Lori Calabrese, MD

Tag: Ketamine Treatment for Substance Use Disorder

  • For the Depressed Mom: Ketamine Can Restore Your Joy

    For the Depressed Mom: Ketamine Can Restore Your Joy

    “Motherhood is a choice you make everyday, to put someone else’s happiness and well-being ahead of your own, to teach the hard lessons, to do the right thing even when you’re not sure what the right thing is…and to forgive yourself, over and over again, for doing everything wrong.” – Donna Ball, author of At Home on Ladybug Farm

    Let’s talk about moms.

    Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and if you were a mom yesterday, chances are, you’re still a mom today. We could talk about all the idealistic and billowing praises that are bestowed upon moms in greeting cards, but let’s don’t. Let’s talk about what it’s really like to be one. And if you’re a depressed mom, ketamine can restore your hope, your joy, and your stamina to help your children grow. More about that in a bit.

    Motherhood Is a Handful.

    With the best of intentions, you gather your kids together and tell them you’re all going on a camping trip. Together! But….there is so much to be done before you can all load the car. So in the spirit of pitching in and working for the common good, you assign each one a task that will help shorten the prep time.

    Then you focus on your own tasks which include packing food for meals. While you’re busy in the kitchen, you hear an unusual noise.

    Closer inspection reveals that your 10 year-old son is in the bathroom (which he was supposed to be cleaning) after putting his sleeping bag  by the front door, and has filled the sink with water.

    He’s floating a little boat on the water with his pet hamster in the boat which immediately jumps out of the boat, over to the counter and jumps down under the cabinet and disappears.

    Oh dear.  

    Now there’s a loose rodent in the house. Aaaarrrgghhhhh!!

    Feel your resilience waning..? If you find out you’re a depressed mom, ketamine can restore. Keep reading…

    Your son, who got bored cleaning the bathroom, had gotten distracted with his hamster. Now how to find the hamster?

    Kids are just kids. Full of surprises. It takes a sense of humor…

    When It Rains It Pours

    Meanwhile, you stop in the boys’ room and find your 7 year-old, who was supposed to clean his room after delivering his sleeping bag to the front door,  sitting among a pile of Little Golden books. Reading. (What joy!) But apparently he had to go through the entire bookshelf of 43 Little Golden  books to find the one he wanted to read. His floor is covered with books he’s tossed.

    After sternly instructing him to pick up all his books PRONTO! you realize you better check on your 21 month-old daughter. Distractions can pile up when you’re focusing on packing 3 meals a day for 4 days and you have a houseful of active children…you didn’t notice she wandered off.

    Turns out she’s in your bedroom. At first sight, you panic. Is that blood?  Her face is covered! What happened?? 

    Upon closer inspection after snatching her up in your arms, you see that it’s not blood. It’s lipstick. Her face is so covered with the stain of it, you know she’ll be raw by the time you get it even partially off.

    Then you look at your feet.  Your favorite white leather summer bag, and your butter soft cream-colored pumps, have both been painted with lipstick to match.  

    How thoughtful. Sigh.

    The fact that that was a brand new tube of lipstick is now beside the point.

    Calamities, Crises, and Catastrophes

    Then…sniff, sniff… what is that smell…?

    You head for the kitchen, baby girl on your hip, and the kitchen and living area are in a cloud of smoke…then BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!!!!!    The smoke alarms.

    Run to the stove. OH NO!! The eggs you put on to boil for sandwiches have boiled dry and are burning!!! 

    Move the pan off the burner. Turn off the burner. Open windows. Gather kids and go outside for fresh air.

    You collapse into a lawn chair and watch the kids playing happily in the yard. The classic comic escapades of Calvin and Hobbes comes to mind…

    Maybe you’ll just get chicken at the drive-through…?

    Add to all of this the challenges of quarantine in a global pandemic!  There aren’t words. But you do what you have to do, don’t you?

    Motherhood is providing a listening ear, helping with Cub Scouts and Brownies, fighting fevers in the wee hours, encouraging the discouraged, instilling hope, tutoring when homework overwhelms, instructing, providing structure, instilling values, creating celebrations, stretching the budget, inspiring creativity, keeping idle hands occupied, teaching self-reliance, comforting broken hearts, and so much more.

    And this is when you’re healthy, resilient, and stable.

    But what about when you’re not?

    What about when anxiety makes it impossible for you to participate in sports with your child, or Cub Scouts, Brownies, or Blue Birds? 

    The sheer dread you feel about leaving the house to take your child to these activities and interact with the parents makes it so difficult that you may make it a time or two, but eventually the energy required to push through all that dread and fear leads to missing meetings and practices…if not abandoning it altogether.

    To the Depressed Mom: Ketamine Can Restore Your Hope

    Then there’s the guilt you feel for failing to give your child every advantage.

    What about when PTSD creates such traumatic responses in you that you just can’t leave the house, and find your reactions are terrorizing your children…but you can’t make it stop..?  

    If you’re a mom with PTSD…or a depressed mom… ketamine can restore your resilience and your hope.

    A simple pat on the back when you attend a gathering, or a loud noise in the kitchen…even the deep voice of a stranger… can send you into such terror, sweating, and reactions that, you know, you just feel safer at home.

    Or when you just can’t get out of bed… so you get the children to watch TV, because you know at least they’re safe, but it nags at you because you know this isn’t a healthy, carefree way to spend childhood.

    But it’s the best you can do. 

    If you struggle with symptoms like these, and they interfere with the mom you want to be…and if the medicines prescribed by your doctor haven’t helped…  there’s hope.

    When you’re a depressed mom, ketamine can restore your joy.

    Ketamine treatment consists of 6 infusions, give or take, over the course of 2-3 weeks. It’s, hands down, the most effective, innovative treatment for severe depression, social anxiety, PTSD, bipolar depression, and alcohol use disorder.

    If you’ve been seeing your doctor and the medicines she’s prescribed have worked to reduce your symptoms, then you’re all set. 

    But did you know that at least a third of people who have these symptoms are not helped at all by prescription medicines?

    That’s where ketamine treatment comes in. It works in the brain in ways these prescribed medications don’t. And its remarkable, even extraordinary, and robust relief is transformative for most of those who receive it.

    Ketamine works in multiple ways and in multiple areas in the brain. And it’s fast. So, instead of having to wait weeks or months for a prescription to help you feel better, with ketamine treatment you can feel better in hours or days.

    Ketamine turns on mRNA so it will turn on DNA to turboboost BDNF — brain derived neurotrophic factor — that works like a rich compost to trigger the rapid and prolific growth of dendrites and dendritic spines in the neurons in your brain.

    This multiplies the synapse connections fast to send signals across your brain, and wake up your emotions. Creativity blooms, quick thinking, solid decision making, initiative, motivation, hope…and joy all come to life and transform your outlook and your productivity.

    And you can love life again. 

    You Don’t Have to Endure Suicidal Thoughts…You Really Don’t

    In addition, if you’ve been plagued by suicidal thoughts, it can stop those thoughts in a few hours. Then you can be free to invest in restoring your life, rebuilding your thoughts and infrastructure, and restructuring and strengthening your relationships.

    It may sound too good to be true…but if you’re a depressed mom, ketamine can restore the real you, the person who has dreams for yourself and your children, and wants to have the resilience to help them fulfill their dreams.

    At Innovative Psychiatry, we enjoy the privilege of watching people walk out with fresh joy and hope every week.

    If you’ve struggled with the kinds of symptoms we’ve talked about here, and medicines haven’t helped, call us.

    We’re here to help you live well again, to find your joy in life again.

    Ketamine doesn’t do this for every single person who receives it –of course not!– because there isn’t any medicine or treatment that helps everyone. But it does amazing things for most. There’s no other treatment currently available that brings relief and restoration so quickly for so many who are so symptomatic — in the privacy of a beautiful office, beginning that afternoon . . .

    Discouraged, Depressed Mom? Ketamine Can Restore Your Resilience

    You can sing again, experience joy welling up inside you, laugh with your children, and all the things you have wished you could do.

    Give yourself the opportunity to feel truly better. Spend this year enjoying your life and your family. We can help you get there.

    To the blooming of your best self, 

    signature of Lori Calabrese, M.D.

    Lori Calabrese, M.D.

  • Suicidal Risk Triggered by Stressors in the Covid-19 Crisis

    Suicidal Risk Triggered by Stressors in the Covid-19 Crisis

    Russell paced back and forth by the window. 

    The gray, rainy morning had finally broken and sunshine peeked through the clouds as they parted. Patches of clear blue were spreading across the sky. It seemed to Russell this change in the weather should brighten his thoughts, but they didn’t. He guessed it would take something much more powerful than a weather change to alter his outlook. He thought about how dark he felt…and wondered if there was suicidal risk triggered by stressors that affected people right now.

    Russell was losing his belief in living. This wasn’t the first time he’d felt such futility in the daily endurance exercise that characterized his life. He’d felt hopeless before — but with time, a new job, and better pay, he’d lightened up and everything began to make sense again. 

    Then, he met someone and felt like he was basically sitting on top of the world. He hoped he could keep his life working so well. The idea that joy would become commonplace for him… that would be so great.

    The job was such a good fit. And he seemed to learn it quickly. His skills improved every week and every month… then he was promoted. His boss would pat him on the back…tell him to keep up the good work and all that.

    He believed he had a real future in this job…and a career in the making.

    Jenna came along, and maybe it’s because he was feeling so much better, or maybe it was because she was so amazing…but it was easy to talk to her, and so rewarding to listen. It wasn’t long until they were spending lots of time together.

    Then, the coronavirus crisis took over the world. There was no place to escape to…it had covered the entire globe!  Nowhere was safe.

    Settling Into a New Normal in a Global Crisis

    He was assigned to work from home. That was ok. Not great. It wasn’t easy to do as well, or be as creative, under these circumstances. But he was grateful for the paycheck. Surely this was a temporary setback.

    Next thing he knew, however, the governor ordered a lockdown. HIs company laid off thousands of people. And he was included in the second round of cutbacks. 

    So, now he’s home, he has no job, and no way to get one.  Russell made a point to watch the statistics around the world to see if the tide was turning yet. He was lonely, and he missed Jenna. Even though it helped to talk on the phone or online. There were plenty of apps to connect with her. But it wasn’t the same.

    The Crisis Hits Close to Home: Fighting Panic

    One day, she sent him a text. “Russell, my sister Beth tested positive for the coronavirus today. She’s self-quarantined in her apartment. I’m so worried. And my mom is beside herself.”

    Russell tried to be understanding…this was terrifying. He wondered when Jenna last saw her sister.  When her mother had last seen Beth. He wondered if either of them had been exposed.

    This made it all seem so much more real. More threatening, to himself and everyone he cared about.

    He felt horrifically helpless. So he paced. He washed his hands for good measure. Then paced more.

    Darn!  It’s so hard to feel useless like this!! He checked on Jenna often, and always remembered to ask about Beth’s condition.

    Finally, it turned out that Beth was being transported to the hospital. She was struggling to breathe at all. 

    Russell felt his throat closing. He fought panic.

    Jenna was devastated about her sister’s decline. She said their mom was in a heap. Neither Jenna nor her mom could be at the hospital with Beth.  

    Weeks were going by. 

    How could you stand with someone if you couldn’t be near them?  How do you do it all verbally?  He feared his relationship with Jenna was disintegrating like his job had. But he knew her primary concern was her sister, and he was sure worried about her, too.  

    Russell had never been the best communicator. In times of difficulty it was hard to find the words. He’d always made up for it with effort. Showing his support with hugs, helping out with food, etc.

    He had no idea how to do that from miles away.

    He feared his relationship with Jenna was disintegrating like his job had. But he knew her primary concern was her sister, and he was sure worried about her too.  

    And felt so helpless.

    When he wasn’t talking or texting with Jenna, he was applying for jobs online. It seemed he had surely applied for hundreds of them by now. But nothing. No responses to his applications. He could only imagine the number of applicants competing for each job. He was sure it was more than ever before in his life.

    Still he kept applying. 

    It was good to stay busy, and at the same time, it felt so futile. 

    Weeks turned into months, and he finally applied for unemployment. Sickening.

    How could everything be so good, then take a 90-degree turn straight into the toilet??

    As if it all wasn’t enough, he heard from Jenna about her sister. Beth, who’d been in the ICU on a ventilator, finally died. They had thought she was improving…thought she would come off the ventilator soon… then suddenly, she deteriorated. And died.

    Russell was stunned. Speechless.

    Jenna was heartbroken. Blind with grief. He tried so hard to comfort her.  To listen. But there was nothing he could say to relieve her pain.

    He couldn’t go to her, hold her, take her out to dinner so she could vent. And her mom was grief stricken and seemed to expect Jenna to comfort her. 

    He couldn’t think. It was as if the entire world was self-destructing around him. His head was spinning.

    Profound Grief Causes Its Own Isolation

    Jenna seemed to just be gutted…depleted…with no more to give to anyone.

    She withdrew after that. She and her mom could not have a funeral for Beth. As the days went on, they both seemed more and more traumatized by the circumstances surrounding Beth’s death.

    Russell became less and less vital to their grief, it seemed. If they needed his support, he didn’t know how to give it. He felt so useless. So powerless. Utterly flabbergasted that life had collapsed as it had in a couple short months.

    The grief he felt for Jenna’s loss eroded his foundations. His resilience. The energy seemed to drain out of him. His hope disappeared.

    He’d been in his house for 2 months, and the strain, disappointment, disillusionment, loss, confusion, and anxiety of his circumstances became worse and worse until they were unbearable.

    He saw no reason to go on. He looked at the future through his dark perspective, and it looked hopeless.

    Even after the lockdown was lifted, he still wouldn’t have a job, right along with millions of other people. He would be evicted from his apartment, and lose his car. 

    The melancholy of the past swelled until he was drowning in it. Russell just didn’t have the energy to go on.  He didn’t believe he was strong enough to face any more…

    He wanted to die. Every hope… every purpose… for living was gone. He couldn’t see how he could go on…

    Russell’s Not Alone: So Many Fight Despair in Times Like This

    The crisis created by this COVID-19 coronavirus is creating stressors and fears that go far beyond the risk of the viral illness. And as our friend Russell identified, there is no where to escape to. 

    Hundreds of thousands of people feel the same feelings and are thinking the same thoughts. But in each case, the situation is not necessarily as it seems.

    Unfortunately, it is what seems to be true that people all too often act upon. And suicidal risk triggered by stressors in this crisis rises higher and higher.

    However — and this is important — thinking about suicide is not logical thinking, even though it may seem to be at the time. Suicidal thoughts are symptoms of a disordered mind.

    Suicidal Risk Triggered by Stressors in This COVID-19 Crisis

    The stress of isolation, financial difficulties and strain, the uncertainties about income in the future, the emotional pressure of being separated from those you care about and who care about you, combined with a host of feelings that come out of nowhere in a time like this… can push you to the point of desperation.

    And…if you’ve struggled with psychiatric symptoms in the past, these elements can put you at higher risk.

    But There Are Ways to Find Relief

    However, as overwhelming as circumstances appear, they’re still temporary. They will change. Life will be restored. But that can be hard to grasp if the thoughts are swirling and swirling around inside your head.

    Meanwhile, you can seek support from friends and family online, see their faces and vent, laugh, and cry together.

    You can reach out for counseling through telemedicine. And then consider treatment.

    Again, suicidal thinking is a symptom of a disordered mind.

    If you find yourself thinking those thoughts, reach out for help. The circumstances of your life are not normal right now. And people everywhere are feeling similar feelings, as well as desperation, cooped up in their homes.

    Suicidal Risk Triggered by Stressors Like Grief, Financial Uncertainty, and Fears of All Kinds… Can Be Lowered With Treatment

    At Innovative Psychiatry, we’re treating people every week with ketamine treatment provided with carefully planned safety protocols.

    Ketamine treatment is one of the most effective treatments for severe depression, bipolar depression, PTSD, social anxiety, and suicidal thoughts we know of. It also can relieve substance abuse and alcohol abuse.

    As it goes to work restoring the synapses in your brain, proliferating connections between nerve cells to explode communication through your brain, it also can restore your motivation, your creativity, and your joy.

    As a result, resilience replaces listlessness, energy replaces lethargy, and hope replaces despair.

    In spite of how it all seems to you right now, that reality you’re experiencing is based on temporary circumstances… In the challenges ahead, how much better to have the energy and hope you need to conquer and create a reality that fulfills you?

    Suicidal risk triggered by stressors of the covid crisis can be reduced by ketamine treatment.

    There is a future. And you’re in it.

    You can reduce the suicidal risk triggered by stressors in your life by reaching out for ketamine treatment. If you’re experiencing some of the things Russell is, call us.

    Give yourself, and those who love you, the benefit of treatment that can give you a new lease on life. You can be amazed at how the direction of your thinking transforms.

    There is life beyond this COVID-19 crisis. And you’re in it …with a bright future.

    To the resilience of your best self,

  • Coping with Anticipatory Grief in the Covid-19 Crisis

    Coping with Anticipatory Grief in the Covid-19 Crisis

    Jocelyn and her friends missed their interaction on Friday nights after a week of work.

    They’d meet somewhere and have dinner and talk about work, their plans for the weekend, the people they knew, and their hopes for the future. But since the COVID-19 crisis, they worked from home and Friday was just another day.  So they decided to have a meet-up online. Jack set up a zoom meeting so they could all see each other, and it commenced Friday night at 7pm like they’d always done before. They ate their dinner in front of their laptops and chatted about this and that, vented about isolation, about technical problems when all work had to take place online, and family frustrations. And they talked about the horrid emotions they felt. The idea that millions were expected to get sick and die. Scott, a therapist, mentioned ways of coping with anticipatory grief. Someone else said, “Wha..??” Jack said, “What the heck is anticipatory grief??”

    Scott went on to explain that horrid feeling they all described, the dread they felt about all the sickness and death, the fear that their friends or family members would likely be among the dead…that this all falls under the category of anticipatory grief: Grieving about losses that haven’t happened yet, but might. 

    He also said that when you read all the articles that come out every day about the potential damage the COVID-19 virus can do, that dread increases day by day. Then you hear about someone’s co-worker or family member who tested positive for the virus, it gets a bit closer to home, and your dread and fear of loss increases.

    When Fear and Grief Hit Home

    Next, you get word that your own relative or co-worker dies… or the relative or coworker of someone close to you dies, then you feel the loss up close.  It becomes your own loss.  And it hangs on you, weighing you down, long after…because it goes so deep. 

    Celia hesitated, then spoke up. “My aunt died. It’s been so sad I haven’t wanted to talk about it. But she lives in New York City, and tested positive. She tried to recover at home…then her breathing got really bad one night and they had to take her to the ER. She was in the ICU with a ventilator for 17 days. Just about the time she seemed to be getting better, she suddenly got bad again…and died that day.”

    Everyone told Celia how sorry they were. How terrible it was to lose someone you love over a virus.

    Nick spoke up. He had a sadness about him most of them had noticed.  He said, “ A friend of our family…someone I grew up with…started feeling bad, and called the doctor. The doctor told her to go for a test at a drive through testing center. She tested positive and her cough was so intense, her breathing so bad, they admitted her to the hospital, too. Within 3 days she was gone.  She was my age! It’s so hard to make sense of it.

    “I hear about people protesting the lock down…or throwing COVID parties…and I want to scream. So many people don’t get it. I wondered myself in the beginning. But as I saw the numbers increase around the world, I realized this is real. I wish each one of those people who went to one of those parties could see how it feels to lose someone you care about. And who knows who’s next?? It could be one of us!”

    Celia jumped in and said, “Yes…or to see what’s it like to be sick with this. Sure there are people who aren’t having symptoms, but talk to the ones who are! My friend got sick and had to let someone take care of her child while she convalesced.  She said it was the worst thing she ever experienced.”

    Scott then pointed out how THIS is anticipatory grief. Realizing that someone you care about could get sick. Could die. And worrying about it. 

    “And,” he said, “there are things you and I can do to help us get through this.”

    Study: 40% Say Anticipatory Grief Is The Worst

    “A Swedish study,” he went on,” found that no matter how much you grieve before you experience the loss, it doesn’t reduce your grief after the loss really happens. And that 40% of the people studied felt the grief you experience when you anticipate loss is far more stressful than the grief you experience afterward.”

    Jocelyn asked, “If that’s the case, then it sounds as though I’d be much better off waiting until someone dies to grieve, than grieving about everyone in advance. But I do feel fearful…I have anxiety all day and especially at night…On top of that, I’m drinking more than I ever have. Just to try to relax and not think about what could happen.”  

    Scott agreed. “But how do you wait until you have someone’s death to actually grieve??? Coping with anticipatory grief is so much harder than we could have expected!”

    Celia finally blurted out, “My husband is beside himself. He’s so angry, filled with doom and gloom. Constantly rehearsing the latest statistic in illnesses and deaths in every country around the world. His rage is so hard to be around, even though I know it’s just how he’s coping. But it all makes me all the more lonely…

    Symptoms of Anticipatory Grief

    “Ok let’s all look at this, guys…” Scott was talking in a softer voice now. “We have Nick, who’s been so sad, and has lost a lifelong friend, and Celia’s husband who is irritable and furious about what’s happening…and likely struggling with feeling out of control…which he is… and Jocelyn who feels fear, anxiety, and uncertainty… and Celia who’s sad about her aunt, stressed about her husband, and lonely.  
    “You know what?  All of these things are symptoms of anticipatory grief. So what can you do, what can WE do, to cope right now…and get through this?

    Coping With Anticipatory Grief – We Need Each Other

    Nick, Celia, and Jack all said at the same time: “Keep getting together like this!”

    Scott and Jocelyn laughed…and heartily agreed.

    Nick admitted that meeting and talking, opening up and feeling understood were all amazing for him. He could see that spending time together was great medicine.

    So they agreed that the lockdown would no longer interfere with their mutual support. And they would continue their Friday night @ 7 gathering online, until they could meet in person again.

    Grief is a looming and saturating condition for many, if not most, of us during this COVID-19 crisis. Grieving over the death of someone we care about is a form of grief that’s inescapable when we lose someone, no matter the circumstances. 

    But anticipatory grief is another form that can cause anxiety, depression, and overwhelm. In trying to prepare for loss, it magnifies the suffering of loss itself, and can continue to cause more pain months or more after that loss occurs. Right now, news from government and medical experts can ignite enough fear to trigger anticipatory grief. 

    How long will I be out of work?  Will we lose the house?  How will we feed the family?  What if one of us dies?  Who will take care of the children?…And that suffering intensifies the actual suffering from this global crisis. Coping with anticipatory grief includes finding ways to stop the cycle of fear in our thinking.

    Like these friends, fear of what might happen, fear of losing loved ones or other things in life you hold dear, can overwhelm your outlook, and drown your perspective.

    But if you have friends like these, people who care about you and with whom you can discuss your feelings and listen to theirs, you may be able to restore balance to the way you look at life.

    But What if You’re NOT Coping with Anticipatory Grief? And Friends Don’t Help?

    Unfortunately, sometimes talking, listening, and caring isn’t enough. Sometimes you realize you don’t have many friends. Sometimes you need help. If the stressors of life, and of this period of isolation, have worn you down, stripped your resilience, and damaged your hope, then you may need the help of a treatment that can make a real difference in everything for you.

    At Innovative Psychiatry, we know that the COVID-19 crisis, and the enforced isolation that has been necessary because of it, can drain your hope, your energy, and your motivation.

    You may find you’re drinking more than you mean to, or that you’re using other substances and it’s getting out of hand.

    It can make it almost impossible to just keep being brave, and willing, and steadfast. It can make you feel like you’re afloat at sea, all alone, without hope or remedy.

    But as we’ve talked about so many times before, this is caused by the pruning and wearing down of synapses in your brain. That’s what stress does. But ketamine treatment gets your brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (BDNF) going…burgeoning…which works like a rich compost to produce…no — more than that…to PROLIFERATE… the dendrites and dendritic spines that create those synaptic connection between the neurons in your brain.

    And when that happens, your outlook brightens like the sunrise, your thoughts begin to flash through your mind, your creativity starts blooming, and your joy and hope are restored.

    That same dose of ketamine can also help reduce your drinking, and your use of substances.

    With all that going on, believe it or not, you can be resilient whether you’re isolated or not.

    Ketamine Treatment Can Erase Suicidal Thoughts, Too

    That’s the beauty of ketamine treatment. And what’s more? It’s so effective.

    And remember. The kind of discouragement, depression, and fear we’ve been talking about can make some people want to stop living. If you have struggled with those thoughts, if you’re not coping well with anticipatory grief, we want to help. Because ketamine treatment can stop suicidal thoughts in an afternoon.

    This is why we’re open when everything else is closed. Because taking care of you is essential. And that’s what we’re here to do.

    If you’ve struggled with some of the feelings Jocelyn, Nick, Jack, Celia, and Scott were talking about, call us.

    We’re here and still providing ketamine treatment right now with safety protocols to protect you and to protect our staff. Just call us, and we’ll talk you through the process.

    You don’t have to suffer alone. We’re here to help you get through this confusing time, and to help you experience the joy and hope that will see you through.

    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,

  • Resilience During Social Distancing in the Pandemic

    Resilience During Social Distancing in the Pandemic

    “May you have interesting times always…” the asian proverb says.

    Annie's resilience during social distancing helps her to enjoy the moments wherever she is.

    Well, these are interesting times. Some of us might think a little too interesting…!  And I guess most of us are eagerly looking toward the time when we’ll have times that are less interesting and more peaceful and predictable. Who could blame us?  Still, for now, these interesting times require most to be shut-in in the name of social distancing, to “flatten the curve.” And prolonged periods of missing our routines, our friends, our gatherings, and enjoyable habits can really take a toll. Many otherwise healthy people are experiencing anger..even rage…, depression, feelings of anxiety, and grieving over the loss of friends or family members, as well as the loss of what makes life feel “normal.” But it’s actually possible to experience resilience during social distancing, believe it or not.

    Even the basic loss of freedom to do what you want when you want to is devastating for some. And even though we know in our heads that this is temporary, that doesn’t necessarily help as much as you think it should. 

    And while there’s no right or wrong way to feel through this challenging time, there are some things you can do to improve your own resilience.

    For Some, Resilience is Second Nature

    Take Annie, for instance. 

    Annie is a single, middle-aged woman who lives alone with her orange tabby cat. She has always been upbeat, generous, and helpful, while taking care of her responsibilities. The one who bakes cookies as a gift when a new neighbor moves in, pitches in after the garbage collectors come by returning her neighbors’ receptacles to their garage doors, and offers a bright smile to whomever she meets.

    When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, she was dutiful in washing her hands often, and being careful during trips to the grocery store. Then the social distancing order meant she stayed in her house or garden at all times. She was fine for the first few weeks, enjoying contact with her friends and family online.

    Resilience During Social Distancing May Not Be as Easy as Expected

    But, after awhile, she noticed a dark wave of melancholy creeping over her. She was surprised by it, and discouraged. What was the matter with her…? She didn’t object to staying home awhile, to help stop the spread of the virus, and prevent more people getting sick.  

    Why did she feel this way?

    Day after day, the gloom grew darker, and more overwhelming. Then she even found it was hard to get out of bed.  

    Why??

    Where was this coming from???

    She tried to fight it, to drag herself out of bed, clean and disinfect the house, and sweep the porch and sidewalk. She tried to pull weeds from her flowerbeds…but after 2 or 3 weeds, she just lost interest. And went back to bed with a book.

    For a week, she forced herself to be productive, hoping this weight that was getting heavier would dissolve. 

    Resilience during social distancing helps Annie to maintain hope.
    Eventually, she stopped sleeping. Laying in bed in the dark all night long, watching the sun come up then dozing a little while.  Night after night. She grew more and more tired, and anxiety wound her up till her thoughts raced all night long.

    She had a prescription the doctor had given her for sleep in case she needed it about 6 months ago. So she took the prescribed dosage, and it made no difference. All night long — wide awake.

    Who would have thought that the lack of resilience during social distancing could interfere with sleep?

    Finally, she decided to stop fighting it. She could do nothing about the social distancing, or about the weight of gloom. But she could just take the time to take care of herself and see what happened.

    So Annie gave some thought to her dietary habits. For one thing, she decided to be careful to eat what was good for her, as she had avocados, walnuts, salmon, and chicken from her last trip to the store. She stayed away from the  chips and cookies in the cabinet and tried to eat foods that actually benefitted her brain and body.

    And she gave herself the next week off. No cleaning or gardening unless she wanted to. Why not?? She was home every day anyway.

    It was an experiment, and the world wouldn’t end if she didn’t clean for a week. She hoped that by taking pressure off, and taking care of herself, resilience during social distancing would become strong again.

    Since news of the pandemic began, Annie had searched the internet throughout the days looking for information about hospital capacities, testing availability, and masks and gloves up till now. So she decided to stay off the internet for the coming week, too.

    “They’ll have to figure it out without me I guess…” and she laughed to herself at the absurdity.

    And she chose books to read that had hope in their message. Fiction with happy endings, non-fiction with a message of hope. About that time, a trusted friend sent her an email to see how she was doing. 

    It seemed like a good idea to get some of this off her chest. So she told her friend how she’d been feeling, and how baffling it was.

    A Friend Can Divide the Burden

    Her friend, Carrie, was so understanding. Carrie said, “Annie!  You’re not alone! I’ve been having some bad days, too. I think lots of people have. When you look on facebook, it’s everywhere!”

    Resilience during social distancing is important for Carrie.

    Carrie went on, “Some people are angry, others are whining and complaining, others are criticizing the government or other countries or whoever they can find to blame. I think that these changes, along with worry about whether we will get it, or someone we love will die, along with the uncomfortable reality that we’re out of control, just takes a greater toll than we realize. I think we all need to be patient with ourselves. This pandemic is going to end. It’s not permanent.”

    Nothing Carrie said was a surprise, but somehow talking about all this, and hearing her support, seemed to help a little.

    When Resilience is Natural for You, It’s Easier to Restore

    So Annie embarked on her “week off” and just did what she felt like doing and what she enjoyed. She read books, relaxed, drank coffee in the mornings, and San Pellegrino at night with her healthy foods. 

    After 3 days of this, Annie woke up and realized she had slept all night. That was a breakthrough. The next day she went for a walk on her street. 

    Then, the next day, she worked in her flowerbed, and pulled out weeds and turned the soil. Her heart was getting lighter, she could tell. A few days later, she was ready to clean her house, a little at a time. Most importantly, she sensed hope emerging inside her again. A little exercise, reduced pressure, good food, and sunshine…as well as avoiding depressing news sources …and Annie was almost as good as new.

    Resilience during social distancing helps Annie find productive ways to enjoy each day.

    You may find that Annie’s remedy can help you, too. It’s helped lots of people going through these “interesting” times.

    When You Aren’t Naturally Resilient, There’s Still Hope…

    But, if you’ve been depressed, anxious, overwhelmed since long before the pandemic began, Annie’s remedy may not be strong enough to make the difference you need. And if that’s the case, don’t worry. 

    There’s no shame in a condition that saps your energy and darkens your outlook. It just might mean that you need treatment to help you find the hope Annie did.

    Because hope is something every human needs to live well.  And resilience is a product of hope. You need both.

    Ketamine Treatment Restores Resilience

    We have a treatment that can restore hope, joy, and resilience for you if you’ve lost them.  It’s not a temporary or artificial “fix” like some people seek in shadowy places. Ketamine treatment goes into your brain cells and stimulates the growth of essential elements that are missing.

    Things like brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that proliferates the production of synaptic connections that brighten the communication of thoughts and creative signals in your brain.

    It’s more like ketamine sets your brain cells in optimum working condition, like they should be. 

    And when that happens, your mind can function to provide you with a sense of wellbeing, so you feel hopeful, joyful, and resilient.

    At Innovative Psychiatry, we’re an essential service in this crisis, present and ready with a full safety protocol for treating patients who need to be treated during this difficult and challenging time of social distancing. 

    The coronavirus hasn’t reduced the need for treatment of depression, PTSD, anxiety, suicidal thinking, and other conditions, but has actually increased it. And we’re here to help you get through this uncertain time with treatment that can reduces, or even eradicate your symptoms.

    Resilience during social distancing due to the pandemic is important, and can be restored in you.

    Resilience during social distancing helps you find joy in the midst of the pandemic.

    We understand the difficulty of social distancing, of feeling isolated, and of coping with symptoms that traditional medicines aren’t helping. 

    If you believe ketamine treatment can help you, call us.

    We’ll talk about whether ketamine treatment might be a good fit for you and talk you through the process of treatment.

    There really is a way to function and feel up for the challenges of life during this time. You really can have joy again, and 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,

  • When You’re Tormented by Fear, PTSD, and Panic in Isolation

    When You’re Tormented by Fear, PTSD, and Panic in Isolation

    Shannon awoke, looked around the room hoping the new day would reveal it had all been a nightmare, and that life was back to normal.

    But when she saw the the shattered mirror – cracks spreading out from a broken center – she remembered hitting it with her fist last night and realized nothing had changed. She looked at her hand…to  see if it was cut. It was no surprise to see the cuts on the heel of her hand, the dried blood. It looked like the damage was minor and it would heal on its own. Why do fear, PTSD, and panic strike so hard at night?

    The nights were hard.

    Stay Safe, Stay Home the governor had said…

    But for someone like Shannon, these instructions were costly. She understood it was important. But the silence, the darkness, the feeling that the walls were closing in turned her apartment into a house of horrors at times. Those sounds she couldn’t identify that made the hair stand up on the back of her neck and her heart race. 

    She’d grab the 18” long flashlight she kept in bed with her, to defend herself if an intruder broke in. The baseball bat was just under her bed if she needed it.

    Last night she couldn’t see anyone, but the sounds started reverberating around her, and she finally exploded through the house ready to fight. She screamed, she cried, and she finally sank to the floor sobbing.

    She’d wanted to die. She wondered how she could escape her life and her terrifying thoughts.

    The mirror happened at some point during that experience and she wished she had never woken up again. But she did.

    Right now she was calm. Why did she get so wound up by the dark?  

    Fear, PTSD, and Panic Attacks Seem to Get Worse at Night

    All day she tried to manage herself. Her doctor had reminded her to try to avoid news broadcasts and news websites. Just reading about all the evolving changes in the city and country every day was overwhelming and depressing. Her doctor had pointed out that the sheer volume of information was too much for anyone to digest.

    Instead she encouraged Shannon to find people online she could encourage. Or to offer to pick up groceries for people in the apartment  complex who were at greater risk for the COVID-19 virus. 

    She’d said that doing things to help others can give her more peace and good feelings. And can help her stay balanced.

    But it was hard.

    Even though Shannon had followed her doctor’s advice, even interacting with friends on social media was becoming more challenging as more and more people were spewing anger, rage, and blame.

    Sometimes it seemed as though fear attracted fear. And she wondered how to attract optimism, instead.

    Listening to the rants of her friends stirred up her anger, too.  But more than anger was the fear that their fears ignited.

    And when you have a disorder, fear can present its own danger.

    Counting her pills helped her verify she had been taking her meds on schedule. Of all times, this weird time shut in her apartment was not the time to miss her meds.  She needed all the help she could get and she knew it.

    Shannon decided she better request an online meeting with her doctor on the secure server. She thought she better tell her what happened last night.  She didn’t want to.

    It was embarrassing, but she was learning that facing her symptoms in all their “glory” gave the doctor the information needed to make sure her meds were at the best dosage. 

    She’d only been coming clean with her doctor for a couple years. Before that, she’d always tried to protect herself with a clean and respectable image and then everything would fall apart. She guessed she’d learned that her condition wasn’t something she should be ashamed of, but rather a condition with symptoms she and her doctor worked together to manage. 

    It had lifted a load off her to finally accept the condition rather than hide it. She wondered…if she did die here, how long would it be before they found her body…?

    Shannon forced herself to stop thinking that way. She just had to not think like that…but how could she make the thoughts go away?

    The Relief Ketamine Treatment Can Bring

    Next door, Sam woke up after the night of bumping, pounding, broken glass, screaming, and crying that kept him awake last night, wondering how he could face the day. He thought he might have dozed for an hour or two in all.

    One of the hard things about working at home was the desire to crawl back into bed or doze on the couch when he was tired.  

    Nevertheless, he showered, got his coffee, and sat at his computer at 8:30am right on schedule.

    Fear, PTSD, and Panic Attacks Can Affect People Near You, Too

    As his day began, he was distracted thinking about all the noise from next door. It wasn’t the first time. He wondered if the person who lived there was being mistreated by someone or if she was there alone.

    If she was there alone, he sure could understand this social distancing getting to her. It seemed to him that social distancing is great for happy introverts who want to quietly read books or something but it had to be hard for people who draw their energy from spending time with other people.

    As for himself, he was just so relieved that he had as much self control in these circumstances as he did. 

    For years, PTSD had kept him so torn up, so terrified at times, that his wife and children were afraid of him. Being shut in like this would have been really really hard.

    But he was lucky.

    He’d learned about a treatment that helped him find a calm, a feeling of well-being, and  a peace he didn’t know was possible.

    His buddies from Afghanistan had talked about all kinds of special treatments. There were camps people went to that were so expensive, he didn’t have the means to try them.  

    One of his friends came back doing somewhat better, but still had the awful flashbacks at times. A couple others didn’t get much out of it…after all that money.

    There were counseling programs, outpatient medicines, and more.

    But one guy told him about ketamine treatment. And this guy seemed almost well. Hard to believe but he did.  They became good friends and talked more and more often. He said that fear, PTSD, and panic were much more rare now.

    Turned out the guy went for 6 treatments at his psychiatrist’s office… and he just kept feeling more and more normal.

    So Sam looked into it. He found out he could get special financing from a medical loan service, so he went for it.

    That was a year and a half ago, and he was just so glad for his calmer frame of mind during this lockdown. He could only imagine what this period of time would be like otherwise. Fear, PTSD, and panic would have been the fabric of his existence. But…

    By eating healthy, working out in his living room over lunch hour, and looking for ways to help people around him, he felt a bit more like a hero to some of the older people in his complex, and less like someone who came home from the war broken. 

    He did attend an online meeting for people with PTSD once a week,  and tried to apply everything the therapist suggested. But he also felt like he had things he could contribute, too. This treatment almost seemed to increase his insight into the trauma he experienced, so the more meetings he attended, the less victimized he felt.

    Sam wished he could help the girl next door.  He wished he had something to offer. He needed to think about that more. Maybe he could come up with something to cheer her up without having actual contact with her.

    He felt so privileged to be living this well. It was as if he’d been to hell and back…and he just wanted to give something somehow to those who hadn’t found the freedom he had.

    Weathering The Coronavirus Crisis

    As you get through the days in your home, you look around you, and there are people in all the other homes and apartments you see. Some are coping fine, though they may be getting cabin fever. Others are working hard, with some tension building as they work because of the conditions in the world.

    But some are suffering. Fear, PTSD, and panic attacks along with severe depression threaten the health and wellbeing and sometimes the lives of some. From ailments that make life alone at home a lot harder. And those whose symptoms are intensified by the isolation they feel may be suffering more than you can imagine.

    Here at Innovative Psychiatry, we’re seeing patients every day.  Our psychopharmacology patients we see by telemedicine. It’s important for all of us to avoid face to face contact, but it’s also important to take care of our patients.

    And those patients who need ketamine treatment? We’re carefully treating you here at the office. Using a safety protocol that protects you, and protects us, too.

    We’ll screen you for exposure to COVID-19 to protect your safety and ours, as well.

    Ketamine treatment can help ease your symptoms, improving the neuroplasticity in your brain cells, so you can change the way you see things, and respond to them.

    And …often even separately from your symptom improvement, it can erase suicidal thoughts in a few hours. If you’re isolated, and the suicidal thoughts have become overwhelming, call us.

    And if you suffer with PTSD, severe depression, severe bipolar depression, with symptoms that medication doesn’t relieve, schedule a consult to see if ketamine treatment could be right for you.

    For suicidal thoughts, you’ll be amazed at what ketamine treatment can do to give you peace from those.

    Stay Safe, Stay Home. But if you find it too hard to get through the days and nights right now, and if the terror and despair overwhelm you, call us.

    We’re here to help you achieve a healthier, more balanced frame of mind to see you through the current crisis and beyond.

    You can get through this, with help. We’re all in it together.

    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,

  • Building Infrastructure: Love Heals – and Kindness Matters – as You Make a Difference in This World

    Building Infrastructure: Love Heals – and Kindness Matters – as You Make a Difference in This World

    Building infrastructure: love heals and kindness matters.

    Live your life in a way that creates inspiration – and leave a legacy of restoration in your wake.

    We’ve been talking about how ketamine treatment can help you reach remission, and how your frame of mind, attitude, and the way you react to frustration and hurt can either support your new-found remission, or sabotage it. Remission gives you the opportunity to build change in yourself, to build stronger relationships, and to reduce strain. As you build upon the principles we’ve already talked about, you might consider adding this key secret to your edifice of peaceful strength: When you’re building your infrastructure, love heals and kindness matters.

    And learning how to apply these powerful elements to your life will not only help you heal and help you love yourself, but it will help you leave a legacy of hope for others and make a real difference in the world, too.

    Some of these changes in attitude and reactions are ways to lower your own inner stress and make your own peace.

    We’re talking about your recovery after you’ve received your ketamine treatment. And… We’re talking about building the infrastructure in your mind and life that will enhance your peace and support your new remission.

    Which brings up another point. If you have not had ketamine treatment, or if you’re deep in the throes of depression, fatigue, despair, and anxiety, please don’t think that our statements about love and its healing dismiss your suffering. We know suffering. And we don’t judge.

    Illness is illness. And you need effective treatment. We’ve said this before … that no matter how much treatment you’ve received, if you don’t feel better it’s the same as if you were untreated. And you need to keep seeking solutions.

    So, if you’re not receiving effective treatment, getting it is the first step. That’s where improvement begins and how remission gets a jump-start.

    There are novel and advanced options that can help you really begin to recover from this illness. Ketamine treatment, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and other treatments here and in the pipeline. Don’t expect so much from yourself that an article like this one seems insurmountable and overwhelming to you.

    Give yourself a break…ok? And focus on getting well with one of the advanced treatments available like a ketamine infusion series.

    We want to help you get better. Until then, your wellbeing remains the goal.

    But after you’ve received effective treatment, and you’re experiencing joy and motivation…even hope (I know, right?)… for the first time in years, then your next step is to intentionally work to build your personal infrastructure. That underpinning that helps your life move forward smoothly and with peace.

    And if you’ve achieved remission, and want to do the work to build that framework of peace and calm, love and kindness… then follow the advice in the last four of our most recent blog articles to get you started. We’re on a roll to help you.

    Because you likely were not building warmth and love while you were ill. It takes a lot of energy to do that, and you may not have had the energy to give to others while you were suffering yourself. In fact, you may have been withdrawn and a bit irritable. Why? Because you felt so crummy.

    Depression and anxiety can lead to a short temper, impatience, intolerance, and harshness. However, when you use the neuroplasticity ketamine gives to work with your therapist… and look at yourself to make the changes you want to make, you can generate a serene outlook and reverse the tension we all tend to create by hiding conflicts from ourselves and others.

    Everybody needs a group of trusted friends.

    Building infrastructure: love heals and kindness matters for living in peace after ketamine treatment.

    Everyone needs a hearth, a home, some sort of sanctuary where you can trust the people there to love you as you are and inspire you to live as your best self. Where you know you’re loved, and where your love is received and appreciated.  Where you can trust the truthful feedback and use it to grow. Home is supposed to be like this…  but too often, it’s not. 

    Don’t worry if you don’t have family and friends like this now. You may be amazed how your world changes as you change. Be a friend to those who are in your life, and you may be amazed at the deeply caring, valuable friends who are drawn to you. The kind you can trust with your deepest secret who will listen and support you no matter what onslaughts may come your way.

    Building Infrastructure? Love Heals… and Kindness Matters, too

    For you, it might be one or two friends who know you well. And love you. And know your fallibility as well as their own. People who are exquisitely grateful for the friendship the three of you share, and treat it with reverence and respect.

    Building infrastructure: love heals and kindness matters.

    Friends like these can help you heal, help you let go, lovingly hold you accountable to persistence in your walk of better living… spirit, soul, and body.

    And you’ll help them heal, hold them accountable, and keep them wrapped in love, too.

    The fact is it’s hard to heal without love. Whether the love you receive is face-to-face with family or friend, on a commuter train, at the checkout when you buy groceries… at church, or with co-workers… even on facebook….

    But here’s what’s important. Not only do you need to be wrapped in an atmosphere of love, so does everyone else. And especially those who’ve been shattered, abused, wounded, and damaged.  Those who feel lost and broken.

    As you experience the relief ketamine treatment provides, you’ll have the opportunity to find ways to give back. Just as you’ve been loved, supported, and helped, you can offer love, support, and help to others who are not as whole as you are yet.

    Building infrastructure: love heals and kindness matters for creating peace.

    You can be the one to listen, to embrace, to help find solutions; to work to get the solutions to more of those who need them. 

    And when you do, don’t be surprised when love for those who are suffering swells in you. Because love is not only the most powerful force in the universe, it’s a communicable force. You can catch it, and others can catch it from you. Every time you give it away, more of it explodes inside you. And around you.

    Becca Stevens was a child who was forced into sexual abuse at the age of 5, after the death of her father. With her family in crisis over his death, her mom desperately lonely, an unseemly man came into Becca’s young life. He continued using her, abusing her, for four years. She hated it, but didn’t know what to say or who to talk to. She was overwhelmed. And she endured. She was a young child.

    After she grew up, she studied for the Episcopal priesthood at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Once she became a priest, she sought to help other women who have been used, abused, and damaged by others. This ministry came to be known as Thistle Farms.

    Fast forward twenty years to now, and there are Thistle Farms outposts in five countries and across the US. It consists of women who have been damaged, abused, mistreated, and addicted, who need a safe place to heal, grow, and rebuild their lives.

    Since many have been convicted of felonies, Thistle Farms also markets handmade bath and body products, as well as candles, that they sell through 500 stores. These products help these women to get on their feet, pay off debt, buy a car or a home, and find purpose in their lives. 

    There are no authority figures in these homes. Only the women themselves who recover and grow, then mentor those who come behind them.

    Becca’s story is an example of healing, recovering, then finding purpose in giving back. 

    And you can, too.

    In partnership with the loving and healing is the kindness that automatically takes root in your life. As you feel more whole, and experience the almost miraculous remission and recovery that follows, plus the hope and energy to live again, you will have experience and love to give to others who need it like you once did. 

    Kindness Matters

    Letting go of the sick and broken self, and embracing your more whole self, will likely give you the energy to be patient. To love and help restore the next person you meet. And as you do that…putting their need over and above your convenience… a seed of love sprouts inside you. Each time you give, it grows bigger and fuller. As you fill with love, you have more love to give, and the more you give the more patient and kind you can be. 

    Building infrastructure: love heals and kindness matters.
    And in generously giving away patience, kindness, support, and help, you find you like who you’re becoming. That impatient hurting person who snapped heads off before is now kinder, warmer, and more understanding.

    Does this nurture your remission? Absolutely!  Will it positively prevent relapse?  Nothing can do that at this point. But your chances of maintaining your remission go much higher when you let go of stress and replace it with love and kindness.

    And guess what?  Other things that are driven by stress like high blood pressure, asthma, heart disease… well, reducing your stress radically may reduce your symptoms of these other conditions, too.

    So ask yourself… when you go to the grocery store, does the clerk’s kindness matter to you ?  If you’re anything like me, it matters a lot. So would you guess that your kindness matters to her, too?  Of course it does.

    Love Heals and Kindness Matters… So Don’t Give Up

    Apply both in your life and to the lives of those you care about – as well as those who cross your path. Just as others may have been harsh with you when you were so ill for so long, so now those you meet may be ill, too. You have the power to make their day a bit better now.

    A friend of mine used to say that she dumped darkness on anyone in her path during her 8 year depression. Since her ketamine treatment she now says it’s her turn to spread light on everyone she meets. And she can smile from ear to ear! How dazzling to see her face light up!

    You never know what someone has been through right before you make contact with them. So treat everyone with kindness to make their day easier, and to make you stronger. 

    And like Becca Stevens, the day just may come when you find yourself the leader in bringing joy and love into the lives of others in your world. And you may help them change their world, too.

    Maybe You Haven’t Received Ketamine Treatment Yet…

    If you’re thinking you might be interested in ketamine treatment, and that you’d like the chance to experience remission and recovery… it probably means you’ve endured many trials with medicines that didn’t help.

    We know how hard that is… to keep swallowing pills day after day for weeks or months without getting any benefits at all. In doing so you’ve certainly shown your determination. You need your hope to be rewarded.

    We’d like to help with that.

    Building infrastructure: love heals and kindness matters to create peace within.

    We see people walk out of our office every week after ketamine treatment. We see them rejuvenated, hopeful, and relieved. Read the other blog articles linked here to help you understand more about how this treatment works, then call us.

    Ketamine doesn’t make everyone well, but it’s extraordinary in its effects in most cases.  Find out how you can enjoy life in wonderful ways you may have forgotten about.

    To the rebuilding of your best self, 

    Lori Calabrese, MD offers innovative psychiatric treatment like IV Ketamine
    Lori Calabrese, M.D.

  • Fuel Hope With Gratefulness All Year Round

    Fuel Hope With Gratefulness All Year Round

    Fuel hope with gratefulness this season.

    Surprising Results Can Follow Counterintuitive Choices

    Thank you.

    Such sweet words.

    Here in the US, we’re just ending a four-day celebration we call Thanksgiving weekend. True, the official day for Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November each year — but it’s also true that most families spend the entire four day weekend continuing to celebrate, spend time together, and enjoy this holiday set aside for gratefulness.

    Plus, you probably know that “the holidays,” starting with Thanksgiving and lasting through New Year’s Day, is a difficult time for some people. Yet many others actually enjoy all the festivities, sharing, eating, and laughing that goes with good times together.

    Whether you’re a celebrator or an abstainer from these gatherings, there are some things we can talk about to improve these days for the grievers, and improve sensitivity for the revelers.

    Thanksgiving was first conceived by the Pilgrims after their original successful harvest in the New World. 

    That doesn’t mean it was their first harvest, but rather the first time it was successful and there was food to eat. There’s nothing like starvation to inspire gratitude for food.

    They called it their harvest festival. 

    George Washington made a proclamation that Thanksgiving should be celebrated in 1789, and it was sporadically celebrated. However, Thomas Jefferson chose not to celebrate the observance, so the day of gratefulness tended to be hit and miss until 1863. 

    In the midst of the Civil war, Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving be observed as a federal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November … and that has continued to this day.

    Fuel hope with gratefulness for family.

    It might strike you as odd that President Lincoln started a federal holiday observation when the country was at war with itself, when families were torn apart by sons, fathers, and grandfathers marching off to to battle…

    Homes and farms were burned. Families were seeing more funerals than birthdays. 

    Does that sound like a time to be thankful…?

    Can you imagine the uproar? 

    “Have you heard what he’s done now???  He’s declared thankfulness as a national holiday, of all things!!”

    “I’m not surprised…after all, seeing as how we do have SO MUCH to be thankful for right now… I’m so sick of  this war and this administration!  I’ve lost my farm!  How will I feed my family?!!

    …and on and on it might have gone.

    Doesn’t sound all that different from what we hear today, does it?

    Counterintuitive Declaration in the Middle of the Chaos

    Is it possible he had a higher purpose than just creating confusion in the midst of the terrible war?

    We do know that he had an abiding faith. He seemed to understand that choosing thankfulness can inspire better decisions and better outcomes. Thinking of others inspires generosity…and his nation needed generous hearts from top to bottom if it were to heal.

    Some of the most liberating principles of life have been around for hundreds of years and dozens of generations. And sometimes they’re hard to grasp because they’re locked in counterintuitive thinking.

    Oprah Winfrey put it this way:

    “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” — Oprah Winfrey

    And therein lies the secret. The secret of justice and unity that President Lincoln reached for, the secret of poverty vs. abundance that Oprah warned about, the benefit that we all receive when we take the time to focus on everything and everyone in our life that’s good.

    The Secret of Gratefulness.

    “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” –Albert Schweitzer

    Albert Schweitzer may not be a familiar name to anyone under the age of 50. But, he won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his extensive work in Africa in an area now known as Gabon, near the Republic of the Congo.

    He had studied extensively in theology and medicine, and as a newlywed set out with his bride to live in this place where sickness and suffering were crushing the people. Over the course of his life he built an enormous hospital complex to treat the thousands who came to him for help.

    He wasn’t perfect — and even embraced perspectives that would offend us now in our modern culture — but he gave what he had from who he was and helped make life better for thousands. 

    It’s no mystery why he might have felt his “light go out” from time to time. His work was demanding and unrelenting in a place where hardships abounded.

    But he understood gratitude.

    Do you ever feel as though your light is going out…and you need it rekindled? Me, too. In fact, most of us can say that words of encouragement spoken at the right time can help to turn us around.

    Beloved 20th Century Actress Doris Day has seen it all.  She knows the value in that counterintuitive assertion of gratefulness. In her own words:

    “Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.”

    Fuel hope with gratefulness.

    On her way to becoming a dance star, her car collided with a train. Her injuries took a serious toll that permanently ended her dancing career. But, rather than give up, she turned to singing under the training of a voice coach. She soon made movies that were wildly popular in the mid 1900’s … and her fans assumed her life was perfect.

    But behind the sweetheart-girl-next-door image she presented to the public… was a victim  of domestic abuse, a history of 4 marriages, the widow of the only man she loved, loss of her fortune, and complete exhaustion.

    But she, too, understands gratitude in the face of adversity.

    As humans we may envy what another has that we don’t. Wealth, charm, health, fame…but focusing on what we don’t have does nothing to improve our situation.

    Turning a laser beam of attention on our envy of another person only fuels a raging fire of jealousy inside us. And we grow more bitter and focused inward. It isolates us and doesn’t improve anything.

    On the other hand, being grateful for the gifts, the benefits, the talents we do have, empowers us to make those gift, talents, and benefits bigger, brighter, and more abundant.

    Helen Keller said that she cried that she had no shoes, until she met a man who had no feet.

    Helen Keller, if you’re not familiar with her, was blind, deaf, and mute… so you can see her metaphor about the lack of shoes…

    “Necessity is the mother of invention,” they say. So her gratitude for having feet led her to find ways to serve mankind, and especially others who were blind, deaf, or mute… or all three.

    Miss Keller knew there was no place in her life for self pity.

    She came to understand gratitude at a young age.

    During World War II, as able-bodied men went to war, and women and children were left behind, women who’d never considered such a thing went to work for wages.  It was a time of hardship. But, rather than complain, these women put on their work shoes and headed for the factories. 

    Many of us had grandmothers and great grandmothers who worked in the factories to make bombs, aircraft, trucks, and other tools needed to fight the war.

    Fuel hope with gratefulness.

    Is it any wonder that gratefulness and the can-do attitude that was required to rise above those difficulties led to a song in the last year of the war that strengthened that frame of mind? :

    You have to accentuate the positive, 

    Eliminate the negative, 

    And latch on to the affirmative, 

    But don’t mess with Mr. In-Between.

    Comical?  Maybe so…but you get the message.

    Like we saw with the man with no shoes, there is always something to be grateful for. And gratitude has a way of propelling you above the circumstances you wish would change, so you can see the bigger picture. 

    Gratefulness transforms your perspective.

    And when that happens, you’re no longer a victim, but rather on top of your circumstances. The circumstance may not change the way you want it to, but your improved outlook can give you power over it.

    No one is without flaws, and no one’s life is perfect. But each of us can contribute to the lives of others in some way, and in the process gain the freedom to overcome our own struggles on some level.

    Psychiatric disorders can render you emotionally paralyzed… trapped inside inertia, fatigue, and despair. And as you know, there are other types of paralysis. If you’ve experienced this, you may be able to relate to Jon Morrow.

    Jon Morrow is a wildly successful blogger whose body is paralyzed by Spinal Muscular Dystrophy.  He can move nothing except his eyes and lips. Helpless?  Well, he was for awhile. But he has pushed through from a point of inertia and despair to doing what he could do…until he learned to drive traffic to his blogs and has achieved the status of the most widely read blogger in the world.

    He has generated more than 200 million views of his blogs and earned $50 million as a result.  

    A spoiled rich kid?  Not in the least. This guy was facing the end of his life because of his need for healthcare, and no money to pay for it.  His story is hugely inspiring. If he can accomplish his dreams…anyone can.

    And Jon understands gratefulness.

    Look for his blog Unstoppable.me. It will give you a shot in the arm to choose and express gratefulness and overcome adversity.

    Gratefulness is liberating, empowering, and humbling… all at the same time. 

    Fuel hope with gratefulness

    So now that the Thanksgiving 2018 holiday weekend is behind us…let’s not lose sight of the lessons we’ve learned together as we venture through the rest of the winter holiday season and into the new fledgling year 2019.

    With gratefulness you can turn on the light in someone in your world, and illuminate your own heart at the same time.

    Still, if you’re suffering under the weight of a psychiatric disorder that hasn’t yielded to any medicine you and your doctor have tried, there is something more you can do as you focus on gratitude in your life.

    Ketamine treatment is a series of IV infusions that have demonstrated in thousands of cases an extraordinary capacity for relieving depression and anxiety in the vast majority of those who have not been helped by anything else.

    From severe treatment-resistant depression, bipolar depression, and suicidal thinking, to social anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and addictions, ketamine has the remarkable ability to rebuild signaling structures and systems along with regulating a wide variety of puzzle pieces in the brain that make up the sense of wellbeing, joy, motivation, and initiative you long for.

    Fuel hope with gratefulness.

    At Innovative Psychiatry, we’re big believers in joy. Happiness. And gratitude. We offer help and we offer hope — with new treatments that can turn things around for you.

    Call us. We want you to experience relief and the ability to build a rewarding life you enjoy… and to revive and renew the relationships in your life that are important to you.

    With gratitude for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you this year, I want to wish you a warm and heartfelt joyous season of holidays. 

    To the renewal of your best self,

    Lori Calabrese, M.D.
    Lori Calabrese, MD offers innovative psychiatric treatment like IV Ketamine
  • Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018

    KRIYA!!

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018-Dawn of a new field.

    The most phenomenal ketamine conference to date!  

    Last weekend I attended and presented at the ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018 in San Francisco. This conference emerged as the most dynamic gathering of front-line ketamine practitioners I’ve ever experienced.

    And what an event!

    The ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018 was extraordinarily different than any other research or clinical conference I’ve attended. It’s clear that the realm of ketamine treatment for psychiatric disorders is growing wider and deeper. 

    There was a true spirit of inquiry, extraordinarily open collaboration, and presentations of risks, failures, and triumphs. Sheer transparency. Openly exposed vulnerabilities. A clear admission of the limitations of what we know. The latest information about clinical uses of ketamine in psychiatry. 

    The insider news.

    What happened when Raquel put all of it — and all of us — together?

    Palpable energy instantly exploded!

    During the presentations — which were riveting. As we met for coffee. Chatted on the beautiful conference grounds, sprawled out over the steps, snugged down into comfy couches, talked over creative and inventive lunches, inhaled coffee (for some of us, all throughout the day!) — there was the sense that we needed to learn from each other as fast as we could. So … we shared Ubers and Lyfts and dinner tabs. 

    We came from all over the country … and from as far away as Russia.

    We’re serious about this.

    And what a weekend! We learned so much from each speaker and each other. We talked about our data, our practices, our experiences, what we’ve learned. What we still don’t know.

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018 helped this man reach light in his life.

    Soooo many different backgrounds, so many different approaches providing patient care, so much desire to reduce suffering in our patients.

    Founded by Raquel Bennett, Ph.D., KRIYA is the Ketamine Research Institute and it is devoted to understanding the use of therapeutic ketamine in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

    I must give a shout out to Raquel Bennett.

    In such a few short years, she single-handedly founded, organized and grew KRIYA, an organization devoted to helping people heal and live fuller lives through safe, legal, and effective ketamine treatment. She is originator of the first international ketamine conference — KRIYA’s first conference, in 2015 — on the therapeutic use of ketamine.

    Raquel has earned our respect, appreciation, and applause for the enormously hard work of bringing together experts who work with therapeutic ketamine in very different ways, using different routes, for different therapeutic purposes, in all aspects of psychiatry and psychotherapy, as well as in chronic pain and hospice.

    Ketamine is a visionary medicine.

    But Raquel Bennett, Ph.D, is a visionary.  

    Fantastic speakers, wonderful food, and gorgeous (read: non-hotel) settings gave all of us opportunities to pick the brain of someone nearby. We shared, we ate, we discussed, we listened. And at the end, we kept talking until they put away the chairs, and turned out the lights … until we each left for the airport. And then checked in and kept going.

    Meet me in Terminal 2. I’m at Starbucks. Find us in the International Terminal.  We’re sitting in the food court.

    Until one by one, each had to break away to catch a plane.

     … You haven’t seen anything til you’ve seen the excitement that comes from connection.

    Many thanks to Raquel and her incredibly talented, organized and generous team for making this all possible.

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference Founder Raquel Bennett.
    Raquel Bennet, Psy.D.

    Though our backgrounds are different, and our methods varied, it was clear that we share the same passion: to help reduce suffering from psychiatric symptoms and physical pain.

    Next, let me say, I can’t possibly share it all with you here — there were 30 different speakers over 2 days, fascinating and varied discussion panels, and a lively sharing of experiences and ideas that kept us on our toes till the wee hours.

    This conference was thrilling.

    Thrilling.

    I attended KRIYA last year.  But there has been so much growth, so much more research, so many new frontiers since then … that this gathering really can’t compare.

    These 30 speakers ran the full gamut of experience with using therapeutic ketamine in psychiatry — different practice settings, different studies, varied doses, varied routes of administration, varied preparation. Varied goals.

    This was no room for small or closed minds.

    We ALL learned and grew during those two days.

    Raquel Bennett opened to set the stage for this smorgasbord of ideas. 

    She said, “We are witnessing the birth of a new field.”  She spoke about how ketamine was developed for anesthesiology and has served that field well. But the therapeutic use of ketamine has birthed a new field of ketamine in psychiatry.

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018 demonstrates the difference between anesthetic ketamine and psychiatric ketamine.

    And she emphasized that the two are as different as apples and toast.

    One way they’re different is in the goals of treatment. For anesthesiologists, ketamine has been used for managing consciousness or sedation and addressing physical pain. In psychiatry, the goal of treatment is all about treating psychiatric symptoms and managing psychiatric distress.

    The second difference is in training and areas of expertise, diagnostic skills, and managing emergencies, and she described the differences between anesthesiologists and psychiatrists. Anesthesiologists are best at managing surgical emergencies, interventional pain procedures and life support.  But psychiatrists are experts in diagnosing psychiatric conditions and managing psychiatrist emergencies.

    The third difference is in the type of patient who presents for treatment.   In psychiatry, our patients need a lot of contact, a high degree of emotional safety, and a great deal of emotional support and reassurance. Things we’re deeply attuned to by our psychiatric training.

    She also talked about the differences in routes of administration as well as the dose used  for each type of patient to reach the individual goals of sedation vs. relief of psychiatric symptoms.

    Add to that the amount of preparation required in each field. An anesthesiologist can walk into the surgical area, say hello to his patient, and tell him to count backwards from 12. 

    However, psychiatrists and psychologists offering ketamine treatment invest in substantial and detailed preparation of the patient before beginning ketamine treatment — to prepare for the treatment itself, the treatment experience, and how to metabolize or make sense of the treatment experience. 

    And the preparation involves not only  a thorough history of symptoms, treatment course, previous medication and treatment failures, but also a thorough developmental and social history. 

    Our education and training centers on entering into an ongoing therapeutic relationship with our patients and the critical understanding and provision of a safe, therapeutic frame to do the deep work we do.

    These two fields are two different animals. 

    Dr. Bennet encouraged everyone to learn from everyone else, in effect, to “cross pollinate” these fields and help each other to improve in clinical practice.

    Then she described the use of ketamine in psychotherapy as a “lubricant” for psychotherapeutic work. 

    Several of the speakers described this method in their practices.  This is called ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, or ketamine-facilitated psychotherapy.

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018 demonstrated what ketamine treatment can do.

    And she went a step further, to describe the use of therapeutic ketamine in psychotherapy as a tool for deep spiritual exploration. This is where the goal of treatment is not symptom relief per se, but personal growth, self-knowledge, or transcendent exploration.

    All in all, she encouraged matching the treatment to the individual patient, recognizing our responsibility to learn more about varied strategies and to share our findings within our field.

    Speakers were diverse and fascinating. If you’ve been keeping up with progress in the field of psychiatric ketamine treatment, some of these names are sure to jump out at you:

    Will Van Derveer, M.D., Wesley Rylan, M.D., Scott Shannon, M.D., Michael Stanger, M.D., Jeffrey Becker, M.D., Jason Wallach, Ph.D., Dan Engle, M.D., Lori Calabrese, M.D., John Krystal, M.D., Phil Wolfson, M.D., Jeff Guss, M.D., Elias Dakwar, M.D., George Greer, M.D., Evgeny Krupitsky, M.D., Patrick Sullivan, D.O., and Jennifer Winegarden, D.O.

    And we had some lively and fascinating panelists, including Gary Bravo, M.D., Alison McInnes, M.D., Steven Levine, M.D., Steve Best, M.D., Veronica Gold, M.F.T., Greg Wells, Ph.D., Bob Grant, M.D., Genesee Herzberg, Psy.D., Jessica Katzman, Psy.D., Jennifer Dore, M.D., Julie Megler, P.N.P., Steven Levine, M.D., Steve Best, M.D.,  Sandhya Prashad, M.D., Steve Mandel, M.D., and me.

    Oh yes, I mentioned I also presented my own data, and am excited to tell you more about that…

    But… that will have to wait for another day … Without question, our fledgling new psychiatric field has turned a corner.

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018. 

    We’ll never forget this one. We can only hope they keep getting better…if that’s possible.

    As exciting as this wealth of information may be, if you’re suffering from depression, bipolar depression, PTSD, OCD, social anxiety, substance use disorders…and even suicidal thinking, don’t wait. Call us. 

    Thankfully, if your symptoms are mild, there are a host of antidepressants and other medicines and treatments that can hopefully help you.

    Ketamine is at its best for those who are severely suffering. 

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018 educated psychiatrists to help this woman get better.

    If you’re deeply affected by severe symptoms of depression and anxiety, we can help.  Call and arrange an appointment.

    Ketamine isn’t for everyone. Of course not. It doesn’t help everyone. But even among those who aren’t helped initially… sometimes there are those who get a delayed response and in a few months reach remission quite by surprise. 

    And even though we can’t promise everyone they’ll reach remission, the truth is that a very large percentage do.

    As we’ve said before, ketamine is the most rapid and effective treatment for depression that we’ve seen in our lifetime … and really … ever.

    We’re constantly learning ways to help more people benefit and get better. And chances are…you’ll experience the most remarkable transformation you could have imagined.

    Our Results

    At Innovative Psychiatry, we see people with these symptoms and disorders get better every week with ketamine treatment. Our results are extraordinary, and our remission rate is very high. Call for an appointment and let’s talk.

    Ketamine works in some different areas of the brain in different ways than traditional medicines you might have tried that didn’t work for you. Your life really can improve dramatically.

    Find out what this remarkable treatment can do for you.

    Ketamine KRIYA Conference 2018
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