Will Ketamine Bring Up Bad Memories?

Hello, everyone.

Welcome back to ketamine connections. I am your host, Ana Krishtal, AKA, your ketamine coach. And today we are tackling a question I hear all the time. the time. Will ketamine bring up bad memories? It's a common concern. And if it was not a concern for you before, maybe it is now. Either way, today's episode is going to have something to offer you.

I hear from a lot of people that they're afraid to rock the boat with something that may come up in a psychedelic journey. And my hope is that today's episode will have some fun food for thought and teach you something about your subconscious mind. So let's dive in together and unpack what we've learned.

What's really going on here? So this is a common question that comes up, especially when someone is considering ketamine therapy for the first time. It's natural to wonder if you'll be forced to relive something painful or a bad memory, especially if those memories are something that you have been trying to avoid or suppress for a long time.

Or, there can also be a fear that ketamine could bring up something that you forgot or something that is unpleasant. And the fear of facing these memories can be daunting and can impede you starting your ketamine journey. But I want to assure you that there is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, understanding how memories work, especially in the context of healing with ketamine can actually be quite Encouraging.

Okay, let's talk about what a memory is. We often think of memories as just these snapshots from the past, maybe like photographs stored away in a mental album. But in reality, memories are so much more dynamic, and you may or may not have heard of different kinds of memories we have. So let's start there.

You've probably heard of a long term memory and short term memory. Cool. Have you heard of explicit and implicit memories? Probably not. I didn't. Learn about this stuff until I really dove into the subconscious mind. Okay, so we have conscious. And subconscious mind. Yes, we have explicit and implicit memories.

And those are the ones that are also the same way that we have the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. Conscious mind is above the surface. Subconscious mind is below the surface. Explicit memories are Above the surface, implicit memories are below the surface. So the explicit memories are the ones that you know, you know, these are specific events, maybe trivia, things that you can with your conscious mind recall.

Implicit memories are the ones that live inside of you and they can be procedural memories. You know, the reason you don't need to relearn to ride a bike or drive a car every time you do it fresh, even if it's been, you know, Days or weeks or months, maybe even years, right? It's just like riding a bike.

And then there's also this emotional conditioning that lives in the implicit memory, which is an emotional response to a stimuli. So this can be something like having an emotional response to seeing a certain phone number on your caller ID, you know, Driving by a certain location, something else entirely where you have this stimulus and then you have an emotional response to that stimulus, whether the stimulus you got was conscious or subconscious meaning like, Oh, I see this thing and I know it's going to bring up this emotional response or all of a sudden I'm feeling this way.

Why am I feeling this way? So in either way, that emotional response is a part of implicit memory. Okay, so hopefully you're starting to see that memories are not just about what happened. They're also more nuanced and can even be about how you felt when it happened. And so then when we're talking about people being concerned about bad memories coming up.

are those kinds of memories that people are labeling as bad memories and wondering if ketamine is going to bring them up. Okay. Bad memories are really just memories charged with strong emotion. And these emotions, whether it's fear, anger, sadness, they are natural human responses to our human lives. They don't need to be scary.

And they are also what makes us human. So I've noticed two main reasons that memories feel bad. One is the intensity of the emotion attached to those memories. And two, not knowing how to deal with that intensity or that type of emotion. And here's where I want to pull out a really important piece of information that Emotions are just energy in motion, their neutral energies meant to move through us, deliver a message.

But when we don't know how to handle them or their intensity, that's when they get stuck. And if you don't know that it's stuck, or you are trying to figure out how you feel about things, whatever happened, or if your feelings are valid, guess what? They are always and forever. Or maybe you're waiting for some sort of justice in the situation.

That's likely what is being labeled as a bad memory. And either way, these experiences are unpleasant. They're undesirable and icky. They're icky. So here's what I want to offer you on that. When a memory comes up during a ketamine session, It's not coming up to torture you or make you feel bad all over again.

It's coming up because your mind and body are actually ready to process and release it. Ketamine can help create space for that emotional energy to move through and transform. Which allows you to let go of the heavy charge that's been weighing you down. Ketamine is a dissociative, and this can give you the perfect distance from the feeling, the memory, the situation to come out of it, to zoom out of it.

And what I hear a lot of clients say after that experience is, I don't know, it just doesn't feel as bad. big of a deal anymore. And I've seen this with all sorts of issues. I've like everything from feeling supported by a loved one to releasing an untimely death of a sibling. I have found over and over again that ketamine is a really gentle medicine and specifically with dealing with bad memories.

One of the most comforting truths that I have found in this work is that we're never given more than we can handle. So if a memory comes up during your ketamine experience, it's because you're ready to face it, process it, and ultimately release it. And especially With the help of the medicine, a good support system.

And if you feel necessary, additional guidance, these memories do not arise frivolously. They're coming up for a reason. They're ready to go. And your mind is ready to let them go. And here's the beauty of it. This kind of healing doesn't usually happen all at once. It's a gentle unfolding process that occurs over time.

Your subconscious mind knows. What you can handle and when you can handle it. So anything that comes up during a session is something that you're fully capable of working through, even if it feels intense in that moment. And here's the best part. Here's the motivation to do this. If you're being called, when you get the emotional charge out of a memory, you're left with wisdom memories without emotional charge or wisdom.

And then you. Go from having something that you fear and avoid to something that is helping you learn and grow, learn through what you go through. Right. That's what they say. I don't know. I think that's pretty cool. You take out the emotional charge and you're left with wisdom and knowledge is power.

Okay, so I know that even with all of that reassurance, the idea of facing these memories can still feel intimidating. And that's why I am really passionate about people getting the proper support in understanding the subconscious mind. I want everyone to have someone to Explain preparation and integration to people entering ketamine sessions, because here's the thing, the number one rule of psychedelic use is set in setting, meaning make sure that your physical setting is safe and making sure that your mindset is also right when you go into a ketamine journey with a clear intention, coupled with coping skills, should something Intense come up, you're going to be a ninja with those bad memories in my ketamine coaching with clients.

I always make sure to talk clients through ways to navigate any challenging emotion or memory or experience that might arise and If you want to know the skills that I teach, check out the show notes and get your free download. I seriously want everyone to know these really simple tricks, and I want it to be free, and I want everyone going into ketamine to know that having a bad trip is not something to be afraid of.

So, please share this with anyone you know. That is either considering ketamine or already going through it. And I appreciate you. Thank you. That is all I have for you today. I hope that today's episode has brought some clarity and peace of mind. Yeah. Ketamine can bring up bad memories, but also these memories are opportunities for healing.

Not just something to be afraid of. You have everything you need to navigate this journey, and it does not have to be hard. If there are any questions that today's episode brought up, there's a form in the show notes. Please submit your questions. I would be so happy to expand on this topic. So thank you so much for tuning into this episode of Ketamine Connections.

If you found this discussion helpful, or Or enlightening or informational. Please share it with someone, leave a comment or review so that I can be in conversation with you. It's much more fun for me when y'all reach out. So thank you to those that are already doing it. I appreciate you. I look forward to reading your feedback and I'm so excited to be in this conversation.

So remember to download the coping mechanism sheet from the link below and until next time, stay curious, stay courageous, and remember you got this. Trust the process.