Ketamine infusions are becoming more and more popular in treating depression, anxiety, PTSD, chronic pain, OCD, and treatment-resistant depression. While there is a lot of information online about these infusions, you may not know what to believe. Hence, it is natural to feel worried and scared if you have been prescribed ketamine infusions. Phoenix’s top Ketamine Clinic explains what you can expect during your ketamine infusions.
Preparing for the Infusions
Typically, during your first ketamine appointment, your medical provider or therapist will discuss your medical history in detail. No medications will be given during this intake session. You can also get familiar with the medical facility where you will be getting the infusions and interact with the doctors and therapists to feel comfortable. The intake session will include a complete psychiatric and psychological evaluation to develop a customized treatment plan. This plan will be made after evaluating your medical and psychological history and considering your individual goals. Once this plan is ready, you will be scheduled for your first ketamine infusion.
What Happens During Treatment?
Your ketamine infusion therapist will be present with you throughout your appointment. Some clinics may provide you with blankets, eyeshades, and pillows to keep you comfortable during the treatment.
What you experience during your ketamine infusions will depend on the amount of ketamine that is administered to you. The acute effects of the infusion can last for about 45 minutes. Most of the time, you will find these to be relaxing and pleasant. These effects, however, may make you feel far from your body and lead to shifts in cognition, perception, and emotionality. Your motor skills and vision may also change during this time and you may sometimes find it hard to find words to describe your feelings and thoughts.
Acute Effects of Ketamine Infusions
Ketamine has been long-known as an anesthetic agent for medical procedures and surgeries. The dissociative property of this medication helps sedate patients during these procedures. This property disconnects the mind from the body by disrupting the action of the neurotransmitter glutamate. When used for non-anesthetic purposes, ketamine can create different experiences for different people. There are four types of experiences it can create in patients:
Empathogenic Experience: During this state, the ketamine may affect your awareness of your body, reduce your ego defenses, create a feeling of euphoria, make you dreamy with non-specific colorful visual effects, increase your compassion and empathy, and make you feel relaxed.
Out of Body or OBE Experience: During this experience, the ketamine infusion may lead to complete separation from your body and significantly diminish your ego defenses. You may feel like you have visited mythological realms of consciousness, experienced encounters with non-terrestrial beings, seen emotionally intense visions, have vivid dreams of past and future incarnations and re-experience the birth process.
Near-Death Experience or NDE: During this experience, you may feel like you have departed from your body, experience a loss of identity, experience physical and psychological death, feel like a single point of consciousness that is aware of only itself, and relive your life with an awareness of how your actions may have affected others.
Ego-Dissolving Transcendental Experience or EDT: This experience may create an ecstatic state of the dissolution of boundaries between yourself and the external entity. It may also lead to the complete dissolution of your body and self. You may also experience collective consciousness, sacredness, and unity with the universe or nature.
During each of these experiences, you may relive memories, stories, and emotions that contain repressed or unprocessed feelings.
What Role Would You Play?
During your ketamine infusions, most clinics and therapists will encourage you to not resist and allow whatever feelings come up to enable transformation and healing. These could be both negative and positive emotions. You may experience a wide range of feelings, from fear and sadness to indescribable joy. You must let yourself experience each of these feelings to heal well.
What Role Does the Doctor Play?
Therapists and medical professionals will be present with you, listening and providing support throughout the infusion. They will support you during the session and will ensure you are safe during your ketamine infusion session.
What Happens After the Ketamine Infusion?
The healing effects of ketamine therapy may last anywhere between two days and a lifetime. How long the effects last will depend on various factors like family history, life situations, and self-care. While you will have to put in the effort to ensure the effects of the therapy last long, many clinics will also provide individualized maintenance based on your personal reports.
Ketamine infusion therapy can feel overwhelming initially. But with the support of the right provider like Complete Ketamine Solutions of Phoenix, the entire process can be smooth and relaxing. They offer ketamine infusions to treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders, and chronic inflammation.
