Summary
Overview
Jordan Harbinger and researcher Nick Pell dive deep into the world of ketamine therapy, exploring its legitimate medical uses for treatment-resistant depression, PTSD, and chronic pain. Nick shares his personal experience with ketamine treatments for childhood PTSD, while they examine the science behind how it works, who it helps, and growing concerns about the commercialization of this powerful drug through mail-order clinics and aggressive advertising.
Nick's Personal Experience with Ketamine Therapy
Nick opens up about his struggle with complex PTSD from childhood trauma, which manifested in severe insomnia, night terrors, and rage episodes. After his former mother-in-law identified classic CPTSD symptoms, he decided to try ketamine therapy as a treatment option. His candid account reveals the treatment isn't recreational or pleasant—describing it as falling through space and time, losing all sense of body and reality, sometimes crying through entire sessions.
- Nick suffered from complex PTSD due to childhood trauma, sleeping only 2 hours a night with constant night terrors and rage issues
- The intake process took several weeks and included thorough blood work to ensure safety
- Treatment involves daily IV sessions for a week, then gradually spacing out visits over time
- Each session includes a medical attendant monitoring vitals throughout, as ketamine can be dangerous
- Nick hasn't needed treatment in 2.5 years and his chronic insomnia is resolved
" I genuinely don't understand why anyone uses ketamine recreationally. It's not fun. It's not awful, but the best I've ever felt on it was, like, vibing. "
" You just, you have no sense of time. So I don't want to focus on my own experience here because I didn't do it for medical reasons. But I did do it with a doctor because I'm not crazy. "
The History and Medical Development of Ketamine
Ketamine was synthesized in 1962 as a safer alternative to PCP (angel dust) and approved for medical use in 1970. It became widely used as a battlefield anesthetic in Vietnam because it worked quickly without suppressing breathing. Doctors noticed it caused hallucinations but also improved moods, though this wasn't taken seriously until the 1990s. A major breakthrough came in 2000 when Yale researchers discovered even single low doses were highly effective for treatment-resistant depression.
- Ketamine is synthetic, first synthesized in 1962 as an alternative to PCP
- Used extensively as battlefield anesthetic in Vietnam because it didn't suppress breathing
- Yale researchers in 2000 found single low doses highly effective for treatment-resistant depression
- Ketamine is Schedule III drug, making it heavily regulated but still allows off-label medical use
- FDA approved esketamine nasal spray (Spravato) in 2019, leading to explosion of clinics
" It weirdly starts off in American medical practice as an alternative to PCP. So ketamine is essentially the supposedly safer alternative to PCP's angel dust, right? "
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