Hi! I’d love to know more about ketamine therapy, if you feel okay to share what it is/what uses it has for you/etc. Reading your post was the first time I’ve heard about it.
Sure! I don't mind talking about it.
Ketamine therapy is used to treat mental health disorders including anxiety, depression, OCD, and PTSD.
Personally, I use it mostly for depression symptoms but I also use it for anxiety although some research shows that it may not be as effective for anxiety as it is for depression, PTSD, and OCD.
Basically, ketamine therapy involves the administration of ketamine in either a tablet form or via IV. Anecdotally, I've been told that the tablet form is not as effective as IV, but using tablets is WAY cheaper. It can be pretty expensive because most insurance doesn't cover it so it's mostly out of pocket.
The actual therapy part via tablet or IV is pretty similar, but tablet form can be done at home, whereas IV is done at a clinic. When it's done at home, it's mailed to you. I have to sign off for the packages and be home for the delivery, otherwise it gets sent to another place for pick up where I have to sign off for it.
I've done both and prefer the IV method but it's pricey. I go to a local clinic near me, but I know some people will travel hours to go to a clinic. Some people don't have the option to travel to a clinic or it's just not practical because of cost so some people do the at home tablet method.
The IV method and tablet method both involve a consultation either in person or online. to see if symptoms are serious enough to qualify for ketamine therapy. I did my tablet consultation online through Mindbloom, but there are other companies. The IV method for me was done via a phone call to the local clinic and then they were put in contact with my psychiatrist. Some clinics have a psychiatrist on staff, but the one I've used doesn't so thats why they needed to be put in contact with my psychiatrist. The local clinic is run by anesthesiologists. Ketamine is an anesthetic technically.
So after consultation, you set up appointments for IV. On mindbloom I did the same and met with a nurse practitioner and a ketamine guide for my experience to walk me through the process.
Both IV and tablet methods had 6 initial sessions that were done in a matter of a few weeks. The IV consultation had me do 6 sessions over a course of 2 weeks. The tablet method was over a longer period of time. For the tablet method I did 2 initial sessions and then after that I did it once a week for 4 weeks. For some people like myself they recommend following up for maintenance / treatment of symptoms. This looks different depending on severity of symptoms. Some people do maintenance at an IV clinic twice a year, every 3 months, or once a month. They recommended once a month for me. I know with mindbloom they have an 18 pack available after you've done your initial session. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I know they bill you monthly for that method so you don't have to pay upfront for all costs. Mindbloom doesn't take insurance.
An at home session with a tablet looks like this for me. You have to have a person on hand to check in on you to make sure you are safe and not having any issues like an adverse reaction to the ketamine. For me, that's my fiance. You measure your blood pressure with a cuff provided by Mindbloom to make sure you are in a healthy range to start therapy. You put the tablets in your mouth for 7 minutes, and during this time you have to allow the saliva in your mouth to gather. You aren't supposed to swallow during this time. You open the app and there's a guided message for the first few minutes. Then it plays music during the journey. They recommend putting on headphones and lying down while wearing an eye mask. After 7 minutes are up, I spit out the ketamine and saliva into a zip lock bag as advised by Mindbloom. This is to keep the ketamine away from contaminating local water supplies. You're not supposed to spit it into a sink or directly into the trash for that reason. After I spit it up, I lie down and focus on a mantra. One for instance that I used was "I release my depression." This is done for an hour. During that time my fiance comes in and checks in on me every 15 minutes. After the session you're supposed to avoid negative stimuli to let the ketamine work on your brain. I usually eat afterwards because you're supposed to avoid eating for several hours before so you aren't nauseous from the ketamine. I've never experienced nausea but I don't want to risk it. Mindbloom sends anti-nausea meds along with the ketamine. They recommend journaling afterward but I don't because I never found it to be helpful when I tried. Before session I journal to clear my mind. I normally do yoga or meditate beforehand to get myself into a good headspace for my session.
For an IV session, I go to the clinic at my appointment time and am walked back into a private room with an armchair that has heating and massage functions. They administer the IV to a vein in my hand or wrist and hook it up to a machine that administers the ketamine. They also hook me up to a blood pressure cuff. They monitor my vitals on the machine during session via a computer and leave me alone during session. During this time things get trippy. You can move but I find that I have no desire to move. They recommend wearing headphones and bringing a blanket. After session I usually go home and eat or go out to eat with my fiance. I don't have issues with nausea but some people do. I've heard this is more common when you're older or elderly. The anesthesiologists will come in and check in on me during this time but basically I just vibe the whole time. I try to focus on something I need to work through during this time and I mostly just let my mind wander however it will and I listen to music. There are several lists on Spotify that have been made specifically for ketamine therapy by other users. I know one client at the ketamine clinic I go to listens to the grateful dead the whole time so it's really all up to preference.
I've probably given you more info than needed but I've never really talked about it indepth on tumblr so I figured why not. Lol. But that's an indepth look into what it's like, what i use it for and what it is. Hope this post was helpful!
