As businesses and services begin to slowly, cautiously open back up, we have questions.
Is it safe to be around others? Experts say social distancing is still the ticket, as well as masks and gloves and hand washing. Yes, yes, and yes. And what if you’ve got something gripping you in the midst of this pandemic that just makes everything so much more difficult to control? We’re going to talk about how ketamine can stun PTSD through this pandemic — and make it let go of its grip.
Tom could use a little of that. For sure. He found managing his outlook, frame of mind, and overall health…. challenging.
Tom had been isolated for months. The COVID-19 lockdown was doing a number on him. It had really cramped his style, and being cooped up for so long made him feel like exploding. He’d undergone treatment for PTSD, but even though he’d seen improvement, he had to be careful about his frame of mind and exercise and nurture peace in his life.
After two tours in Afghanistan, he had some trauma and scars. Headaches, nightmares, chronic pain, a little hearing loss. He’d lost some good buddies. And then later, he lost his emotional and mental balance.
For years, the scenes from those six years crashed into his awareness with a blast that was so real, he reacted to it as though he was there all over again. And while the scene was exploding around him, triggered when he least expected by the littlest things, his body reacted, again and again, just like it did the first time. When it was real.
He’d hit the floor, smelling fear, seeing enemy fire around him. And sometimes he’d crawl to his gun safe and scrabble for the gun, on high alert. Ready. Waiting.
His wife eventually was so frightened by his reactions when he was terrified and reacting to his terrors that she finally just moved out with the kids. And he was left alone.
Have you ever been terrified … and then abandoned by the one person you trusted would always have your back?
Imagine how that could magnify the terror!
If only he’d known that ketamine can stun PTSD…and transform his nightmare into joy.
Tom felt like he’d tried everything. A variety of treatments and programs. Doctors, therapists, meds, you name it. In some cases, he’d see a little improvement, but even that turned out to be temporary. The discouragement choked him. Despondency flooded him. He didn’t know how he could go on.
He had said he wouldn’t go through any more treatment unless the person offering it had seen combat. It didn’t seem to him that anyone could imagine what this was like. And he didn’t want to keep wasting his time.
Then he started drinking again. Tom had been sober for years…but his desperation, his loneliness, and the humiliation he felt by his behavior was sometimes just too much to bear. He had to find some relief.
He wondered…maybe if he got just a little drunk, for just a little while, it would give him some relief. It would quell these horrid episodes.
Tom was alone.
Locked up in his house.
And living through terrors.
He felt helpless.
And angry.
He signed up for an online alcohol recovery group, hoping it might help him get a grip. They met 3 times a week, and he felt like maybe it would help… but the jury was still out.
Then one afternoon, the conversation turned and seemed to suck him right in. Some of the members were talking about PTSD.
Finally, something relevant!!!
And a young woman spoke about her pain, and her quest for freedom, as well as her determination to stop hiding her pain behind alcohol.
She’d been sexually assaulted in a parking garage at night. A stranger who came out of nowhere.
She described her own night terrors.
And he could see that she had lived in her own type of combat. And he ached for her.
A New Solution Emerged
Later, as some of the more involved members continued their online discussion, a middle-aged guy, who said he’d also served in Afghanistan, mentioned a treatment he’d had that transformed him. Wiped out his PTSD symptoms. That the PTSD that had all but destroyed him seemed to be gone…he wasn’t sure….but he had not had PTSD symptoms for 17 months. He had tried ketamine treatment.
Blew his hair back.
He said he and his wife were back together, and the kids were learning they could relax around him again. His own self respect was getting stronger as he worked his way through the daily challenges of life.
He also said that the treatment had seriously helped him stay sober. It was like the cherry on top of the sundae.
Tom and the young woman both wanted to know about the treatment that had made such a dramatic difference for him.
“IV ketamine treatment,” he said. “I read about it, checked some studies I found online, talked to some people I found who’d gone for it, and realized I needed to give myself a chance. I wanted to see if I could get better.”
He was quick to add, “They tell you that not everyone benefits from this treatment, so be prepared. It might not work. But the percentage of people who felt it worked was extremely high, from my point of view. Ketamine can stun PTSD and it did for me.”
Tom realized this was his chance.
Ok, so it doesn’t work for everyone. But if this treatment worked so well for this guy, it might do just as well for me, he thought. He’d lost his family, and his job was shaky. He had to try.
So he made the call.
Sometimes Solutions Emerge Unexpectedly – For Example: Ketamine Can Stun PTSD
That’s Tom. He lived his life responsibly and with a heart of service when he signed up for the Marines. And he served bravely and well. But it cost him his family and a rewarding life because of PTSD. It cost his peace of mind and his self respect. He felt helpless and weak because of his episodes of terror. Man, did he hate feeling weak.
Tom desperately needed a solution… especially after months in lockdown during the pandemic. All that had just intensified the pressure and intensity of those earth-shattering attacks.
After so much loss, and so many failures from treatments he sought, Tom was desperate, and beginning to consider ending his life.
Even though he didn’t believe in 12 step groups, he tried one anyway to reach out for support in his isolation. And there online, he found good people who cared. But the biggest surprise was the treatment he learned about that had nothing to do with the 12 steps.
His new friends told him about IV ketamine treatment.
More and more evidence shows that glutamate, the excitatory neurotransmitter, goes to work to respond to stress, impacting the formation of traumatic memories and all the pathophysiology of PTSD.
Ketamine treatment works on the mechanisms that create traumatic memories, and can help reform the memory in a way that releases the traumatic aspect of it. By stimulating neuroplasticity, these mechanisms can adapt and help that memory to become more circumstantial rather than traumatic.
And rather than requiring several weeks or months to deliver these trauma reducing benefits, ketamine can work fast — within hours, days, or a week or two.
Ketamine Can Stun PTSD
And loosen its grip.
At Innovative Psychiatry, we provide IV ketamine treatment for people who suffer from PTSD caused by combat, sexual assault, a devastating illness, and more. And we see people with terrible trauma make their way out from underneath their PTSD symptoms, all the time.
It doesn’t take away the fact that the trauma happened. But it can take away the hold that the trauma has on you.
Can you relate to Tom? Has the pandemic imposed isolation that has intensified your symptoms? Do you wish for relief from your episodes that nothing else helped? If so, call us.
We don’t want to imply that ketamine is a cure-all for whatever ails you. That wouldn’t even sound real. And it isn’t effective for everyone. But no other treatment has been so effective for so many who suffer from psychiatric symptoms that nothing else helps.
We’re here constantly working to make sure you get the relief you desperately need.
We want you to achieve full remission. And to enjoy a fulfilling and rewarding life.
Give yourself the opportunity like Tom did.
To the restoration of your best self,
