_Broken_alice

_Broken_alice

She/Her
Nov 19, 2023
226
So, we decided that since we are at the point we are, to at the least try a few things to break our psychotic depression.
We have been on a lot of combos of anti-depressants and anti-psychotics that never helped and often made things much worse and one even caused permanent issues due to OD'ing even exactly taking our prescribed dose. (Defective CYP2D6 genes. Causes lots of issues for nearly every common medication. Opiates do next to nothing if anything, SSRI's don't process right leading to a massive buildup at normal doses. Even Naproxen Sodium is dangerous to us which is unfortunate as it is the only thing we found to help with our pain enough since opiates provide no relief.)
Last night, we got full relief we never expected we could with ketamine. A few hours of absolutely zero depression, zero anxiety, and zero pain. A lifetime of depression just evaporated almost like it never existed. We aren't doing perfect today as our life circumstances absolutely warrant the depression, but this is the first day in months that the urges to CTB are just gone. We feel like if we can somehow make it out of the situation we are in, we could actually be reasonably happy. We haven't felt like we even could be happy since elementary school when the thoughts of wanting to die first started (overwhelming gender-dysphoria + abuse, neglect, and abandonment).
It is so great to finally know what a proper baseline of ZERO depression and such feels like. The relief is very much still present today, nearly 16 hours later. The depression is there, but it is not all-consuming as it has been this year since our unexpected divorce.
While we still have a very long way to go, and may very well still CTB if things can't work out, we actually feel like trying to improve for the first time in as long as we can remember. For the first time in a long time, things feel somewhat manageable even though we are still at a complete loss as for how to remedy our situation enough to matter long term. We even cried tears of relief earlier.
The only downside we are seeing is we are not *very* aware of just how much pain we are in every day physically. We subconciously block out so much that is minor compared to the worst, but very much still a problem. Lots of low level nerve pain throughout our entire body.Now that we have experienced zero pain for the first time since childhood, we are aware of every bit of pain we had ignored. It isn't worse, it's actually still lessened greatly, we are just now very aware of it all. We are also very aware our pain fits symptoms for MS near perfectly which does run in our family. Also explains why our back injury is still so bad ~7 years later and in some ways getting worse with secondary issues. If we make it through this, we will be seeking testing for that ASAP. We have suspected for a few years now.
To say the least, last night's experience was life changing, and potentially life saving. For the first time since being aware of our DID and becoming co-concious, the internal conflict is gone. Two of our alters with very different view points are contentedly getting along blended which never happens.
Sorry if this is hard to read and follow.. We are always disorganized and have a very hard time putting our thoughts into words. DID makes that much worse as we have to take multiple inputs and get one output.
Others facing similar unrelenting depression may want to highly consider ketamine as an option. Clinical treatments are insanely expensive at US$600 on the low end, other DNM sources, very much not so. Just be careful, the substance is very much not without risk although most issues are usually only a problem if abused. (Bladder issues are common if abused. Guaranteed if abused heavily.) Other issues are mainly physical safety under the influence of a powerful disassociative anesthetic. The substance does have a fairly high abuse potential, so be careful of that as well. For us, the pros heavily outweigh the cons and this is going to be a regular but controlled thing in dealing with our depression as it is the only thing that has provided such relief.
 
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T

ThisUnrest

Seeking personal sovereignty
Aug 15, 2023
178
That is great news!!
 
Cheesecake

Cheesecake

҉ Walmart ҉
Aug 28, 2020
82
im partying with u in my head bro UR GONNA MAKE IT
 
R

RamoHelsom

Member
Nov 8, 2023
6
really great to hear you got some relief! I have been looking into ketamine transfusions myself. Have heard mixed reviews. What matters is that baseline allows your to take a second look at your life and hopefully realize there are still some things fighting for. Wishing you the very best and hope it looks up from here
 
EternalShore

EternalShore

Hardworking Lass who Dreams of Love~ 💕✨
Jun 9, 2023
977
Wow, I'm glad you're feeling better for once! :D Elementary school was bliss compared to the rest of life tbh... I wish I could still be there. :( Anyways, I hope you continue to feel less pain and maybe even your life circumstances improving~ hehe~
 
_Broken_alice

_Broken_alice

She/Her
Nov 19, 2023
226
Wow, I'm glad you're feeling better for once! :D Elementary school was bliss compared to the rest of life tbh... I wish I could still be there. :( Anyways, I hope you continue to feel less pain and maybe even your life circumstances improving~ hehe~
Our early years were filled with abuse and neglect as well as bio-mom yelling she didn't want us so much we told other family she didn't need us anymore once our sister was born... Plus massive amounts of gender dysphoria. We wanted to die in the 2nd grade to "Have another 50:50 chance of being born in the right body."
Sadly started to feel icky again yesterday, but pretty sure a lot of that is hormonal.
Still hoping life circumstances improve, but not too hopeful. Still a huge improvement over just a week ago where every waking moment was consumed with the desire to CTB and be done with it all.
really great to hear you got some relief! I have been looking into ketamine transfusions myself. Have heard mixed reviews. What matters is that baseline allows your to take a second look at your life and hopefully realize there are still some things fighting for. Wishing you the very best and hope it looks up from here
Knowing what a proper baseline is like helped a lot. Gave us a glimpse at what should be attainable after a lifetime of nothing but depression and pain. Now that we know what zero depression and such is like, we know what to work towards, even if we don't know how or even if we can get there. If covered by heath coverage, we say try to go for it. At worst it doesn't work we think. For us, our dose disassociated us heavily enough to look at internal things without caring about them really. Last time we were able to do that was like 7 years ago with DMT, however that was very hit or miss in regards to whether you get any work done that trip or just get lost in it and the visuals.
 
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RussianRoulette

RussianRoulette

Member
Oct 17, 2023
10
the problem with drugs like this is that they take your pain with a hand and share it with the other
 
_Broken_alice

_Broken_alice

She/Her
Nov 19, 2023
226
the problem with drugs like this is that they take your pain with a hand and share it with the other
Ketamine has been shown in many studies to help with treatment resistant depression. Before deciding to take it, we were very suicidal. Now, we are still depressed because situation and running out of money we can't renew, but all the nonsense bits are still gone. The stuff about our ex for instance doesn't hurt nearly as much despite being all-consuming just a few days ago. It gave us a break we have never had and never would have had without it. We are almost certain the feelings will come back in time, but they didn't rebound as many substances will. (MDMA for example where you feel good during the roll and then crash so far once over that you are so much worse off than before.) It never felt pleasurable really. Just gave us the ability to not feel things and kinda think about them to realize that a lot of them should NOT be bothering us as there is absolutely nothing that can be done to change the past.
Considering our period just started, and we are still doing better than before, we are calling this an outright win.
 
RussianRoulette

RussianRoulette

Member
Oct 17, 2023
10
Ketamine has been shown in many studies to help with treatment resistant depression. Before deciding to take it, we were very suicidal. Now, we are still depressed because situation and running out of money we can't renew, but all the nonsense bits are still gone. The stuff about our ex for instance doesn't hurt nearly as much despite being all-consuming just a few days ago. It gave us a break we have never had and never would have had without it. We are almost certain the feelings will come back in time, but they didn't rebound as many substances will. (MDMA for example where you feel good during the roll and then crash so far once over that you are so much worse off than before.) It never felt pleasurable really. Just gave us the ability to not feel things and kinda think about them to realize that a lot of them should NOT be bothering us as there is absolutely nothing that can be done to change the past.
Considering our period just started, and we are still doing better than before, we are calling this an outright win.
I wouldn't trust drugs like that, as in, they all feel great at start, so did alcohol for months till it didn't anymore.
 
_Broken_alice

_Broken_alice

She/Her
Nov 19, 2023
226
I wouldn't trust drugs like that, as in, they all feel great at start, so did alcohol for months till it didn't anymore.
To each their own. Comparing to alcohol is not fair though. For those it helps, ketamine helps for a lot longer than it is active in your system. For a lot of people with treatment resistant depression, it is THE turning point in their lives they needed. It isn't risk free, but knowing the risks and making an informed decision to accept them is enough.
Alcohol numbs things in the moment but that is gone the instant it is processed by the liver and eliminated. We absolutely hate alcohol despite making it a part of our life lately in moderation. Alcohol also has serious issues with rebound making things so much worse. Alcohol never should have been a legal, more easily obtainable substance given that much safer things are illegal. Don't even get us started on the health issues it causes even in moderation.

Probably going to take a dose of ketamine either tonight or tomorrow. Some things triggered another psychotic depression episode (after 3 1/2-4 days doing ok-ish for the first time literally ever.) and the urges to CTB are overwhelming again. Non-abuse risk to us is so much more acceptable than having literally no other way to manage this. Anything abused is a problem.

Risks of ketamine alone are mostly physical safety for the duration of effects, (It is an anesthetic after-all), tolerance, and bladder damage with heavy and chronic usage. And the bladder damage can most likely be almost entirely mitigated by a compound in green tea. A lab study done on rats showed great promise and brought ketamine induced bladder issues to levels very close to the results from the control group. And that was giving them an absolutely insane dose every day for 28 days equivalent to higher than most of even the heaviest abusers intake. Unfortunately no human studies have been conducted YET. A summary of the study involving lab rats: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879522615004157

We choose to risk bladder damage in exchange for a chance to want to live again. Risk of doing nothing in our case is nearly certainly choosing to CTB despite knowing how much it will hurt our chosen-mom and partners. In our case, literally nothing to lose, everything to gain AND with a very acceptable (to us) risk profile.

We aren't here to try to convince anyone to try something they aren't comfortable with, but outright dismissing something shown to have serious potential to help is wrong. Especially with no supporting *anything relevant* to back up that dismissal.

Forgive our bluntness and lack of tact, our worst alter is in charge during our psychotic depression episodes and to put it lightly, she can be an uncaring bitch when she isn't outright pushing to CTB.
if its prescribed it should be ok
Or just so long as risks are understood and accepted, risks are mitigated as much as possible, and the substance isn't abuse. Granted, that last one is an issue for a lot of people, but not just with ketamine. Prescribed doesn't really matter and is obscenely expensive to have someone there ruining the experience with their mere presence being a distraction. Verified purity would be great, but that is a failed 'war on drugs' issue rather than one with the substance itself. Shouldn't have to pay some give-zero-fucks company $600-1800 for less than an hour of supervised access and administration of less than $5 worth of a potentially life saving substance after jumping through hoops and likely being degraded in the process.

To clarify, nothing we say should be taken as advice. It should just be considered more information to go towards more research to potentially make a decision. We are certainly not recommending anyone obtain a wrongfully over-controlled substance.
 
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_Broken_alice

_Broken_alice

She/Her
Nov 19, 2023
226
Expanding on our own thread and kind of turning it into our recovery journal. Careful ketamine use may very well save our life as long as some important life circumstances can be changed in time. Hopefully we can go a little longer between usages, but without, our chances of surviving ourselves would be near zero with how overwhelmed and helpless to improve our situation we are.
*
A plus side and downside is how nauseous it makes us. Downside because, well.. nausea and severe emetophobia. Plus side because our emetophobia alone will keep us from ever having a serious problem with this substance. And the taste... Icky. Like a weird fake minty but chemical at first, then weirdly metallic for the duration and comedown.
*
Just a few hours ago the urges to CTB were becoming overwhelming again and we felt so hopeless we didn't even want to keep going. Now? While fully aware of everything wrong and ruining whatever is left of our mental health, we at least WANT to survive and feel like we can if we carefully manage our mental state and catch the bad spirals in time. We have managed to go a week now without cutting ourselves or having more than just fleeting urges to. Before, we could hardly stop and only did so because of how annoying healing so many cuts at once is. Even when we had cuts substantially bleed for nearly 3 days afterward, we still wanted to cut again. Now, we just don't want to cut. Before our first dose, not a moment went by where we didn't want to grab our razor and cut until the blood satisfied alice, or she got bored and gave up. Not a moment went by without the urges to CTB pushing away everything else if we so much as let our thoughts take form.
*
Our dips into psychosis are absolutely terrifying. We hope we can manage to survive them long enough to matter. We wish we at least had a warning when they were going to happen but we don't and the dips into it are getting so much worse each time it happens. We can be just really depressed due to situation one moment, and thrown into the psychotic depression void in the blink of an eye while our most unstable alter (alice) is given full unfettered control and the rest of us are pushed out almost completely for the duration. Really not a good combo to be alone with considering alice has absolutely zero survival instinct or desire to live in her current state. We go from debilitatingly depressed but somehow managing to survive, to psychosis and suicidal before we ever realize what has happened. The only thing that has kept her from ending us is that she cares so much about the few precious people in our life and absolutely does not want to hurt them. If not for them, she could walk off a cliff with no hesitation or regret. She came dangerously close to getting her hands on a firearm more recently than we would like to admit. (We will be getting rid of that later today after sleep so she can't be impulsive when the psychosis sets in.) We will still have our SN if/when that arrives, but the other alters would be able to intervene in that procedure even through psychosis as it is less impulsive. And we will make sure it is never easily accessible to us. Once we get to be with our partners, we will figure out how to properly dispose of it we think. We think just knowing it is an available last resort option will ease some of the existential dread we always feel, even if we don't want to ever have to use it. Currently, our partners don't even know we ordered it and we don't want to tell them as they have our chosen-mom's contact info. They are already worried about us enough as it is knowing we are frequently suicidal lately. We don't want to add the stress and anguish of knowing we often have the desire AND will have the means to CTB accessible to us. We have gone from "urgently wanting to CTB" to "absolutely last resort in case of imminent homelessness" in the span of a week. We never thought that could even happen for us with how broken we are after the damage our ex did to us at the beginning of this year. We have even been suicidal in our hyper-realistic nightmares. Due to pain and not really getting acceptable REM sleep for ~7 years now, all of our dreams are at least semi-lucid and often feel more real than what we think is reality. If our environment were changed enough between laying down and getting up, we would have absolutely no clue which reality was real. We already have a lot of moments where we don't know when we hard switch. We just assume the more consistent one is real even though we can't be certain.
*
We also realized tonight that we had suppressed that we spent almost the entirety of last year before our divorce stuck in psychosis without even realizing it. It was.. really bad.. We were outright delusional about our perceived reality due to stress and emotional abuse at the hand of our ex.
*
We still have a long way to go, and a lot of stuff to figure out and manage, but we just might survive long enough to get to physically be with our wonder and caring partners. If we can just make it that far, we think we will actually survive even with how broken we are. At the least, we are absolutely hell-bent on doing everything we can to survive that long when we could not say that just over a week ago. Hopefully there is a LOT of therapy in our future so we can start to work around a lifetime of trauma, abuse, and neglect.
Ketamine is far from perfect, but without it, the odds we would even be considering we could possibly make it through this would be absolute zero. We had completely given up. We are by no means ok in any sense of the word, but we might manage to survive this hell after all.
Now time for bed. We are hella eepy and have places to go today. Maybe we can survive this..
 

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