Since the Uvalde, Texas shooting at Robb Elementary on May 24 where 22 people were killed and 18 wounded, 40 more mass shootings have occurred in this country. As we spoke about in our post Shooters are Terrorizing Us, people who hear or read about these terrible events struggle to make sense of them, and in many cases feel the rise of PTSD. Traumatic events like this are all around us. PTSD permeates our world.

This is National PTSD Awareness Month, and you can help those with PTSD with your awareness and by understanding their pain.

PTSD isn’t limited to soldiers who’ve survived active combat. It’s also a risk for people in domestic violence situations and those who’ve been assaulted. It can also develop in people who’ve survived transportation accidents, those who have survived a vicious divorce, horrible bullying, and so many other terrible and damaging experiences.

Some say the whole world is living in a post-traumatic era.

I say we’re living in an era that’s currently traumatic. There is so much that threatens to fill our lives with trauma. From the deaths and severe illnesses of people we knew and loved related to the COVID pandemic —which is still happening! — to the wildfires, natural disasters, wars and shaken refugees pouring into any country where they can be safe… to the cruel murders carried out by marginalized people who have a hate crime or score to settle.

We’re seeing it all.

Hypervigilance creates a prison of trauma

PTSD permeates our world. Why is that? Maybe because our world is increasingly permeated by experiences that lead to post traumatic stress …. changes within our bodies and our minds characterized by hypervigilance, fear, and hopelessness.

When we speak of hypervigilance, what are we describing? It’s that exaggerated condition of constantly looking around you for potential threats…something or someone who might hurt you. If you experience trauma, the impact of it can stay with you, always threatening to rear its ugly head again.

This state can prevent you from relaxing, enjoying the circumstances you’re in, because of the danger of missing a threat. Your subconscious is constantly scanning for danger. Because it feels like it can be anywhere.

It can make you feel on edge, tense, fearful, and overwhelmed. Post traumatic stress can keep you frozen in fear.

The stress of PTSD that permeates our world wears down and prunes the nerve connections (synapses) in your brain, making it difficult to think of other things, or focus on the people you love. It’s as though you’re on high alert and ready to jump to defend yourself at the smallest surprise or noise.

IV ketamine treatment has proven especially effective with PTSD. It causes those synapses to rebuild and reconnect to give you the ability to relax and enjoy the moments in your life with loved ones and friends.

How does ketamine work?

By triggering RNA to turn DNA “ON,” and to produce BDNF, a growth factor for brain cells that works like fertilizer to get those synapses growing, flourishing, and connecting…. filling your brain with new, robust connections. It’s as though the lights turn on as the signals in your brain transmit feelings of calm, relaxed enjoyment… and you can feel lighter and infused with hope. Resilience returns (or begins) for you and patience becomes part of you as you find new ways of enjoying your life.

Imagine waking up in the morning with a song going through your mind, or even waking up singing…! (I know, right? when was the last time?) Imagine not reacting when someone playfully slaps you on the back. That you can go about your business without scanning the crowd for some threat…

You can live free of those restraints and painful symptoms, and actually focus on your child’s birthday party, or conversation with your partner at dinner.

At Innovative Psychiatry, it’s a joy to see people freed from PTSD symptoms after ketamine treatment every week. (Makes working so late into the evening doing infusions so worth it!) The robust impact ketamine wields on PTSD is a marvel to witness and can be — hands down — life changing. Whether the trauma is from exposure to tragic events, or verbal or physical assault, or injuries from accidents, or a catastrophic disease.

Even though PTSD permeates our world — and maybe permeates yours — know that there is hope.

If you suffer from symptoms we’ve described here and nothing has helped, call us.

We’re here to help you receive your ketamine infusions in the best possible healing environment. You’ll have a beautiful treatment room where you can relax in a zero-gravity heated recliner while we monitor your heart rate and blood pressure. Your infusion of ketamine will be by a precise infusion pump that measures your dose to the tenth of a milliliter. We don’t hang a bag on a hook, cross our fingers, and let gravity take over, or run a bag in fast because we have to leave. (You wouldn’t believe the stories!) Your recovery is too important for that so we do our absolute best for you.

And while you undergo your infusion, you’ll be safe from infection from the COVID virus, as well as bacteria and molds. Because 99.99% of all viruses, bacteria, and molds in our air are destroyed by the plasma cell technology we’ve installed in our offices. This is that system we’ve talked about before that was developed by NASA and the Department of Defense for the International Space Station. While our technology works to protect you, you’ll be free to focus on your treatment and getting better.

We know that there are lots of ways to administer ketamine — lots of ways to administer IV ketamine… and most practices just don’t do what we do. Your journey starts with me—and with an incredibly thorough diagnostic evaluation—not a checklist, not a quick referral form, or a phone call where someone (medical? not medical? a closer?) just sets up an appointment. We don’t run a clinic with one size fits all…we do the very best we can possibly do to foster your recovery and remission.

Get in touch with us and let’s talk it through.

We want to see you enjoying your life — and you want that, too.

So let’s do this! You have nothing to lose and a bright future to gain.

To the restoration of your best self,

Shooters are Killing People

We have a tradition in this country of excusing and explaining away the actions of a terrorizing shooter by declaring him mentally ill. We’re talking about shooters—the ones who open fire in a crowded public space and gun down the innocent. I hesitate to enter this dialogue but I feel compelled to today. The reason? Because those who truly suffer from conditions I specialize in treating — like trauma, PTSD, depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive thinking, and so many other conditions I specialize in treating are gentle, peaceful, empathic …. and would never become a shooter. The kind of rhetoric in the news these days (and dripping from loud-mouths) that “explains away” terrorizing shooters fuels fear surrounding psychiatric disorders. Shooters are terrorizing us, that’s for sure, they’re terrorizing our sense of security, curtailing our freedom, robbing us of peace. They are stealing our futures.

So let me be clear and speak loudly: we desperately need to get away from “explaining away.” Because the simplistic way of thinking “they must be mentally ill” (a phrase I loathe) also feeds the stigma that can surface when someone admits he or she is depressed, or has bipolar disorder, or PTSD, or autism or an addiction.

An Attack on a School or Church Requires Cognition and Strategy

The person who would plot and plan to enter a public place and shoot as many people as he can is a murderer. Full stop. His cognition is working well enough that he can plan clearly, strategize his actions, and craft his response to resistance. No wonder shooters are terrorizing us.

It’s not a game.

They kill without conscience.

Think about what that means for a minute.

Are We “Making Excuses” for Shooters by Calling Them Mentally Ill?

It’s difficult to imagine in a civilized world that anyone would purposely hurt defenseless children, or worshippers, or a family gathered at a barbecue. We can’t conceive of someone with a balanced mind setting out purposely, deliberately, and carefully to make sure that the mass killing is actually a mass killing. Unreal, right? So some people explain it with something else they don’t understand, such as mental illness. (“It must be….”) But it’s most likely that the tipping point for shooters who carry out their despicable acts happens because they’ve been radicalized by their associations, what and whom they listen to…. and eventually decide to act on it.

This is terrorism…not mental illness.

Shooters are terrorizing us and killing the innocent. That’s not to say that some of these shooters don’t have a psychiatric disorder. They might and they often do. But that’s not what motivates them. It’s who they listen to in many cases. Voices in their friendship circles, podcasts, or online … the ones they wake up to, fall asleep with, and dial into all day long. The ones who draw them into a marginalized way of thinking related to ideologies, race, hatred, and other dangerous concepts.

Trauma Caused for Thousands by These Events when Shooters Are Terrorizing Us

These events are upsetting and heartbreaking for all of us. Far more people suffer beyond the grieving families, friends, first responders and communities affected directly by the deaths that have been exploding around us. Everyone who reads about these incidents, or hears about them on the radio…or on TV or online…suffers with the horrors.

As a nation, we shudder. And we cry.

The trauma of these events causes damage not easily repaired.

But here’s the thing.

When these incidents draw attention, we’re flooded by footage, news clips, firsthand accounts. Just hearing about and seeing these events—and the shooters who perpetrate mass killings—results in trauma.

Big T and little t trauma depending on how close you are to it, and what it reactivates.

What can be done about these wounds to people like you?

Let’s focus on that.

Brain Cell Damage from the Trauma People Suffer Over Such Events

Most of us start out in life with brain cells that are flourishing and abundant, resembling well developed oak trees. Happy Trees!! Then a stressful, traumatic event comes along and creates pruning. It’s as if shears are cutting away the branches from the brain cell, limiting what it can do drastically.

What had been a great oak among the brain cells, dwindles to a twig with very little function. Then, suicidal thinking often enters, cognition deteriorates, mood tanks, and joy (what’s that?) is reduced to anhedonia…or the inability to feel pleasure.

IV Ketamine Restores Signals Between Cells and You Feel Better

But when you receive IV ketamine treatment, it creates a cascade which turns on the production of BDNF to act like fertilizer so your brain cells can flourish again. Branches — we call them dendritic branches — grow and reach out and multiply until that pruned back twig is like the mighty oak again, remodelling synapses, setting up new connections, allowing new possibilities, removing suicidal thoughts — even in teens — improving mood dramatically, doing away with anhedonia, and sharpening cognition ….and you feel good again.

But IV ketamine isn’t perfect.

It doesn’t ALWAYS do all these things — no treatment works 100% of the time for everyone — but it’s so effective and revolutionary in psychiatry because in the right hands, it can operate like this nearly all the time, transforming people like you so you can function at your best. To help you be your best self.

We can say this because we live it and see it every day. We think deep and long, have the guts and the courage (and the circles under our eyes!) to write up our findings and publish them, travel to teach our colleagues nationally and internationally. It’s why people drive in or fly in from far away to see us.

At Innovative Psychiatry, we love to see people like you rise above painful symptoms and flourish. Seeing your resilience restored, your hope and energy renewed, your courage and ability to adapt strengthened, makes everything we do worthwhile. (Even the dark circles!)

Our Treatment Setting is Calm and Relaxing

When you come in, you’ll find a comfortable, gorgeous, private room to create a wonderful setting for healing. The environment is kept pure and clean using Plasma Cell Technology we’ve installed in each space—actually designed and installed for the square footage of your treatment room. (Tell me: who else does that?) Developed by the Department of Defense and NASA, our technology was first created for the International Space Station and removes 99.99% of all viruses, bacteria, and mold from every square foot of the environment by instantly destroying its DNA and RNA. (We’re not talking about a filter here.) It’s the best technology available and it’s kept us —and you — safe since 2020. So you can focus on your treatment and get better.

Just know that this is your place to get better. To receive infusions of ketamine, integrate them with therapy, work on your infrastructure and your mindset… and achieve remission. We’ll talk about that more soon.

We’re here to help you on your path to healing, so call us and come in.

Better days are waiting for you.

To the restoration of your best self,

Remember what you were doing when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center? Or when President Reagan was shot? Well, what about when Putin invaded Ukraine..?

Which time, you ask? For real. That’s a good point. When world changing events occur, they make a lasting impression that stays with us, often for the rest of our lives. And when Vladimir Putin’s forces attacked Ukraine, destroying military bases, airports, and captured Chernobyl, it may have had this kind of impact on you. You likely are feeling anxiety about Ukraine.

Now there’s talk of a great war coming to Europe, and that’s scary to think about. It’s been 80 years since we’ve seen anything like that. And now nuclear warfare is so threatening, we can’t afford a “Great War.”

You may feel angry. Most of us do.

Do you know someone who’s in Ukraine now, huddling in a bomb shelter, or evacuating on a train? Or someone standing in line at a border country, trying to cross over? The helplessness you feel when you have no idea from minute to minute if they’re ok…whether they’re safe…

As the leader of a world power, when Putin invaded the beautiful, peaceful country of Ukraine, he had to know full well the peace-loving countries of the world would would not be passive, right? It leaves us all to wonder, “What’s he thinking?” “What’s next?”

Ok, so what’s the recipe for fear? Create uncertainty, have everything ride on it, rip away supports and familiarity…and attack relentlessly and without warning. Sound familiar? Sounds like Putin’s tactic, doesn’t it?

That’s why you’re afraid. As are people around the world, and especially in Ukraine.

First: our compassion and horror for the citizens of Ukraine rises high as we worry about them. 

How far will he go?  How long will the bombs continue to be launched and explode?  Already he’s attacked not just city centers, but kindergartens, orphanages, a Holocaust massacre site, and hospitals. It’s understandable that you feel anxiety about Ukraine. Right?

This guy breaks all the rules of humanity…and that makes us feel anxiety about Ukraine. And anger. So much anger.

Will the people have food?  What about uncontaminated water, when infrastructure is being destroyed? Will they survive? What can you do to help? Those thoughts swirl through your mind around and around.

They do in mine, too.

Peace loving countries will mobilize means of offering aid to the citizens of Ukraine. Surely. Somehow.

But there is so much we don’t know. Outcomes we can’t foresee. And that causes anxiety. The handwringing worry that can rob us of the freedom to live our lives in peace.

We wonder why something like this is happening, and we sit in front of the TV watching news to try to understand, or we scour the internet. In a situation like this — when a world leader doesn’t share our values — there can only be theories as to why he’s doing this. We may or may not guess his motives. Or how far he’ll go. But we’re feeling anxiety about Ukraine… and feel helpless to change the situation.

It’s safe to say that we’re probably all horrified at what we’ve heard and watched and read about Putin’s attacks on Ukraine this past couple weeks. Unprovoked attacks on the peaceful people of that country has probably made you wonder how this could happen…to try to make sense of it. 

And to worry what all this might lead to? Broader acts of war in more of the world?  Genocide is already happening. How much worse will it get? It’s also so hard to watch something so heinous being imposed on innocent people. Of course you’re feeling anxiety about Ukraine.

But if worry, anxiety, and fear dominate your mind and mine, they can rob our ability to help others.

In the midst of it, you still have to live your life, take care of yourself and your family.

Too much much worry can backfire.

We’ve dedicated our lives to the prevention and treatment of suffering—however we find it. For some people  ketamine can provide relief—when their nightmares kick up… when they can’t sleep because new trauma activates old trauma … when they sit glued to their news apps, the TV, Sirius.

So let’s talk about how you can be better for those closest to you. It doesn’t mean we forget what Ukrainians are going through.  It just means giving yourself breaks from the TV and internet — and perhaps from the inappropriate guilt you feel because you’re safe and surviving — and maybe just go outside for a little while, go for a walk….  bake or barbecue something for your family. 

Breathe.

Find ways to seek balance emotionally when you’re feeling so bombarded with a despot’s unthinkable crimes.

When there are opportunities to send aid to the people there, do that for them. Participate in drives for the people of Ukraine when you see an opportunity. Do something today that is meaningful and purposeful.

Spread goodness.

Acute anxiety about the war can lead to other serious conditions. It can also make your symptoms worse if you already suffer from past trauma with PTSD, for instance. Brooding and obsessing about the war can cause your anxiety to rise.

In fact, even if you’ve never experienced anxiety before, you may be feeling it now for the first time with symptoms like worry, brooding, a rapid heart rate and perspiration that can actually be bad enough to feel like you’re having a heart attack.

What we need in the face of what is going on is resilience, hope, strength, a sense of belonging, a sense that we are not alone, and a generosity of spirit that will give us the courage to do the right thing.

Our heart goes out to innocent people and their families in Ukraine and everywhere where there is suffering.

When you think about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, feeling horrified is palpable. But what if you find yourself growing angry, worrying about what will happen next, whether WW3 is around the corner…just feeling so helpless? What if you have loops of worry spinning around in your mind?

If you have anxiety that is off the charts, and nothing you’ve tried has helped, call us.

The IV ketamine treatment we offer can be a game-changer for you — even when the world is turning upside down. It can give you the power to think productive thoughts that aren’t so dominated by anxiety and fear. It’s remarkable, even extraordinary, what IV ketamine treatment can do for some types of anxiety… for depression… for hopelessness.

We have to be careful and make sure we’re clear: not all the time and not for everyone. But for MOST of the people we see.

We want you to enjoy the freedom to live your life, free of crippling fear, or handwringing worry. After all… you have good things still left to do — for your family and in your life.

Let’s work together to make your life better for you.

To the restoration of your best self,