Ketamine and Headaches: What Users Say

• TBe...
• January 18, 2020

"I have a long history of depression and anxiety. I've been on antidepressants for over 20 years. I've gone through traditional therapy, EMDR, RRT, and tried things like meditation, acupuncture, and hypnosis. After a very rough holiday season, my husband talked me into trying Ketamine. We found a specialist, and I went through the 6 treatments over 2 weeks. It's been a week since we finished. For me, the treatments started to work after the 3rd one. I have started feeling things again - hope, calm. I'm laughing again. The numb feeling is gone. I do want to say the first treatment was beautiful and brutal. It felt like a trust fall. There were some cathartic hallucinations, but it felt like I couldn't move. There was a two-day headache after. For the next treatments, we were very careful to have the room as quiet and dark as possible. My husband made playlists of soothing instrumental music. That worked."

• No...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• January 9, 2017

For Anesthesia "Woke up from anesthesia with a headache, extremely dizzy, and unable to coordinate my eyes together. I could not sleep for 32 hours. Two days after surgery, I started having heart palpitations and seeing flashes in one eye. I needed to be checked with an EKG and my eyes checked for a possible tear of the retina. It took 10 days for dizziness and eye coordination to return to normal."

• Kat...
• May 14, 2022

For Pain "I had experienced a terrible headache and anxiety and went to the emergency room. The doctor ordered this drug and gave it to me through an IV. It was the most terrible experience of my life. The hallucinations were so scary I thought I was going to die. It was horrible and lasted 20 minutes, everything in the room was moving. I was flying in the air and then went down into a deep black hole. The hallucinations were really so scary. It didn't do me any good except to scare me to death. I thought I was actually dying."

• Vel...
• Taken for less than 1 month
• June 24, 2025

For Anesthesia "I had to have general surgery to cut me open. The doctor refused to put me to sleep. The ER doctor suggested ketamine. Never heard of it but was my only option. It was the most horrifying experience I've ever had with a drug. Hallucinations and lots of psychedelic colors, tunnels, and wild animals chasing me. Gave me a severe headache for three days, plus throwing up. Never again will I let anyone do this to me. Never even told me this would happen. I do not remember my surgery, which I'm not sure would have been worse."