Tag: IV Ketamine for Substance Use Disorder

  • Postpartum Stress Is Vicious: Reach Out for Support…It Takes a Village

    Postpartum Stress Is Vicious: Reach Out for Support…It Takes a Village

    Do you have a COVID baby?  If so, you’ve had compounded stress.

    Most moms are familiar with the exhaustion (and the overwhelm!) that often takes over when your newborn comes home from the hospital. It isn’t as though you were sleeping great before you went into labor.  Then contractions started and progressed to active serious labor. Then the hard pushing. Bottom line, giving birth is hard, hard work. You think you just can’t wait till the baby is OUT of your body so you can finally sleep.  WAKE UP CALL!!! Actually, once baby is outside your body, she’s adjusting too.  So she cries.  And cries. What can you do but nurse her till she drops off to sleep… until 30 mins later she wakes up in your arms crying again. So you put her back on the breast. And then it starts. And a challenging pattern emerges. Baby feels warm, secure, and happy when she’s nursing. Then, bereaved when the nursing stops. And you? Stressed to the max. Postpartum stress can be persistent if you’ve had a COVID baby…and even if your baby was born before COVID.

    The trouble with that is that anxiety can shoot up when baby nurses, wakes, and nurses some more. Because you want some sleep… you NEED sleep.

    And when anxiety rises, it’s hard to go to sleep. Your mind just keeps racing.

    So what do you do?  You call your mom, your sister, or your best friend to come and walk baby while you get some rest. And that’s not all it’s cracked up to be either, because you lay on the bed, wide awake….staring at the ceiling…worrying about the baby. 

    This is especially true for first time moms who so want to be perfect moms in every way but hadn’t counted on exhaustion and stress making you miserable. In fact, postpartum stress can be especially brutal for moms who try to be perfect.

    Try to relax and let go. Perfect moms don’t exist. Cut yourself lots of slack and call in help when you feel like you’re at the end of your rope. Don’t keep pushing. Because you just have to break the stress cycle periodically.

    And kick guilt to the curb!

    This is also true for moms with a baby/toddler and other children…. it can be so hard to cover all the bases of everyone’s needs. Plus laundry, cooking, baths, keeping the house picked up after you’ve been up all night with the baby.

    And You Wonder…Where Can You Find Postpartum Stress SOLUTIONS?

    Parenting books are full of advice about how to manage your baby AND your other children when there’s no one to help. (Ha! is what I said when I read them, on baby #4.) But, when you try to put their advice to work…well it’s not as easy as it sounds.

    Postpartum stress is that midlevel and escalating stress that occurs after the baby blues but before postpartum depression takes over.

    If relief isn’t found, postpartum depression can settle in.

    FAST FOWARD 10 months…

    You finally got the baby into a schedule where she sleeps several hours each night and you depend on that chance to rest.  Then you go on vacation. (Ha! they say it’s a vacation….) The changed vacation schedule disrupts baby’s schedule and she starts wanting to find comfort in constant nursing again.

    By the time you get home from your trip, you’re exhausted again. And not sleeping. And you’re crying more than baby. Sound familiar?

    Stress plus exhaustion is a devastating combination.

    First, understand that babies are individuals with temperaments unique to them. Some are easy going, relatively relaxed, and honestly, some seem almost self contained. Moms with babies like this have no idea why you’re so stressed. So ignore what those moms say. Right??

    Some babies are “high need” and may require lots of patience.  This type of baby may also be colicky, and as the saying goes, it takes a village. To walk her, to soothe her, and to give you a break to rest and breathe.

    You always hear that childbirth is a natural part of life…and it is. But it’s still a huge strain on your body and emotions. If you don’t have support, it can be difficult to recover.

    And women who don’t receive support during childbirth have a harder time recovering from it. They can continue to struggle for weeks or longer. In fact, a study by researchers led by CT Beck found 18% of American moms reported symptoms of PTSD. We call that postpartum post-traumatic-stress-disorder –really!–and we’ll be talking about that, soon.

    What is postpartum stress anyway?

    It’s like this…when something goes on that sets you on edge, but it doesn’t happen just once…or twice. It happens all the time, all the time. Like a baby crying incessantly…or children screaming because they’re mad, The longer this cacophony goes on the more it strips your patience…your ability to cope…to endure. And it goes on and on, day and night, week after week after month. It goes from acute stress to chronic stress… postpartum stress.

    When this happens, think of it as wearing down the synapses — those connection between neurons in the brain that help messages go from one part of the brain to the other. Those synapses can break down. The dendrites and dendritic spines also break away. You can think of it as pruning, like you do to a tree. But in terms of synapses, this is not a good thing. As those synapses break down, the connections between neurons are lost. And what’s left is a depressed mood. Anxiety. Misery.

    Postpartum Stress Needs to be Relieved

    Whether by natural means of relief and support, or by a remarkable treatment. Because left untreated it can easily advance to postpartum depression, a more dangerous condition.

    What it comes down to is that you need all the synapses you can get in the right parts of your brain so you can be resilient and not defeated. So you can embrace challenges as they arise.

    This is why it takes a village. Because you must have support from grandparents, friends, family, and as your baby grows older and is easier to manage, you can help another young mom.  

    But what if postpartum stress has resulted in damage too extensive for you to find the relief and resilience you need just by taking a nap, or walking and relaxing while someone else cares for baby?

    Well maybe that’s where IV ketamine treatment comes in.

    Nothing restores resilience like IV ketamine treatment. Nothing restores those synapses as thoroughly or as fast as IV ketamine treatment. For so many. Because ketamine restores resilience by restoring those synapses, by causing mRNA to flip on DNA to turbo boost brain-derived-neurotrophic-factors. By moving those G proteins off the lipid rafts to get those neurotransmitters revved up to do their job. By stopping the cell bursting in the lateral habenula… all these things working together to help you feel up to the tasks before you… Full of initiative, the motivation to do what needs to be done, and the hope for making your life rewarding again.

    Postpartum Stress Disorder can be overwhelming so reach out for help.

    At Innovative Psychiatry we’re in place to meet you here when you arrive for ketamine treatment. Because if you want to rise above the hopeless and dark listlessness that is overshadowing your time with your baby, we’re here to help. And for the safety of you and your baby, and the confidence it brings, we’ve outfitted our offices with a space station technology developed by NASA to remove 99.99% of the viruses, bacteria, mold, and pollen from the air and surfaces in our office.

    We keep the door locked so that only those who have been scheduled to be there will be there. You can feel safe here.

    We’re here to help you get better, feel better, and have the power to enjoy your baby, and your family. To have the power to face the challenges with resilience.

    Take affirmative steps to find out if you’re a candidate for IV ketamine treatment. Call us.

    We’re here to help.

    Lori Calabrese, M.D. is on the front end of the race to stop PTSD in its tracks using IV ketamine treatment.

    To the restoration of your best self,

  • Overcoming Feelings of Shame and Worthlessness Even in a Pandemic!

    Overcoming Feelings of Shame and Worthlessness Even in a Pandemic!

    Grace had been depressed off and on since her she was a little girl. No one called it depression back then.  She was shy, and her withdrawal was dismissed by others as just another of her odd behaviors. They thought she just got more “wound up” than some people. After she was grown and married, the family psychiatrist diagnosed her depression and prescribed antidepressants. 

    Overcoming feelings of shame and worthlessness had proven her most difficult challenge. She tried the first prescription for a few years, with only a little improvement. She was accustomed to trudging. Eventually, her prescription was changed, and she began to feel much better. So much better in fact, that she considered herself overall better for years. She was grateful to be one of those 30% who were actually helped by medication.

    Even though Grace experienced loss from divorce and deaths in the family, and though she grieved, she never became depressed like she’d been before. Sadness was different than major depression, as a medical condition. She still functioned through her days, but felt sad for a good while after each loss. Until she could finally move forward again.

    But then the pandemic spread around the world. It imposed changes upon households everywhere, like isolation, mask wearing, and social distancing. Basically, adaptations were required from everyone.

    It was a shock. And it was tiring.

    As far as Grace was concerned, she began to notice her optimism was diminishing. The resilience she had come to expect and rely on weakened. The agitation and short tempers in loved ones she trusted startled her, shocked her, and shook her foundations. She felt beat up.

    More and more beat up… until she didn’t want to expose herself to the blows of others.

    And she withdrew.

    Of course, Grace told herself she was isolating herself to comply with social distancing, but little by little she had to admit to herself that this was something more. She found herself losing motivation and initiative, and a desire for interaction with others, as well. She began to read. In fact, she read all day until she went to sleep every night. She stopped answering the phone, and went to her mailbox at night to avoid running into anyone. 

    Heaven forbid she should have to see anyone…to be expected to interact. No way!

    Then, of all the horrors, her hair was falling out. Alarmingly quickly. What was this? She found wads of her hair on the shower drain. She felt it glide along her arms as it fell out and slid to the ground. Her brush and comb was full of her hair!

    Not to mention, she struggled with insomnia. She was still taking her usual medications, including her antidepressants and a sleep aid, but nothing seemed to be helping. It was baffling when it had all been under control for so long.

    Eventually she had to face that she was depressed for some reason, and what was worse, she suffered from pretty severe insomnia.

    Why? Where had this come from? 

    The state she was in was shocking when she’d been doing so well for years. Even decades!

    Overcoming these feelings of shame and worthlessness …well it seemed impossible.

    As a natural introvert, she couldn’t imagine that the isolation would bother her. It didn’t feel like it was bothering her…

    And she loved to read. She just hadn’t had time for so many years that she’d gotten out of the habit. The freedom to read one book after another was delicious. She reveled in it. 

    Well, not at first. At first the reading was more like something to fill her mind while she lay in bed. To keep her thoughts captured. But eventually, it became a pleasure. Her only pleasure.

    Even so, Grace was noticing some phobias in herself that had been absent for decades. What on earth? Seriously??

    She went out of her way to avoid contact with people. Trips to the grocery store were hard, but she managed ok as long as she didn’t look anyone in the eye. She had to have food, after all.

    Thankfully, her doctor had made small increases in her antidepressant and sleeping prescriptions, in hopes the changes would help.

    Along with the phobias, shame arose. Shame at her withdrawal and for avoiding people. Shame for all her life’s mistakes. Boy…when it rains it pours. And she was in a deluge!

    In all those quiet days and nights she had an abundance of time to think. To revisit the failures of her life. Those times when she handled conflict poorly. All those times she let someone down. The mistakes and misunderstandings of her marriage, and her divorce. She was drowning in regret, and the ways she failed her children. The shame of her human missteps was unbearable. So unbearable that she felt worthless. Unworthy to be loved, or to take up the air she breathed. 

    On one particularly sorrowful night, it occurred to her how easy it would be to make her life stop. She had various tools in the house that would simplify the action.

    Finally, as news of more people receiving vaccines led to hope that things might soon open up, Grace began to see some light at the end of the tunnel. She found that she laughed out loud as she read certain books. Then she found herself more animated as she talked with loved ones on the phone. Her energy began to return, and cooking seemed easier.

    Maybe she would eventually emerge from this…?

    After a year in a pandemic, severe ice storms unprecedented in some areas…depression, isolation, anxiety, brought on by isolation…  This has been a very — no, extremely — difficult year. Pat yourself on the back that you’re reading this and in one piece.

    No kidding! It’s been a bear, hasn’t it??

    What about you? How have you fared?

    You may be beating yourself up for what you didn’t do. Were you optimistic…or did you grow pessimistic and disgusted with the world…and yourself? Did you find ways to make the best of annoying circumstances… or has it been a struggle? Did you enjoy the camaraderie that came with the awareness that the entire world was in the same boat… or have you felt alone?

    Don’t punish yourself!

    Reports from across the globe speak of increasing numbers of people diagnosed with depression, when they’ve never been depressed before. You’re not alone! Those who already grappled with disorders found them getting worse. (Reports of hair loss have skyrocketed.)

    Overcoming feelings of shame and worthlessness can be so hard, and they can come unexpectedly. The world has seen a level of shock on an individual level that hasn’t been seen in over 100 years. If you think you haven’t been deeply affected by the happenings of the last year, you may have been touched in ways you didn’t realize.

    None of us is an island, as they say. We’re all connected in ways we may not understand, but also can’t really deny.

    If you haven’t tested positive for COVID-19, you may have been surprised like Grace at some of the impact that still invaded your life. Inexplicably. 

    On the other hand, if you already were receiving treatment for a disorder like severe depression, PTSD, bipolar depression, or suicidal thinking, it might have gotten worse.

    Are you like Grace, finding your treatment is no longer enough? Do you try and fail to overcome feelings of shame and worthlessness? Do you know those painful feelings are also a symptoms of some disorders, like severe depression, bipolar depression, and PTSD?

    If you can relate to Grace’s struggles, hurts, despair, and shame, you’re among friends. This pandemic has been tough on everyone, and it’s shown no mercy. In addition, if you were already trying to climb out of an emotional hole before the pandemic, this year of difficulty may have been business as usual for you.

    But there is help.

    If your medication hasn’t helped, IV ketamine just might. It reverses symptoms for so many.

    Understand that ketamine infusions aren’t for everyone. They never have been. Still, research continues to explore the depths and limitations of ketamine. And because of its wide therapeutic success in others with treatment resistant mood disorders and trauma, the likelihood it will help you is strong.

    At Innovative Psychiatry, we just want to see you free of defeating symptoms, with the energy, clarity, and hope to move forward and enjoy a productive and rewarding life.

    To that end, we’ve supplied protection for you from coronavirus and bacteria in the air and on surfaces in our office so you can focus on getting treatment so you can get better. Even though the COVID-19 cases have dramatically reduced, the pandemic continues. But when you’re in our offices, you will be protected and cared for.

    Everything we do is focused on helping you get better, achieve remission, and enjoy your life and your relationships. It’s amazing the energy and insight you can have in relationship building when the burden of symptoms is removed.

    Life is getting better and will keep improving. We want that for you and are here to help.

    Lori Calabrese, M.D. is on the front end of the race to stop PTSD in its tracks using IV ketamine treatment.

    To the restoration of your best self,

  • Don’t Let Stressors You Can’t Control Hurt YOU: Add Resilience

    Don’t Let Stressors You Can’t Control Hurt YOU: Add Resilience

    Turns Out Winter 2021 Hasn’t Run Out of Stressors to Throw at You Yet…

    People like you have been finding ways to adapt and endure this historical and very strange year. Never think that major factors in society, and in science, and in government, have no effect on you and your personal life. In fact, the ongoing onslaught of external pressures can take a serious toll. In fact, the toll can be so subtle you don’t realize it’s happening. If you find yourself sinking into what feels like quick sand, stop and take action. You don’t have to go down for the count. Stressors you can’t control don’t have to control you or even hurt you. But without intervention, you may find it all gets to be too much.

    Take Janeen and Carole, for example:

    Janeen and Carole were neighbors and had been friends for years. They enjoyed shopping together, stopping for coffee and pastries, or splurging on Italian food at their favorite white cloth restaurant. They were both upbeat single empty nesters and reveled in their freedom once their grown children built lives of their own.

    Carole was the more practical of the two, and Janeen was the more spontaneous, but oh, they had such fun together.

    As the pandemic emerged, and as surprising as it was, they didn’t expect it to have that much of an impact on their lives because they were both already so content doing things at home — together or individually. And they did, whether it was a craft project, or constructing a puzzle, or playing cards.

    However, with the spread of the pandemic, they each knew more and more people who became ill from it. Of course, Janeen and Carole were diligent with all the precautions including masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and social distancing. Still, they knew someone who was critically ill with the coronavirus, and while she survived, it was pretty scary.

    Then Janeen learned that a life long friend of her family had died in the hospital from COVID. 

    Three weeks later, the brother of her co-worker also died. Both losses hit her hard. Then a cousin also died. Of course, they were reading about someone well-known who also died every day or two. The losses of dear people in this pandemic were unexpected and heartbreaking.

    You know that feeling when something so alarming happens that you hear about it in the news…but you never think it will happen to anyone you know..? Exactly. The alarming aspects of this disaster were getting too close to home for these friends. And in spite of the upbeat friendship Janeen and Carole shared, they discovered stressors you can’t control weren’t as easy to push aside when they plunder your personal life and those you hold dear.

    That Last Straw that Can Break a Camel’s Back…

    Finally, Carole’s sister Greta called and the tone of the conversation turned sour, then bitter…until her sister attacked her utterly unexpectedly. She attacked her political beliefs, her faith, and her family. By the time Carole ended the call, she was shocked and deeply wounded. Devastated. She felt betrayed at the deepest level. Carole trusted her sister. She respected her opinions and felt support from her so fundamentally, that she had always been confident they would never treat each other with disrespect. 

    Carole told herself her sister was just having a bad day. Or maybe the stressors of everything happening were wearing down Greta, too..? At any rate, Carole felt silly that she was so hurt by the things her sister said. She’d never been one to be so touchy with her family, to have her feelings on her cuff.

    But… for Carole, it was as if the clouds had covered the sun. The shades on her life had been drawn. And the light that had normally shone on her days disappeared. Carole didn’t understand what was happening to her. But the color in life had turned shades of gray.

    There was no reason to take her sister’s verbal assault so personally. But still, her outlook deteriorated. She couldn’t seem to help it.

    She read on the internet that depression seemed to be on the rise with COVID…and she wondered if that was happening to her for some inexplicable reason. It was as if she had lost her zest for life. As the days and weeks passed,  she realized she didn’t really care what her sister did…or what Janeen did. She felt so deflated she didn’t want to get out of bed

    So she didn’t. 

    Carole’s highly energized and determined personality went limp. Sad. Empty. 

    As days, weeks, and months passed, Carole knew she had become withdrawn. But she didn’t care. Nothing seemed to matter.

    Eventually, she realized she didn’t see any reason to keep living. Her children were living their own lives now, and she was no longer needed. She thought sometimes about how the end of life would come for her. Would she just not wake up one day?

    Or develop a catastrophic disease?  Then she realized she didn’t really have to wait…

    So she wondered how hard it would be to just put a STOP to her life.  To be released from the phenomenal stress she’d lived with.

    The more those thoughts built in her mind, the more reasonable they sounded to her.

    Janeen checked on her regularly, but Carole tried to end those contacts quickly. She just didn’t want to talk, visit, or exert any energy at all. She wished she could just sort of fade away.

    Above all, though, she knew she didn’t want to do anything that caused her family pain… Still, she continued to think about it…

    Another Perspective on Stress

    We talk about stress. How it can defeat otherwise unsinkable people. How it can reduce immunity and how it can contribute to disorders like depression, panic disorder, PTSD, alcohol use disorder, bipolar depression, social anxiety disorder, and suicidal thoughts. Stressors you can’t control are so much more difficult than those you can. And the helplessness that accompanies them does its own damage.

    When we look back in history to extremely stressful situations, we see how severe stressors can lead to suicide in masses of people. For instance, the stock market crash of 1929 for example, illustrates how extreme stress contributed to psychiatric crises for countless people.

    This winter — 2021 — has been a “perfect storm” of circumstances with the combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, flu season, the COVID variants, remote learning at home for kids, remote working from home, (where stressed parents try to do their job while supervising their children in the same space) and now a historical series of severe arctic storms sweeping from coast to coast, with snow, sleet, and ice causing life threatening traffic pileups, a break down in transportation of goods and services, preventing communities from having what they need… plus a presidential election and an impeachment.

    This is proving to be the most stressful, crisis-ridden winter this nation has seen in a very long time. And everyone is facing stressors they can’t control.

    And all this stress is dangerous. 

    Some people have taken every precaution to try to maintain health and safety, and to help contain the fallout of each of these crises.  Others have all but thumbed their noses at the need for precaution, and so many others have fallen somewhere in between. 

    Most people are relatively resilient, and will weather whatever is thrown across their path. But if major stressors are tossed at them day after day, week after week, month after month…eventually they’ll need some sort of reliefa break to recover.

    In this particular winter of 2020/2021, we may find ourselves isolated or quarantined. But we still need that break. We need to reach out for relief.

    By building a network of people we look forward to talking and laughing with online. Or writing for self-fulfillment and to draw interaction from others, or cooking meals and delivering them to neighbors nearby. 

    Stressors you can't control can hurt without resilience. Ketamine treatment restores.
    We all need to give. We all need to receive. And we all need feedback.  When we give, receive, and participate in feedback…well, those are stressors we can control…so they help.
    When the things we need as humans are accessible and balanced in our lives, it’s easier to maintain a certain equilibrium. 

    But our human needs aren’t always easy to fulfill, and as stressors pile high upon us, we may need more to help us survive.

    We may need a treatment to help restore equilibrium. These are highly stressful times for many, many people for a multitude of reasons. While we need to lean into our support system and find it’s not in place, we may need extra support.

    Something that IV ketamine treatment excels at is resilience. And resilience chases away the clouds of disillusionment and despair. It helps you bounce back after disappointment and devastation. You may have an abundance of resilience already. But if you don’t, ketamine treatment can sure restore it and arm you for what you face when you’re confronted with stressors you can’t control.

    At Innovative Psychiatry, resilience is a remarkable and startling bloom we often see in our ketamine patients. After years of living in a slump, stripped of courage, patience, hope, purpose…to see the same person develop a bright and open countenance, to hear the laughter in his voice, the hope, the confidence…the warmth; to see a life changed so splendidly makes what we do so rewarding.

    While ketamine is not effective for everyonewe so wish it was! — its extraordinary impact is life-transforming for many. Neuroscience researchers continue to probe to find reasons for those it doesn’t help.

    We also have protocols to ensure your safety when you come to our office for treatment. With Novaerus units in each room that remove the coronavirus from the air you breathe, and surfaces treated by Steramist, which removes 99.999% of all the virus, bacteria, and dangerous pathogens from ALL surfaces, we are diligent about keeping our air clean. We all wear masks, and keep the door locked. We’ve made so many changes… and reinvent down to the smallest details.

    You can feel secure knowing that, so you can seek treatment for your depression, PTSD, social anxiety, and suicidal thinking symptoms without fear of COVID infection.

    When it seems that the things in life you could always trust seem to fall around you, and the dread of it wears down your ability to try anymore, you might want to call us.

    You might want to discuss your options for getting your resilience back.

    And if you do, we’ll do our best to help you navigate your way through the barrage.

    To find the best you to face the circumstances around you and the stressors you can’t control.

    We look forward to talking with you.

    Lori Calabrese, M.D. is on the front end of the race to stop PTSD in its tracks using IV ketamine treatment.

    To the restoration of your best self,

  • Reach Out for Ketamine… to Get Better… and Make 2020 Your Best Year Yet

    Reach Out for Ketamine… to Get Better… and Make 2020 Your Best Year Yet

    This is the first Monday of the New Year…so how do you start a new year?

    With resolutions? A diet?  Maybe more exercise? Lots of people do. But what about you? What if you don’t have an appetite…?  Might be hard to stick to a diet more than a couple days… and what if you haven’t slept in days…and you’re exhausted… who cares about the new year and any good intentions? When you feel crummy, the beginning of the year seems like just more of the same ol’ misery. Maybe you wonder, why try? You’ve been so depressed, with so much anxiety, and have felt so alone, so vacant, for so looong, it seems futile to try something new…  BUT. What if there really IS an answer that could sweep away your misery and you could finally feel like the best you you’ve ever been…?  I know, you probably think that sounds impossible. But wait a sec…this is the 21st century, my friend. Treatments have improved. Or a better way to put it, there’s now a treatment that’s a game changer. But it won’t come to you.  You’ll have to reach out for ketamine so you can get better now. You’ll have to do something…because this treatment won’t magically show up in your living room. So why not do it now?

    IV Ketamine Treatment – The Game Changer for Psychiatric Disorders

    Of course, I’m talking about the treatment that came out of the woodwork the last decade. The one that started as a trusted anesthesia medicine listed on the World Health Organization (WHO) List of Essential Medicines. The one that’s been so safe for 50 years that it’s been used in surgical settings for people of all ages across the globe, and also in surgical settings for pets of all sizes. 

    Like most exceptional medicines that are designed for sedation and/or pain relief, it’s been abused by people on the street and in the club scene for its dissociative side effects. As a result, it’s sometimes been misunderstood as a result.

    But under psychiatric supervision, it’s nothing less than extraordinary in its effect on people whose disorder has not responded to traditional medications. Which is one of its many endearing charms.

    Why wait any longer? Why not reach out for ketamine now and start this new decade on far better footing..? Stick your neck out and make the call for treatment now because you deserve the chance to live a fulfilling life, free of symptoms that keep your life shackled.

    Ketamine Treatment Relieves a Broad Variety of Disorder Symptoms

    It happened last week, and it shocked me. Someone asked me about the best treatments for depression, anxiety, and PTSD. As I began to talk about treatments, I saw a blank look on his face when I mentioned ketamine infusions. He’d never heard about them…! And I realized that though this medicine is always in my radar, there are countless people who know nothing about what it can do.

    Someone who suffers from unrelenting and severe depression, bipolar depression, PTSD, OCD, social anxiety, substance use disorder, alcohol use disorders – and sometimes eating disorders like Anorexia Nervosa – can achieve remission with IV ketamine treatment.

    IV ketamine treatment can be a bit tepid in relieving symptoms for those with milder cases. But, let me quickly say that when you feel bad, it doesn’t feel mild. And that’s why we have criteria to help us measure the severity of each case.

    Just knowing how severe it is – or not – can guide us in how to treat it. When we see someone who has suffered with symptoms for years in spite of multiple medication trials, in spite of other treatments, who has also been hospitalized for symptoms, and may have attempted suicide multiple times, we realize this patient has suffered severely for a very long time. And patients like this usually experience a dramatic remission after IV ketamine treatment.

    Not always. But usually…

    IV ketamine treatment doesn’t work like this for everyone… sadly, not even for everyone who’s severely ill. But it has a remarkably fast and vigorously thorough effect on a very high percentage of patients… higher than any other office treatment for these disorders.

    And that’s not all.

    Freedom from the Doldrums

    You know how it is with depression that hangs over you…month after month and year after year… even if you have a few days that are a bit better…and you can actually smile some…as soon as someone says something that hits a nerve – you plunge again…back into the pits. It’s like you have nothing to fight with, like a tightrope performer with no net. So even a lighter feeling for a few days is temporary and you know it. You can feel how fragile it is.

    But with IV ketamine treatment, that fragile-ness seems to evaporate. You get offended by the guy at the party who ALWAYS has his foot in his mouth, and it burns you up. But the nosedive you expect floats away, as you think through that guy’s words and realize your peace is too important to jeopardize… and ::::poof!:::: you move on. And it’s forgotten.

    One reason may be the resilience ketamine builds. You’re able to adapt and quickly recover from the offenses that happen and you have the power to just snap back and be ok. It’s amazing…in fact, it’s priceless.

    So, reaching out may require that you talk to yourself. Maybe you’ll need to “psych yourself up,” but when you do whatever you need to do, and reach out for ketamine treatment, you’ll find yourself surprised at all that happens for you.

    Neuroplasticity + Psychotherapy = Peace & Joy in life

    Then, to point out yet another talent of this treatment, researchers and therapists have learned that because of the neuroplasticity ketamine creates in your brain circuitry, psychotherapy can be much more effective about 24 hours after an infusion.

    At Innovative Psychiatry, we love working with your psychiatrist and therapist to help make that benefit available to you with scheduled infusions coordinated with your therapy appointment 24 hours later.

    But, the fact is, that none of this can be available to you unless you reach out. It requires that you call us. Let us coordinate with your healthcare team.

    You’re probably thinking, How Can I Do THAT?  I Can’t Seem to Get Out of Bed??!!

    And there’s the rub.

    There is more help available for your tormentous symptoms than has ever been seen by your parents or grandparents or great grandparents… 

    But the biggest obstacle between you and having a healthy, balanced, rewarding life is actually a characteristic of your illness. To get to that rewarding life (you may have all but given up on,) you have to do something you may not think you can do. And here it is…

    PUSH through.

    …and make the call.

    And you know how you can do that..? 

    By grabbing on to HOPE. 

    The drowning man has to take hold of the rope. If he’s passive and tries nothing, he’ll drown.

    The mountain climber who loses his footing and careens over the cliff has to reach out and GRAB – something. A rock…a rope…a bush…?

    Once you reach out, it gets easier. We step in. You’ll still have to show up, but each time it will probably get easier and easier. And as ketamine goes to work in your brain cells – the systems and circuits and structures – surging hope and strength and resilience will billow from within you.  

    It doesn’t happen all at once the very first minute…

    Maybe it just trickles at first, but then the trickles become waves, and the joy and initiative surges, and you find you’re CAPABLE of doing things you want to do, that you’d all but forgotten about.

    For some it’s during the first infusion…for some it’s after the second one. For others it’s after the third… and in some cases it’s even after the fourth.

    Your family may notice the changes in you before you do. You may show unexpected initiative before you FEEL all that much better. (Miranda, are you actually folding clothes? Unbelievable!)

    Reach Out for Ketamine!

    More than likely, you’ve heard of ketamine treatment. Maybe you dismissed it, because you’ve heard of it as “Special K” or thought it was just a horse tranquilizer. You think it all sounds bizarre, or the creepy kind of experimental treatment that happens in somebody’s garage.

    If so, maybe it’s time you do your own homework? The National Institute of Health funds extensive research about ketamine treatment because it’s so extraordinary.

    Esteemed neuroscience researchers around the world submit their research to peer-reviewed medical journals. Conferences of psychiatrists, neurologists, neuroscientists, and physicians in other fields are hosted in major cities like Oxford (UK), NYC, Austin, San Francisco, and more. And this has been going on for years.

    IV ketamine treatment is the most effective medicine for psychiatric disorders we’ve ever seen. It’s not FDA approved because no one wants to pay for FDA trials if they can’t make a profit off a patent. And..ketamine is too old…there’s no patent to be had.

    So, we lobby for it to be covered by insurance companies, anyway. And until then, you have to pay for this treatment out-of-pocket. However, there is medical financing available everywhere. And your resurrected life, your ability to pursue your dreams, build strong, healthy relationships, and enjoy your hobbies on your terms…isn’t all that worth a small loan?  To be able to live again?

    Reach Out for Ketamine and Get Better for 2020

    This is a new year, and a new decade. Right now, this week, is the perfect time to turn the tables on misery, take hold of your hope, and reach out to get better.

    Tell yourself that it’s your turn to get better. And that you’re not going to give in to excuses. That you want to live better, healthier, and more balanced. That you want your life to BE better. Give Hope the benefit of the doubt.

    This step can turn your entire life around for the better. But you’re the one who has to take it.

    Because it’s not right for everyone. We need to be sure you’re a candidate. And we’ll evaluate that first. 

    So…you may say, What if it doesn’t work for me?

    This young woman chose to reach out for ketamine and it changed everything about her life.

    Well…we say, What if it does??

    The likelihood it will transform your life is much stronger than the likelihood it won’t work for you.  Much stronger.

    Do you really want another decade to crawl by while you’re trapped in the misery and despair of this disorder?

    Reach out for Hope and for a better life in 2020 and beyond. 

    We’ll walk you through the process, answer your questions, and make it as easy for you as we possibly can. We’re here waiting for you to call us because we want to see you enjoying a full life.

    Reach out for ketamine and grab onto HOPE.

    Lori Calabrese, M.D. is on the front end of the race to stop PTSD in its tracks using IV ketamine treatment.

    To the restoration of your best self,

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