, the third infusion just didn't send me in the type of dissassociative state needed for the treatment to work.

However that all said people I spoke to that had the treatment raved about it and its effectiveness I guess I was just one of the unlucky ones!

Since then I've tried TMS and a new lot of meds currently on duloxetine, pregabalin and lithium and still feel pretty rubbish- my current diagnosis is treatment resistant depression (surprise, surprise!)

[Closer-to-Fine]

Did you do it? I did it two weeks before Christmas 2019. It is an amazing drug! I started to feel it working the 3rd day. I was skeptical because every drug (I have lost track of how many) seems to work when I first change meds. I am so optimistic about the "new" medication working that it keeps me going for a while.

After the 3rd Ketamine treatment, I sat in the room crying because it was working. I felt like it was saving my life. I actually cried a lot during those two weeks (is it working is it not working?). So many things felt like they worked and then later didn't. This is the first time I have gotten to 4 months and still feel good. I got a job! I loved it (on furlough now).

Within 3 weeks of starting Ketamine, I started to realize that I was actually thinking differently. I seemed more open to giving myself a chance, accepting my own mistakes and letting go of the past.

The most important thing I can tell you is to do what the doctor tells you to do! I already know you probably won't feel like it. If you have the thought to "do" something, do it, right away. Start exercise right away. Go to bed and get up at the same time every day. When you screw up, acknowledge it, think about it, fix it and/or move on....do not dwell. Meditate (new to me) Most importantly (for me), find a therapist and blurt everything out and start forgiving yourself for not being perfect.

It is expensive, that's for sure. I remind myself that I have done so much more to improve myself in the last 4 months than I have done for myself in the last 25 years. For me, it has been worth it.....for everyone around me and everything I do.

[Blackdog1 in reply to Closer-to-Fine]

Can you give a ballpark figure for a treatment?

How often do you get the treatments?

[Hidden]

I have had 3 ketamine infusions. Helped me get out of that suicidal funk for about a week. I haven't tried the nasal spray. The ketamine helped my pain very much though. It was kind of a trippy buzz, but nothing to be scared about.