Ketamine

Has anyone tried or heard about Ketamine?  My therapist recommended it to me for severe depression but I think I’m too scared to try it.  I have no idea how it effects a brain in withdrawal and plus it’s expensive and not covered by insurance.  I also read that it’s not as effective in people over 50 and I’m 54.  Plus it sounds like it can have withdrawal effects too so what happens if you have a series of them then stop?  I’ve pretty much talked myself out of it but wondered if anyone has any thoughts on this.

 

Ketamine is a GABA receptor agonist, so if you are in benzo WD (if fact any WD), I would advise NOT to go on it.  Because benzo's and ketamine affect GABA receptors, you could risk kindling, and find it very difficult to discontinue.  Just my two cents' worth. 

 

Best.

Watch the Ketamine video on YouTube produced by Vice. One is supposed to at the very least be six months Benzo free before trying such a modality.

Ketamine is not a GABA receptor agonist. According to most people here, everything is a GABA agonist, and you should only drink water, and eat vegetables. That is not true! Ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist. It inhibits N-methyl-d-aspartate-type glutamate receptors.

 

Here is some info about it's GABA functions: Ketamine did not alter the amplitude, frequency, or kinetics of postsynaptic currents but increased a tonic inhibitory current generated by extrasynaptic GABAA receptors in hippocampal neurons. For example, ketamine (100 µM) increased the tonic current by 33.6 ± 6.5% (mean ± SEM; 95% CI, 18.2 to 48.9; n = 8, P < 0.001). Ketamine shifted the GABA concentration-response curve to the left, but only when GABAA receptors were activated by low concentrations of GABA (n = 6). The selective increase in tonic current was attributed to ketamine increasing the apparent potency of GABA at high-affinity extrasynaptic GABAA receptors. Ketamine also increased a tonic current in cortical neurons (n = 11). Ketamine directly gated the opening of GABAA receptors, but only at high concentrations that are unlikely to occur during clinical use.

 

What this means is it won't affect your primary GABA function, it will in fact shift your already low GABA to other places, in other words make more use of it for those places, and not deplete you in anyway of GABA. I do not recommend any drugs here, but i've tried Ketamine 2 times on my taper, and it has been quite eye opening, and helped me overcome rough walls i hit. I'm soon planning myself again to trip on Ketamine. 

Don't be scared, you won't trip if you take low dosages, and only get the anesthesia effect.

 

Worst that could happen is you get a bit nervous before doing it, and if you take it to trip, you get weirded out like everyone else with or without withdrawals,

or get a rough effect, but not quite scary, more like a roller coaster, and alienated in not any bad way, just a very fuckd up rough type.

Then you can also get a headache while on it, if taken too much, that's happened to me first time. Though it definitely helps there, and then very! and you get to bring your new learned pathways with you, if you take the knowledge in, and learn from it.

 

I don't know where some people get their information here about almost everything being a GABA agonist. Cocaine is a hard GABA agonist, and will deplete you, alcohol too, and cannabis might affect your GABA in a worse way than ketamine, depends on the terpenes of the THC. Some terpenes work good, others do not. So stay with CBD, if you can't handle marijuana. As you can't isolate terpenes, but you can choose strains. The strain Cheese has worked for me always, and Critical Cheese.

 

Ketamine has helped my depression immensely. More than anything I've tried while tapering benzos and after tapering them. I haven't done any in a long while though. I never got an infusion at a doctors office which is probably more effective than what I had to do. I snorted powdered ketamine that I got elsewhere. If it were up to me I would get regular infusions eventually. It's life saving if you struggle with severe depression and ideation. It's just expensive and there are some risks associated with using it too often. I would like to use around 200-300mg over the course of 6 hours to achieve the desired effect.

So if Ketamine helped you can I ask how old you are?  Is it true that it doesn’t work if you’re over age 50?  What about withdrawal effects if I did it a couple times?  My brain is acting so weird right now since I am in Benzo withdrawal and now Risperdal withdrawal.  I’d probably be the unlucky one to have really bad side effects.  What about the new nasal version of it?  Do you think it can work?  I just don’t know what to do.  I made an appointment for a consultation but I’m really scared.

That risperidal withdrawal is not good, and benzo on top of it. Been there! I'm 23 yr old. I don't think you can be too old for ketamine. I would wait a month to see if the risperidal withdrawal recedes. May i ask if you took risperidal injections? because those gave me withdrawals that lasted a year, they weren't too bad. At some points they were really bad, but still i was living, and doing my stuff. It was easier than benzo. Anyways if you're withdrawals are not in acute phase, and you're stabilized on benzo, and don't feel much of the risperidal withdrawls. I think you'll be fine to try ketamine, but be careful, read a lot about it before. I read about my stuff for a month, then decide for another month, before i try, because i don't want to do something seriously wrong.

Hi, No, I never took respirdal injections, just the pills.  I am doing extremely bad with the respirdal withdrawal on top of the Benzo withdrawal.  I am not going to be able to do the Ketamine.  My doctor said it would end up costing me about 1200 dollars a month which I definitely can’t afford.  So I don’t know what I am going to do.  I am feeling so desperate.

Good it's not the injections. Those are really bad. yes, that risperidal, and benzo withdrawal at same time is really bad. If you're off the benzos, and risperidal, just suffering through withdrawals. I would try gabapentin to get through, CBD should work here efficiently. 1200$ a month sounds too much! Why not try to get it over the deepweb from a trusted vendor, but i would wait if i were you a little, until the risperidal withdrawals go away.

 

Anyways if you're still on benzo's, and risperidal. I would suggest to hold the benzo dose on the same dosage, or increase to a stable dosage. Not too high, and stay there! Then taper down risperidal, while keeping same benzo dosage throughout. Then you can start the benzo taper. It shouldn't be that painful, if you've not cold turkeyed them. It should just be shitty, and a little uncomfortable sometimes.

 

Remember use "Ashton Manual" to change your benzo, to diazepam, then taper slowly. I'm on 9mg diazepam, after being on a huge cocktail of pharmaceuticals, i was high functioning, until i hit tolerance on my benzo use.

You know, I wrote a paper on ketamine just last semester and got an A. According to my research it's pretty positive for severe depression.  It tends to work right away instead of taking weeks like other ADs.  For people who are desperate or suicidal it can be a god-send.  They did say it's less effective on seniors, and it doesn't work for everybody.  However the sample size of the studies were small and I would not take it too seriously.  I think it's like many other anti-depressant.  You don't know if it will work until you have tried it.  I was convinced that I would be willing to try it if I get depression bad enough.  I hope you feel better soon.

Ketamine helped me last summer. Then once I was tapering I had 2-3 booster infusions and don’t recall any ill effects.

 

Ketamine is a GABA receptor agonist, so if you are in benzo WD (if fact any WD), I would advise NOT to go on it.  Because benzo's and ketamine affect GABA receptors, you could risk kindling, and find it very difficult to discontinue.  Just my two cents' worth. 

 

Best.

 

Completely false. Everyone and their you can’t take anything because muh gaba. It’s a glutamate agonist which is the complete opposite of what you “made up”. We have to much glutamate production because of benzos so on paper ketamine would help with WDs