Ketamine

I'm going to try maintenance Ketamine, one infusion per month.

I don't know about infusions but I took ketamine liquid thru snorting (w/ prescription from my Dr) and when I came down every day I felt very suicidal.

If anyone knows how to access ketamine for depression in Canada, please post.

I started intranasal ketamine last week, it's a once a week dosage. Waaay cheaper than infusions, and there isn't anywhere closer than a 3 hour drive that does infusions.

Pdoc and pharmacist are interested to see how I respond. I am too, I guess. It definitely made me feel loopy last week, which I think is to be expected from an anesthetic. That effect wore off in a couple of hours. So far, no suicidal thoughts. Well, at least not anything serious.

I took intranasal ketamine every day and the effect felt instantaneous. They are using ketamine anasthesia with ECT now. Personally, I'd stay away from that.

Daily? I don't think I could do that; at least not at my current dose. But weekly seems to be helping!

For the poster from Canada, do you have compounding pharmacies there? That is where I get mine. It is not (as far as I know) available in the US as a pre-made nasal spray, but they can make it at this particular pharmacy.

I've self-medicated with ketamine for my depression for almost a year now. I was offered a referral to do infusions at a clinic, but it would be way too expensive for me to be able to afford. My pdoc and therapist are both aware of all of this, and don't explicitly endorse or condone it, but have not expressed disapproval or condemned it either.

I'm definitely not encouraging others to do this. I gave it a lot of thought and did a lot of research and decided that I fully understood the risks and that it was a risk I was willing to take. It's not a risk I would encourage anyone else to take, especially not before fully understanding all the possible risks, both legal and medical, and discussing it with a medical professional (your doctor can't call the cops on you for taking a drug illegally).

I'm also on Wellbutrin, which helps my depression to some degree, but I was still experiencing pretty serious depression and a lot of suicidal ideation until I began using the ketamine. When I first started the antidepressant/suicidal ideation alleviating effects only lasted 3-4 days. Over time, however, the effects began to last longer, and now I use it about once every month or two.

Holy crap I did not know you could be put on Ketamine. That is used to put animals to sleep where I worked. (Anesthesia)

I take intranasal ketamine: prescribed by pdoc, made at a compounding pharmacy. I've been on it for about a month (I take it once a week, a nasal spray).

I.have.not.had.a.single.suicidal.thought since I started it.

I still sometimes wish I was dead, but those of you who have been actively suicidal know that those thoughts are not even in the same league as true suicidal thoughts. I had daily battles with myself to not suicide for years.

Ketamine is my new best friend.

I'm so happy for you!

I know exactly what you're talking about. It was so weird to realize that my suicidal ideation wasn't that my life was that bad or that I was that depressed, it was some other aspect of my brain chemistry that could just be flipped off like a switch.
(I'm not saying I wasn't depressed, just that the suicidal ideation was a separate phenomenon)