This is a time of year when we do lots of giving, don’t we?
And for the most part, we receive the giving of others, too. While it’s fun to receive and get stuff, receiving doesn’t have the impact on our brain, our outlook, our health and immunity, as well as our sense of well-being, that giving does. In fact, when we really give of ourselves, give a piece of ourselves, hoping it will truly help or benefit the person we give to, something wonderful begins to happen. I guess most of us feel a certain amount of obligation this time of year to make sure we have a gift for each person in our world… family, co-workers, neighbors, friends and those in all our other circles. But there’s an important distinction between obligated giving and true generosity from the heart. So let’s talk about one of the most important results: your generosity’s impact on depression.
It turns out that when you give out of obligation, it doesn’t really trigger any magical benefits in your brain. You still feel bad and you suffer a smaller balance in your checkbook. Plus you know…you still don’t know how to make things better.
Giving the Best of Yourself
But when you give of yourself – from your heart – something amazing happens. It can be a check you write from the money you’ve worked hard for. It can be giving your time and support to someone who needs something you specifically can provide.
No matter what you give, when you really want that person to deeply benefit from it, that’s when it helps you, too. Well, at that point things start clicking in your brain in a way that turns up the heat in your immunity protection. It also turns up the connections in the signals moving in your brain, and – no small thing – it turns your attention from yourself and how bad you feel to someone else and how you helped them feel great. You may have even given them hope.
Generosity is so Good for Your Depression
So why is giving so valuable, and your generosity’s impact on depression so life changing?
Good question!!
It starts in the mesolimbic pathway in the brain. Weird word, I know. But this strange phrase refers to a circuit in the brain that takes advantage of the neurotransmitter dopamine to link your behavior with a feeling of pleasure. You may have heard it called the “reward pathway.”
(It probably won’t surprise you to know that because of that, this area is studied by researchers seeking understanding and solutions for addiction.)
So, when you’re a giver, a series of events takes place triggered by a special set of chemicals like dopamine and its mesolimbic activity, endorphins that give you almost a sense of euphoria, and oxytocin.
Oxytocin is associated with tranquility and inner peace, as well as a sense of belonging, cuddliness, and connection. It’s the same hormone secreted when a mother nurses her baby….it causes the bonding between mother and child.
Stress is a Destroyer
Now when you’re spread too thin, or disasters are happening around you, both natural and figurative, that stress prunes and breaks down the synaptic connections in your brain.
Stress tells your body to prepare to fight or take flight. When your body keeps going into this state, believing you’re facing life or death, it wears it down. It depletes neurotransmitters, prunes the synapse structures and connections that allow for signals to be delivered, and increases cortisol. And when cortisol increases, these neurotransmitters stop producing.
But, it turns out, that even if you do experience a lot of stress, something as simple as giving of yourself, volunteering, and helping and supporting others can combat the destructive effects of stress… and prolong your life.
Generosity’s Impact on Depression and Mortality
A study led by Michael Poulin published in the American Journal of Public Health, 2013, found that a stressful life did not predict the mortality rate in those who provided help to others. However, in those who did not provide help to others, stress did predict their mortality.
A study published in the Journal of Health Psychology that focused on volunteering found that volunteering reducedmortality rates in a group of 2000 people more than exercising 4 times a week and regularly attending church.
Get this: it found that of the 2000, those who volunteered for 2 or more causes enjoyed a 63% reduction in mortality in contrast to those who didn’t volunteer at all.
Volunteering is a Category All Its Own
One thing about volunteering is that you have to really give of yourself. Your time, your energy, your comfort zone. And you probably believe in the cause and truly want to help the recipients. So with volunteering, you’re probably meeting the criteria for health benefits. And yet…that’s not why you do it, is it?
You do it because you really do want to help, to make a difference.
And it’s that heartfelt commitment to make a difference for someone and that deep desire to help, that triggers this cascade of neurotransmitter reward. Someone called it the “giver’s glow.”
It’s your generosity’s impact on depression in your life. It can help you go from shutdown…to glowing…!
What it does do is to reduce the effects of stress in your life and improve your immunity, while flooding you with a warm sense of connection, and belonging, and soul satisfaction.
These studies found that when someone is helpful regularly for a prolonged period of time, the benefits to their health and outlook compound, and carry on for a prolonged period of time.
Which is why it’s not only better for the organization to know they can rely on you every Tuesday for a year, but it’s much better for your wellbeing and longevity.
May Your Giving Season Be Your New Beginning of a Generosity Approach to Life
And, so here we are. It’s the Giving Season. We’ve had Giving Tuesday which helped to organize donations all around, and… which helps you with a tax write-off. But let that be only the start. Because if you donated for the tax write-off, that’s your benefit.
Still, if you make this the beginning of a new year of reading to the elderly, or teaching English as a second language, or literacy support, or anything that can help make another life or many lives better, healthier, and with more hope, then you may very well be on your way to a ripe and healthy old age.
Giving from the heart…giving unselfishly, giving of yourself in your own creative way, and giving your hard earned money to make life better for someone… can improve your outlook, your energy, and your sense of purpose. It can increase the neurotransmitters that move signals around in your brain, and improve your immunity.
What a truckload of benefits for you from giving of yourself.
And, if we at Innovative Psychiatry can help you with symptoms you can’t resolve yourself, please call us. IV ketamine treatment can give you the transformative restoration so you really can give your best self to others.
We want to help you find the power to live, and give, and bloom. To be satisfied and fulfilled with your life, your work, your relationships…all of it.
This time of year conjures up visions of sugarplums, elves, and Christmas trees guarding piles of gifts.
There are carolers singing on the corner, and menorahs and dreidels and flickering candle light. Families come together, and friends are invited to share in the celebrations. A manger with a Baby surrounded by angels, shepherds, and wise men. Oh the wonders of this time of year. And oh the suffering for those who find it difficult to cope. But, IV ketamine can create resilience for you… Some suffer because of painful losses and deaths brought to mind again by both treasured or painful memories. Others suffer because of disorders that make it difficult for them to blend at family gatherings, whose symptoms impose so much pain and heartache, even chaos, they’re unable to enjoy any of it.
It’s for these loved ones we write today. The ones who’ve suffered for years – even decades – because their symptoms of depression, anxiety, phobias, addiction, eating disorders, PTSD, OCD, and the suicidal thoughts that eventually often show up and threaten have not been helped by the medicines prescribed for them.
Dreading the family gathering, or finding something else to do so they can justify missing it, they’re often ostrasized for “creating a scene and making the holiday about them.” Cruel judgments and short-sighted disapproval abound. But few realize how very much these dear ones wish they could seamlessly fit in.
Their “scenes” may very likely be due to untreated symptoms.
This is the time when IV ketamine treatment can make all the difference. And it’s not just for this holiday season. It’s for all the holiday seasons that will come in the future. For all the school days, business days, birthdays, and everydays that lie ahead. Ketamine can create resilience for facing whatever life brings…
And let’s be clear about something.
IV Ketamine Treatment is NOT Esketamine Nasal Spray
The ketamine molecule is racemic, which means it is made up of two sides, or enantiomers, which are mirror images of each other. This has caused some confusion. Because they’re NOT identical. Each one possesses its own traits, it’s own strengths and weaknesses. It’s own benefits.
Esketamine nasal spray is the left mirror image. We call each side an enantiomer. Esketamine is the left enantiomer. It has strengths and weaknesses, but it’s not the complete ketamine molecule. This is often misunderstood. It’s also a great deal more expensive than ketamine.
However, esketamine nasal spray is “covered” by some insurances, at least partly. (It’s very expensive and eats up most of your high deductible very quickly.) But having the medication pad for may be a benefit that may make it worth trying for you. The office visits required for administration are another fee–and they are very poorly covered by insurance companies.
Ketamine infusions on the other hand, are not usually covered.
We’re joining with others in psychiatry promoting the idea that IV ketamine treatment should be covered by insurance. It should be. Ketamine is the complete compound with all the benefits. When it’s administered properly, it can be — and often IS — transformative.
IV ketamine treatment can liberate you from the symptoms that make the holidays so painful. Those things that make it nearly impossible for you to enjoy family gatherings.
IV ketamine helps build something to make life so much easier, even holiday gatherings.
Ketamine Can Create Resilience: And It Empowers You to Enjoy
When the circuits are worn down, the dendrites and synaptic connections between neurons are pruned back and the signals are hard pressed to make much progress getting from one area to another. So you feel vacant…numb…dull…and dark.
But ketamine treatment restores those circuits. It stimulates mRNA to turn on DNA to turbo boost your brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor. When that happens it’s as if a rich compost infuses fast prolific growth into those dendrites, and dendritic spines…and your synapses multiply like gangbusters. Suddenly, your brain comes alive with a wealth of signals darting at the speed of light to help you think, create, plan, accomplish…and to bring you joy…and hope.
Then, there are those G proteins floating along on their lipid rafts. Ketamine shoves them off those rafts and puts them back to work, which gets signals moving really fast, too.
That’s where the resilience comes from. Your active brain communication transforms your outlook and cognitive function. And if something comes along to knock you down, you finally have the resilience to think it through, get back up, and snap back. You have energy to face difficulty, energy to be around difficult people. Energy to contribute, and to rebuild strong, healthy relationships.
Ketamine does that. Ketamine can create resilience by working in so many parts of the brain and it works fast.
Think about it like you’ve rebuilt your car’s engine and you have the capacity now to take on difficult terrain, climb mountains, pull trailers, and get the job done. (I sound like a truck commercial but you see what I mean.)
Restoration for the Holidays – Is There a Better Gift?
If you enjoy this time of year, that’s wonderful. It’s supposed to be a wonderful time of year. Enjoy it. Savor every moment.
But if you don’t …if you can’t… call us.Let us help you find the resilience you wish you had. The resilience to rise above the struggles, and the ability to actually enjoy people you care about.
IV Ketamine treatment may seem expensive at first blush, but when you consider how it can transform your life, and give you hope and resilience for the future, it’s worth finding a way. There are opportunities for financing your treatment through medical financing services. We also see families helping financially to get their loved one a chance to recover.
Feeling better changes everything. Everything.
When you’ve felt like this so, so long, it’s hard to imagine what feeling good would be like. No worries. You’ll definitely know it when you see it. And your family may detect the changes in you before you even notice them yourself.
Reach for brighter days, healthier relationships, better performance in your career. Reach out for resilience.
It’s the holiday season again and there are parties every weekend, with work, with friends, with family – they crop up everywhere.
Festive gift bags provided at liquor stores make it easy to present a gift of alcohol in the busy bustle of the season. For some, holiday drinking is light and rare. For others, whose habit of drinking so excessively that it’s harmful to their health and to others, it’s almost continuous. In fact, it can be addictive. But it turns out, there is hope for those who would like to drink less, or stop drinking altogether. There’s a way, beyond sheer will, to dramatically reduce heavy drinking, and avoid the shame that goes with relapse.
Take Jerry, for instance. His wife had suffered from breast cancer for 6 years, and every time they thought she had beat it, new tumors cropped up again. He watched her suffer in pain, with vomiting, severe weight loss, worsening weakness, until she just didn’t have anything to fight with anymore.
She had been in remission for a year, finally, and they were planning a trip to Europe, when suddenly she collapsed one day and tests showed an aggressive form of cancer had spread everywhere. In a matter of weeks, she was deteriorating fast. She died less than a month from the time of her collapse.
Just when they thought they had a future to enjoy together, she was gone. Jerry was devastated. He felt lost, without purpose, disillusioned. And so terribly alone.
The Subtle Slide…
At first, he would drink a couple beers to relax after work in his empty, echoing house. The memories of her reverberated from every corner. After the first swallow of the ice cold beer, a relaxed feeling would wash over him. It felt like relief. Relief from the pain, the sorrow…the stress.
It wasn’t long before 2 beers turned into 3 or 4…then a 6 pack. After that, he graduated to bourbon — or adding vodka to his soft drinks. By the time his wife had been gone a year, he was drunk all weekend every weekend…. and most nights after work.
Friends invited him on outings, to dinner, camping and fishing… but he usually turned them down. He just didn’t feel like socializing…
Five years went by, and Although he managed to keep his job, his performance had dropped off. He hated his annoying itchy skin, and had some pain in his belly off and on… but not too bad. He just ignored it.
One night after he had been to the cemetery to visit her, it started raining. Suddenly, an SUV made a sudden turn in front of him. As Jerry slammed on his brakes his car started spinning. When he realized he had finally stopped, he crawled out of his pickup. His head was bleeding onto his shirt… but the SUV was on its side. He could hear the cries of someone laying about 5 yards down the hill in the dark… then he saw flashing lights. Help was coming…
It all began as grief, but spiraled until he committed a crime, and could have been responsible for someone’s death. Thankfully, no one died. But still…
Jerry was in pain, grief-stricken, and depressed. His heavy drinking was his direct response to his terrible experience with his wife’s cancer and death. And the depression that had taken over left him with no reason he could find to take care of himself, or preserve his life.
The other driver had caused the accident. Still, his blood alcohol was above the legal limit. So, he had to face charges for driving under the influence.
Too Much Drinking Hurts You – and People Near You, Too
While awaiting trial, he went to the doctor to find out about the pain he’d been having. The doctor told him he’d have to cut way back on his drinking. In fact, he urged him to quit altogether, if he wanted to live past the next few years.
It was a wake-up call.
He really didn’t want to die. But could he stop drinking..? He’d tried before… and it always went by the wayside. He needed more help than just trying to use sheer will. He needed something that would help him dramatically reduce heavy drinking. And fast.
So, he started with the internet.
He learned about a variety of 12 step programs. And about residential programs to help you not only stop and get the alcohol out of your system, but to also train you to respond to temptation so you could stay sober.
And he read about promising studies with a medicine called ketamine — something he’d never heard of before.
Jerry got the help he needed with IV ketamine treatment, and got stronger and healthier. He also started seeing a therapist. And he’s finding joy in living again…
But now there are new findings that can help someone like Jerry even more. So you can dramatically reduce heavy drinking.
A recent study — just published a couple weeks ago — has demonstrated that even a single dose of IV ketamine can dramatically reduce harmful drinking. As in, drinking so much that it harms your health and can cause harm to others around you, too.
Ketamine Can Reduce Harmful Drinking By Rewriting Drinking Memories
This is so cool.
A group of researchers in London and Amsterdam conducted a study using ketamine applied to maladaptive reward memories, (MRMs) to see if ketamine can help rewrite those memories and thereby dramatically reduce heavy drinking. R. Das, G. Gale, and their team selected a group of 90 beer drinkers who had hazardous drinking patterns, but had not been diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. Also, no one in this group was seeking treatment for their alcohol consumption lifestyle.
The first day of the experiment, researchers showed all the participants photos of alcoholic drinks that included beer and stronger drinks. Then they asked the participants to rate how strong their desire to drink was. Immediately after this, they gave each participant a cold beer to drink.
On the second day, researchers divided the group into three sub-groups, but didn’t offer beer to anyone.
Here’s where it gets interesting.
With the first group, researchers showed them more photos of drinks to stimulate their memories about the pleasures of drinking. Then they gave them a dose of ketamine.
In the second group. the research team showed them the photos of the drinks, then gave them a placebo drug.
And finally, with the the third group, they showed them no pictures at all. They just gave them a dose of ketamine.
Fast forward 10 days.
The people in Group #1, whose memory was stimulated by pictures, followed by ketamine, reported their consumption of alcohol had dramatically dropped. Then 9 months later, a follow-up revealed their alcohol consumption had dropped to half what it had been before the experiment.
Group #3, who received ketamine without photos to trigger drinking memories, reported a smaller reduction in drinking, but still significantly less alcohol consumption. This was the case at both the 10 day mark and the 9 month follow-up.
Group #2, the placebo group, reported a small decrease in drinking.
So what happened here…?
Ketamine Blocks Memory Restabilization
Das and his colleagues explained that maladaptive reward memories (MRMs) play an important role in “acquired overconsumption disorders” such as hazardous drug and alcohol use. Basically, the reward Jerry feels in terms of relaxation and relief from his grief when he drinks forms a memory, and when he thinks of it, he wants to drink again, even though that may not be good for his health or social, economic, and productive life.
There’s a process that happens in a small time window each time Jerry thinks about having a drink to help him feel better. During that window, his recall of the memory of his relief when he drinks becomes rather fluid and changeable. If something can interfere with that association before he drinks, it can “rewrite” that memory so his desire to drink becomes a desire to do something different.
Das and his colleagues explained that they believe ketamine can block specific receptors in the brain (such as the NMDA receptor) that help to RE-stabilize a memory. That blocking causes the memory to weaken. In this case, it’s the memory of the pleasure of drinking. In Jerry’s case, it might be the relief he feels from his grief when he drinks.
If someone wants to stop drinking, this change to that appealing memory of pleasure gives them the chance to rethink what they believe about alcohol, and what they believe about their health.
It gives them time to make a decision without that alluring maladaptive memory.
Das encourages further study using ketamine to rewrite these MRMs. Because ketamine has demonstrated safety at high doses in anesthesia, they encourage studies using doses that can to saturate NMDA receptors to interfere with these MRMs.
Addiction Relief with IV Ketamine
At Innovative Psychiatry, we’re thrilled every time a patient reports relief from addiction to alcohol or other substances. We get to see patients who’ve suffered from severe depression walk into our office smiling, happy, and full of hope. These people never take their new found wellbeing for granted. Their relief, surprise, and joy are palpable.
IV ketamine treatment works in the brain in ways other medicines haven’t before, and it’s restoring and transforming lives like yours.
Don’t hesitate to call us if you’re plodding through a sorrowful, empty, hopeless existence because other medications and treatments you’ve tried haven’t helped. You still can find relief of depression symptoms and dramatically reduce heavy drinking.
So much we’ve learned. So much more work to do.
Ketamine works on newer and better systems in your brain. It doesn’t help everyone, but it helps so many that we just keep studying to learn how many more it can help. Even so, chances are pretty good that it will reverse your depression, your PTSD, you substance use disorder, and transform your life to one of hope, courage, initiative, and joy.
So think about it a bit. And then give yourself the chance to live a rewarding life.
We’re smack in the middle of the holidays! The last month of 2019 has begun. If this December is anything like the past, it will zoom by like a rocket. I hope your Thanksgiving was a joyful time for you. Going forward, it’s part of the tradition at this time of year to overindulge …then let diet and exercise obligations pelt us like hail at the start of the New Year. But I have another suggestion, and it’s related to exercise now. Beginning today, increasing your exercise can reduce your risk of depression going forward. In fact, exercise reduces future depression even in the holidays ahead. Wouldn’t that be nice?
As you know, depression can run in families, and when you’ve experienced recurring bouts of depression all your life, it can seem like an albatross. Something that’s part of your life that robs you of resilience and the energy to face the demands of a busy time of year like this.
If you have other family members who also struggle, you can start to think this is just how life is. And that there is just nothing you can do about it.
Trudging as if in mud, a dark cloud hanging over you…feeling listless and overwhelmed, and just wanting to go to bed.
Another way is to spend at least 30 minutes a day in the sunshine, and in good weather, more than that. Good for your spirit, good for your body as it makes Vitamin D. It’s essential for nearly every chemical reaction that occurs in your body, and especially those that impact your emotions and frame of mind.
And here’s another big one: the E word.
The E word?
That word we dread hearing from our doctorS, and when they ask about it, we look at the floor and mumble.
EXERCISE!!
Now don’t tune me out. Stay with me…
Many of us are on a guilt trip about working out, about not exercising enough on a regular basis. There are those inspiring icons who are at the gym every day, running, lifting weights, building muscle, stretching… the SLEEK ones. You can pick them out anywhere. The mall, the grocery store, your favorite restaurant.
But, my friend, believe it or not, those people are not the mainstream. And you are NOT shameful that your exercise schedule doesn’t match theirs.
The truth is, exercise is for YOU. It’s for your enjoyment (no I’m not kidding), for your own release of tension, it’s for your health to keep your arteries clean and clear and your heart strong…and to ward off diabetes and other diseases.
But that’s not all.
Exercise Reduces Future Depression
Did you know that?
You’ve probably heard it will help you combat depression now…but who feels like getting out and moving anyway? When you feel crummy, exercising is the last thing you feel like doing.
Except that getting outside, breathing in fresh air, and moving your body, your joints, your muscles… can be a lifeline of hope if you let it.
In fact, a biobank cohort study published in Depression & Anxiety, showed that when you’re active it can help prevent depression in the future regardless of your genetic predisposition.
Using a data base of 8000 people of European ancestry, Karmel Choi, Ph.D. and her colleagues determined that an increase in physical activity was associated with decreased likelihood of depression episodes in the future. And this wasn’t just in cases of people with a background of heavy daily workouts or participations in sports.
Whether the activity was intense, like aerobic exercise or the use of exercise machines, or lower-intensity movement like yoga and stretching, each time they added a 4-hour block of activity in per week it was linked to a 17% reduction in the likelihood of a new episode of depression going forward. According to these findings, exercise reduces future depression. It’s worth pushing through.
Exercise – At Least As Important in Fighting Depression As What You Eat
Recognizing this can help your psychiatrist prescribe more movement and activity to reduce depression for you going forward.
When you’re depressed, it goes without saying that you just don’t feel like getting out, being active, pushing through the fog and inertia to initiate exercise, but doing so anyway can open the door to better days ahead.
And even if your doctor tells you to be active 4 hours each week, it doesn’t mean that you will. It can really seem futile, when your outlook is dark. But it’s worth the commitment and the effort.
And if you find you can hardly get out of bed…if at all… and you really do need some sort of a leg up just to start the exercise, you may be a candidate for IV ketamine treatment.
IV Ketamine Treatment Gives You a Head Start
At Innovative Psychiatry, our patients often find they’re so much more able to participate in their own recovery after IV ketamine treatment. By restoring synaptic connections and signaling pathways in key brain regions, returning the lateral habenula to optimal function, your energy can improve dramatically — for getting exercise, building relationships, enjoying your family, doing things with friends, pursuing hobbies, and performing at work.
The G proteins can slide off their lipid rafts to enhance neurotransmitters to do their jobs, and you can enjoy motivation and initiative you’ve lacked for so long…to do things like exercise for the sake of your future health.
It’s true that IV ketamine treatment isn’t for everyone… Some people just don’t benefit like we want them to. But those are the exception rather than the rule. Sometimes when a patient doesn’t respond at first, several weeks later they’ll experience restoration as a sort of delayed response. It can seem to bubble up on its own.
In fact, there has never before been a medicine for depression that has been so quickly and so widely effective. Never.
You Can Enjoy Energy, Initiative, and Hope
If you’ve tried antidepressants without improvement, you owe it to yourself to let IV ketamine treatment show you what it can do. We have financing options to help you access this extraordinary treatment, and we can schedule you within a few days in most cases.
If you want to be proactive toward your recovery with better diet and more exercise… and to invest yourself in the lives of people you love… but you just can’t find the initiative or energy to do it, call us.
IV ketamine treatment offers the most robust, remarkable antidepressant benefits to more people with treatment resistant mood disorders than any treatment we’ve seen in psychiatry to date.
This is YOUR time. 2020 can be your best year yet.
We’ve also talked about how eating foods rich in fatty acids helps your brain function. Since we know that your eating affects your depression—we know that… and you know that—let’s talk today about how other foods impact your mood, to either fight depression or invite it.
While we all know that sugar isn’t that healthy for you, do you know why? Do you know what it does to your frame of mind and emotions?
Inflammation
We’ve talked about inflammation before, and how it contributes to depression, and even suicidal thinking. Sounds like a dull subject? Well, look at it this way. Self indulgences like desserts, soft drinks…even the unsweetened ones…and blueberry muffins with your coffee, are making you more depressed.
Is that close enough to home?
Did you know that sugar contributes to inflammation? And if you think you’re avoiding inflammation by reaching for a diet drink, think again. Artificial sweeteners also contribute to inflammation.
Sugar and Sugar Substitutes Increase Risk of Depression
A meta-analysis by Xiaoming Bian, et al., published in Frontiers in Physiology in July 2017, showed that long term use of sucralose, which is the most widely used artificial sweetener, alters the bacteria in the microbiome. For the microbiome to function in support of your mental health, the “good” bacteria needs to be strong enough to hold the “bad bacteria” in balance.
Your eating affects your depression. And when you use Splenda, you’re actually fueling the mechanism that makes you depressed, or makes your depression worse.
And there’s more.
Sugar and sugar substitutes also increase your likelihood of developing schizophrenia. In 2004, the well-known British psychiatric researcher Malcolm Peet discovered two mechanisms where refined sugar can potentially have a toxic impact on mental health.
Sugar Interferes with Production of BDNF
To begin with, sugar stifles the activity of an extremely important growth factor in the brain, the brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (BDNF). Now we know from our discussions of ketamine treatment that BDNF stimulates the growth of synaptic connections in the brain, which improves communication signals. And the more connections there are, the sharper your mind, the richer your associations, the brighter your mood.
However, if you’re eating a lot of sugar, the production of BDNF is reduced, which in turn reduces the growth of synapse connections, dendrites, and dendritic spines, which causes the information highway in your brain to grow darker and darker…then the signaling slows down…and your mood tanks.
We know that in depression and in schizophrenia, the BDNF level is very low. When the BDNF level remains low for an extended period of time, important brain regions begin to shrink. So it’s not too hard to connect the dots and see how you can eat a lot of sugar as a habit, and find yourself more and more depressed.
There’s a vicious cycle there. It may be tempting when you’re feeling low to eat chocolate, or cookies, or cake to cheer yourself up. But after the initial jolt of increased blood sugar, you find yourself feeling worse and worse emotionally. At which point you may be inclined to repeat the sweet treats.
Then add to that the effect of crackers and bread. These are simple starches, which saliva breaks down to sugar. And you experience the same deteriorating mood you did with all that sugar, because it’s just more of the same.
Your Eating Affects Your Depression: Sugar Consumption Stimulates a Chemical Domino Effect
In addition, when you eat lots of sugar..and in the western world the majority of us do…a domino effect of chemical reactions is instigated that leads to chronic inflammation. And that brings us full circle to the destructive force of chronic inflammation in our bodies and our minds.
If you have a history of depression or anxiety, it can be remarkably helpful to keep your microbiome balanced and strong, and to keep inflammation under control. Because you know that once symptoms emerge and increase, it can be so difficult to find the energy and initiative to take the necessary steps to get these components under control again.
And this includes processed meats. Because they’re also packed with sugar and chemicals that trigger inflammation. The safest food for strengthening your microbiome and holding inflammation at bay is to eat whole food as it’s grown naturally.
Ideally? No More Sugar Than 25 Grams/Day.
Sounds crazy? It’s so doable.
But Rome wasn’t built in a day. Baby steps. Every week, you could reduce your daily sugar intake by 1 teaspoon. Little by little. But try to be consistent. You may be flabbergasted six months from now by the difference you’ve made in the way you feel.
A study in London led by Anika Knuppel focused on 5000 men over five years who consumed over 67 gm/day of sugar. They found that these men were 1/5th more likely to develop anxiety and depression than their counterparts who consumed less than 39.5 gm/day.
So even though we all know that consuming too much sugar increases our risk for obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer, it also increases our risk for psychiatric disorders, too.
More than you know, your eating affects your depression and overall wellbeing.
Nutrient Deficiencies Can Lead to Depression, Too
Things like omega 3 fatty acids, B vitamins, magnesium, and Vitamin D are all needed to maintain well being. Certainly, there are multiple factors that contribute to symptoms of disorders, including genetics, environmental factors, stress, and more. So there is not much you can do to completely prevent depression and other disorders.
But there are foods you can eat to improve your chances of staying healthier, reducing symptoms, or possibly avoiding them altogether.
The Bees
Well, ok, not the bees, or the bees knees. But rather the vitamin Bs, like B1, B2, B3, B6, B9, and B12. When your diet is low in folate (which is a B vitamin), it can increase your risk of depression and other disorders by a whopping 304%!
In 2017, a study was conducted in suicidal teens, and it happened that most of them were deficient in cerebral folate. And listen to this: all of them improved when they were treated with folinic acid.
You brain needs B vitamins. So make them part of your daily regimen to improve your mood and outlook. Because your eating affects your depression and other disorders. It just does.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Another thing you brain needs is omega-3s. Get it from eating wild caught Alaskan salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, and anchovies. If you can, request an omega-3 index test to find out where you stand. In general terms, you’d like that to show 8% or higher.
Magnesium
To keep your thinking clear, your memory sharp, and your outlook bright, include a magnesium supplement that crosses the blood brain barrier. Magnesium is good for your whole body. So eating walnuts, avocados, legumes, dark chocolate, tofu, and seeds can help keep your whole body in better working order. But symptoms of depression need magnesium L-threonate. Some neuroscientists at MIT and Stanford developed that one, and it’s far more effective for your brain than nuts and chocolate.
Vitamin D
This one is needed for most chemical reactions throughout your body. In fact, vitamin D3 is especially in demand. And while you can take supplements for it, your best source for vitamin D is regular, sensible exposure to sunshine. Thirty minutes a day during mid-morning can be an effective way to build your vitamin D stores.
A double-blind randomized trial published in Y 2008 stated in conclusion that supplementing with high doses of vitamin D seems to “ameliorate symptoms indicating a causal relationship.”
It’s wise to request a vitamin D test twice a year to make sure you’re vitamin D level is 60-80 ng/ml. Tell your doctor that you know your eating affects your depression and you want to stay on top of the details.
For decades, our western society has dismissed the vital role nutrients play in our physical and mental wellbeing. At the same time, processed foods have played a larger and larger role in our overall diet primary for the sake of convenience.
But it hasn’t been without a high price. Depression has sky-rocketed in prevalence. Obesity and diabetes have almost become the norm. Only you can recover your dietary fuel by eating whole foods and paying close attention to including foods we’ve listed here, and avoiding processed foods, sugar, sugar substitutes, and fatty meats.
A Thought…
Think about this: What if treatment resistance is related to diet? Just think how much better you might feel by fueling your brain with what it needs!
At Innovative Psychiatry,we encourage our patients to give their brain the best possible opportunities to improve. With nutrients, rest, exercise, relationships, and doing things they enjoy.
And if medicines aren’t helping, if nutrients and exercise don’t help enough, we consider whether a patient is a candidate for IV ketamine treatment. Ketamine treatment isn’t for everyone, but it is effective for the majority of patients who need it. And it’s so remarkable, it can reverse their suicidal thoughts in a few hours, restore their energy for relationships, for investing in their jobs, and enjoying their hobbies. It can replace despair with hope in a big way.
If you feel like you’ve done all you know to do, including a couple or more antidepressant prescriptions for at least 3-4 months each, then call us. You just might be a candidate for ketamine infusions. And if you are, chances are that this treatment can turn your life around and set you on a path of joy.
IV ketamine treatment isn’t magic, but it can restore you to the best you remember ever being.
That’s why we’re here. Because seeing people like you get better is the whole point.
Safety data analyzed from five NIH inpatient clinical trials.
National Institutes of Health researchers found that a single, low-dose ketamine infusion was relatively free of side effects for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Elia Acevedo-Diaz, M.D., Carlos Zarate, M.D., and colleagues at the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) report their findings in the Journal of Affective Disorders.
Studies have shown that a single, subanesthetic-dose (a lower dose than would cause anesthesia) ketamine infusion can often rapidly relieve depressive symptoms within hours in people who have not responded to conventional antidepressants, which typically take weeks or months to work. However, widespread off-label use of intravenous subanesthetic-dose ketamine for treatment-resistant depression has raised concerns about side effects, especially given its history as a drug of abuse.
“The most common short-term side effect was feeling strange or loopy,” said Acevedo-Diaz, of the Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders, part of the NIMH Intramural Research Program (IRP) in Bethesda, Maryland. “Most side effects peaked within an hour of ketamine administration and were gone within two hours. We did not see any serious, drug-related adverse events or increased ketamine cravings with a single-administration.”
The researchers compiled data on side effects from 163 patients with major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder and 25 healthy controls who participated in one of five placebo-controlled clinical trials conducted at the NIH Clinical Center over 13 years. While past studies have been based mostly on passive monitoring, the NIMH IRP assessment involved active and structured surveillance of emerging side effects in an inpatient setting and used both a standard rating scale and clinician interviews. In addition to dissociative (disconnected, unreal) symptoms, the NIMH IRP assessment examined other potential side effects — including headaches, dizziness, and sleepiness. The study did not address the side effects associated with repeated infusions or long-term use.
Out of 120 possible side effects evaluated, 34 were found to be significantly associated with the treatment. Eight occurred in at least half of the participants: feeling strange, weird, or bizarre; feeling spacey; feeling woozy/loopy; dissociation; floating; visual distortions; difficulty speaking; and numbness. None persisted for more than four hours. No drug-related serious adverse events, cravings, propensity for recreational use, or significant cognitive or memory deficits were seen during a three-month follow-up.
To overcome the limitations associated with side effects and intravenous delivery, ongoing research efforts seek to develop a more practical rapid-acting antidepressant that works in the brain similarly to ketamine. These NIMH researchers, in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Science, are planning a clinical trial of a ketamine metabolite that showed promise as a potentially more specific-acting treatment in pre-clinical studies. Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year approved an intranasal form of ketamine called esketamine, which can be administered to adults with treatment-resistant depression in a certified doctor’s office or clinic.
About the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit the NIMH website.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®
Reference
Comprehensive assessment of side effects associated with a single dose of ketamine in treatment-resistant depression. Acevedo-Diaz EE, Cavanaugh GW, Greenstein D, Kraus C, Kadriu B, Zarate CA Jr, Park LT. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2019.11.028, Nov. 10, 2019, Journal of Affective Disorders.
We’ve come so far in ketamine treatment for depression, and we still have so far to go.
KRIYA held the first conference on ketamine treatment for depression in 2015. Now, 5 years later, there are several medical conferences that support the exchange of information in this field. Raquel Bennett,the founder of KRIYA – The Ketamine Research Institute – says that ketamine is a flexible tool and should be used with freedom and skill. She urges clinicians to make the most of the flexibility of ketamine.
This is the last conference by KRIYA that will be held in this format, according to Dr. Bennett. She plans to possibly shift to an online format next year to accommodate the huge numbers of clinicians who wish to be included.
What’s more, KRIYA has supported, from the beginning, the use of ketamine by different routes and for varied conditions, and encourages participation from providers across the gamut of ketamine applications. So we’re a wonderfully diverse crew who come together for these conferences. As for me, I know that I’ve learned so many things and forged new friendships and collaborations from KRIYA conferences.
And…my own contributions have been so warmly received. As far as the educational gathering, there are psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, ER physicians, pharmacists, anesthesiologists, neuroscientists, nurses, and experts in consciousness medicine.
Raquel Bennet, Psy.D. Stepped Up as a Leader in the Field of Ketamine for Depression
Dr. Bennett reminds us she has created a “tasting menu,” if you will… from
all corners of the field. At this conference, she opted for breadth vs depth to make us privy to all that’s happening in the field of working with ketamine. And she emphasizes that speakers are working from different paradigms. So, she urges us to listen for the paradigm they report from….and learn.
And she’s right when she says that ketamine is a flexible tool that contributes to a variety of needs. When a patient is too depressed to talk, ketamine lightens depression so they can participate in talk therapy. To help manage severe pain and the depression that goes with it. It can help the patient go deeper into therapy, and explore their traumatic experiences gently. It can treat acute suicidal thoughts and prevent hospitalization. And she says, it can induce mystical visions for existential exploration.
Raquel had much, much more to say, but I want to mention some of the other speakers.
Brent Turnipseed, MD and Lindsey Slater, LPC, from Austin, TX talked about their use of EMDR in ketamine-assisted therapy.
In PTSD, the body’s own reaction to a patient’s traumatic memories activates adrenaline , which prevents their ability to process their trauma. Ketamine can calm the body enough that they can process the trauma without the distraction of adrenaline. As a result, it can help relieve their fears.
EMDR works by helping the patient desensitize by brief exposures to the trauma, then by redirecting the patient’s attention, EMDR induces a relaxed neurological state similar to rapid eye movement (REM).
Elias Dakwar, M.D., psychiatrist and the addiction researcher we’ve often talked about before, gave a wonderful presentation.
He presented a thought -provoking talk on meditation and mindfulness as it relates to ketamine in treating addiction.
The field of ketamine for psychiatric disorders, including addiction treatment, continues to wrangle with how to take ketamine into psychiatry but that’s because our paradigms are problematic. Mainstream psychiatry has tried to cut ketamine down to size instead of using this extraordinary medicine as a DISRUPTOR.
Dr. Dakwar entered addiction research after a long time practice of meditation and with great compassion for the patients he sees.
He described his previous and current work in detail–look for it in the journals.
Ian Mitchell, M.D., Emergency Medicine in British Columbia,
spoke about the uses for ketamine in the emergency department. He spoke about its use for sedation during an emergency procedure, such as setting bones, repairing wounds, or the removal of foreign bodies, pediatric sedation for the same types of procedures, sub-dissociative dosing for pain management, especially for neuropathic pain, to prepare a patient for intubation, sedation for the out of control, prehospital pain relief, and to manage an overstimulated patient.
In British Columbia, ambulances are equipped with intranasal ketamine for prehospital pain management as a result of the PAIN-K trial. More of ketamine’s flexibility.
Wesley Ryan, M.D., psychiatrist from Marina del Ray, CA, Parria Zarrinnegar, M.D., psychiatrist in Portland, OR, and Daniel Barton, M.D., psychiatrist from Nashville, TN all presented riveting case reports.
Kelan Thomas, Pharm.D,
spoke about adverse reactions and drug-to-drug interactions that have been documented with ketamine. So important and so well-done.
Annie Oak, a journalist from the Bay area, spoke on the use of ketamine outside the medical setting.
Gita Vaid, M.D., psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, spoke on using ketamine in psychoanalytic psychotherapy in very long session. She talked about how she has witnessed ketamine help patients relax and defenses soften so they can have freedom to talk. The psychotherapist builds relationship with the patient and it can be transformational.
Jason Wallach, Ph.D., is a pharmacologist and neuroscience researcher whose energy and depth of knowledge captivates us every time he speaks. He spoke about the neuroscience and pharmacology of ketamine. Gave an update on some of the other dissociative drugs he’s tested. (I think he’s tested them all!) He made the point that ketamine has been called a dirty drug because of the receptors it hits ex-vivo and in animal models — but that’s not true. It’s really one of the more selective drugs of this class at the doses used in people.
Jessica Katzman, Ph.D., and Harvey Schwartz, Ph.D., spoke about bumps in the road they’ve discovered with ketamine assisted psychotherapy and in the integration work that follows treatment… What is integration? It comes from a latin word that means “to make whole” or “to begin again.” Bring your clinical compass, but don’t forget your humanity. A beautiful duo talk with lots of clinical examples.
Eli Kolp, M.D., a pioneer in ketamine treatment, gave a beautiful talk on the phenomenology of ketamine-induced dissociative states.
There were so many other speakers and so much to absorb–my computer battery kept dying down, so between Surface notes, handwritten notes, and photos, I can’t do justice to the breadth of expertise in the room, and the excitement.
Greg Wells, Ph.D.Sylver Quevedo, M.D., Veronika Gold, M.F.T., Eric Sienknecht, Psy.D. presented as a panel on their model of coordination of care between prescriber and psychotherapist. Peter Koshland, Pharm.D. talked about how to work with a compounding pharmacy for varied compounded preparations of racemic ketamine. Nate Schmidt, A.R.N.P spoke about scheduling and billing logistics.
Sunday was a treasure with a very special presentation by Francoise Bourzat on the Use of Sacred Medicines in the Age of Technology and Medicalization. It was a delight to meet her. She captivated the audience, and her new book, Consciousness Medicine, is a wonderful synthesis of her life’s work.
Kelley O’Donnell, M.D. and Christian Yavorsky, Ph.D. are doing yeoman’s work with KRIYA and presented an excellent (and not dry!) talk on Measuring Clinical Outcomes: Scales and Assessment Tools. And in addition to the training for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy that Raquel Bennett presented and discussed earlier in the conference, Jennifer Dore, MD presented a model of training for Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy developed by Phil Wolfson, MD and Julane Andrews, that they have used around the country.
IV Ketamine can STOP suicidal thoughts fast…Now that’s flexibility of ketamine!
On the last day, and as the next to the last speaker, I took the podium to share my data in working with patients in my own practice, and showing how IV ketamine infusions can stop suicidal thinking, and save patients from having to go to the ER or be hospitalized.
With heartfelt gratitude. These are my people–the clinicians and many of the greats in the field (who were in the audience) who launched my interest, encouraged my work, supported my writing–and showed me how to apply for an IRB. It’s amazing how much can happen in a year. So I saved the newest data and my newest results (using a new protocol and a new rating scale) for my colleagues and my friends here at KRIYA. I wanted them to hear it first.
I wanted to give back to those who have sparked my imagination, nurtured my interests, given wind to my sails.
It gives me such joy to share how this remarkable medicine that can do so much, can also save a life in a short time. And to see clinicians in practice eager to take this information home.
And that’s the beauty of meeting together at KRIYA and swapping stories and describing outcomes and victories that have restored the lives of people we work with.
Looking Back…and Reaching Forward – Preserving the Flexibility of Ketamine
It’s been such a busy fall with travel and speaking engagements each month… along with treating patients. (I’m sure my colleagues are as tired as I am. We need a vacation. Seriously.) But it’s gratifying to look back and know all this information that’s been shared will improve the lives of people we each cross paths with after KRIYA and all the other conferences.
I know these reports “from the front” can seem science-y and vague, but I want you to see how hard clinicians, neuroscientists, and practitioners of all types are constantly working to learn the breadth and depth of what ketamine can do to help people live better, improved lives. That’s really what it’s about. Ketamine’s flexibility allows for treatment that can turn your life around.
And if you’ve been reading along, and wondering if there is help for you, call us. In spite of all the travel and bustle, we’re still in all this to help you get better, live better, and have the ability to build a truly fulfilling life.
You owe it to yourself to try, if you’ve not found a medicine that works for you. It’s not that ketamine is a cure-all for everyone, but it works in so many areas of your brain, that it can restore areas damaged by stress and trauma in most people who are treated with it.
As the holidays approach, give yourself the best chance you can to enjoy the time ahead and the new year that follows.
Welcome to November… this is the month each year we dedicate to thankfulness and gratitude.
I’m going to share with you some experiences I’ve had this week with gratitude, suicide research scientists, and the AFSP. No matter where you are in life, no matter your circumstances…if you think about it..look around you…there is most likely something you can be grateful for.
It may be something fundamental…like clean air or clean water…if your circumstances seem too dire to redeem. But start where you can. And acknowledge gratitude. Because when you do, something happens inside you. Something happens in your brain. It’s almost as though a barely perceptible fragrance emerges. Something that soothes your circuitry… and a partial drop of wellbeing falls into the pool of your spirit.
We’ll be talking more about this as the weeks go by. But think about it. Try to think of something…anything… each day that you can be grateful for.
I attended an inspiring conference last week. It was a gathering of over 400 scientific researchers from all over the world who gathered to exchange their findings and present their work on suicide research.
These are the highest level super scientists, who perform the purist research with the tightest controls and the most elegant statistics to reliably measure their results. And it’s their work that feeds the world’s understanding of suicidality. What is it? And what causes it? When does the risk spike? In whom? And what can we do to prevent it? Without these bright and dedicated men and women, we’d still be in the dark ages with our response as a society to suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Yes, I’m grateful.
And we’d also be in the dark ages about how to respond or help.
In terms of suicide research, these are the finest minds who’ve worked together and separately, tenaciously analyzing their data …and collaborating for decades.
Gratitude, suicide research scientists, and the AFSP have filled up my week and it has me spinning in it all.
An Invitation to Speak
Much to my surprise, I was invited to speak to this stunning gathering. It humbled me, and I felt so privileged that I could contribute to this body body of hard-won knowledge.
I presented my findings from my own retrospective chart review taken from the population of my own practice. Mine wasn’t a prospective randomized placebo-controlled trial. It was a gathering of data about IV ketamine’s impact on suicidal thoughts. Its ability to stop them. To prevent injury or death… or hospitalization — or trips to the ER.
It’s not my intent to make a name for myself as a research scientist… that ship sailed a couple decades ago. I just want to share my experiences treating my own patients in truth…honestly...inviting peer review.
This group received me well, as well as my presentation. I met some wonderful people. And it all got me thinking about what my place is in this universe of psychiatric treatment. Research. And ketamine administration for psychiatric disorders.
Where I Fit
I’m not a researcher. I don’t carefully tease apart large data sets, or curate a cohort to remove mitigating factors or symptoms that could taint the results.
Quite the opposite, actually. I’m a practitioner, caring for my patients, and always seeking ways to help each one get better so they might have access to a fulfilling life. My heart is in helping patients enjoy improved lives…and in healing.
From the earliest part of my training all those years ago, my heart was to find answers, methods, diets, nutrients, medicines… anything that could play a role in restoring these broken-hearted people, one patient at a time.
And that’s what motivates me still. To see sick people get well. To see suffering people get better. For those who can’t function to function again. With all their complicated, intricately confusing pieces to their personal puzzles… to see those pieces relax…integrate…and thrive together in a restored and hopeful person.
So this is all the more reason why I was so honored to be received by this exclusive group of scientists. I felt so privileged that my own work contributed to the body of knowledge on suicide prevention.
My Gratitude, Suicide Research Scientists, and the AFSP
I want to talk about the organization that fuels so much of this research with their funding. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) was founded in 1987 by beloved actress Mariette Hartley because of her own personal and family struggle with suicide and suicidal thinking.
Her intent was to bring hope and intervention to those who suffer in silence and die alone.
Now, nearly 33 years later, AFSP has local chapters in all 50 states, and offices in NYC and Washington, DC.
They’re busy at work to create a culture that’s informed and prepared to “be smart” about mental health, and the potential for suicide. They teach society in general, and the family and friends of those at risk in particular, constructive methods for finding those with suicidal thinking, and helping them get treatment. To keep them safe.
Gratitude, Suicide Research Scientists, and the AFSP
AFSP maintains a presence in Washington, DC to influence policies geared to save lives, and educate people in all walks of life about suicide intervention and prevention.
International Survivors of Suicide Loss Day is an annual event when people who’ve been impacted by suicide and loss can come together at events around the world to find support, healing, understanding…and to give back.
Thanks to AFSP, when your loved one dies by suicide, you don’t have to bear the pain in withdrawn silence. And if you’re having suicidal thoughts, AFSP provides extensive resources to help you get better and live a healthier and happier life.
As I attended this conference, I realized how far reaching the funding AFSP provides is. How much research they fund. The resources they offer to survivors to help bring healing and restoration. Like the online memory quilt, where survivors can create a “quilting square” to remember and celebrate their loved one’s life, through photos, videos, prose, and poetry.
AFSB also created and supports the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1(800)-800-273-TALK (8255) and the Crisis Text Line reached by texting TALK to 741741.
Carry It Forward this Holiday Season
As the holidays lie ahead over the next two months, be aware that this time of year is not only a difficult time for so many, but also a dangerous one. Let’s be tuned in to identify those around us who may be in need of a listening ear, support, or intervention. Research has shown that you won’t put someone at higher risk if you ask them directly whether they’ve considered hurting themselves or of wanting to die.
Being direct, it turns out, actually saves lives. People who are suffering need hope. And they need to feel included. And that they matter.
Because you DO matter. Your pain matters. You’re not invisible.
If you have thoughts of suicide, or the thought that you don’t want to live LIKE THIS anymore, reach out.
And if you’d like to see if IV ketamine infusions can help, call us.
IV ketamine treatment can erase those thoughts in an afternoon, and leave hopeful thoughts in their place. It can help you want to build your life. It can increase your energy so that you can.
You can feel amazed. Astounded at the change and new hope.
Does it do this for everyone? Well, no. Nothing does. But it does this for most people who have not been helped by medicines before. The more severe your symptoms, the more effectively it seems to work. It does it for far more than any other medicine has.
Just think about it. How far reaching is this one condition?
Sure people talk about being depressed with a casual tone. You get the feeling they feel crummy…but it seems to be their response to circumstances. And when circumstances change, they seem to forget they felt bad. But when you think about who’s affected by severe chronic depression, you think of people who don’t have the energy to get up in the morning. You think about people who are trapped in substance abuse and have grown to hate themselves. You think about people who are just tired. Of everything.
Let’s take a closer look at the people affected by severe chronic depression. Who are they?
Gary is one.
Gary worked hard his entire life. He worked tirelessly to help others improve their lives. He worked to inspire and comfort. But, when you’re in the business of helping people enjoy richer, more meaningful lives, there are always those few who spurn your efforts, and even come back to crush you, if they can. And sometimes it’s the one you believed in the most.
In Gary’s case, there were two of them. They robbed his house when he was away for the evening. Then, spread false stories attacking his integrity. And Gary was cut to the heart. After being robbed and betrayed, he was hurt, angry, disheartened. In fact he was shattered.
Even though he’d always been optimistic, and bounced back after disappointments, this time he utterly lost his footing. Shock and devastation swarmed around and within him. He lost his bearings…and withdrew into the quiet safety of his house.
He found himself acting strangely, behaving in ways he never had before.
Months went by. He ordered food from Amazon and avoided any human contact if at all possible. He didn’t answer the door, and friends gave up, one by one, and became absorbed with their own lives.
A relative helped him get in to see a doctor finally. He was diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder. The doctor prescribed a medicine to help prevent the hypomanic episodes, but the depression and withdrawal didn’t improve much. Years went by and he settled into a routine of leaving the house maybe once a week. His warm, inviting personality became subdued and cautious.
Something needed to give. To help free him from the box he’d built around himself.
And thankfully something did …but we’ll get back to that in a moment.
And Who ELSE?
Dan is.
Dan had his first drink when he was 14, and was hanging out on a Saturday night with his brother’s friends. They were all 16 and 17, and after getting some six- and 12-packs of beer, they all went to the lake on a Saturday night and drank all they had. Some ended up vomiting, others passed out in the car. Dan did both. But he liked the way the beer made him feel, and he knew he’d be up for drinking more when he had the chance.
High school beer bashes led to frat party blow outs, and while he experimented with some other things when he had the chance, it was alcohol that became his “go-to” in good times and in bad.
At 42, he drank whenever he was free. He had managed to get through college with a degree and land a job that was steady, but nights and weekends were his time to reward himself — whether anyone was with him or not. He worked hard to earn the right to get smashed on Saturday night.
After marrying in his 20s…hoping for happily ever after… he found himself alone and single again in his 30s. So many fights about his drinking. She was just beautiful, and he was so proud to be seen out with her, but she was so critical.
Alcohol Addiction and Depression… A Dangerous Combination
Now in his 40s, Dan began to understand why. And he realized he was likely to spend his life alone and drunk, if something didn’t change. He’d actually tried to stop drinking but something always happened and he was back at it. He felt pretty defeated. It seemed to be bigger than he was.
Every day he dragged himself out of bed, and went to work. He was often hung over, but 25 years of this had helped him develop an armor that got him to work, helped him function well enough to not get fired, and then home again to repeat the habit of every other night of his life. He had come to hate his empty, dead-end life, and his empty, dead-end self.
Dan hadn’t enjoyed anything in his life in at least ten years. He endured, and barely existed. He had no purpose. No joy. He was the chair person for the Dan Hatred Club. It was hard to see any reason to keep living. He wondered how to stop without it hurting too much. He was convinced no one would notice if he was gone.
There’s more to Dan’s story.
And I want you to know what happened. A little later.
While it’s so true that many people are very ill, even disabled in some cases, with severe chronic depression, you can see that many have other illnesses that are complicated by depression.
Some people suffer with a complex combination of disorders, and diagnosis and treatment can be complicated, too. We talked about Gary and his traumatic experience, the depression and phobias that followed and led to his eventual confusing behaviors, and a Bipolar 2 diagnosis.
We talked about Dan, his early introduction to alcohol and the long term impact it had on his brain…and his life. How his drinking gave way to poor social function, and the inability to give his best to his marriage. Eventually he found himself in a self-destructive rut and didn’t know how to turn it around. Then the suicidal thoughts began.
So who else is devastated – and disrupted – by severe depression symptoms?
Cheryl is.
Cheryl is 26. She’d finished college and was working on her masters degree in forensic psychology when she found herself pregnant. She and her husband wanted children, but they weren’t sure when.
Still, she felt like she was carrying a miracle within her, and the couple set about learning all they could about pregnancy, their baby’s development, and child rearing. They wanted this to go perfectly. She would find a way to complete her masters degree. But she was determined to celebrate their child’s life.
Her pregnancy was hard at first, with morning sickness that seemed unrelenting. But around the 13th or 14th week she thought she might be feeling a bit better. She began to browse in baby stores, looking at the tiny clothes and trying to imagine her baby wearing them. Her clothes were also getting tighter, and she shopped to find some pants that were looser and more comfortable. It was all beginning to feel amazing, just thinking about this little person who was safely cradled and growing out of sight….but under her heart.
The weeks dragged by, and her excitement about her baby became almost too much at times. She and her husband began shopping for a bassinet, a crib…and a stroller. She learned about support meetings for breastfeeding mothers and attended as often as she could. There was so much to learn!
Weeks turned into months, and finally she was in her third trimester. Just 3 more months. Through her pregnancy her emotions were filled with excitement and joy. A sense of wonder seemed to give the whole world a glow.
Happy Times Preparing for Baby
She and her husband attended childbirth classes and toured the hospital. They practiced exercises and breathing patterns at home to try to truly equip themselves for the adventure of labor and delivery.
Then, when she was 41 weeks along, those Braxton-Hicks contractions everyone talked about began to get out of hand. Within a couple hours she was in the ER being checked out.
Finally, she was in labor.
Cheryl’s labor progressed normally the first 10 hours. Then, in spite of hard and nearly constant contractions she was no longer progressing. Her doctor confirmed his suspicions: the baby’s head was lodged at an angle in the pelvic region and couldn’t move forward. He called for a C-section.
Within 15 minutes she was wheeled into the operating room, and suddenly asleep. When she awoke, everything seemed strange. Then she remembered the labor, the baby, and oblivion.
Her husband was smiling and told her they have a beautiful baby girl. She felt too groggy to understand what he was saying. She blinked hard to try to clear her head. Her husband handed her a little bundle. She laid it in her lap. What was it?
As the fog cleared her head, her memory of the labor returned. Her new baby slept in her bundled blanket. And Cheryl put the pieces together. She had had a baby. She was sleepy because of emergency surgery. The baby couldn’t get out… But where was that baby?
Traumatic Birth Can Interfere with Bonding Between Mother and Child
She asked her husband, and he told her their baby was in her lap. But the bundle in her lap didn’t look like anyone she knew. It just didn’t feel real…somehow…
She felt no connection to this tiny human, in spite of her husband’s reassurance… She felt sure she would have recognized her own baby, right?
Cheryl found herself detached, stunned, disconnected from feeling like a mother. Her strange behavior puzzled her husband. Why didn’t she cuddle their beautiful baby girl? The nurses tried to help her breastfeed, but the baby only cried. Almost as if this baby girl could sense her mom’s disconnect.
Cheryl and her husband took their new baby home and named her Phoebe Mae. She desperately wanted to feel something good toward the baby. But, she didn’t. She couldn’t. All that anticipation for 9 months, and this is it? Endless exhaustion and sleepless nights? Where was the joy..?
Her behavior worried (and angered) her husband. He just didn’t understand his wife’s coldness. Was this damaging Phoebe? What damaged Cheryl to cause this?
Months went by and Cheryl had long since taken up bottle feeding Phoebe formula. Besides, her husband could help more easily this way.
Then, Phoebe’s first smile was for her daddy. And her first laugh, too. Cheryl felt a bit jealous that she stayed with her daughter all day and fed her and took her on walks, but she really only responded to her daddy.
Who Else is Affected… or should I say, Overwhelmed ?
The family is.
Everyone who loves you. They worry, they try to help, they pitch in, they listen.
And try as they might, they’re helpless. And desperate for solutions. Your severe chronic depression breaks their hearts.
These few examples give only a glimpse of the complex symptom clusters any one person might suffer. There are so many more.
But IF, and only IF, you can safely and effectively reduce or even eliminate, the symptoms of depression, you may be able to see your life restored and functioning again.
Of course, traditional SRI and SNRI antidepressants play their role in helping people with depression feel better. Roughly a third to half of them…maybe a bit more. For those people, antidepressants are enough.
Remember, there is no medicine for depression that is as fast working as ketamine. No other medicine is as widespread in its antidepressant benefits in the brain. And no other medicine helps as many people recover, even achieve remission, and build restored, rewarding and fulfilling lives like IV ketamine treatment can.
Plus, it’s safe.
Ketamine doesn’t cause long lasting side effects. The notorious effects most antidepressants display, like sexual dysfunction and weight gain, don’t exist with IV ketamine. Ketamine doesn’t raise or lower the blood levels of other medicines you’re taking. It just goes to work. And, hopefully for you, it accomplishes the transformative restoration it’s so famous for.
The World Health Organization includes ketamine on its List of Essential Medicines. Respected around the world in ORs, ERs, disaster areas, and war zones, ketamine isn’t new.
Remission Often Replaces Severe Chronic Depression at Innovative Psychiatry
How did IV ketamine treatment impact Gary, Dan, and Cheryl? Did they recover from their own severe chronic depression symptoms?
IV Ketamine Treatment Does Its Best Work When Symptoms of Severe Chronic Depression Seem Untreatable
Remember Gary?
And his boxed-in anxiety-filled existence? The same friend who helped him go to the doctor, also helped him access IV ketamine treatment.
After 7 infusions, Gary bloomed. The warm, outgoing, generous man who had served people in need all his life re-emerged. Gary’s confidence returned along with his energy to participate in the lives of people who needed his help.
His life became rewarding again, filled with activity and relationships. You might say his best self was restored.
Then there was Dan.
Dan was suicidal when a friend told him about IV ketamine treatment. He learned that ketamine not only relieved depression, but could be effective in helping break addiction. And… that it could stop suicidal thoughts in a few hours. Dan wanted to see what it could do for him. He felt like this was his last ditch effort. He didn’t want to die, exactly. But he didn’t want to live like thisany more.
Well, he was not disappointed. The first half hour of the first infusion, those images of death and thoughts of dying disappeared. Almost like poof! gone. He emerged from the infusion smiling. That was a good start alright.
That night, he found he had no interest in a drink, so he skipped it. How about that, he thought to himself.
After the second infusion, he definitely felt less depressed. Improved. NOT great…but better. By the time he arrived for the 4th infusion he was feeling pretty good. Hopeful…motivated.
It’s been six months since his 6th infusion now, and Gary feels like he’s living. He’s stopped drinking completely, sees a few friends, met a terrific woman. His future looks bright.
And Cheryl…?
Well, Cheryl’s husband heard about ketamine for depression from a friend at work. He encouraged her to talk to her doctor about it. Her doctor said that effectively treating the depression could reverse her struggle with bonding.
When Phoebe was six months old, Cheryl received her first infusion. On the way home with her husband she could tell no difference. He encouraged her to keep an open mind. That he’d heard it could take awhile.
By the 4th infusion he noticed she was taking initiative in the kitchen, preparing a new recipe. She hadn’t done that since Phoebe was born. Then the next day she was sitting with Phoebe playing patty cake… and that night rocked her, kissing her on the forehead as she drifted off.
She was expressing joy more and more and laughing with Phoebe. By the end of the 6th infusion she didn’t feel perfect but she did feel happy. The doctor said it would get better and better.
Severe Stress Can Cause a Setback
Then Phoebe got sick. At 8 months she caught her first cold. Cheryl was up all night comforting her, sitting with her near the humidifier to help her breathe. This continued for 4 days until Phoebe started feeling better.
But the lack of sleep and strain took their toll. And Cheryl’s depression returned. Not as severe as it had been. But severe enough. A couple weeks later her husband asked her to call the doctor, who told her she may need another “booster” infusion. So she complied.
She felt much better again after the infusion, and Phoebe stayed well all summer. They had daily walks in the sunshine, and Cheryl and Phoebe both had rosy cheeks and and a tan.
The next time Phoebe got sick in the fall, the stress didn’t affect Cheryl adversely at all. She had the resilience to go without sleep as she cuddled her baby girl through the illness.
Before long, Phoebe turned a year old. Cheryl and her husband threw a big party for all their friends. It was a celebration of their little girl’s milestone, and for the joy Cheryl and her husband were enjoying again.
This Can Happen for You, Too
These stories all have happy endings. But low dose IV ketamine isn’t for everyone. Is there any medicine that is? Nope…not a one. But the response rate to ketamine treatment is remarkably high.
Still, that remarkably high response rate relies on skilled administration. Low dose IV ketamine treatment is not a one-size-fits-all treatment. It requires careful titration, identifying specific responses in the patient, and finding the sweet spot in dose and rate that yields the best outcome for each individual.
Unfortunately, many providers of ketamine don’t understand this, and give the same dose at the same rate to every patient, then schedule them to come in for regular maintenance infusions, indefinitely.
In other cases, they try a different dose with each successive infusion, because they don’t really understand how to achieve the therapeutic response.
Find Restoration from Severe Chronic Depression
Innovative Psychiatry is the premier provider of IV ketamine treatment in Connecticut for safe, effective treatment of depression and other psychiatric disorders. We offered the first ketamine treatment center of Connecticut for severe chronic depression and other disorders.
Innovative Psychiatry offers you a most extraordinary psychiatric treatment, IV ketamine. Some people require booster infusions now and then for awhile, and others achieve remission with the initial six infusions.
Every brain is different, just as every person is different.
We can’t predict what it will be like for you, but we can promise to provide the most effective administration of this remarkable treatment that can be found anywhere.
Can you relate to Gary, Dan, or Cheryl..? Or maybe to their loved ones? If you have similar symptoms or variations of your own, that have not responded to the treatments you’ve tried, call us.
Like the people we’ve talked about here, you can have restored joy, renewed initiative and motivation, the energy to pursue your dreams, and to rebuild relationships.
We’re here to help. Let’s work together to help you live a fulfilling and rewarding life.
Sam Chaney walked up to the quiet car in the dark.
It was a place by the lake frequented by teens for romantic interludes, or beer drinking. This car was dark. Silent. But running. He tapped on the window with a bit of anxiety. He’d just been reading about the teen suicide epidemic this morning.
“Hello – Metro police! Open the door please…”
Silence.
Tap tap tap…”Open up!”
Nothing.
Sam stepped back and looked at the car. Only then did he see the rags stuffed into the exhaust.
“Oh no….”
After trying to open the door, Sam used his baton to break the glass. The choking odor of exhaust wafted into his face. Carbon monoxide…
Inside the car he saw the lifeless bodies of four teenagers. One looked to be no older than 14.
Immediately he called for emergency personnel and then pulled each body out onto the ground in the fresh air.
One by one he checked their pulses. Nothing.
Instinctively, he did 15 chest compressions, then breathed twice into the mouth of each one. Then 15 more.
After the first one, he moved on to the next, then to the next. Their bodies were cold.
What is Causing the Teen Suicide Epidemic?
The suicide rate in teenagers has increased 56% since 2007. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) And even though the homicide rate in teens decreased 23% between 2007 and 2014, it increased again 18% between 2014 and 2017. Even so, the suicide rate has now surpassed the homicide rate in teenagers.
Suicide deaths in teens are also higher than accidental deaths such as transportation crashes or drug overdoses. These accidents represent the 3rd leading cause of death in people aged 10-24. But suicide has risen to the 2nd leading cause of death in teenagers.
Why??
We don’t really know. There are so many reasons. So many factors. Depression rates in children and teens have increased; in fact, they’ve increased across all age groups. Increased drug use has led to increased overdoses, too.
But a big factor seems to be embedded in the dramatic increase of social media use among this age group. This is a generation who has cut their teeth on facebook, instagram, and pinterest. Add to that Yelp, where they feel free to blast a restaurant with criticism every time they eat, just for the sport of it.
A Forum for Speaking One’s Mind – Uncensored and Unsupervised
In short, social media has allowed them to speak their mind, which isn’t necessarily bad. But to speak it without a filter aimed at diplomacy or compassion. We all know it’s easier to say something critical in writing than face to face. And during the teen years, insecurity is often considered hidden by cruelty to others.
Because of this un-squelched form of communication, privacy has taken a hit, too. A middle schooler catches someone in an awkward situation and sends the photo or video to his contact list. In seconds, a fragile, shy, insecure 13 year-old is publicly humiliated with nowhere to hide.
Darwin’s theory about the survival of the fittest is reduced to survival of the ones who dish out the most cruelty without falling prey to the same treatment.
For a child or teenager, the teen suicide epidemic seems daunting and intimidating. Her life experience or capacity to cope with such public shame is painfully limited, if not utterly lacking. And the under-developed prefrontal cortex in her brain prevents her ability to see such a crisis in the “big picture,” –that is, the idea that this too shall pass. Impulsivity can then win out …with a decision so permanent that all that’s left is the grieving.
Far too many of the children and teens who have taken their lives, had been reporting bullying. When circumstances didn’t change, they seemed to feel it was left up to them to stand against the assaults and onslaughts by themselves. And eventually, they may have become weary.
Chronic Stress Causes Pruning of Signaling Structures = Depression
We know what chronic stress does to the circuitry in the brain. Eventually, the synapses break down, dendrites become pruned…and depression ensues.
So a depressed person is more vulnerable to suicidal thoughts…images… and even action.
And there’s another factor.
Too often, as teens become depressed, they grow silent. They withdraw.
At Herriman High School in Utah, a total of 6 students ended their lives in a single year.
After each successive death occurred, the teachers, administrative staff, and parents became increasingly desperate to do something to prevent more.
The students, as well, experienced increased anxiety, overwhelm, and concern that students around them were suffering but no one knew who was at risk.
Parents Seek Answers for the Teen Suicide Epidemic
Parents spoke of the need to teach their children to talk about their feelings, and how things are going, from an early age. The mother of a boy who died said that she had no idea her son was struggling. She just thought he was being a normal teenager. She said, “We need to give them the ability to talk! And I think we’ve missed that along the way.”
As a result, both students and administration initiated programs to help everyone cope with their own anxiety and grief, and to also encourage everyone to reach out to anyone who seemed to be alone, isolated, or struggling.
QPR
In this atmosphere of tragedy, communication became a key focus. Since the parents of some who died recalled that their child had seemed withdrawn, spending long hours alone and talking very little, the students and staff learned to watch for withdrawal in any student. They developed a code: QPR. Similar to CPR, QPR is specific for saving the life of someone who’s suicidal.
Photo by Rachel Lynette French on Unsplash
Q stands for Question. They realized that people who are struggling may wish they could talk to someone, but maybe they don’t know what to say. In fact, they may not realize they’re struggling as much as feeling “off.” So the strategy they developed is to be bold enough to ask questions.
“Hi, would you like to sit with us?”
“How are you…?”
“You don’t seem to be feeling very well. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Are you at a point that you’re going to harm yourself?”
For teenagers, who struggle to talk at all, this initiative requires a brutal bravery, but as they weigh the awkwardness against the loss of life, they find they can push past the nervousness, and just ask.
P stands for Persuade. It means pushing through your own feelings to focus on the feelings of another. Then persuading that person to trust you enough to accept your invitation…answer your questions…consider solutions…
R stands for Refer. Part of the P in Persuade includes persuading the person to accept help and treatment: the solutions. It means including parents, the school counselor, and outside psychiatric help, as well.
Students refer to QPR as a useful tool for fighting the teen suicide epidemic and also for the helplessness they’ve felt as they’ve heard the announcement of each student who died. They feel armed with a way to help stop the deaths, and to know they’re doing something.
Joining Forces to Save Lives
Just as this high school pulled together to close the gap between hurting teens and everyone else, we can do the same.
To approach those who seem to struggle and dare to get your hands dirty. Dare to ask the questions. Then listen. Then work together with them to help them get treatment and to be safe.
Lots of Help is Available
But start with a comprehensive psychiatric — find the best doctor you can to do the best jobthey can to pull together all the pieces, all the stressors, all the symptoms. To diagnose and to offer treatment — rapidly.
And to present options and reasonable choices for treatment, the evidence for each, and the speed of response: medications, different talk therapies, TMS, and IV ketamine.
Speed is critical if you’re trying to save a life.
IV Ketamine Treatment works fast to Restore Brain Circuitry
So often, anguish is missed. Overlooked. Or it just doesn’t lift even with the first or second (or third) thing you’ve tried.
We see the end-results of anguish every day when everything breaks down: depression, anxiety, self-loathing, withdrawl. Loss of interest. Loss of eye contact. You don’t even smile anymore. (Or when you do, it’s phony.)
If you feel like this, or if someone you love feels like this, if treatment isn’t working, know that there is hope. You can feel better, you can repair and rebuild the circuitry that will allow that. And it can happen fast.
IV ketamine treatment specializes in rebuilding broken down dendrites and dendritic spines — it turns on mRNA to switch on DNA to turbo-boost Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and those dendrites and synapses just explode in new growth. Repairing and restoring the circuitry, and giving you joy, initiative, motivation, energy, … and hope.
Once repair gets underway, your brain can transmit signals along those repaired and restored pathways. Your brain lights up, and your eyes light up with it.
There are solutions.
And even if your insurance doesn’t cover this extraordinary treatment yet, there is financing to help you pay for it. And there are voices clamoring for it to be covered because it can stop suicidal thinking. It can turn around that trip to the ER and make it unnecessary. It can help avoid the need for hospitalization.
We’ll work with you, your doctor, your therapist, and your family, to help you feel better, function better, and really enjoy the details of your life again. If it’s been a really long time since you felt that way, you’re probably going to be astounded. Because the longer you’ve been ill without relief, and the more severe your symptoms are, the better IV ketamine treatment may work for you. It’s funny that way. It’s a bit of a show-off.
Let us help you find yourself, your creativity, and your heart again.
To the restoration of your best self,
Lori Calabrese, M.D.
We can all help prevent suicide. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress, as well as prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
The Veterans Crisis Line and Military Crisis Line 1-800-273-8255 Press 1
