Your brain is complex beyond belief. Only weighing a few pounds, your brain contains thoughts, feelings, sensations, and patterns, all carried by tiny neurotransmitters and brief electrical impulses. In many ways, your brain is the source of what you think of as “you,” even though it’s just a small part of your whole body mass.
Mental health conditions and lived experiences of trauma alter your brain in ways that are difficult to live with. Major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) transforms your sense of yourself, often not for the better. You may feel sad or hopeless, or struggle with intrusive thoughts that constantly seem to take you back to the worst moments of your life, like a film strip you’d really like to stop replaying.
While trauma changes your brain, treatment can create positive changes, as well. At Iconic Infusions, PLLC, located in Fayetteville, North Carolina, board-certified anesthesiologist Dr. Bryant S. Edwards focuses on the therapeutic power of the dissociative drug ketamine.
Therapeutic intravenous (IV) ketamine encourages transformative changes and new connections in your brain and has been shown in studies to improve many mental health conditions. In this blog, Dr. Edwards covers the many therapeutic uses of ketamine.
We all feel sad or worried sometimes, but when you can’t escape your low mood or anxious thoughts, you may have depression or an anxiety disorder. These two mental health conditions also often show up together in people’s lives and can have a derailing effect on their goals and dreams.
People living with depression should know that ketamine shows promise as an effective way to deal with even treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine is FDA-approved as a treatment for depression. If you’ve tried everything to get out from under your persistent depression and continue to suffer from symptoms, ketamine may be able to make a lasting, positive difference in your mental health.
As a veteran, Dr. Edwards understands the devastating impact untreated PTSD can have on your life. Military service may result in PTSD, as may a wide range of adverse life experiences, from surviving an accident to going through a contentious divorce or a difficult experience of personal loss. IV ketamine therapy can help relieve PTSD symptoms and restore your peace of mind after living through all of these types of trauma.
The dissociative effect of ketamine allows your brain to stop replaying traumatic experiences over and over. That way, the “rut” of harmful thoughts in your brain can heal. Ketamine treatment also encourages your brain to develop new pathways and build new connections, allowing you to find a fresh start after going through difficult times.
Ketamine therapy isn’t just useful for regulating thoughts and feelings. Treatment can also potentially help with chronic pain. Because chronic pain registers in your brain, ketamine therapy may be able to disrupt the negative feedback loop causing your symptoms and work as a long-term form of pain relief.
Ketamine treatment is non-addictive and well-tolerated by most patients. You may need multiple infusion sessions spaced apart over time for best results. The improvement you experience may be long-lasting, causing your mental health or chronic pain condition to cease troubling you completely, or significantly reducing the intensity of your symptoms.
To learn more about what you can use IV ketamine to treat, both physically and mentally, contact Dr. Edwards at Iconic Infusions, PLLC. Schedule your initial consultation by calling us today or request your appointment online now.
