I’ve been getting maintenance ketamine treatments for around 2 years or so. I haven’t done therapy during one of the treatments, but I imagine that would be very nice.

For me, it feels kinda similar to being drunk. I’ve never done recreational drugs aside from alcohol in college, so I don’t have much to compare it to. Some people get nauseous. Some folks feel like they aren’t real or sort of weird. It depends on the person. Just make sure your vitals are being monitored because the blood pressure spike can be pretty intense if you already have hypertension.

What works best for me when I’m in a panic is slow deep breaths in followed by a slow exhale. I always forgot about slowing down the exhale, but it’s really important. I started wearing a necklace that’s hollow like a straw to help when I’m too freaked out to force myself to do it.

Another tool I learned in counseling is going 5-4-3-2-1 through my senses. 5 things I can see, 4 things I can hear, 3 things I can touch, 2 things I can smell, 1 thing I can taste. You can mix up the senses if you want, and I don’t always get through the whole thing, but the act of looking for and naming things I can sense seems to help calm me down. It’s a pretty common grounding technique for disassociation.