So as some of you probably know, I’ve suffered from depression for most of my life, I’ve been self-medicating with alcohol on and off for the last 20 years, and I have compensated cirrhosis as a result. I’ve quit drinking several times, only to fall back into old patterns time and time again. I most recently quit two months ago, but I’ve still had a few slips since then. I’m lucky that I don’t suffer very severe withdrawals when I quit - the worst I’ve had in the past ten years has been night sweats and difficulty falling asleep.
I started seeing an addiction specialist a few months ago, and based on my experiences, she thinks that I’m not physically dependent on alcohol, but that the root of my addiction is psychological in nature. Because of that, she recommended that psychedelic therapy might be just what I need.
It took some time researching online to find an online clinic that would work with me and accept FSA payments and provide invoices so I can get partial reimbursement from my insurance, but I had a Zoom visit with a clinician today and they approved me for a 12-session home program using dissolving ketamine tablets that you hold in your mouth for 7 minutes before spitting out, then spend an hour or so tripping in bed with an eyemask and headphones on (with a trusted friend, in this case my mother, in the room with me to keep an eye on me in case anything goes wrong). I’m very optimistic about the program and from what I’ve read about ketamine therapy it really seems like it’ll help me break the patterns I keep falling into and find a way to stay sober.
I’m posting because I’ve never taken any kind of psychedelic drug before and I’m wondering if anyone else here has done ketamine therapy for mental health reasons before. I’d be interested in knowing what the experience was like for you so I have an idea of what to expect before I go under the first time. What did it feel like? Did you experience anything significant or meaningful during the session? Any side effects or aftereffects that I oughta know about? Did it help you resolve whatever issue you were trying to solve with it?
I can’t give you any first hand experience but I wanted to point out that ketamine is not a psychedelic. It’s a dissociative. They are two very different things.
With psilocybin and ibogaine, absolutely yes, it can. It has been known to be highly effective for getting many people to quit alcohol and smoking.
To answer the OP question: I was prescribed ketamine tablets by a doctor for a while. All it did was make me feel nauseous, sick and dizzy. It also gave me the feeling that I was being spun around in a washing machine and I often would clutch the blankets hard to try to “get myself back to the living world.” You kind of feel like you are in another life and not this one and kind of like you’re floating inside a computer’s architecture or getting slow-moving sensations like you’re on a never-ending escalator or walkway or train, vague visual of mountains, street signs, schools, people. One time, I had to flick the light switch of my bedroom on and off to check if I was really conscious and back to the “real world” or not.
As for my OCD and mental issues, it didn’t help. I eventually quit ketamine after I learned of its bladder risks.
Good luck with the treatment. If nothing else, it’s a positive sign that you have the motivation to try to help yourself in a constructive way. Do they also have you do other treatments or therapies that go along with the ketamine tablets, like behavior modification? Or is the plan that the tablets alone will be enough?
I’ve taken ketamine recreationally. It’s not psychedelic. The easiest way I could explain it to people that haven’t experimented with drugs is that, at least at a recreational dose, it similar-ish to taking a bunch of Vicodin/Percocet (‘a bunch’ as in well more than a therapeutic dose) or maybe even THC.
I guess my point would be that if your issue is being nervous about taking a psychedelic, you don’t need to worry about that. This is more of a ‘I’m going to lay on the couch and try to watch a movie’ drug than a ‘Look at all the happy creatures dancin’ on the lawn’ drug.
I understand why someone might consider it psychedelic but, at least IME, it’s nothing like LSD/mushrooms/salvia
Having said that, I have no idea if the dosage used in ketamine therapy is higher, lower or the same as a recreational dose. Also, I have no what the dose was when I was doing it. Also worth noting that this was almost 30 years ago, so I’m going from memory here when it comes to the effects.
And I still have no idea how my roommate ended up with a vial of it.
For my first session I’m supposed to use two 250mg tablets, and after that they raise the dose gradually based on my experience. I don’t know how that compares to a recreational dose.
After each session, you’re supposed to journal about your experience, then have a Zoom call with a “guide” to talk over what you experience. There’s a custom audio track to listen to on headphones during each session.
My doctor also wants me to pursue talk therapy, but thus far I’m having trouble finding one in my area who’s taking new patients and would work for me.
Perhaps you could look to online therapists who do remote sessions over Zoom. That might make it easier to find someone who will take you as a patient. You might also look to online groups where people discuss their experience. There may even be local groups that do ketamine therapy like there are for AA, AlAnon, dealing with grief, etc.
Upon looking it up, it’s significantly more than a recreational dose and closer to the amount used for anesthetic purposes, but since I’m absorbing it in my mouth and not swallowing it it bypasses the liver and it won’t metabolize into its stronger form.
(In the event that I do accidentally swallow it, the effect can last up to 6 hours and they advised me to sleep it off.)
My wife was on ketamine therapy for treatment resistant depression. She took it nasally from a liquid sprayer, just like Afrin.
It’s really hard to say if it worked or not. It definitely wasn’t a miracle cure, but maybe it helped. For her, the side effects were extremely low, so there really wasn’t much risk in trying it long term.
Biggest problem was finding a pharmacy that would compound it for us. The first one became unreliable, and then closed, I found another that was $25/month cheaper. Should have shopped around from the start, instead of just taking the doctor’s recommendation.
Anyway, I really don’t know how the dose she was on compares to the dissolving oral tablets. I assume it is less than the in-clinic IV administered doses. After taking a dose she didn’t obviously behave differently. At some point I asked what it felt like, and she said it made her a bit light headed and high, but otherwise not too much. She wasn’t allowed to drive after taking it, and said it made her feel like driving would be a bad idea.
She just did the drug, without any guided trips, meditation, or similar things.
She was supposed to take it every 2 (or maybe 3) days, but would forget and take it multiple days in a row. Then she’d run out early, and would stress about how to get more, especially with the pharmacy troubles. That made me worried it was addictive, but when it came time to stop treatment she just stopped with no issues.
They gave me the choice of tablets or self-administered injections. The injections have higher bioavailability and a faster onset, while the tablets kick in a little more gradually and the experience lasts a little longer. I went with the tablets because I don’t trust myself to accurately draw the right dose into a syringe and inject myself in the right spot.
Wait, what? I have never heard of a clinic doing injected ketamine that wasn’t they themselves administering the injection via syringe or an IV drip. What clinic is this that lets patients self-inject - is it at home or in the clinic building itself?
The injection is into the abdomen like Ozempic, but you have to draw it from the vial yourself instead of using an autoinjector, which is why I decided to go with the tablets.
Interesting. I would have thought the clinic would worry about infection or what can go wrong with patients sticking a needle into their abdomens. But I guess they have safer tech than before, with a diabetes-like injector.