Ketamine Therapy For Severe Anxiety

Severe anxiety can be quickly escalating and profoundly debilitating. If you’re a sufferer of severe anxiety, you know that the craving for relief can be almost unbearable.

Many sufferers are highly motivated to look for treatment. But the frustrating quest can make the anxiety symptoms even worse. When therapy is less effective or slower than expected, it’s especially difficult.

Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the United States — but effective treatments are still lagging behind.

When severe anxiety starts keeping you from your essential tasks, like holding a job and meeting your basic care needs…it’s time for something more. It demands acute, effective treatment.

That’s where ketamine shows remarkable results. Ketamine has been shown to be helpful in specialized anxiety disorders as well, like OCD, PTSD, and seasonal affective disorder. At Lighthouse Infusions, we’ve been privileged to watch patients transform into the person they never thought would come back.

The difference before and after treatment is striking. We know a positive therapeutic difference when we see one. That’s why we do what we do at Lighthouse Infusions & Seattle Ketamine.

Can psychedelics help severe anxiety?

When people think of using psychedelics for treating a mental health condition, their mind goes to street drugs like LSD or mushrooms.

Yet there’s a much larger (and safer) world of treating anxiety with psychedelics than this. We already use dissociatives in healthcare. If you’ve ever had a surgery or procedure that used ketamine as an analgesic, then you’ve already had a prescriber-given psychedelic treatment.

Ketamine, which is a dissociative and a psychedelic, works by creating a lucid, floating experience. That’s why it’s such an effective and commonly used drug for surgical anesthesia. It takes a patient with the potential stimulus for high stress (like a painful surgery or serious intrusive thoughts) and “takes off the edge”. This gives the patient a manageable experience.

But what happens once the ketamine session is over? Wouldn’t the person go right back to square one?

This is where ketamine’s benefits really start to shine. The treatment “trip” itself relieves symptoms, but once complete, your brain starts re-forming connections. Mental health diseases, like severe anxiety, depression, and more, involve neural pathways that are well-traveled but dysfunctional.

For someone with severe anxiety, the stimulus of being out in public or recalling a social interaction might shift immediately into a pathway to panic. And the more times our brain takes us down neural pathways, the more deeply the pathways become entrenched.

Can traditional medications and psychotherapy help rework these pathways? Absolutely. But for people with severe anxiety, the anxiety may have progressed to where staying compliant with long-term therapies is nearly impossible. If you struggle to go out in public, it’s hard to attend therapy.

Cases of severe anxiety need an acute treatment option to help jump-start relief.

Does your severe anxiety look like this?

When we first meet patients coming in for treatments for their severe anxiety, the symptoms are often clear and profound. Everything from mannerisms to their health history is wracked by significant stress.

Do you share any of these symptoms of severe anxiety?

• You have tremendous difficulty at work. Anxiety makes functioning at your job a nightmare. It’s not uncommon to be fully unable to work in the face of severe anxiety.
• You suffer from debilitating procrastination. Starting and completing projects is overwhelming, and the inability to finish tasks is sabotaging your life.
• You’re consumed by dread. It can range from specific worry to general foreboding. For example, you could feel overwhelmed at the task of keeping your kids safe, but also get a headache and stomach pain upon waking up.
• Your social anxiety is controlling your life. Simple tasks, like going on errands or meeting with others, feel overwhelming. You’ll find yourself putting them off if they’re “too much.”
• You struggle to release control. It’s hard to let go of the idea that if you’re in control of more factors, the more you can ensure things will go well. You’ll find yourself avoiding places and situations where you don’t feel prepared enough.
• Your sleep cycles are disturbed. Anxiety is prime food for insomnia. It’s also not uncommon for seriously anxious people to oversleep to avoid the stress of being awake.
• You’ve tried self-medicating. You lean into things like alcohol, marijuana, or prescription drugs to “take the edge” off the constant squeeze you feel.
• You keep suicide in the back of your mind as a last resort. It feels like that might be the only option if you’re feeling crushed.

Anxiety is a heavy, constant burden. That’s why when there’s relief, the signs are remarkable. We see them every day at Lighthouse Infusions & Seattle Ketamine. Would you consider ketamine therapy for severe anxiety?

What have you tried to relieve your anxiety?

Many people with severe anxiety are highly motivated to seek relief. And there’s an overwhelming amount of anxiety treatments to explore. Our patients are no strangers to trying lots of therapies.

Have you tried…

• Psychotherapy. Working through such heavy mental burdens takes consistency and faith in the process. Anxious patients can feel frustrated and heightened anxiety when talk therapy doesn’t bring relief as quickly as they want.
• Benzodiazepines. These powerful mood-altering drugs, like Xanax and Ativan, can help decrease the anxiety squeeze. However, they’re notorious for their addictive nature and gradual decline in effectiveness.
• Mood stabilizers. These medications, like Lamictal, have varying effects on different people. Many people suffering from both anxiety and depression report that the anxiety isn’t as intense, but neither are their pleasant experiences.
• Self-medication. Alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs are common, but temporary, places anxious people sometimes look for relief.
• Meditation. There’s an abundance of meditation and relaxation techniques available. But it’s often a self-defeating loop of trying harder and harder to relax.
• Electroconvulsive therapy. ECT is not classically used to treat anxiety, but it can be used for comorbidities, like anxiety-induced depression. Understandably, it’s not a reliable treatment for anxiety.

It’s time to try something that works. And that starts working sooner, not later.

What ketamine therapy can do for your severe anxiety

At Lighthouse Infusions, we see some of the most profound positive changes in our patients with severe anxiety. They come in with a clearly stressed demeanor. They’re wracked by intrusive thoughts, stress, social disconnect, and awkwardness. After even one or two doses, we can often see relief from the anxiety.

We hear things like:

Do you know what IV ketamine can do for YOUR anxiety? It can help you…

• Significantly decrease your symptoms. Many patients report that they didn’t realize just how much anxiety made things more difficult. Imagine all of your daily tasks and future goals feeling manageable.
• Help you let go more easily. Anxiety craves reassurance, but nothing can guarantee it. The psychedelic experience helps you go from frantically “trying as hard as you can to relax” to feeling like you can easily let go.
• Feel comfortable with social interactions. Reconnecting with others, attending social events, and interacting with others feels natural and much less draining. People around you are usually the first to notice the awkwardness melt away.
• Make work easier. When your demeanor isn’t clouded by a constant fog of anxiety, you’ll be able to face and tackle the things you need to—feeling capable and optimistic.
• Start successfully reducing your procrastination. Starting, pulling through, and finishing tasks become much more manageable when anxiety gets dialed down.
• Improve your sleep. Not only does it decrease insomnia—it reduces the temptation to avoid the world by staying in bed.
• Discover or rediscover the things you enjoy. This is one of our patients’ favorite outcomes. The relief of ketamine infusions gives you room to find the magic that you’ve felt was lost from activities.
• Feel good about your relationships. Pick up where you left off and be comfortable building on the relationships that matter to you.
• Kick self-medication. Relief from your anxiety strongly reduces the urge to drink or take drugs for relief.

Some of our patients that were having to go on disability for crippling anxiety are able to enjoy — and thrive — at work. Loved ones of the patients notice a difference first — they’re friendlier, more social, less awkward, and enjoy life more.

We see patients that were barely able to function before treatment have a radical transformation. After their treatment, they’re able to connect, manage tasks, and go to work with a new energy that isn’t clouded by anxiety.

Ready to try ketamine therapy for severe anxiety?

How do I start severe anxiety ketamine therapy in Seattle?

If you feel like you’ve run out of options for treating your severe anxiety, but you haven’t tried IV ketamine, we encourage you to consider it!

If you have questions about ketamine therapy for anxiety, we’re just a call, text, or email away. Eli can answer most of your questions immediately – and if you have any questions that Eli couldn’t answer, or ready to get care at Lighthouse Infusions, we can set you up with an intake phone call.

You’ll get to speak with Liana, our medical director and in-house anesthesia provider that delivers treatments. She’ll assess if ketamine will interact with any medications or conditions you have. She can also answer your medical questions and concerns. When you’re cleared, we can set up your initial 4 weeks of 6 infusions. If you currently have a diagnosis of severe anxiety, you may already have what you need to start ketamine treatment.

Liana will give you your infusions and stay by your side. You’ll never be alone during your therapy. Should you have questions or an unexpected feeling, she’s immediately available. If you need your dose adjusted, Liana’s there to assess and accompany you through your psychedelic therapy experience.

After the initial loading dose, and after tracking your therapy response on the app we provide, you can come in for booster infusions. Some people come monthly, while others come in every few months.

Set up an appointment with Seattle Ketamine here

Let’s get you relief from severe anxiety as soon as possible. Your daily tasks do not need to be as difficult as they are. To ask questions or set up an intake call, you can phone us at 425‑835‑2363 , send us a text , or email us at info@lhinfusions.com to set up your appointment.