Has anyone had ketamine?

[SpiderLink]

How are you now? And has it helped you?

 

[DurkheimsCat]

Yes, I did IM ketamine and troches. Helped in the immediate but had no lasting effect for me. Gave me some bladder issues though. There's a robust reddit community dedicated to therapeutic ketamine if you want to talk to more people. TMS has been more helpful for me.

 

[lachrymost]

I did ketamine assisted therapy. Intra-muscular injections--three trips. It was an incredible mind-fuck. I love amusement park rides and I tend to compare it to that, but cerebral and extra surreal. Very intense and there was definitely a threatening feel to it. It's not hard for me to understand how it could be absolutely terrifying. Overall, it was exactly as hallucinogens are portrayed in the movies. I saw abstract geometry and urban topography. I traveled through mazes from some outside, disembodied perspective. I flirted with ego death a bit and at one point got confused over whether I was myself or the player character in the video game I had been playing.

But did it work? I paid thousands of dollars and it did absolutely nothing for my mental state afterwards. The program only included three sessions, whereas I've read you need six minimum to have a hope of efficacy. (Don't take my word for it--just what I remember reading when I was researching this.) They justified this by giving us higher doses, but I don't know if there's good reason to believe that would work or not. The whole program was actually pretty sketchy and weird overall. They had us sign consent forms stating we didn't eat for several hours beforehand, and that it had been days at least since we'd imbibed alcohol or cannabis, etc. This after they had previously told us it was up to our discretion whether we did any of those things or not! I made sure not to eat or get drunk or high beforehand, so I could sign truthfully, but I heard them pressuring people into lying!

During the group therapy portion, they had a guy talk to us about his time in the cartel. He kept telling us meditation and oracle cards saved his life. The private counselling was with a hippie psychedelic enthusiast who talked in a hypnotic cadence about "meeting Lady Ketamine", who "may come visit" me before I even had my first session. I continually felt that the only way I could engage with her was to repeat the sentiment of whatever bizarre thing she said, but in a rational presentation. So when she was telling me to prepare to meet Lady K in the grocery store in the week preceding my first dose, I said, "Right, well… I guess the anticipation is all part of the journey!" She liked that.

It didn't work but I don't regret it. It was an extreme, fascinating experience.

 

[SpiderLink]

Thanks for your responses!

 

[toofargone6969]

Yes, I did IM ketamine and troches. Helped in the immediate but had no lasting effect for me. Gave me some bladder issues though. There's a robust reddit community dedicated to therapeutic ketamine if you want to talk to more people. TMS has been more helpful for me.

What kind of TMS did you have? What kind of improvement did you experience?

 

[stilhavinightmares]

I do Spravato (intranasal esketamine) twice a week and have been since April. I don't know that it has had much lasting effects but I personally find the high itself enjoyable/helpful.