this is incredible
everyone should feel what it
what it is like
to feel this connected
to everyone
[Music]
you've likely heard of the drug ketamine
originally discovered in 1962 it's used
in hospitals for surgeries and
procedures of all kinds in the 80s and
90s it became a very popular party drug
but today it is being used as a
treatment for severe depression anxiety
ptsd chronic pain and more med circle
producer bridget and myself went to
beverly hills california to get our very
first ketamine infusion treatments it
was incredibly eye opening and
insightful and i hope you find the same
insight in this documentary if you've
not subscribed to this youtube channel
please do it helps us spread this
credentialed mental health information
to those that need it enjoy this program
and remember whatever you're going
through you got this
ketamine is a research-backed medication
that's providing a fast path to relief
from mental health issues for patients
who just have not responded to
traditional treatments but not everyone
is a candidate before we received our
infusion bridget and i underwent a
thorough screening process with the
doctor we also consulted with our
personal psychiatrist
hey kyle i'm kyle this is callie hey
kelly
hey i'm dr stewart i'm bridgette hey
bridget nice to meet you as well
as one pack it is yeah
so they ask for all the normal stuff and
then they go through your
mental health history which
most doctors don't ask in this much
detail
um
and then they go through your general
history as well
and then just now
you're going to take the bex depression
inventory
to see how depressed you really are
i know people who've had ketamine
because they were in a hospital going
into a procedure
but i don't know anyone
i didn't even know ketamine was a street
drug until we started to do this story
let's see what my anxiety score is
so i filled out the beck depression form
and calculated my score
and it's a score from one to more than
40
and i'm a 36
which puts me in the severe depression
category
which considering my history does make
sense then i did the beck anxiety form
and on a scale from 0 to more than 36 i
am a 26 which puts me in moderate
anxiety
which is between 22 and 35 so i'm on the
low end of moderate anxiety and i'd say
that's true i most of the time i'm not
very anxious so that seems in line with
how i actually feel and view my own
mental health
my name is dr michael stoyer i'm the
founder and
owner of the pacific academy institute
pki here in beverly hills i'm an
anesthesiologist in terms of my
background i did my anesthesia residency
training at harvard massachusetts
general hospital back in the 80s and
early 90s and i've been in practice for
approximately 32 years and we just did
20 minutes of paperwork between the two
of us we give it back to you guys what
are you using that paperwork for we want
to make sure that ketamine is safe for
you that there aren't any
so-called contraindications or uh
medical um aspects of your history uh
that would preclude you from having
ketamine infusion somebody with
uncontrolled high blood pressure is
somebody
who's allergic to ketamine which is very
unusual
somebody
who has let's say schizophrenia
somebody has a problem with their liver
let's say somebody has hepatitis or
liver failure
because ketamine is metabolized by the
liver it wouldn't be appropriate for
something like that ketamine is very
useful for depression and anxiety it's
also used for ptsd um it has been used
for
addiction disorder it's been used very
frequently for co for bipolar disorder
it's now being thought
to be helpful for migraine and certain
types of neuropathic
chronic pain
we've seen tremendous benefit uh from
people who have been very frustrated
with the
traditional modes of treatment for
depression and mood disorders depression
anxiety ocd
uh where people have really felt stuck
using ssris snris what are ssr as drugs
like zoloft prozac
etc lexapro when you first start your
initial academy infusion what we'll do
is we'll bring you back into one of our
very comfortable deluxe rooms uh where
there's a very comfortable reclining
chair
here we go
ladies and gentlemen
we're going to pre pre-treat with a drug
called zofran which is a very powerful
anti-nausea drug i'm sorry about that
and are there any side effects of
getting zofran besides not feeling
nauseous
that's pretty much it that's a nice side
effect too and i'm getting it right now
i'm going to give you give it to you in
a second
i'm not afraid of needles or blood or
anything like that
i talk when i'm nervous so
that's okay it's normally or
nervousness and excitement are the same
emotion
it's just on different sides of
the coin so to speak
so i think it's just
excitement
that's
it's like right like
yeah that's what you got to tell
yourself
uh we tend to dim the lights because
during uh ketamine infusions patients
senses tend to be very heightened you
tend to hear
sounds noises uh much more
intensely than if you
had not been in ketamine the same thing
is true
with
the visual experience of ketamine so we
tend to really kind of mute the
experience so that it's it's not
overly sensory overload for you people
are always a little nervous the first
time after that it's like i know what to
expect okay but this is like nothing
you've ever experienced before so yeah
it's understandably he's a little bit
nervous about this
i would be
yeah and i've never done it
recreationally so
i have no idea what to expect
here we go
i feel nothing yeah
okay we are plugged in and ready to go
can you feel it yet
um
i think so
pretty soon it's gonna be more than i
think so okay you're just you're just
starting to get there i'll be back in a
few minutes okay okay
so what should i do right now
just kick back and relax
[Music]
have you asked me anything
how's it how's it going how does it feel
incredible
[Music]
what are the thoughts that are in your
mind
um
that were all
connected
that were all together
that like
we
it's just so clear like we
are all in this together
what is this we're all in this together
what is this
[Music]
well i mean
like our our lives our our purpose our
soul
we're all
it's crazy how we're all together
yeah
i can i can tell that i'm very
[Music]
um
[Music]
everyone can feel what it
what it is like
to feel this connected
to everyone
it's incredible
on a science level or a neurological
level what's going on during the
treatment
uh during the treatment ketamine is
known to
modulate the so-called glutamate
receptors in your brain glutamate is a
an important
neurotransmitter in the brain it's an
amino acid it's one of the building
blocks of protein but it also uh is
involved in the
signal processing of brain chemistry and
it tends to open up uh different foci in
the brain different areas that help
make you feel much better in terms of
your mood
how do you encounter
this is
yes
this is this is incredible
yeah
this is this is amazing
i i wish people could hear what i'm
hearing right now
you know
totally what does it sound like
i just um
[Music]
i feel really
like grounded
i wanna i wanna go i wanna go
back where i was
where i like got it
do you already feel a lot a lot more
normal
no i i can i can still
feel the effects of it right now
um
that was incredible
um how's your mood right now
it's pretty good yeah i feel like
compared to usual let's say on a scale
of one to ten with ten being the the
most the just the best you could ever
imagine feeling completely euphoric
where would you say you are now
on a scale of one to ten where which
they were before
before i was probably at 5 i would say
now i'm at
8 or 9. beautiful that's awesome yeah i
feel i had a lot of anxiety coming here
um
i feel a lot more calm i typically have
an anxiety that follows me everywhere
and i don't have that at all right now
for the first time in a really long time
that's really fantastic yeah good yeah
it feels really good i made a believer
out of you yeah you did
ironically i feel clear-headed even
though right now i know i'm not clear
you're clear-headed with sleepy yes
exactly right yes
um
i mean just a really incredible
experience really wow just
man
i i i didn't want that to stop i didn't
want it to end i wanted it i wanted to i
wanted i want to stay in that space
of like
let me ask you a question on a scale of
one to ten with one being
uh the worst intending
the the most happy the most relaxed most
calm
where were you before and where are you
right now on a scale of one to ten
i don't think you can use a scale for
this
off the charts i don't think that i
don't think a scale
is a good measurement measuring tool for
this one through ten it doesn't work for
this
not linear
it's uh
it's too great
it's probably
been
30 minutes since
our treatment i feel um
a little dizzy
and actually a little nauseous oh really
yeah
[Applause]
it's not
bad or overwhelming but i wouldn't want
to go for a jog right now or um
i wouldn't want to read a book
you know
fortunately the nausea passed in about
30 to 45 minutes and the days following
i felt noticeably better i wrote down my
thoughts and recapped the experience in
an article that you can read using the
links below bridget also shares her
experience with ketamine infusion
treatments whether we would do them
again and how long we notice the
positive effects from the infusions
again you can read that and more using
the links below would you ever try a
ketamine infusion treatment leave your
answers in the comments section below
and thanks again for watching