Ketamine in context-- From substance abuse to psychedelic therapy
Explicit content warning
12/31/21 • 72 min
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Expectation, set, setting, dosage, and route of administration provide the context and scaffolding for psychoactive drugs. An IV morphine drip can make unbearable pain completely manageable, while IV heroin, which is immediately converted to morphine once it crosses the blood brain barrier, destroys tens of thousands of lives a year. A benzodiazepine such as lorazepam, when taken orally at sensible doses, can stop a panic attack in its tracks, yet snorting or injecting benzodiazepines, or mixing them with alcohol, can lead to complete blackout and terrible consequences. Taking psilocybin mushrooms with friends out in nature vs at night alone in the darkened streets of an unfamiliar city vs with a trained trauma therapist in a healing setting—- the resulting risks, benefits, and experiences are mind-blowingly different.
In today’s story we hear Graham’s long and winding road with various drugs and alcohol in the context of childhood trauma and bipolar disorder, with a particular emphasis on his complicated relationship with ketamine. For years, he used and abused massive quantities of ketamine, yet now he has transitioned to using ketamine in a therapeutic context with Dr. H, and the experience of ketamine, the consequences, and the end results are just shockingly different....all because of expectation, set, setting, dosage, and manner of administration.
Audio note: Graham's emotional support dog makes some intermittent appearances on his microphone
BFTA on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
Send us your questions for Fishbowl 6!
Expectation, set, setting, dosage, and route of administration provide the context and scaffolding for psychoactive drugs. An IV morphine drip can make unbearable pain completely manageable, while IV heroin, which is immediately converted to morphine once it crosses the blood brain barrier, destroys tens of thousands of lives a year. A benzodiazepine such as lorazepam, when taken orally at sensible doses, can stop a panic attack in its tracks, yet snorting or injecting benzodiazepines, or mixing them with alcohol, can lead to complete blackout and terrible consequences. Taking psilocybin mushrooms with friends out in nature vs at night alone in the darkened streets of an unfamiliar city vs with a trained trauma therapist in a healing setting—- the resulting risks, benefits, and experiences are mind-blowingly different.
In today’s story we hear Graham’s long and winding road with various drugs and alcohol in the context of childhood trauma and bipolar disorder, with a particular emphasis on his complicated relationship with ketamine. For years, he used and abused massive quantities of ketamine, yet now he has transitioned to using ketamine in a therapeutic context with Dr. H, and the experience of ketamine, the consequences, and the end results are just shockingly different....all because of expectation, set, setting, dosage, and manner of administration.
Audio note: Graham's emotional support dog makes some intermittent appearances on his microphone
BFTA on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
Previous Episode
Conversation with an underground psilocybin therapist
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As we are now coming to realize the impressive potential of psychedelics to treat trauma and depression, we also have to face the fact that they are still illegal. This reality has led to an explosion of underground therapy, a Wild West where anyone can set up shop as a shaman or therapist or healer and the buyer must beware.
Some people are finding healing in the underground psychedelic world, while others are encountering ethically-challenged and/or naive underground practitioners who are causing more harm than good. Here Dr. H sits down with Sarah, an underground therapist who is doing this important work in a mindful and ethical way.
Sarah has been doing underground psilocybin work for seven years and comes from a place of her own severe childhood trauma, a journey where she found healing with psilocybin and was then compelled to offer this path to others. Sarah and Dr. H explore whom she works with and why, how she thinks about psilocybin in the therapeutic toolkit, how other underground therapists get themselves into trouble, and finally she offers wisdom about how one might enter into underground therapy in a thoughtful way.
BFTA on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA on Facebook
@Back From The Abyss Podcast
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
Next Episode
Treatment resistant depression: Ketamine vs ECT vs TMS with Dr. Daniel Fisher
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ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) has long been the last stop for severe and treatment resistant depression, but now there are at least two other good options for those who don't respond to meds and therapy. Dr. Dan Fisher, an ECT expert, founder of Colorado's Guerra Fisher Institute , and Craig's go-to psychiatrist for tough cases, joins BFTA to discuss how and when to think about ECT vs ketamine vs TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) .
BFTA on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/backfromtheabysspodcast/
BFTA/ Dr. H
https://www.craigheacockmd.com/podcast-page/
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