8 replies to this topic

[Pepper34045]

Hello friends!

I normally stick to the photo and writing corners of ‘Topia, but something quite interesting is going to be happening to a dear friend of mine. He is undergoing 6 sessions of psychedelic therapy using ketamine. The psychedelic therapy sessions will be monitored by appropriate healthcare professionals, and they will observe my friend’s state as he experiences controlled doses. From my understanding, he will be hooked up to monitors to record and brain activity, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.

I bring this to everyone here because, while I do believe it’s something he needs, he needs much guidance and preparation before he has his first session. And I’ve found many community members here to have great advice and guidance when it comes to many things—especially psychedelics. I have some questions for you guys. If you could take the time to answer one, two, or all of them, I’d greatly appreciate it. If you can’t answer the questions or don’t want to, please feel free to leave your thoughts about it here too. I want as many perspectives as possible to best guide my friend to a better quality of life.

1. If you’ve done ketamine, what physical, visual, emotional, or other sensational experiences stand out to you?

2. If you’ve done ketamine and other psychedelics, how does ketamine compare and/or contrast to the experience provided by other psychedelics?

3. If you’ve been the tripsitter, caretaker, or witness for someone else’s ketamine experience, what was that like? How did they act differently or similarly to their normal/sober status? Have they been different since?

4. Do you believe ketamine can only be therapeutic in a controlled, scientific environment? Do you think it possibly only increases the likelihood of good outcomes? Or do you think the experience is what you make out of it, regardless of healthcare supervision and observation?

5. Is there anything you would like me to pass on to my friend planning to undergo the therapy? To put it in context, he is a 21 y/o male who has been put through the shitter by life. He has many mental health issues that practically debilitate him at times. I’m keeping it vague because I’m sure he doesn’t want me airing his trauma out on the Internet. That’s also not entirely what this is about. The point is, he’s been through a lot, and I’d like to help him, but I haven’t done ketamine, so I’ve turned to the psychedelic sages on this magnificent forum

Again, thank you for your time, even if all you do is read this. I appreciate you. Also, attached you’ll find the picture he sent me to further elaborate on what he is either hoping to or expecting to experience. I think he googled “psychedelic ketamine therapy” and found a thread on Quora.

[wharfrat]

I have not done Ketamine, although i find it quite interesting,, MycoDani had gone through ketamine therapy, here is a post of hers that might be insiteful

 

Medical Ketamine Infusion Report - Storming the Gates - Mycotopia

[Pepper34045]

Thank you, wharfrat! I will check that out right now!

[Pepper34045]

That is definitely an interesting read, and I’m going to pass the info along! I hope MycoDani is doing well

[Arathu]

I cannot speak from a direct experiential standpoint since I have no access to K. My exposure is indirect by sharing an office with a man that has direct experience as a suffering patient (NOT a psychonaut by any means or definition) In fact he is career and retired military. 

 

I'm a veteran and I work closely with other veterans, as in we are coworkers. I'm sure that some employers still find "value added" by hiring vets. I jokingly call our crew the DOD (since we have all flavors of vets from multiple generations, administrations, and of course the continuous perpetual global upheaval driven by ???? LOVE of money I suppose. I must not forget the reality of EVIL though.) Anyway, my office mate who is officially declared a "combat veteran", did a six session treatment with K. He was expecting a treatment but this IS a study not a treatment. That came about by questioning the VA specifically on mushroom therapy for depression. Their answer was NO, they're was no program or study to participate in at least not for him. But the K sessions are/were a study. He described the experiences, in a broad overview, very much like you and Dani in the posts made about them. I, of course, HAD to know all of the details about it. Without being too invasive or unsympathetic at least what I could glean from him.


He described six sessions of controlled and intimately monitored tripping on K. As one might expect from medical professionals monitoring of vitals and response(s) from the physiological standpoint seems to be pretty thorough.But to my surprise there was no "psychotherapy" or "counseling" (that was shared with me but I did ask him that question specifically) involved which I find interesting. Then again it's a STUDY. I understand this is a "pilot" or trial study not a program yet. So no one really "knows" how to go about it. Surely this is one way of figuring out, you know learning/discovering, the "details" of such therapy. Assuming they do find a way to use these tools therapeutically I envision the methods changing accordingly.
 

There's not going to be any cookie cutter cures I'm certain of that. Hopefully the point is to eventually provide relief and healing for people that are suffering. (IMHO, ending corporate and thus stockholder driven warfare events around this beautiful blue marble would also be of great help but that is completely off topic here. Diversified portfolio's and consumerism directly fuel this beast) As a side observation, oddly we're looking to the very entities that have CREATED THE FUCKING PROBLEMS to "allow" us to find cures. Yeah, the same one that has an entire department (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms/explosives) dedicated to the generation of REVENUE that controls these things for us. I feel so warm and fuzzy inside knowing there is an almighty authority out there looking out for me...(if you take that last stream as anything other than sarcasm please label it facetious)


Untreated PTSD is not a joke and it's also far more common than some folks would think.......Speaking strictly from that stance, I haven't seen much improvement in my co-worker as a result of his participation in the K study. He's acting like you can "take a pill" and get a "cure". I tried to softly, dare I say gently, express that it wasn't going to work that way. He is not by any means experienced with psychedelics other than perhaps recreational partying. We come from a generation where "men" don't have emotional issues, are tough, and never cry. Suffering is some badge of honor, suck it up buttercup....and on and on and on. Sadly I suspect he will carry his malady to the grave if it doesn't actually drive him there as well....


Personally I spent my first decade back from the service drowning the entire scope of life out with shitty Scotch whiskey among other molecular structures and still managed to get my degree and go to work every day. In fact professionally I progressed just fine (but emotionally and spiritually not really of course and yet to corporate my "results" were more than just acceptable). My service is not characterized by congress, the VA, or even the fucking VFW as anything more than a DD-214. I'm not eligible for care, programs, or studies. The VFW say's I'm eligible and they want me to become an "associate member". Hahaha....fuck off! In fact after seeing how the VA, "government", and most other people treat us I'm not interested in them anyway. THEY, I know who are "they" caused some of my deepest "issues" so how the fuck could one expect to find relief there???? No that's just foolishness, I still can't even discuss the shit that I know...

 

 

So we have a global war on terrorism being waged by people that practice terrorism and multiple religious organizations who's underlying basis is very much terrorism "guiding" humanity along the path to???? I personally do not have much hope in any of these "organizations" or "authorities" at all. That might sound dark but the possibilities that I do see lie directly with psychedelic experiences and interaction with others on the same paths. It is just beginning, in an infancy if I may, to emerge on this cycle of human civilization.....where we go from here is up to us individually and then collectively.....we have a long bumpy journey ahead of us. LOVE and a sympathetic ear/heart really helps.... I think humans need to learn how and more importantly why to CRY again.....but that's just me.   


Ahhhhh...then a couple of heroic doses of the fungus though not only helped but exorcised most of those "demons". I haven't been drunk in many years now. I found that I could in fact still feel and process emotions. Actually I learned a great deal and thus gained an emotional education and intelligence that I was missing. That worked so well I also cured myself of nicotine addiction too. The beauty of the mushrooms is that they grow, nay THRIVE, in the wild. Accidental? Coincidental? Whatever people want to believe.......


I pray that your friend finds meaningful relief...I pray that humanity finds meaningful relief and evolutionary growth......but I'm not very hopeful at this point. Reality IS what we make it to be within the boundaries of universal physical and probably spiritual "laws"......

 

 

I find solace in making dirt and deep breathing.........and of course LOVE...

 

A

 

EDIT: funny how I miss typing the words that run through my mind.....sometimes I assume the people around me are telepathic and can actually hear the 45 threads that are playing simultaneously in various parts of my being.....

Edited by Arathu, 02 December 2021 - 10:17 AM.

[Pepper34045]

A, thank you so, so much for your thorough and lovely response. I’m sad to hear your friend suffers with PTSD. I’ve been diagnosed with C-PTSD, along with a slew of other obstacles, so I don’t know firsthand how difficult war or veteran PTSD is to deal with. I hope your friend is thriving, or at least not suffering.

Thank you for bringing up the point that it is a study not a treatment. That is very important, and I’m sure that’s been stressed to my friend looking to undergo the experiment, but he has a tendency to act impulsively. In this situation, I’m concerned he has put all his hope for relief into this one method. I’ll be sure to tell him that I’m here for him no matter the outcome, and that if this doesn’t work, I’ll help him find other methods to try (if he wants my help).

I also heavily appreciate, as a young woman heavily connected to her emotions, your emphasis on working together as a human race, learning to cry and why we do it, and overall emotional well-being. Back in the day, from my understanding, it was the norm that mental health wasn’t discussed, treated, or even taken seriously. Luckily, times have changed. Hopefully my friend will get what he needs out of this experience. I can even begin to imagine how he would handle the emotional turmoil he’s going through currently if he’d been born back in the day when mental health and it’s treatment weren’t really prominent.

I, too, find solace in making dirt, deep breathing, and love. Thank you so much, A. I feel like I got to know you more! And I appreciate it :)

[Myc]

Drugs alone cannot cure aberrant mental processes - behaviors, ticks, random thoughts, etc. (The stuff that distracts the organized mind and keeps us running in circles repeating the mistakes of the past.)

 

It is my feeling that one cannot quit anything. Instead one must learn new disciplines. I believe this is why Mycotopia is so useful in putting the individual in control of their recovery process.

We come here and learn very technical processes which radically alter our usual life paths. Watching plants grow, studying microbes, learning about the science behind propagation and cultivation.........All of these disciplines are just that - new, complicated processes with which to feed and nurture the organized mind. That little, inner child which distracts the organized mind needs to be put to work on something productive.

 

My approach to therapy is drastically different than the AMA approach (and I'm not a doctor by any stretch of the imagination).

I have recently started working on an idea where I come to your kitchen and use your supplies to perform the PT Tek. My first appointment is coming up this Saturday.

While engaging in the process of learning to produce one's own therapeutic supplies - we're likely to have a conversation or two. I'm no counselor but I've been to the edge a few times and stared into the abyss. I've met God - He/She/It - and have learned that the terms of life are simple. It is we who complicate matters excessively.

If the idea works, I'll expand it into a "classroom" style setting so others can sign-up, gather, and learn.

 

".....we'd like to help you learn to help yourself......"

[FLASHINGROOSTER]

Drug users have been relegated to the bottom of society for so long its hard for the average person to even consider that there could be benefits to legal drugs other than tripping your balls off for pleasure. I feel like much of the research work has already been done though, thousands of years ago we realized the benefits of these magical drugs when it comes to mental health. I feel like only more recently with our waves of puritanism and patented drugs that have allowed us to forget all the lessons. You see it in the traditional ceremonies, similar methods that seasoned users often describe on here. Things like a shaman or trip sitter. Using intent to focus on certain idea be it an idol on an alter or trying the silent darkness approach. . Another form a shaman could take in my opinion once they become main stream accepted is a psychologist. But then again maybe there is something special to be had outside of that uncomfortable clinical setting.

 

The idea that they teach from within and allow us to see our selves more clearly, I believe it was one of the cacti that was refereed to as the "little teachers" in tradition. A term I have culturally appropriated for mushrooms.  Like Myc said all they really do is allow you to see, you still have to take those steps to where you know you want to be.

 

You might enjoy this it is most of what I know about Ketamine, the other was listening to Reggie Watts talk about it. Although his was for experimentation rather than seeking relief from something like PTSD. Ketamine sounds really odd to me, to be so dissociated, but that might be the point when dealing with past trauma. I know MDMA works in that regard but it is the pure serotonin pump that battles off dark thoughts that makes it work

 

[Direct Link]

 

 

Here is the full episode sorry no youtube

 

https://www.dailymot...m/video/x6up25i

Edited by FLASHINGROOSTER, 08 December 2021 - 03:18 PM.

[Pepper34045]

Thanks, Myc and Rooster for your contributions. I will probably be sending him the link to this thread. Hopefully he gives it a read. I really appreciate you guys. <3