# Anyone tried to self-medicate/cure with ketamine?



## Endofdaze (Oct 31, 2008)

First post, yay:

Anyway I know it seems rather counter-intuitive, given that K is classes as a 'disassociative' but does anyone have any experiences with ketamine and it's effects on DP?

I ask because ketamine has been reputed to have something of a 'reset' effect on the brain, I know someone who uses it because a single doseage will have a long term positive effect on his addiction to amphetamines. He says one experience with 100mg - 200mg completely erases his cravings until he uses again. Within the club/party drug culture, K is often used as a recovery drug because it helps erase the feeling of scatteredness/disconnection/depression that results from heavy ecstasy/amphetamine abuse, these feelings have a lot in common with the DP experience, at least to me, except DP feels like it occurs at a deeper level, and is more long-term.

Maybe I'm just feeling desperate, but has anyone considered this? I know it's a pretty big stretch to rely on anecdotal evidence, but worth a shot.


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## voidvoid (Sep 5, 2008)

I dunno man, Isnt ketamine a horse tranquilizer? If you are not on any other drugs and not under the influence of alcohol and know that the stuff is of quality i guess you could try a small/average dose. You should wait for Comfortably Numb to answer this.


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## wael (Sep 5, 2008)

I'm more interested in the effect of xtc(mdma) on people with Dp. I used less then half a pil, when i wasn't on any medication, but I felled nothing spectacular. Maybe try a whole pil in the future, but im a bit anxious.
I have no experience with ketamine, i read there is little new evidence that it could work as anti-depressive, but off label it is, as you stated a dissociative.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

LOL, that is actually a very interesting idea. Could one who is dissociated become re-connect by using Special K? Almost like how they give kids with ADD/ADHD , amphetamines so that they become calm. I have taken many drugs, but never in my life would think about taking Ketamine. Most likely it will not cure someone with DP and more than likely since it is a dissociative drug it could have a high potential for making things worse. I am no expert, Interesting thought though.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Inzom said:


> I dunno man, Isnt ketamine a horse tranquilizer? If you are not on any other drugs and not under the influence of alcohol and know that the stuff is of quality i guess you could try a small/average dose. You should wait for Comfortably Numb to answer this.


Yes Comfortably Numb will most likely have an educated response for this question.


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## MrEggsalad (Oct 2, 2008)

Your idea got me curious, so I started researching just why Ritalin and such treats ADD, apparently it has to do with how it works with the dopamine levels, so the stimulant part is just simply (as my understanding) a side effect, or it could be that it stimulates the nervous system enough to focus.

With your idea and ketamine, I would assume that it would only make it worse, but by like 1000 times. With drugs like Ritalin and how they work on kids with ADD, it changes something in the brain for them, but just from reading, I get the feeling ketamine would do nothing more than add to the feeling of dp.


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## Endofdaze (Oct 31, 2008)

wael said:


> I'm more interested in the effect of xtc(mdma) on people with Dp. I used less then half a pil, when i wasn't on any medication, but I felled nothing spectacular. Maybe try a whole pil in the future, but im a bit anxious.
> I have no experience with ketamine, i read there is little new evidence that it could work as anti-depressive, but off label it is, as you stated a dissociative.


I've taken MDMA (very high dose) once after the onset of my DP, and while it provided temporary relief, it was just that, temporary, followed by the usual heavy crash expected after a strong MDMA experience. However if you took the drug in a controlled setting for the expressed purpose of exploring psychological issues and attempting to get to the root of your DP, you might be able to help, similar to how therapeutical use of MDMA helps with PTSD and therapeutical LSD can help cancer patients come to terms with their imminent death.

Like I said though this is as a combination of a controlled clinical setup and appropriate use of the drug. I'm not suggesting anyone just go out and randomly grab a few pills and drop them at a club and expect them to help with your DP. If anyone has or wants to experiment with using it in this manner to control/help with their DP, I'd love to hear their opinions on it though.

Likewise the reason I think Ketamine could help is, as I mentioned in my first post, it can be used to erase amphetamine cravings and aftereffects of amphetamine/MDMA useage.

This interests me because my DP seems heavily linked to my caffeine dependance, while caffeine doesn't act on dopamine and seratonin in the same manner that amphetamines do, it still falls under the same class of drug effects. I first started getting symptoms when I started drinking caffeine heavily on a daily basis for work, and quitting it and going through withdrawals coincided with my first major DP attack. Even now 2 months later my symptoms are 100x worse if I don't drink a cup or two every day, and they didn't improve much even after an attempt at quitting for 2 weeks. I gave up at the 17 day mark, simply couldn't deal with DP so bad I could barely function. At least with the caffeine it's still there, but at the back of my mind, I can actually deal with day to day life.

I guess it's a bit of a long shot, but if K can help with the symptoms of abuse for one stimulant, might be able to do the same for another?

Not sure who Comfortablynumb is, but you guys seem to value his opinion on this topic so I'll wait and see if he has any input for this idea 

If I do attempt this it wouldn't be for a while anyway, I have to get a job before I can obtain any, and my current mental state is going to make that pretty rough. Just gotta force myself through it I guess.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

Since K is a dissociative drug to begin with and you are dissociated it seems like it would only make you more dissociated.


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## Endofdaze (Oct 31, 2008)

Yeah that's my worry. I don't think anything much would be gained by throwing myself into a khole for a couple hours. I'd start out with a small dose that should have minimal hullucinagenic/disassociative effects, then try a slightly higher dose in a few days, and so on, until I can get a measure of what kind of effect it has on someone with DP.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

If you do follow through, thanks for being the guinea pig.


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## rektchords (Nov 2, 2008)

yeah.. 2 weeks ago i tried k for the first time, i some times i do abit of coke or mdma and in small amounts doesnt seem to effect dp but never k.. basically my dp had gone off the fucking rails since i tried k.. the feels i had when i was on it where just a really messed up version of dp ... im currently waiting to go back to normal levels of dp, the use of k is the reason why i have come back to this forum as im real bad now.. my advise dont touch it at all!! jay


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

I havent seen any studies on treating depersonalization with ketamine and i don't know anyone who used ketamine to treat their dp but i have seen a few studies showing that it has alot of promise in treating depression. I also know of a few people who have treated their depression with ketamine and it worked better for them then anything else they tried.

Ketamine could help depersonalization i guess because it can reduce anxiety. I havent tried ketamine myself unfortunatly but i have tried the other dissociatives which are nitrous oxide, DXM and PCP. PCP i only tried once and it was about the most horrible substance ive ever ingested. I tried DXM maybe 50 times and got very mixed reactions to say the least. As for nitrous well it's one of my favourite drugs for sure. I could spend whole days taking hits of that stuff.

Im not going to tell anyone to try ketamine but if you want to be warned that it could go either way. It's a pretty safe drug but some people do get bad reactions to it and dissociatives in general. I would love to get some and try it out but since i no longer have dp/dr or brain fog (or atleast it's all in remission) i wouldnt be able to say if it helped or not.


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## Surfingisfun001 (Sep 25, 2007)

comfortably numb said:


> As for nitrous well it's one of my favourite drugs for sure. I could spend whole days taking hits of that stuff.


I'm right there with you. Getting my wisdom teeth pulled was the best thing that ever happened to me. :lol: Good times.


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## voidvoid (Sep 5, 2008)

Comfortably Numb may I ask you what drugs (if any) you are on and which drugs helped you get rid of the dp/dr and/or brainfog? Thanks in advance.


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

Inzom said:


> Comfortably Numb may I ask you what drugs (if any) you are on and which drugs helped you get rid of the dp/dr and/or brainfog? Thanks in advance.


Well im on quite a few drugs right now for various illnesses that i have. I will just mention the psychiatric meds here but if you want to know the rest PM me.

I am on clonazepam, lamotrigine (lamictal), wellbutrin, zopiclone to help me sleep sometimes and i also take seroquel when im having a manic episode or if im edgy. I have no need for it now really because ive been in a depressive episode for the past 2 months or so.

The drug that put my dp/dr and brain fog into total remission is clonazepam. I couldnt believe that it worked so well at getting rid of that problem as well as my anxety. I started taking it 3 years ago and my symptoms have not returned since.


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