In This Post:
- What is Ketamine Therapy?
- The Link Between Ketamine and Confidence
- Ketamine and Confidence Research
- The Importance of Combining Ketamine with Talk Therapy
- Self-Care Practices to Supplement Ketamine Therapy
- Ketamine for Confidence at Avesta Ketamine and Wellness
- The Bottom Line
Ketamine therapy can be a powerful self-confidence tool for people with depression and anxiety who struggle with insecurity and negative thought patterns. Ketamine, especially when combined with talk therapy, helps patients address the underlying emotional and cognitive factors contributing to low self-esteem. The latest research surrounding ketamine and confidence indicates that this treatment can deliver rapid mental health benefits and improve inner strength.
Let’s explore.
What is Ketamine Therapy?
Ketamine therapy is a treatment that utilizes specific doses of this dissociative anesthetic drug to elicit rapid antidepressant effects. Ketamine infusions are the most common and well-studied form, but ketamine therapy can also include intranasal sprays and intramuscular injections.
Benefits of Ketamine
Over the last two decades, patient testimonies and clinical studies have shown the benefits of ketamine in successfully treating mental disorders resistant to SSRIs and other traditional medications, including:
- Depression: Ketamine can reduce symptoms of major depression, even in treatment-resistant patients, within hours of a single intravenous administration.
- Anxiety: A 2021 review of six ketamine trials concluded that ketamine could be a safe and effective drug for people with anxiety disorders, which commonly occur alongside depression.
- Suicidality: Recent studies have demonstrated ketamine’s capacity to rapidly reduce symptoms of suicidality, with 78% of patients showing gradual or rapid improvement following intravenous (IV) ketamine treatment.
Interestingly, depression and low self-esteem are closely connected. As a result, another potential benefit of ketamine is that it can work as a self-confidence medication.
The Link Between Ketamine and Confidence
Ketamine can boost confidence because many depressed people experience repetitive patterns of negative thinking that can knock down self-esteem. Living with depression can leave patients feeling fatigued and lacking motivation to accomplish goals, which further feeds their lack of self-worth.
Ketamine for depression serves as an excellent treatment to counteract such feelings through the drug’s ability to diminish negative thought patterns. Ketamine works to transform the inner critic through several physiological mechanisms.
- Targets glutamate: Ketamine targets glutamate, one of the brain’s primary chemical messengers that plays a role in mood regulation, memory, and learning. Glutamate also supports neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt, learn, and change with new experiences.
- “Rewires” the brain: Ketamine increases neuroplasticity, catalyzing the brain to form new pathways that disrupt harmful thought patterns and allow space for more positive thoughts.
- Provides peace of mind: Ketamine affects NMDA receptors, which are intricately involved in the brain’s stress response. Research indicates that altering their function could provide a critical step in relieving harmful mental reactions that cause stress and contribute to depression and anxiety disorders.
Testimonials like these on Reddit confirm how ketamine’s antidepressant effects can, in turn, boost self-confidence, self-love, and even sociability.
- “I absolutely felt more love and confidence.”
- “Once ketamine had wiped out my anxiety (literally from the first dose), I was finally good enough. I had not felt this peace of mind since I was about ten years old.”
- “There was motivation to do things I wasn’t keen on doing before, like calling my family, talking to people at work, and being social in general.”
Ketamine and Confidence Research
Further research confirms ketamine’s self-worth-boosting benefits.
For example, an open-label study indicates that ketamine has a therapeutic effect on negative self-schema (e.g., a person perceiving themselves as worthless), which is a fundamental cognitive aspect of depression. Patients in the study reported lower levels of sadness, self-dislike, and self-criticalness after receiving a single ketamine infusion.
Findings from another study suggest that treatments for anxious-depression, such as behavioral therapy and antidepressants (like ketamine), can improve metacognitive confidence as depression symptoms wane. Increased metacognitive confidence refers to a person’s ability to accurately assess and trust their own self-awareness. These findings can be applied to ketamine due to its rapid antidepressant effects.
Another study found that the antidepressant benefits of ketamine lasted longer when combined with computer games designed to boost self-esteem. The researchers concluded: “After priming the brain with ketamine, training positive self-associations could provide an efficient, low-cost, portable, noninvasive, and highly dissemination-ready strategy for leveraging and extending ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects.”
The Importance of Combining Ketamine with Talk Therapy
Ketamine is a powerful antidepressant all on its own. However, most experts recommend pairing ketamine infusions with talk therapy as part of a larger treatment plan. Patients looking to maximize the benefits of IV ketamine may want to consider seeing a therapist between sessions or seek clinics that offer ketamine-assisted therapy (KAP). KAP involves a licensed therapist supporting patients before, during, and after sessions.
Therapeutic support combined with ketamine can help patients enhance their self-confidence in several ways:
- Therapy helps ketamine patients further investigate the underlying issues behind their depression and anxiety and explore the roots of their self-esteem issues.
- Therapeutic support helps people reframe negative self-beliefs to foster a healthier and more positive self-image.
- Therapists help patients confidently navigate potential emotional challenges throughout the ketamine infusion protocol.
Self-Care Practices to Supplement Ketamine Therapy
Implementing self-care practices helps patients further optimize ketamine’s confidence-boosting benefits. Daily self-love habits, no matter how small, can elevate mood and increase resilience over the long run.
A few self-care practices to supplement ketamine therapy include:
- Retreats: Taking a break from the daily grind can include a spa day or attending a concert. Other simple activities could include walking, cooking a favorite meal, or listening to music.
- Social media breaks: Scrolling through other people’s lives can trigger symptoms of depression and anxiety. Sometimes, stepping away from the phone or computer, even for a few hours, can improve confidence levels.
- Setting boundaries: Setting boundaries is a form of self-respect. People who communicate their wants and needs thoughtfully and say no to activities that don’t serve them will feel more self-assured.
Ketamine for Confidence at Avesta Ketamine and Wellness
Avesta Ketamine and Wellness (Avesta) has a team of supportive, compassionate staff who help patients on their journey to ease and confidence. DC, Maryland, and Virginia residents can visit one of Avesta’s DMV ketamine clinics for monitored IV infusions and Spravato treatment using proven clinical protocols, which they can supplement with talk therapy sessions.
Avesta patients looking for relief from depression and anxiety can find:
- A warm and inviting environment in convenient and safe locations designed to promote tranquility and ease during ketamine treatment.
- A skilled team of professionals, including board-certified advanced practitioners with diverse backgrounds in clinical care.
- Educators who provide thorough and honest information about ketamine and its effects.
- A patient-centered approach focuses on the person’s needs and emotions.
- Collaborative care and personalized protocols that take input from physicians and therapists to tailor ketamine therapy plans to each individual.
The Bottom Line
Depression and anxiety have a close relationship with low confidence and self-esteem. Ketamine treatment, especially when combined with talk therapy, works to rewire negative thought patterns in the brain, helping patients overcome debilitating symptoms. In turn, the process can build confidence and get to the root of the problem.
McLean, VA, Bethesda, MD, and Washington, DC residents interested in learning more about ketamine for mental health and self-confidence can contact Avesta’s compassionate care team for a free consultation today.
