Chronic anxiety has a negative impact on the quality of life for nearly everyone who suffers from it. Anxiety disorders can interfere with everything from friendships and romantic relationships to career aspirations or simply getting the most out of life.
Ketamine therapy for anxiety is a revolutionary new treatment option that offers fast relief for anxiety sufferers. Best of all, treating anxiety with ketamine often avoids many of the complications and risks of prescription drugs and the long wait for results associated with talk therapy alone.
This Quest Ketamine Therapies article explains how ketamine works for anxiety and depression and why this treatment is becoming increasingly popular.
How is Anxiety Treated?
Anxiety conditions such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) or Panic Disorder are often treated with a combination of prescription drugs and mental health counseling or talk therapy. These interventions provide sufficient relief for many people. However, there are some shortcomings that come with limiting treatment to these conventional approaches for some people.
Types of Medications Prescribed for Anxiety
Medications prescribed for anxiety can be broken down into three main categories.
- Benzodiazepines: Drugs like Xanax, Ativan or Klonopin, which provide rapid relief but have a high potential for dependency and addiction.
- Antidepressants: Medicines like Prozac, Zoloft, or Cymbalta — but these medications usually take several weeks or months to begin to provide relief, and they aren’t effective for everyone.
- Other Medications: Outside the conventional psychiatric medications listed above, we have drugs like BuSpar, Lyrica, Neurontin, Vistaril, and beta-blockers like propranolol. These medications can provide relief from some of the physical symptoms of anxiety with varying degrees of effectiveness.
- Ketamine for Anxiety: Ketamine treatment for anxiety is a relatively new approach compared to the others, but it offers several unique advantages, including rapid relief, increased neuroplasticity, and no sexual side effects like many antidepressants. Ketamine often works for people who have not responded to conventional antidepressant medications.
Mental Health Therapy for Anxiety
Mental health therapy or counseling can be a helpful part of a long-term strategy for managing anxiety. We recommend most patients try it. The only catch is that even the most talented therapist can’t rapidly relieve anxiety symptoms the way a medication can.
Their work is often effective as it teaches patients how to reframe their thinking and reduce worry, but it takes time and consistency. Most patients find they get the best results from a combination of approaches, such as ketamine therapy for anxiety combined with mental health therapy.
Why Ketamine is Used to Relieve Anxiety?
Ketamine therapy has been used to treat depression safely and effectively for years. Ketamine is used to relieve anxiety for a few simple reasons.
- Rapid Onset: Ketamine begins to work within hours, or days at most, as opposed to weeks or months like conventional antidepressants.
- Promotes Neuroplasticity: Ketamine is shown to promote neuroplasticity, which helps the brain form new connections and can relieve anxiety.
- Effective for Treatment-Resistant Conditions: Ketamine has been clinically proven effective for many people for whom regular antidepressants did not provide adequate relief.
- Less Likely to Cause Sexual Dysfunction: Antidepressants like Prozac and others are known to cause sexual dysfunction in many adults. Ketamine for anxiety does not have this track record and appears less likely to cause sexual side effects like anorgasmia.
In a nutshell, we use ketamine to treat anxiety because it works. It’s not only effective, but it works rapidly. It frequently works for people who cannot be helped with other medicines, and it lacks many of the side effects that other medications have.
How Ketamine Fits into an Effective Anxiety Management Strategy
The best approach to managing anxiety for most people is to develop a strategy that employs more than one element. This allows the anxiety sufferer to treat different symptoms with different approaches, take advantage of synergy (one treatment boosting the effects of another), and work towards lasting relief and progress.
Ketamine therapy for anxiety works very well when combined with psychotherapy or mental health counseling, for example. Ketamine provides rapid relief for anxiety, while psychotherapy helps patients develop new ways of thinking and viewing their world and effective coping strategies.
We believe that ketamine-assisted psychotherapy will become increasingly popular as it’s efficacy is widely recognized.
Ketamine enhances neuroplasticity (the brain’s flexibility to adapt), making it an ideal complement for therapy. Both ketamine and therapy can help the brain adapt and develop new connections and pathways. Together, they can not only provide quick relief from anxiety symptoms but also promote lasting change and progress.
Ketamine Therapy for Anxiety is Here
Quest Ketamine Therapies is proud to offer ketamine therapy for people suffering from anxiety. This life-changing treatment has helped millions find relief from the symptoms of mental health disorders and live better lives.
The best way to learn more about ketamine therapy for anxiety and other conditions like chronic pain is to contact us to schedule a free evaluation.
You are also welcome to call us directly at (425) 654-5433 with your questions about ketamine and anxiety.
