Ketamine

(Vitamin K, Horse Trank, Special K)

TrippyWiki score: 5.6/10

What is ketamine?

Ketamine is the most popular dissociative on the planet. Even though this substance is commonly taken as a club drug, ketamine is now mainly being used for treating depression. Lately, this drug has been approved by the FDA for use in a medical setting because of its effectiveness.

Long-term benefits & side effects

Many of the benefits will only occur if you take this substance the right way.

Ketamine…

Is one of the most effective legal ways to lower depression (ketamine treatment’s success rate is 85% while regular antidepressants only have a success rate of 45%)
Starts working instantly, therefore it is a great tool for preventing suicides
Can cause temporary ego-dissolution at higher doses
Increases neuroplasticity
Makes you more creative and open-minded
Helps you look at your life from a different perspective
Allows you to heal your childhood trauma and forgive people who’ve hurt you
Makes you more conscious and loving
Makes you appreciate nature more
…

Appears to be neurotoxic for those who take it regularly
Might impair your memory, especially if you take the substance every week or more often
Might speed up the onset of schizophrenia if you’re genetically predisposed to it
Might cause bladder pain and can lead to long-term bladder-related problems
Can cause HPPD and physical damage if you combine it with other substances (such as alcohol or stimulants)
Could cause you trauma due to bad set and setting
Might lead to drug-induced psychosis if you’re predisposed to it
Can be psychologically addictive (but only if you use the psychedelic recreationally)
Can be lethal at extremely high doses (although this risk is minimal and cannot happen in a therapeutic setting)
Can damage your kidneys over time
…

How to take ketamine

Administration

You can either take the substance intramuscularly, intravenously, orally, or snort it.

Snorting the drug can block your nostrils and make your eyes watery. If you are going to snort the drug, use a saline nasal spray to soften the load on your nasal cavities.

Muscle injection is the most common route of administration for users who take ketamine recreationally. If you use this method, the drug will kick in faster. One downside of this method is that you may experience muscle pain.

In a therapeutic setting, ketamine is given intravenously.

The drug can be swallowed but the taste is unpleasant and you would need to take a much higher dose.

Dosage

Intramuscular / Intravenous / Insuffated

15 mg = Threshold
15-30 mg = Light dose
30-75 mg = Regular dose
75-150 mg = Strong dose
150+ mg = High dose

Oral

50 mg = Threshold
50-100 mg = Light dose
100-300 mg = Regular dose
300-450 mg = Strong dose
450+ mg = High dose

For treating depression, doses of 0.5-1 mg/kg (intravenous) are far more effective than lower doses.

That is why in most ketamine therapy clinics, you will first be given a dose of around 0.5 mg and gradually build your way up.

Doses higher than 150+ mg are likely to take you into the K-hole, more on which later.

Never start with a high dose. You may be more sensitive to the substance than others and it might cause you irreversible damage if you don’t take it responsibly.

Those who need less of the substance to reach desired effects include older and extremely lean people.

Safety checklist

Maximize the benefits

Keep in mind that integration is even more important than the trip itself. Taking the drug would be almost useless if you didn’t retain any lessons in your day-to-day life.

What will help you the most is contemplating about the experience – be it by journaling, thinking about the trip, or sharing your memories with a trusted friend.

Distracting thoughts can get in the way, which is why you want to spend the day after your trip without TV, social media, and other distractions.

If you can, spend time in silence and solitude. Meditate, go for a walk, contemplate the experience.

Duration

Onset = 2-5 minutes
Come up = 5-10 minutes
Peak = 30-60 minutes
Come down = 2-12 hours

You should notice the first effects within 2-5 minutes after you take the psychedelic
You will reach the maximum effect around the 10-minute mark
The whole trip usually lasts for 60-90 minutes
At high doses, your trip may last for even longer
If you take the substance orally, expect the substance to last for 2-3x longer

What does ketamine feel like?

There are 4 main types of experience you may go through:

1) Empathogenic experience (feelings of comfort, relaxation, empathy, compassion, love awareness)
2) Out-of-body experience (a complete separation from your body, talking to entities, reliving certain parts of your life)
3) Near-death experience (ego-dissolution, reliving your life; this experience may feel like psychological and even physical death)
4) Transcendental experience (realizing oneness, God, transcending your ego, space, and time)

The transcendental experience is often described as K-hole and typically happens at higher doses. You will not be conscious of your body if you enter this state so never take a high dose in an unsafe environment!

Other common short-term effects include:

Euphoria
Increased creativity and open-mindedness
Mindfulness, being present
Higher capability for love and compassion
Pain relief
Sedation
Memory suppression
Visual effects (weaker than those of most other psychedelics)
Confusion
Inability to talk
Increased body pressure
Worse thermoregulation
Difficulty urinating
Anxiety, paranoia
Vulnerability

The higher dose you take, the more intense these effects will be.

With that said, it is impossible to accurately describe the experience through human language.

The only way to truly know what ketamine feels like is to take it.

Compared to other psychedelics, ketamine usually feels calm and isn’t likely to cause you an unpleasant experience. Bad trips can happen but you can prevent them by following the tips below.

Bad trips

Bad trips mostly happen because people take the substance irresponsibly. If you take this psychedelic the right way, there is virtually no chance you’ll get a bad trip.

In case you still do, that’s good! A “bad” trip isn’t bad, it can actually be the most healing and insightful moment of your life!

During a “bad” trip, negative emotions are coming up from your subconscious mind. They have always been there whether you are aware of it or not. They have been damaging your life and a difficult trip is an opportunity to process these traumas and unpleasant feelings and let go of them.

The more painful the experience, the more you can heal.

So instead of calling bad trips bad, call them challenging.

If you understand that bad trips are awesome in the long-run, not only will you feel more comfortable diving into these challenging states, it will actually excite you!

Why they happen

The most common reasons for getting a bad trip are:

Tripping in an unsafe environment (in public, at a party, even nature doesn’t feel safe if you take higher doses)
Facing difficult times in your day-to-day life (a break-up, death of a loved one, …)
Rejecting to let go and trying to hold on to your ego and control the state
Being afraid of the trip (either because of the stigma around psychedelics or because you are not sure how pure your substance is)
Mixing the psychedelic with alcohol, weed, or other drugs
Expecting a bad trip (it can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy)

How to cope with a bad trip

Do not perceive this experience as something bad, remember that facing these difficult emotions is extremely healing
Fully surrender to the experience, do not try to feel good
If you’re alone, call a trusted friend to come over and keep you safe

How to end a bad trip

In case you are not ready to face your inner demons yet, there are a few ways to end a bad trip.

One possible way is to put on music that is familiar to you. Another way is to switch up your location and move from one place to another. This can completely change your train of thought.

Interactions

Qualia Mind
This nootropic is comprised of 28 ingredients designed to support and maximize your brain function. These ingredients act synergistically and many of them will protect you from the neurotoxic effects of psychedelics. Qualia will also make your trips more pleasant and help you retain more benefits from them.
Herbs
Herbs can help calm you down. Herbal teas (chamomile, lemon balm, valerian root, …) are especially helpful.
Green tea
Tea makes you both more alert and calm at the same time. It also contains neuroprotective antioxidants, such as EGCG.
CBD
CBD has a calming effect.
Magic mushrooms
Combining these substances is safe and induces out-of-body experiences, which can bring many therapeutic benefits. Ketamine also helps decrease anxiety from magic mushrooms.
LSD
This combination brings similar benefits to combining ketamine with psilocybin mushrooms.
Weed
Marijuana will greatly intensify the trip.
Nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide will multiply the intensity of your trip.
Benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, …)
The combination may lead to a loss of consciousness and vomiting. Vomit aspiration is the most dangerous risk.
Grapefruit
This combination isn’t dangerous but grapefruit greatly decreases the potency of ketamine, especially when you take the drug orally.
Alcohol, GHB, GBL, Opioids
Just like benzodiazepines, these drugs can cause vomit aspiration if you combine them with dissociatives.
SSRIs or MAOIs
Not only will these antidepressants greatly decrease the intensity of your trip, but they can also lead to long-lasting side effects. You may also go unconscious and die from vomit aspiration.
Stimulants
The combination can easily lead to heart problems.
Tramadol
Combining the two can cause seizures.

History

Legality

As of 2021, there is no country where you can legally buy ketamine without a prescription. The only way to take the drug legally is in a licensed clinical setting.

In many countries, you can legally own a small amount of the substance for personal use.

Where to get ketamine

These are the ways you can get your hands on the psychedelic, ranked from the safest to the least safe:

Undergo a therapy
This is the single best way to go for most of us. The therapy can be expensive but it is safer than taking ketamine on your own.
Buy a research chemical that is similar to ketamine
2-FDCK has similar properties to ketamine and in many countries, you can legally buy it from RC companies for chemical research purposes. You cannot buy it for personal use but whether or not anybody will find out is a different story.
Buy ketamine from a hidden market
The K you will find on the dark web is more likely to be pure than if you buy it on the street. The problem of going this route is that most dark web markets are a scam (including current SilkRoad) and you might not receive anything.
Buy the drug in-person
Whether you buy the drug from a random drug dealer or a trusted friend, you can’t know for sure what the drug contains until you use a test kit. Do not take a substance if you don’t know for sure that it is pure.
Make ketamine on your own
Preparing this substance can be dangerous and you’d need a deep understanding of chemistry, as well as a fully-equipped home lab.

FAQ

Daily use of ketamine has been shown to cause neurotoxicity and multiple health problems.

Taking the drug every 2-4 weeks is therefore a safer long-term strategy.

If you suffer from depression, take ketamine when you feel a need to do so. Over time, you will need to use the substance less and less often. Eventually, you should get to the point where you won’t have to rely on ketamine.

Unlike other anti-depressants, ketamine acts on glutamate, which is the most common chemical messenger in the brain. Glutamate is known to increase neuroplasticity, which may be the root cause of ketamine’s positive effects.

With that said, scientists still don’t know what exactly ketamine does to the brain. The only way to experience what ketamine does is to try it yourself.

Ketamine is not recommended for kids because ketamine can be neurotoxic and may have serious health side effects. Ketamine may be safer for kids than other antidepressants but the research on this is limited.

In a clinical setting. But if you cannot or don’t want to undergo ketamine therapy, always take the substance in a safe place and keep a trusted friend nearby to take care of you in case something goes wrong.

If you are a mentally stable individual who does not suffer from psychosis or have a predisposition to schizophrenia, there is virtually no way you would develop any mental illnesses because of taking the psychedelic.

Ketamine stays in your blood for around 24 hours, in your urine for 14-30 days and in your hair, the substance can be detected for a few months.

This drug usually isn’t tested for by the police, special tests are needed to detect the substance.

The taste is bitter and unpleasant.

Order a Marquis test and follow the instructions on its label. If the test shows no color, the substance is most likely real ketamine.

Keep your powder or liquid in a cold dark place, preferably with no air.

If you don’t do this, ketamine will lose potency over time.

You can microdose with 0.1 mg of ketamine but drugs like LSD, psilocybin, and ibogaine are more suited for this. Ketamine is shown to be neurotoxic if you take it on regular basis.

It is recommended to stop eating 2-3 hours before taking ketamine.

Alcoholics
Brain cancer patients
Those who have uncontrolled hypertension (high blood pressure)
People with a history of heart attacks
People with thyroid disease (hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism)
Immature psychonauts who are not willing to follow the safety guidelines
People who suffer from psychosis
People who have a familial history of schizophrenia
Those who suffer from HPPD
People who are going through a manic phase of bipolar disorder
Patients who were given ketamine and noticed unpredictable side effects

Ketamine is categorized as a dissociative anesthetic. It can also be considered a psychedelic if you take higher doses.

A therapy usually costs $200-$600. A street price for a gram of the substance is $30-$40.

Compared to SSRIs and other antidepressants, ketamine seems to be significantly less addictive. With that said, psychological addiction can still be formed. This is especially the case for users who take the substance recreationally.

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