Ketamine, one of a handful of dissociative-type hallucinogen drugs, has become fairly popular among teens and young adults, especially within the party scene. Hallucinogens in general are known to carry a low abuse/addiction potential, which can be misleading, since ketamine in particular does carry a considerable risk for abuse and addiction.

With regular drug use, ketamine withdrawal symptoms start to take shape, just like with any other addictive drug; however, ketamine withdrawal differs in terms of the types of symptoms that appear. Once withdrawal effects develop, stopping ketamine use on your own becomes increasingly more difficult to do.

Ketamine withdrawal treatment provides you with the supports needed to overcome withdrawal while taking the necessary steps towards breaking this drug’s hold over your life.

Ketamine’s Effects in the Brain

Ketamine withdrawal can cause ongoing feelings of sadness.

Ketamine’s dissociative effects leave users in a detached state of awareness to the point of producing out-of-body experiences. These effects develop out of the drug’s ability to alter essential neurotransmitter chemical activities in the brain, according to the University of Alabama.

With each dose of the drug, dopamine chemical materials surge to unusually high levels, while glutamate production rates slow to a crawl. These interactions work to block communications between the brain and body, leaving the brain to create its own sensory experience, which is how hallucinations come about.

With repeated ketamine use, ongoing disruptions in chemical activity have lasting effects on the brain’s overall functional capacity. These conditions set the stage for ketamine withdrawal effects to develop.

Call our toll-free helpline at 800-915-1270 (Who Answers?) if you have any questions about ketamine withdrawal treatment programs.

Ketamine Withdrawal Effects

Ketamine withdrawal effects start to develop in response to growing brain chemical imbalances. Rather than elicit the types of physical effects that drugs in the opiate and stimulant class do, ketamine withdrawal effects mostly interfere with a person’s emotional and psychological stability.

Withdrawal effects typically take the form of:

• Ongoing feelings of sadness
• Anxiousness
• Confused thinking
• Disinterest in normally enjoyable activities and pursuits
• Loss of motivation to meet everyday obligations

As dopamine plays a critical role in regulating a person’s psychological makeup in terms of priorities, motivations and behaviors, dopamine level imbalances account for much of the psychological/emotional duress that withdrawal brings.

Is Ketamine Detox Treatment Really Necessary?

Tolerance Level Increases

In the absence of needed treatment help, the brain will continue to adapt to ketamine’s effects. Consequently, a person has to keep increasing dosage amounts in order to experience the “high” effects of the drug, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

After a certain point, tolerance level increases will drive users to engage in bingeing practices, which ultimately speeds the cycle of abuse and addiction along.

How Ketamine Withdrawal Treatment Helps

Ketamine withdrawal treatment picks up where the brain’s functional capacity leaves off in terms of treating distressing withdrawal effects and helping individuals confront drug-abusing patterns in their lives. From there, treatment entails helping you replace drug-using habits and behaviors with healthy lifestyle habits and practices.

If you so much as suspect a ketamine abuse problem may be getting out of control, its best to get help sooner rather than later to avoid losing control altogether. Call our toll-free helpline at 800-915-1270 (Who Answers?) to ask about available ketamine withdrawal treatment options.