“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

One of the key aspects to living a fulfilling life is to use our natural curiosity to explore our world, and to learn and grow ourselves. Trying new things or doing what you most love out there in the world helps keep our minds nimble as we age. It helps us build strong bonds with others who share in our happiness. But the mind has a powerful hold on us sometimes that makes finding one’s peace more challenging. And traumatic experiences can grab hold in one’s mind creating stubborn neurological patterns that lead to an entrenched cycle in the brain’s circuitry. Ketamine infusion helps re-establish new connections in the brain, helping to dislodge the repetitive cycle and their power over the mind. Aside from medication to help treat major depression, other recommended activities to help one move out of a state of “being in a rut” include music, movement, building social connections while engaging in a new hobby – all activities that help disrupt the repetitive thoughts of depression and other mental ailments. More seriously, there are individuals who have tried all manners of dislodging established patterns of thought and deeper neuronal connections, some of whom have struggled with suicidal thoughts and tendencies for a majority of their life. Ketamine infusion treatments can help provide a path to a fulfilling life for those who have had little respite from clinical depression.

As Sanjay Gupta and Ben Ticker point out in this CNN article, Ketamine infusions help create new synaptic connections in the brain. And the experiences that these new connections often bring to the individual is mind bending. New perspectives may emerge, new ways of understanding one’s place in the world, that can bring about profound change and help move one out of a deep state of depression. Especially when combined with other modes of being that stretch one’s experiences and help create a new approach in life.

As we begin to understand better how the brain fundamentally works, we are also learning the benefits of treatments that have proven efficacy in the psychiatric realm for the last half century. Yet only now are we able to move forward with more confidence in how Ketamine treatment is affecting the mind/brain in specific ways. (Please visit this resource for a comprehensive bibliography of Ketamine related research.) The dissociative mode produced by Ketamine provides the brain with a powerful tool to work through entrenched neuropathways and mental ideations which can provide relief from many forms of suffering. The breakthroughs that Ketamine infusion provides is a breath of fresh air for both clinicians anxious for more treatments that effectively help their patients; and especially important for patients seeking relief from great suffering. A mind stretching aid for the mental health community proves to be a lifeline for many as they recount their experiences with this new approach to emotional healing. To learn of ketamine infusion from another recently published, first hand-experience I recommend you read this reflection from Alice Levitt. For a free consultation to discuss the promising treatment of Ketamine infusion with one of our clinicians, please call or set-up an online appointment today.

By Isbel Cruz-Chaudhry Aug 31, 2018