Over the past few years, there has been an increase in interest in psychedelics for the treatment of various mental health disorders, especially Depression. Books like How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan and documentaries like The Fantastic Fungi have made people talk openly about psychedelics and their potential benefit in treating psychiatric issues.
I had read some of the studies that were showing up periodically in the psychiatric literature over the past decade and at first I was a bit confused. During residency training, psychedelics were basically given a paragraph where they were hailed as the worst of the worst and not to be used. That was about it. Here I was reading articles and studies about their almost miraculous efficacy in treating Depression and anxiety.
It lit a light bulb in my brain, but the light wasn't intense enough to make me change anything in the way I practiced. Fast forward a few years and I was approached by a company that wanted to work together in providing Ketamine infusions to treat mental illness. I was curious and decided to do some more reading and research about this. What I found impressed me enough that I decided to jump into this modality of treatment for my patients. I had been getting more and more frustrated by the limitations of psychiatric medications that we do have to treat patients but their effectiveness was limited and side effects many. They did help a lot of patients some of the way and some patients all the way but the vast majority continued to suffer and my frustration levels grew.
I had always thought of talk therapy along with medications as crucial to the treatment of many psychiatric disorders but it is hard to find really good well trained therapists as it is to find good psychiatrists. I could see my patients suffering and being an empath, it wasn't easy on me either. I began looking into alternative treatments like TMS and Ketamine and incorporated them in our practice.
We started with infusions after setting up the clinic for these treatments and immediately got my socks blown off when the patients started talking about these ‘intense’ experiences which were life changing in many ways. Patient after patient talked about these ‘spiritual’ journeys and how they had changed their outlook on life because of them. A patient who was on the brink of suicide and refusing to go the hospital agreed to a Ketamine treatment and walked out of the clinic smiling with relief, accompanied by a family member who stayed with them for the next couple of days to watch over them. Checking in after a few days, the patient reported no suicidal thoughts. None. They said that it was like a cloud had lifted and they could see the sky again. This was a not just a one off. It was happening almost on a daily basis in the clinic with the Ketamine treatments. The staff in the clinic saw these on a daily basis and gradually our Ketamine practice grew.
I decided to pursue training with this modality and went to the Kriya Conference held in San Francisco in 2019. The meeting was amazing with experts who had been using Ketamine for their patients for many years with excellent results. I attended a workshop where providers could ‘experience’ Ketamine and boy way that a life changing experience. We were prepped before the treatment and I got three intra muscular doses spaced 15 minutes apart which took me on an inner journey, deep within my mind. It left me a bit nauseous at the end but I would have done this treatment again and again if I could. It was ‘ineffable’ as one of the hallmarks of a true psychedelic experience is.
I came back armed with this knowledge and changed our practice to intra-muscular injections only Ketamine practice and gradually incorporated a guide to be with the patients as well. The therapists in our clinic who had seen the many positive benefits of Ketamine on their patients were fully on board and did integration therapy for their clients post therapy.
Five years on, we continue to try and improve the patient experience and hope that we can help patients achieve their goals. Ketamine is not for everyone but for those who can benefit, this is a game changer. I will write about some patient experiences on Ketamine, with their identities completely hidden in a future post. I will also go over a few things one can do to prepare oneself for these treatments and why you should avoid infusions.
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