Has anyone been fortunate enough to try out this treatment? There have been major clinical studies within the past 3-5 years providing data that shows that low-dose ketamine infusions can either decrease, or entirely alleviate depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in patients who do not respond to conventional anti-depressant medications.
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Have not researched this. Medication will not affect my suicidal ideation, as it is a decision based on an evaluation of my circumstances. However, this still sounds interesting.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-one-time-party-drug-is-helping-people-with-deep-depression/2016/02/01/d3e73862-b490-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html
I read both this and a linked article on TMS. Thank you for sharing this article. It actually sounds fun – like what I’ve heard described by people who have used magic mushrooms.
From someone who suffers from existential depression, which usually does not respond to anti-depressant medications and is based on logic and critical thinking, I can understand your view.
I just read the abstracts of two research studies and an MIH article. Will read this article too. Thanks.
*NIH…..oops
The existential depression isn’t easy to cure. The idea that no matter what you do, what you accomplish, or how you live your life will ultimately yield nothing. Since life is inherently meaningless, everything that we consider important or valuable really is not in the grand scheme of things.
All of those billions of people who came before you; they were born, they lived and they died. The majority have long since been forgotten. There’s no lasting vestige of their brief time spent on an insignificant, isolated planet spinning around in some galaxy called The Milky Way. When you and I die, we’ll be no different than the billions who came before us or the countless others who will succumb to the same fate later on
So I guess the question is “why bother”?
(Here’s the section where I’m supposed to play the part of the philosophical salesman).
You only get one life to live while you’re alive and busy being you. Find distractions, diversions, something that makes being alive worth getting out of bed for. Even if everything you do is ultimately meaningless, try to enjoy the time that you’re wasting. There’s a good chance that after you’re dead you won’t get to do as much as you did while you were alive. 🙂
I just read a few things about it. Are you considering the GLYX-13? Sounds like the side effects of Ketamine are a bit risky and the idea of using an in an emergency suicidal situation is disturbing, but I will read more.
I am eagerly waiting on Rapastinel to be available. I believe it just went through phase II of FDA testing and will soon start on phase III. I don’t think it will be released to the public until 2017. Not sure I may make it until then.
At least it provides hope as a motivator.
My dad had existential depression. He tried to “cure” it with self-induced brain damage.
He’s still depressed, but then again, his existential depression was _in conjunction_ with his natural, genetically inherited depression. So maybe it did work after all. I wouldn’t recommend it though.
I more than likely have a predisposed genetic form of depression as well since it runs in my family.
Makes sense. I have reason to suspect that if you were to get the right treatment for that, then your existential depression would diminish. Probably not disappear altogether, but become bearable at the very least.
Why exactly did he try to “cure” it with self-induce brain damage?
He reasoned that his misery was caused by his intelligence. My dad is a literal genius. No exaggeration. He’s brilliant. Therefore, all the more depressed.
You know what they say about ignorance being bliss? I’ve noticed it as well. It isn’t a hard and fast rule, but stupid people tend to be happy. Well, OK, not “happy”. Just not “hopelessly depressed.” By contrast, most intelligent people I’ve met in my life were utterly miserable.
Holy shit, I can so relate to that.
Again, I don’t recommend it. Neither does he, really.
I’ve already sought treatment for my depression. I’ve suffered from depression since I was a child, around 12 or 13. I am in my 30s now. I’ve sought treatment since I was in college, with CBT and all types of medication, and I don’t respond to either.
Ah. My apologies. That’s rough. From the looks of this post, though, you don’t seem to have abandoned all hope. Hope that you might find something that works, that is.
I suffer from Major Depressive Disorder with suicidal ideation, and my own personal belief, a bulk of it is existential depression. My last therapist seems to think I may also suffer from PTSD after working in the EMS field for 10 years, which could be true. I’ve been getting by thus far by self medicating, but my suffering has now become so overwhelming I have no motivation left to want to continue. I’m hoping for something that will help me.
Holy moley. Well, although I’m not going to try and diagnose you or anything, working in that field can and will give you PTSD. It’s sadly very common.
I hesitate to ask you to lay down your core beliefs about the reality of life, the universe, and everything, but only because I don’t know if that would upset you, and I don’t want to do that. However, I do believe that dissecting these beliefs with a peer (who isn’t so existential) might be able to help you. I’m much younger than you, and probably not as sharp, so I can’t say that I’d fit the bill. But there are others who could.
Sometimes, if a belief is harmful to a person, than the only real solution is to change it. I usually don’t advocate any kind of indoctrination, but if it saves your life…
My world view is based on science, logic, and critical thinking. Asking someone who suffers from existential depression to forget about what they know to be rationally true is impossible. I understand why your father attempted to “cure” his existential depression by inflicting damage upon his own brain. I wish I could go back and not ask so many questions, or research so many topics, and just be as stupid and ignorant as the majority of our species. If there is something available that will allow me to do that so I can live the rest of my life being somewhat happy, I am all for it.
I do a lot of research, purely for pleasure, and having all that information can definitely be a burden because it is of little use and little interest to most. If I were to step beyond that to the point where I let go of human ideas and human knowledge and connect with the True Reality (the Tao, the Divine, what ever name one wishes to use) that my depression might lift. However, I have reached a point where there isn’t enough left to even bother.
*then my depression might lift.
I am a bit tired today.
I cannot rationally connect to “the divine.” Reality is not based on a creator. If it is, I have many a quetion for that piece of shit.
I’m not asking you to find religion. Although religious belief, just for the record, isn’t half as illogical as you think it is. Especially when you consider how diverse religious belief it. It isn’t limited to your presumably Judeo-Christian upbringing. There’s always mysticism, or eastern religions, etc. But I digress. I’m not asking you to find God. I’m asking you to contemplate philosophy.
Albert Camus, for example, started out as an existentialist, before going on to found his own school of thought: absurdism. It is the most strangely optimistic interpretation of existentialist principles that I have ever seen. Was hard for me to grasp at first, but it shouldn’t be for you. Maybe you could start there?
how diverse religious belief *is*
From my understanding, Camus didn’t even actually find the title or philosophy of “asurdism.” But, that is a moot point. I am not a child of regular Judeo-Christian belief. I was born into an Islamic family. I am well aware of the bullshit theories of many eastern philopshers and theorists. They are charlatans.
He found the name, but not the school. Not all by himself. At least from what I understand.
(Well, Abrahamic. I was close enough.) Again, I’m not asking you to find religion. Just peace with reality. Logic and reason don’t have to drive you to the rope, or the gun, or whatever your method of choice is.
Maybe I should have just used the term Tao (although I am not opposed to the concept of a Creator) because we humans attach such importance to definitions that by simply including the word divine it automatically change the perceived meaning of what I was saying. In this particular context I was referring to what would probably best be described by the word Tao.
So what I meant is letting go of the artificial knowledge that we humans have invented in order to allow the natural course of the universe to take over.
Ever take a listen to how that sounds? – I’m so smart and logical that I’m depressed about the world and my situation in it. I’m so smart I want to damage my brain. –
Take it a step further. Who and more importantly What is this ‘I’ that wants to damage the brain? Work it out. What am I?
Am I this brain?
Am I this body?
Am I this situation?
This life?
Is this depression who I am?
Keep asking. Keep questioning.
What am I?
My experience is that eventually I realize I am NONE of those things. I realize that I DON’T KNOW who I am…..and that’s freedom. Freedom to be. Only that..just be
As a nihilist and existentialist, these are questions we’ve always asked.
Keep the question..the question is the key. Not the answer. If you get an answer it’s most likely only your depression or ego talking…not you.
Which only leads me further into not being afraid to die, or committing the act so I do die.
No fear in dying. Perfect. Why would you fear death? You’re dead already, you just don’t know it. We all are.
Instinctual and evolutionary predisposition makes me afraid of dying. Does it make any rational sense? No.
I get what you’re saying. Yup. But the truth is we’re all dying moment to moment. Every tick of the clock is gone. Then I can make a choice to live this moment and let it die. Or cling to a past or a ‘me’ that’s already dead. Live now. or live a dead memory.
Weed always was an antidepressants for me. My depression can be existential. I had a tendacy to gravitate toward a more positive energy. It wasnt 100% though but i usually felt better smoking.