Patient Testimonials Does Ketamine IV Drip Therapy Work?

Patient Testimonials Does Ketamine IV Drip Therapy Work?

Excerpts From Real Patients on How Ketamine Therapy Worked For Them

Veteran suicide prevention takes many forms. Here at Once A Soldier we believe that micro dosing psychedelics in its many forms should get more attention and resources. The infrastructure is already in place with many clinics run by Veterans who are also certified nurse practitioners. Ketamine is also off-patent which makes it lower cost and widely available.

After four years listening to Veteran suicide survivors, we believe that Veteran suicide prevention has found a champion in micro dosing psychedelics or ketamine IV-drip therapy.

We’ve funded partial payments for Veterans and think that the time is right for the VA to move quickly to add this to their approved and covered treatments.

But don’t take our work for it. Here are some excepts from real patients:

ketamin iv drip

“I would say the most memorable experience was when I had a feeling of releasing negative thoughts and feelings about my body. I live with a chronic illness and used to wish that I wasn’t stuck in this body. I am at a place of acceptance now, and it is so much more peaceful.”

Anonymous

“I have complex PTSD, I suffer from depression and anxiety. I started taking SSRIs almost 18 years ago. Although the medication took away my anxiety, it left me feeling numb. Trying to taper off SSRIs is incredibly difficult. It takes months to taper down safely and the withdrawal is unbearable. I believe a lot of people find themselves in the same situation.”

Anonymous

It’s been a life changer. My military experiences stayed with me once I got out…I’m the last person to use drugs, but I’m so much happier and more connected now.

Anonymous

 “The first ketamine iv was pleasant, relaxing. I felt myself floating, as in the womb, with my umbilical cord attached to a Universal Source of Life. This was such a wonderful gift, since I was feeling an aloneness after the deaths of my mother and sister.”

“In the second one I felt my body waking up. There was movement: an abstract, pulsating, continuously changing, unfolding fractal. And I felt the joy of breathing! My rib cage had been twisted in the accident, and suddenly I felt that area come alive, my lungs inflate, the diaphragm relax. Yay! I’m regaining the flow of life.”

“In the third ketamine session, I re-connected to my laughter. I had felt rather rigid after the accident, had lost the feeling of music in my body. Now, in this infusion the music was not just in my ears, but inside my body, the piano keys tickling and waking up my spine.  Also, I sensed a silence and spaciousness between the notes of music. I felt myself laughing not only with those sensations, but with the very improbable and wonderfully strange complexity of Life itself. I felt my body dancing with rhythm flowing through me.”

Anonymous

Our thanks to the following websites for making their content available for this Once A Soldier blog:

Reset Ketamine

Postvention Services Also Helps For Intervention and Prevention of Veteran Suicide

Postvention Services Also Helps For Intervention and Prevention of Veteran Suicide

Lessons Learned After a Suicide Must Cross Over

Once A Soldier Offers Postvention Services In The Time of Need

As the founder of Once A Soldier, the following is a bit embarrassing but true. I had no idea what postvention was. Prevention, sure. Intervention definitely. But postvention was not used that much. And why would it be? With government dollars flowing to prevention of veteran or soldier suicide, stopping it was where all the conversations were being held.

But we thought differently from the beginning. We looked at the family and thought they’ve been through enough. Let’s help them. No matter what it is called, it’s needed 16 times a day by veteran families. And we’ve come to see that what we do in postvention can help in prevention and therefore eliminate the need for intervention.

What is Postvention?

A postvention is an intervention conducted after a suicide, largely taking the form of support for the bereaved (family, friends, professionals and peers). From this site, family and friends of the suicide victim may be at increased risk of suicide themselves. Postvention is a term that was first coined by Shneidman (1972), which he used to describe “appropriate and helpful acts that come after a dire event.” In Schneidman’s view, “the largest public health problem is neither the prevention of suicide nor the management of suicide attempts, but the alleviation of the effects of stress in the survivors whose lives are forever altered.”[1] Postvention is a process that has the objective of alleviating the effects of this stress and helping survivors to cope with the loss they have just experienced.

The aim is to support and debrief those affected; and reduce the possibility of copycat suicide. Interventions recognize that those bereaved by suicide may be vulnerable to suicidal behaviour themselves and may develop complicated grief reactions.

 

PTSD Teaches On Both Sides of The Tragedy

The biggest crossover lesson is that PTSD needs to be aggressively dealt with on both sides of the death. While more and more research offers hope for amazing results, we can’t wait. PTSD has a nasty way of infecting those who come in contact with it. Living with a family member who has PTSD puts everyone in that mindset. Unfortunately, when and if that person kills themselves, the PTSD doesn’t die with them. It just passes to more and more people.

Postvention starts the moment suicide prevention and intervention fail. Someone has to find the body. Someone may hear the gunshot. Someone has to call the police, deal with the coroner and the police. There are grim realities that give PTSD the opportunity to grow. 

The only good news is that the same preventative measures that can reduce or eliminate PTSD are the same ones that can be used in postvention. Here in north Florida, we are set to launch a new equine therapy for Veterans and their families with PTSD. The healing power of these strong, silent animal teachers crosses over to those in need. There’s an almost magical power that horses have. Their size and strength command respect. Their temperament commands a quiet and calm demeanor that also teaches us all a lesson in calm.

Experimental Trials Are Becoming the Norm, Not The Outlier

Finally, COVID-19 changed the rules for how fast we can come up with a medical answer for a world-wide crisis. That same lesson must be learned by our representatives when we try to attack the prevention, intervention and postvention of Veteran suicide. Getting help from concept to delivery is critical when it comes to saving lives, whether tis for a pandemic or a national crisis.

There are many options that hit the headlines that also hit the general public the wrong way. They have a hard time getting comfortable with. Too bad. Get over it and get these options in front of those most in need. If you gave a Veteran or the family who lost a Veteran a choice between something that was experimental and a prescription for the same old thing, our guess is that they know they need to try something new. As a nation fighting an unseen enemy, new thinking will help us win.

I WANT TO HELP
I NEED HELP

ABOUT ONCE A SOLDIER

Our Veterans are killing themselves in record numbers mostly due to PTSD. An overmatched VA can’t take care of them or their families. We will.

Soldier suicide leaves Veteran families with thousands of dollars of bills unpaid, mostly bank loans.

We are the only nonprofit standing with the families after a veteran suicide. Stand with us.

Our Mission: Become the preferred channel for donors, advocates and volunteers who care about veteran families left behind after a soldier suicide.