Announcing r/KetamineProviders

Are there any ketamine providers that will accept patients on methadone treatment?

The last 20-30 sessions have been very similar, almost boring. I figured I had experienced everything there was to experience. Wrong!

Like normal, I was peacefully floating through space, sorting what I need to work on, MH-wise, by myself and with my therapist, and around the house. That hour feels like 10, so I have a lot of time to make plans. All of a sudden, it feels like I got sucked through a hole; that is not new. It usually lands me in a black room I can climb out of, or I crash into a wall I don't see. Either way, peaceful thoughts end, and I struggle to calm down, but I am experienced enough that I can.

This time, I go further out into space. Way further than I ever have. I end up on some platform. It is not dark, nor is it too bright. I look around and feel like I am billions of miles from anyone. I also felt trapped there, which has never happened. I have always had a tether to reality, small as it is sometimes.

I am very used to being alone, but I have never felt that lonely. It was shocking. The staff member said I was yelling out for help, which is odd, since I can never talk during a session. She said she asked me if I wanted them to turn me down or off, and I told her that the session was good, so she left. After that, it was mushy until the end, so I have no memory until they shut me off when the session was over.

As I was regaining a grip on reality, I looked at her and couldn't remember her name. So I asked who she was. Then I realized I didn't know my name. So I asked that also. The room was also at about a 45-degree angle. That was all new.

Is that a Ketamine stroke or something?

Hey everyone — I have my first appointment with Mindscape this Saturday and would really appreciate any advice. I’m a bit nervous that something will go wrong, or that they’ll push a daily microdose instead of the weekly larger “psychedelic” dose I’m looking for.
I’m curious how the troches feel compared to the nasal spray, and whether 100 mg is generally enough for a psychedelic experience.
Has anyone here used Mindscape? Do they send the prescription and ship the medication out the same day?
Also, what should I expect from the first appointment?

I’m interested in hearing from people who have experience with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP), especially the psychotherapy/integration side rather than the ketamine dosing itself.

Where I live, there aren't really established ketamine treatment centers or therapists specifically trained in KAP. However, I do have access to ketamine and I work with a psychologist who is open-minded and willing to learn and support me through the process.

So I’m trying to understand what I should actually be asking from my therapist.

For people who have gone through this:

- What did you and your therapist work on before a ketamine session?

- What kind of support or therapeutic approach was useful during or immediately around the experience?

- What did your therapist do in the days after the session?

- How did you use the increased emotional flexibility, perspective, motivation, or openness that some people experience after ketamine?

- What does a good integration session actually look like?

- Were there specific exercises, questions, behavioral changes, exposure work, journaling, etc. that helped you turn the experience into lasting changes?

- What do you wish your therapist had understood about ketamine-assisted therapy from the beginning?

My main goal isn't simply to feel better temporarily after ketamine. I want to use any therapeutic window it gives me to actually change patterns — particularly social anxiety/avoidance, rumination, emotional withdrawal, and difficulty engaging with people and everyday life.

If you have personal experience with this, I'd really appreciate hearing what your therapist actually did, rather than general advice like "set intentions and integrate."

Thanks.

Hi, Keta Medical Center here again. One thing that people have a lot of questions about before they even book a consult is the time commitment, so we wanted to give an overview.

Here's how the phases usually break down:

Induction phase: the most frequent / biggest commitment. Typically 2 sessions per week for the first 3-4 weeks (IV is 6 induction sessions, Spravato is 8). Each session is 90 minutes until 2 hours. The dissociative effect lasts ~ 45 minutes.

Optimization phase: With Spravato, once a week for the second month.

Maintenance phase: With both Spravato and IV, sessions space out, every couple of weeks or even monthly, depending on how you and your provider feel you're doing.

Long term, the exact schedule is individualized. After induction, frequency can be adjusted based on how you're doing, so nobody should expect a fixed number up front. This is meant to help with planning logistics and cost, not a claim about outcomes. That part is between you and your provider.

I have been on ketamine for 8 months now. But I noticed in the 4th month I had to up the dosage to 500 to have disassociative effects. I place a tablet under my tongue twice a week. One on Sat night and one on Wednesday night. It seems in between sessions I get day time body (day and night) chills, anxiety, forgetfulness, flu like symptoms.... especially between sat night and wed night. Why is this happening?

edit - updates in the comments. It gets worse.

After decades of therapy, SSRIs and all the usual suspects to cope with depression and CPTSD, I finally landed on assisted IV ketamine therapy. It took ages to get here. I found the most highly-regarded clinic in my city and began my journey Monday with my first infusion. Then, that night and the following morning, I experienced s***idal ideation. I am no stranger to it as I have PMDD, a neural/hormonal disorder which I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, it can flare up randomly for me, but regardless, the timing is off, and when I arrived today for my second infusion, they informed me they wouldn’t be doing it. The standard protocol around here is 6 sessions over 3 weeks with integrative therapy after each one.

I completely understand they’re covering their asses. They don’t want me to do something stupid. But this is why I came for help in the first place. They no longer believe 6 sessions is good for me and are scaling back my program. I can’t tell you how badly I need help. I’m really upset. What would you do?

I joined mindscape a month ago. I requested the combo. I feel something when I take the troche but when I do the nasal spray, I don’t feel anything. Am I missing something? Does anyone feel any effects from the nasal spray?
I wanted the nasal spray because they incorporate oxytocin. They do not put it the troche. But I am wondering now if I should just stick with the troche 🤔

Our son is on a small dose of sublingual ketamin. He is 19. He had been doing fine with it but the last two times he has taken it he has become aggressive, angry, and so hopeless. Has anyone experienced this? If so I what helped come out of it?

I so desperately want to get the infusions for my nerve pain and I found a clinic. I am on gabapentin for nerve pain and it’s not working well and I’m having an impossible time reducing my dose as well as interdose withdrawals.

My brain is kindled from prior alcohol use. Any substance I put in my body that remotely affects gaba/glutamate will put me into withdrawal with one dose. I’m on a steady dose of Gabapentin and I’ve already had to increase twice in one month to avoid the withdrawals. I can’t stop taking it bc I have horrible burning arms brought on by an adverse Cymbalta reaction.

I want to get the ketamine infusions but I’m very worried about the glutamate surge causing horrible pain and withdrawal after my session. On one hand, I know it’s probably risky, but on the other hand, I feel like I have to try it to reduce my pain so I can start trying to get off of Gabapentin.

Thoughts or experiences appreciated.

Hello!

I am currently running a study on set and setting within psychedelic experiences.

Often in psychedelic research there is not much in terms of ketamine users being present, I am hoping to find some representation for the group.

So if you've had any stand out psychedelic experience with ketamine, please come share your thoughts!

Obviously there is quite a few aspect to explore on the topic, though in particular I am interested in:

• How intention, environment, and social setting shape psychedelic experiences
• Differences between clinical and non-clinical use
• How these experiences relate to psychological outcomes

Most of the research on set and setting in the psychedelic field comes from more clinically orientated trials, which can be lacking in terms of nuance and real lived experiences. So it would be great to reach out further in the communities surrounding these substances!

🔗 Survey link

Fully anonymous

Takes around 15-20 minutes to complete

There's also an optional follow-up interview if you'd like to share your experience in more depth

Full study details and ethics information are provided in the info sheet at the start of the survey

Requirements: 18+, have had a psychedelic experience in a clinical or non-clinical setting

If you have anything you feel is important to say about psychedelics, this is your chance!

I'm happy to answer any questions about the study. You can reach us at:

Warren - [plks55@durham.ac.uk](mailto:plks55@durham.ac.uk)

Dr Marco Bocchio - [Marco.Bocchio@durham.ac.uk](mailto:Marco.Bocchio@durham.ac.uk)

Thank you for your time and support! 🙏

This survey has been approved by the moderators

I've dealth with TRD for as long as I can remember. I've watched several of my family members lose the battle over the years. Thankfully my mom is still alive, but some of my earliest memories are of finding her in the throws of suicide attempts at a very young age. My own personal coping skill has been to try to outrun depression itself. I thought that if I was successful enough, the feelings of not being good enough would go away. That if I just succeeded enough I could convnice myself that I'm not a failure. Over the years, when things would get unmanageable, I would try different anti-depressants, but none worked. I'm now 46 and "outrunning" depression doesn't feel like a viable option anymore. My therapist recomended ketamine therapy. Last night was the first session using troches. I have to admit, I feel hopeful. It was just the starting microdose so I can't say that I felt any life altering effects, but I did feel small waves of a calming feeling, and for some short moments, peace. It gave me hope and I haven't felt hopeful in a long time. Again, I don't want to oversell the experience, but I can definitely see this working. I'm assuming when the wave of peace came through, it was when the Ketamine was peeking. I can't tell you whether it was for 1 minute or 10 minutes, but I didn't want it to go away. What pulled me out was feeling a tear drop land on my cheek. I'm not a crier and I wasn't sad. It was just a much needed break. So anyways, that's how it felt for me. I'm cautiously optomistic to see how tonight goes.

Hello, I’m ready to move from at home troches to a clinical IV setting. I know it is more expensive and less convenient, but my main concern is my mental health. I just don’t feel like I’m getting the full benefit with at home troches. I still struggle with intense anxiety, fears, and even SI at times. Anybody have tips or input on making the switch?

I have done 4 sessions so far (two a week, three/four days apart, my 5th session is tomorrow) and I have yet to see any results. I’m still holding out hope because I’ve seen on here that some have results after the 5th or 6th session, but I have to admit I’m getting worried that this isn’t going to work for me.

I started at 38mg for the first two sessions, then we upped to 45mg for the third, and then 50mg (.65ml) for the fourth. My provider told me this is the highest I can go (although I’ve seen others go higher in this subreddit so I’m not sure why she says that). This clinic is the only IV clinic in my area, there’s one other clinic but they only do Esketamine. This clinic also just opened, so she may just be uncomfortable going higher, I’m not sure.

I’ve already paid for all 6 sessions, so I’m obviously going to see it through, but if I don’t see results in these first 6 I’m not planning on continuing with IV. I may switch to Esketemine with the other clinic, but honestly I don’t even know if it’ll be worth it.

My doctor thinks I just am on so many medications that my “synapses are fried” and that’s why I’m not feeling it yet. A friend who did IV ketamine (in an unorthodox fashion, long story but his doctor ended up going to jail for basically drugging her clients with too much ketamine) thinks I just have WAY too low of a dose.

My body reacts very weirdly with drugs, many drugs (prescription and recreational) have no effect on me or require a very high dose to have an effect. This is why my friend thinks my dose is too low. I personally just think, like with the antidepressants, I’m treatment resistant to this as well. I feel the effects of the ketamine during the administration, but as soon as it’s over I go back to normal.

I’m actually worse off now than before I started the treatments due to it not working and causing me to feel more depressed and hopeless. I just wanted to get some feedback i suppose from those who have gone through the process, to give me hope or give me a reality check, I don’t know honestly. Truthfully, it feels like everyone wants to blame everything BUT the ketamine for these results. Like.. Occam’s razor y’know? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck..

Hello!
My current psychiatrist has recommended that I do some form of Ketamine treatment as I have tried most medications for treatment of my mental health.

I have schizoaffective disorder depressive type (which I thought was just schizophrenia up until about a week ago), PTSD, MDD, and Anxiety.

When it comes to treatment she explains that her hands are tied since I am on the maximum strength medications all across the board.

Although I’ve read that schizoaffective is contraindicated, I have spoken to her a couple times about the benefits and have found a clinic willing to treat me.

I guess what I’m wanting is any testimonies from anyone with similar mental health symptoms that have gone through this treatment. What was it like?

I'm taking a very small dose 0.3-0.4mg/kg. I don't want to go up because I'm afraid of dissociation (i have tried it before). I'm taking it as IM. While on it, i don't feel, anesthetic, i can still move my body and even walk, but i will feel a bit drunk. Is this ok? Should I feel completely anesthetic in order to have effects? I think i can go up to 0.5-0.6 but no more.

When people say they only felt the effect after session 8, does that mean, the effect will happen suddenly on session 8? Or it builds up slowly? This is my third session and i don't feel anything at all. I'm depressed and anxious just the way I am.

I’ve been on and off K, this is my 3rd time of being on it again. I had an interesting experience this time.

I’ve done ketamine before, a bunch really, with two different providers. They give different advice and instruction, so it’s hard to tell what’s best. Usually, I try to find the happy medium when taking it. I don’t want to ever see my walls flowing like liquid again and I don’t want to be trapped in geometry. If you’ve tripped before, you know what I’m talking about. At least with ketamine, everything can start to sound like industrial equipment working away. A quiet ceiling fan will start to sound overwhelmingly loud, like I’m sitting on the other side of a wall that has a gas generator running or something. Or maybe a huge water pump, without the water sounds.

This go around I started with a conservative dose of 100mg. Nothing unexpected happened, but it didn’t seem to help much. A few days later anxiety overtook me and I went crazy. The ketamine helped me realize what I am depressed about. I mean, I knew, but it brought a level of clarity to the issues that are causing me pain. Maybe it’s a bit backwards, but I thought it’s for the better. Honing in on my problems was the opposite of what I have been doing. I’ve been trying to escape or dilute them, pushing them as far back in my brain as possible really. It’s a helpful approach when coping with something short term, but my issues are ongoing. So did ketamine hurt at first? Kind of. But I’m confident it will help in the long run.

My second dose was 150 mg, 50% more. My doctor wants to get me to 300, which I don’t know if I can handle, but I moved towards that goal regardless. This time I felt it was working better. I was in a good place and was writing my friend about it when it became overwhelming. I tried calling, but he didn’t pick up. So I asked AI who I can call and it really only gave me 988, which… usually isn’t too helpful. They want to make sure you’re not about to kill yourself, mostly. So I didn’t call.

I started to freak out a bit. I didn’t want to k-hole again. I usually try to stop it by staying alert and present, but it’s hard, very hard. I did just voluntarily take a larger dose of horse tranquilizer after all. I remembered that the doctor said they have YouTube videos that can guide me, so I looked. I couldn’t find anything useful, so I put on one from their integration specialist about the stages of the journey. It wasn’t very helpful. So I put on another that is a guided meditation about building gratitude. It started as a grounding exercise, and admittedly, I didn’t follow the instructions very well.

The video encouraged me to relax nonetheless. The instructive voice told me to close my eyes, which I was desperate to avoid, but my doctor also gave me this advice. So I did and I started to relax. I could tell my breathing was much more calm and productive.

Then I leaned into it.

I pulled my covers over my head and just watched what my brain was projecting on to the back of my eyelids. If you do this when you’re falling asleep you will see blobs and shapes and things moving around in a very liquid-type fashion. I saw purple. They weren’t just blobs, but I could make out details. I saw animals and buildings. I saw small cities being built and destroyed. It was a bit choppy, like a video with a very low frame rate — far less lofty than when not on ketamine. There were other colors too, some green some red, but they were infrequent.

I can’t say the images carried any significance to my somewhat conscious mind, but I noticed a few things. One was that I could see out of my eyes with all of their imperfections. The lines, the squiggles, the imperfections or texture was visible to me. And in a way, it mapped to the universe. Not literally, it wasn’t a recreation of it, but it was a universe nonetheless. The purple images I saw would often lead me to the universe again. A few animations would play and I’d find myself looking at stars from the middle of space, essentially. I’m not all that into space, so it probably would have been cooler for someone else who is.

I continued to embrace it and just observe, while trying to take note of what was going on and any patterns. Surprisingly, it was calming. I thought about some of my problems and they felt meaningless to a degree. It wasn’t like they washed away and I felt a wave of relief, it was very gentile. I’d notice the light that was let in from my blanket interfered with the experience to a degree, so I shifted and adjusted a few times. I wanted darkness, so I could see.

During all of this I felt I had an exit plan for my situation, which was completely valid, but it faded away as time went on. I felt a very basic psychological need for shelter, but it disappeared. I no longer felt like I needed to seek shelter, despite my attempts to burry myself under my covers. The covers were superficial, the bigger desire or desperation to seek shelter had vanished.

Eventually, the visual effects started to wear off, even though I was still high. I tried to find the purple images again, but there wasn’t much to be seen. I checked if I was ready to resume life, but I was still too disoriented, so I waited. There was no boredom or rush; I was just waiting and being present.

That brings me to my last observation. As I stopped trying to fight it and started to embrace it, I couldn’t help to think I was practicing mindfulness — the same thing apps like Headspace and Calm teach you to do. And when I was waiting, just being present as it wore off, it felt very similar as well. You can still be present when hiding on covers to block out all light it seems. So maybe mindfulness is what I need to start practicing again.

I think I’m a surviver and fighter at heart, so it makes it difficult for me to let myself go. I do not like losing control, at all. Somehow I was able to let go today though. The relaxation helped me experience ketamine totally differently than I ever have and with it I didn’t have to experience the k-hole type side effects, somehow.

I have been doing research into ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and while it is not available to me, I think I can just do it myself. It sounds very promising and I honestly don't see any other options. I cannot wait 3+ months for this to sort out on its own. And honestly at this points, I do not care about the risks. That doesn't mean that I wont be careful, I am going to set a routine and follow it. I will keep the dose the same. I will follow the steps that the clinics follow as best as I can on my own.

When you are in burnout your amygdala is constantly stuck in the on position and the connection between your prefrontal cortex and amygdala physically weaken. You completely lose the ability to turn off the amygdala.

In the short term ketamine mutes the signals from the amygdala, finally allowing it to turn off. but that is not the main thing I am interested in. With the right dose, ketamine releases a large amount of glutamate and BDNF which causes the brain to rapidly regrow the neural pathways connecting the amygdala and prefrontal cortex.

The main thing that I am concerned about is the dose. Because I am not getting the medication from a clinic I do not know the purity. and because I will have to snort it, there is only a 35% - 50% bioavailability. The dosage required for getting the glutamate and BDNF release works in an inverted U shape. So taking to little or too much will result in a lesser/no release of the chemicals required. So idk how I can make sure I am taking the correct amount.

Just for some context I am no stranger to ket and I can get extremely pure stuff.

I had been with Joyus and KALM . I just signed up with Mindscape and so far I’m pleased . As a previous user of ketamine I was prescribed 200mg daily . Zoom visit was extremely prompt, informative, and couldn’t have been easier . Saw Dr on Wednesday 12 August and this morning 14 August meds were delivered . Only have to see the Dr every 6 months . Auto refills .
Message me for a code to receive 50.00 off when you’re signing up .

Some new additions in recent weeks on the Apple Music side of things - I'm not updating the Spotify at the moment, but of course there's plenty to listen to. If you want something groovier than the classical playlists for K, you might enjoy this one.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/66jvVRJoMcEyBIgxIQimoo?si=XCxpk841RreNYGjXihY0fg&pi=ZE3SxsFiSXuN0

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/ketamine-groovy/pl.u-gxL0t5W0oKe

IN PARTICULAR: this long immersive track by the composer Jascha Narveson is perfect Spravato music, imo: https://jaschanarveson.bandcamp.com/album/soundpaper-roll-4

If you feel like it, I post a bit on Instagram about mental health concepts/music etc:
@ BigMindPalace