Transcript

Juliet

Today is my 14th Ketamine treatment. I came to Dr. Jake back in October after numerous ECT’s, electroconvulsive therapy, and I found that Ketamine has changed my life and has really helped me live again and I haven’t been suicidal since I started.

Tom

I met Dr. Jake about a year ago. I was looking for alternative treatments to medications, because no medications have worked for me at all. Zero. I’ve been hospitalized a bunch of times, and I had a horrible, horrible life until I came here. My depression was lifted 100%, and it even seemed like it was a hundred percent plus.

John

I’ve been a patient of Dr. Jake’s now for almost three years. I’ve had over 35 Ketamine treatments, and it’s really been transformative to my entire life. It’s about a total of an hour, and for me, it was magic – because, from the minute the treatments stopped, I started feeling different. I started feeling like my life was in a better place. I felt like I wanted to go do fun things. Depression robs you of your personality.

Tom

I came in here as a last resort, because… I mean, I was suicidal when I first started this. I tried everything. No medications… I said, “You know what? I’m going to try this thing.” And I was giving myself the opportunity, like… “If this doesn’t work, Tom… I’ve tried everything.” And I wasn’t going to live like that forever, or any more, it was too painful. And for the people that do have depression or anxiety – you know the suffering that you go through, and nobody else knows. Nobody knows, except a person with depression. It’s a horrible pain.

Juliet

In 2015, I started receiving electroshock therapy – ECT’s – and I received about 79 of them over the course of three and a half years. Unfortunately, it caused a lot of memory loss and brain damage as well as physical pain. I did not engage in hobbies. I just dreaded my day and counted down the hours until it was over. I was suicidal pretty much every day for years, and as soon as I started Ketamine, that went away. It was a miracle, really.

John

About three years ago, I started doing research into depression because I’d been on antidepressants now since my mid-20s when my depression started to emerge. And antidepressants are a good tool, but they aren’t effective for everybody. They don’t really work for everyone, and for me, I’d been on many different ones, and I never really felt quite right. There’s a lot of side effects with them, and in general, they’re not really good things to take. So I’ve been very proactively researching depression and different drugs and medications that are either out or coming out, and I kept running into these articles about Ketamine. I did a bunch of research on it, and it looked like something that I would like to try.

Juliet

Ketamine – when I say it’s a life-changer, what it has done for me is given me back hobbies. Things I like to do. So I’m gardening, and I’m reading again, and it’s just amazing and I wake up with my day, and I look forward to what I’m going to do, and I try to enjoy it, and most times I do!

Tom

I tried the TMS in combination with the Ketamine, I think it changed everything for me. My life completely changed, and I thanked God. I was like, “You know what? I think God knew that I was on my last leg, and that, like… “Okay, hey man, like… This is going to happen, or I’m out of here.” You know? That’s the total truth. The TMS in combo with the Ketamine, I believe it helped me out with that. I was a completely changed person. Completely changed person. I was able to make plans, I was able to go surfing again – something that I’ve always wanted to do. I went back to my artwork. I was riding my bicycle, I was going to the gym again, and I lost 35 pounds. Everything – I mean, I was feeling so good. At work, everybody noticed it too. Like, they said, “What has happened?!” I didn’t tell people what I’d done or have been through, but people were like, “Tom, there’s a glow about you. There’s something I have never seen before in you.”

John

With Ketamine, it’s like there’s a fog that’s been lifted from you. And that fog is the depression. It’s just like, boom – I feel good. I want to do something today. I want to go out. I want to go take my dog for a walk. I want to go exercise. I want to do anything. Before, I would not have had the energy or the desire to do that. I mean, I go to work, I come home, I play some games sometimes, and you know, watch TV. On the Ketamine, it’s just different. I love playing games a lot – it really has made me find my enthusiasm for my job again, which… I make games for a living, which is super important. Luckily that’s always been there for me, but Ketamine has made it much more fun to go into work every day.

Juliet

One thing he told me – and I think this is great, he says, “It allows you to have motivation. When you have the motivation, act on it.” And that’s what changed things. Like, all of a sudden, I had the motivation to jog on the beach, and it was wonderful. I just didn’t feel like going out before, and so really, it really helps get you out of that deep darkness, and kind of creep your way out a bit.

John

His office is in downtown Del Mar, it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s really nice, because sometimes after treatments, you can go sit on a bench right by the beach. It’s right next to the beach. In fact, during the treatments, you can hear the beach through the windows. It’s a beautiful place to go, and the staff there is incredibly friendly. They’re very talkative.

Tom

About his team, like… I love his whole team here, too. Ashley is his manager, and she’s been here the whole time that I’ve been here, and she’s watched me grow. And if you guys talked to her, she will tell you how much I have changed from a 230 or 240 pound guy into the person I’ve become today – where, I was angry and hateful and just came in here just miserable, it was the last chance for me. It was like, my last chance. I was giving myself the last chance, and it was it. Good stuff from him, good stuff.

Juliet

I think it’s really important to look into the options because there are options out there that can actually allow for happiness again and pull you out of that darkness. I found that with Ketamine and I am here to strongly encourage it, based on my experience.

John

You know, for someone that’s suffering from depression and is maybe looking for a different answer than antidepressants, you’re in the same place I was a few years back before I started getting these treatments. I took the time to do my homework about it, I read about it. There’s a stigma associated with it because of the fact that it can be abused as a party drug. Well, read the scientific evidence and how strong the evidence is that says that it treats depression incredibly well and incredibly quickly. Do your own homework about it, and I think you’re going to find very quickly that it’s a great option. You can give it a try. It works for most people – some people, it doesn’t. It is such an amazing experience though to be depression free, that I want everybody that’s suffering from it to feel just as good. Ketamine is capable of delivering that, and I have not seen any other drug that comes close.