Latest / Giving Pain Purpose with Lyndsay Soprano / Ketamine + the Future of Healing
Transcript
- 0:03This is Your Pain Game podcast where we talk about the game of living in
- 0:07and with chronic pain and trauma, get into the heart of how to heal.
- 0:12I am your host, Lindsay Soprano. On the show, I plan
- 0:18on discussing with doctors, chronic pain patients, holistic practitioners, loved ones,
- 0:23and anybody that is interested in having their voice heard in the chronic pain and
- 0:27trauma world that we live in. We have discussed psychedelics and plant medicine here
- 0:42and there on this show. We've been slowly but surely kind of bringing it
- 0:45into conversation. It's not something that we haven't been thinking about. We've been
- 0:50reading about it all over the places in social media. Take your mushrooms,
- 0:53do this, do that? All these different clinics, right, And I
- 0:55promised that I would start bringing this topic up into attention more to my listener
- 1:00as I started to feel more confident in that space and talking about it,
- 1:04because at the end of the day, I am here for me as well
- 1:07as you guys, right, And I've dabbled in psychedelic use. Come on,
- 1:12you guys have listened to me long enough, you know that that's not
- 1:15a huge surprise, right, But dabbling in it in my home on a
- 1:19Saturday the night is far different than it being actually, you know, dosed
- 1:25the way that we're supposed to dose for what we're trying to dose for.
- 1:29Right so, and since my youth has not been monitored by a doctor or
- 1:33a clinic, it's now time to move into that. And I know it's
- 1:36the next step in my healing journey, and it's time to do it the
- 1:38right way. But we want to talk today a little bit about the benefits
- 1:42of psychedelics and how we can leverage them and use them in our wellness practices,
- 1:47whatever that might look like. And so this conversation is going to be
- 1:49interesting because everybody is going to benefit from this conversation today. I don't care
- 1:55who y'allre so and it helps with you know, we're going to be talking
- 1:59about anyone the guess that we're going to talk about today. Okay, we're
- 2:00going to talk about ketamine. Baby, We're not going to go down a
- 2:05K hole though. We're going to talk about its legitimacy in treating mood disorders
- 2:09and PTSD and bipolar disorder and pain as well, which of course we talk
- 2:14about a lot here. So let's get into it. I would like to
- 2:16introduce to you my guest today, Sam Mandel, Darling, how are you,
- 2:23Hey, Lindsay, I'm good. How are you? I am good?
- 2:24And I'm so excited to have this conversation with you today because ketamine has
- 2:29been something that, as you know I've been I've had a bad experience with
- 2:32it, and you have shifted that bad experience to something that's going to be
- 2:37a good one. So that's why we're here today. So Sam Mandel is
- 2:40a lifelong mental health advocate and entrepreneur. Sam co founded Ketamine Clinics in Los
- 2:46Angeles with his father, doctor Stephen Mandel, in twenty fourteen and has grown
- 2:52the clinic to be one of the most successful and well respected Ketymine infusion therapy
- 2:57clinics in the United States. He serves as company's chief executive officer and is
- 3:01responsible for the day to day operations and strategic direction of the clinic, and
- 3:07he also was an Entrepreneur magazine as one of the top ten healthcare entrepreneurs to
- 3:12watch for in twenty twenty three. The year is not over and I am
- 3:15keeping my eyes on you, and that is foreshore. So I am rolling
- 3:21out the red carpet for you, babe. I'd like to start by talking
- 3:24about how you got into psychedelic medicine in the first place, and then let's
- 3:29kind of take our journey from there. Yeah. Well, thank you for
- 3:30such an awesome introduction. And I love your energy. It's so good and
- 3:35so refreshing. I got themto psychedelics because the mental health crisis has affected me
- 3:39personally, my friends and family, people I've lost to suicide, people I've
- 3:45witnessed struggle with addiction, depression, polar disorder, other mental health conditions,
- 3:50and people who I love in Carabaut who are still struggling today. And the
- 3:54modern mental health system has failed us, and especially western medicine really where mental
- 4:00health is concerned, has failed us. And looking at where are the solutions?
- 4:04What can we do to live happy, healthy lives? How can I
- 4:10help the people who I care about and the community at large really get the
- 4:14relief that they deserve and need. You got to just dig deeper and inquire
- 4:17more and more because accepting the status quo as the solution or as the only
- 4:23answer is just not acceptable. So psychedelics come into play. They are a
- 4:29pretty interesting, exciting and new approach to mental health. There's nothing new about
- 4:35psychedelics, right. You look at use of some of them, like mushrooms,
- 4:40pslocybin, magic mushrooms, you know, date back thousands of years.
- 4:44But the idea that they could actually be used to treat mental health conditions is
- 4:47kind of a newer concept for a lot of people. And you know,
- 4:49there's obviously some interesting research and stuff that was going on in the fifties and
- 4:54sixties and that was I'll put on pause. But generally it is a new
- 5:00approach to mental health and to not using them just for you know, religious
- 5:03or spiritual or recreational uses, but actually to treat illness. Oh you can
- 5:09use it without it being recreational. You can. And that's the issue we
- 5:14have. You know, there's so much stigma. There's so much stigma.
- 5:16And also I don't know how we got into a place where well I do
- 5:21know how, but it's so unfortunate that we're in this place where certain things
- 5:25that might produce pleasure are so stigmatized as evil, bad and wrong that somehow
- 5:30we've lumped pleasure into evil is one and the same. But when it comes
- 5:35to multinational corporations making record profits on other things that make us feel good and
- 5:42give us pleasure. That's good stuff, and that's good business, good commerce,
- 5:46and good for us, be it nicotine or alcohol or the other things
- 5:49that have the stamp of approval by the people who benefit from it financially.
- 5:54But the things that they you know, can't or don't want to benefit from,
- 5:59then those things are bad when they make us feel good. So just
- 6:01the whole notion that even recreational or illicit drug uses on its face bad is
- 6:09really just such a lord of bs. And of course I'm not advocating for
- 6:12everyone to go and pick up a crystal meth habit. I'm not advocating for
- 6:15you to be getting high all day every day. I'm not saying that episode
- 6:23over. Yes. Yeah, if that's your takeaway from this, you're really
- 6:26not interested in understanding me or what I'm trying to talk about today. But
- 6:29yeah, we don't want to be listening. Yeah, you know, I
- 6:31just want to be really really clear on that. I don't advocate for anyone
- 6:35to do anything that's illegal, including using street drugs, but I do think
- 6:40it's important to note that you're not an evil person or committing an evil act.
- 6:44In my opinion if you do choose to do that. And I think
- 6:46harm reduction is also very important, right, and so how much you're taking,
- 6:50when you're taking, where you're taking it, why you're taking it,
- 6:55what you're taking are all extremely important. And there's not a lot of nuance
- 7:00in the conversations that we have around drugs. There's like people who say that
- 7:03they're great and people who say that they're evil, and you know, people
- 7:08can be pretty extreme in their views about them, and unfortunately that isn't sufficient.
- 7:13You know, like with many things in life, there's a tremendous amount
- 7:15of nuance here. So I feel like I'm maybe getting a little bit off
- 7:18topic, but are on a tangent, I should say, but yeah,
- 7:23no, But it's a tangent that the listeners here of this show and myself
- 7:27are used to being on because they hear for me about my feelings about Western
- 7:31medicine all the time here and how it has failed me time and time and
- 7:35time and time again, and how I watch it failing so many other people
- 7:40in my life that have suffered with all of the things you have listed,
- 7:42from depression and anxiety and PTSD and bipolar disorder and suicidal tendencies all of these
- 7:46things, including people like myself with CRPS and other chronic you know, pain
- 7:50syndromes and diseases, and you know, it's I never would have thought that
- 7:57I'm sitting here right now and that like, as soon as I'm done with
- 8:00this episode, I'm gonna call my mom and I'm gonna chit chat with her
- 8:01about doing drugs. Because I was raised because I was raised in a right
- 8:05wing Christian, you know, conservative home. My dad was kind of a
- 8:11little bit of a hippie and you know, he partook in his stuff,
- 8:13but my mom is like as straight laceday as you get. And so having
- 8:16these conversations about introducing psychedelics into my treatment and my healthcare is something that is
- 8:24a topic of almost every conversation that my family and I have now. So
- 8:28that stigma is starting to lift big time, and I'm seeing it in my
- 8:33own life in a very from a very conservative part of my life where I
- 8:37was worried that I was going to have to tell my mom, like I'm
- 8:39going to try these things and you don't have anything to say about it,
- 8:43whether I'm going to do it or not. But having those conversations because that
- 8:46stigma has just been part of especially us in our thirties and forties and early
- 8:50fifties and such. We were raised like, you know, it was the
- 8:54dare thing, like don't do drugs like that was it. You know,
- 8:56this is your brain on drugs. The eggs in the pan and its sizzles,
- 8:58right. I mean we all remember at least that watched those commercials as
- 9:03PSAs you know, in the Reagan eras, and you know, we were
- 9:05dealing with that stuff, and so we were brought up that that stuff is
- 9:09bad. And so now I think it's great to have the conversation that it
- 9:11just isn't it can be if you are not, like you said, harm
- 9:15reduction. That was very very good that you said that, because it's true,
- 9:18like I was saying earlier recreationally, you know, maybe I probably should
- 9:22kick back on some of the things I've tried, you know, to see.
- 9:26I was like, I just want to know, like, does this
- 9:28even help me at all? And it absolutely has. I just need to
- 9:31do it the right way. Now, So let's talk a little bit about
- 9:35what what ketamine actually is and how it works and why it's a little bit
- 9:39different than the psilocybins. Of the world and MDMA, right, because that's
- 9:43where a lot of people are like, it's ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin.
- 9:46I think that's pretty much what we're all seeing, especially in social media all
- 9:50over the place. Can you talk a little bit about what ketamine is and
- 9:54why it's so different from others and then we can go from there. Yeah.
- 9:58So ketamine is unique in that it's an FDA proved medicine and it's been
- 10:01around since the sixties. It was FDA proved in nineteen seventy as an anesthetic
- 10:07and it's become very quickly. Was, you know, one of the most
- 10:11widely used anesthetics in the world, and it still is today. And it
- 10:15has other applications as well as an analgesic as a pain reliever, it's used
- 10:20instead of opioids in certain situations. It's also used in veterinary medicine. So
- 10:24some people know of it as a horse tranquilizer or a cat tranquilizer, and
- 10:28it's also a drug that people use, you know, recreationally or on the
- 10:31street known as special k or Kittie or all these other nicknames that it has,
- 10:35and so people know of it usually through just one of those ways,
- 10:39and then they think that that's the whole story, but that's just part of
- 10:43the story. So so ubiquitous drug with a lot of different uses, and
- 10:46in the last twenty twenty five years it's been proven to be one of the
- 10:50most effective mental health treatments available today, primarily for depression, but also PTSD,
- 10:56suicidality, anxiety, and other forms of depression like bipolar depression, postpartum
- 11:01depression, even some substance use disorders, which is a little bit ironic considering
- 11:05that some people do abuse ketamine, but if you're having issues with substances other
- 11:09than ketamine, it can actually be helpful as part of a bigger treatment plan
- 11:13people with eating disorders. And in the list of applications for it is actually
- 11:18only growing. So it's a really really interesting medicine. And I think there's
- 11:22some reasons that would explain why it works so well for so many things that
- 11:26maybe we can come back to that later. But we use ketamine intravenously to
- 11:30treat mental health at Kedemic Clinics Los Angeles. So ketemine is FDA approved.
- 11:35There's a lot of safety and efficacy data on the medicine in general and specifically
- 11:39for this use as mental health treatment. There's been about one hundred and sixty
- 11:43clinical trials conducted on ketamine for depression and other mood disorders. Around fifty sixty
- 11:50have results published on the internet. You can go to clinicaltrials dot gov or
- 11:54other resources PubMed and you can read them yourself, and dozens of them have
- 11:58been pure reviewed. And I mentioned all this is to say this is the
- 12:01real deal and it's proven, because some people who aren't educated on this will
- 12:05say, oh, that's all anecdotal, or yeah, you know, some
- 12:07things about ketamine seem interesting, but we really need more research, we need
- 12:11more data. These are the really really conservative or cynical or in some cases
- 12:16dishonest people who are making these kinds of claims. And sometimes they're smart people
- 12:20or they have a lot of letters after their names, and they think,
- 12:22oh, this is an authority. Well, there's enough data on ketdemen for
- 12:26mental health that it's a real, proven treatment and it works, and it's
- 12:30safe, and it's effective and there's no known long term side effects and it
- 12:33actually works about twice as effected as most of the conventional treatments out there,
- 12:37primarily antidepressant pills, prescription pills, medications, even you know therapy and talk
- 12:45therapy and others. In our clinic, it's about eighty three percent effective.
- 12:48And that's even in treatment resistant cases, people who have tried and not benefited
- 12:52from several other conventional treatment options. It works faster, it works in a
- 12:58matter of days, whereas these other treatments often take weeks or months to work.
- 13:01Short term side effects are extremely minimal. Again, no no long term
- 13:05so it really is an incredible treatment. And also the quality of relief is
- 13:09different. People really get a restoration of pleasure. They really start to feel
- 13:15good again, get more energy, more motivation, feel more connected to themselves
- 13:22and others, increased sense of compassion for themselves and others in really meaningful ways,
- 13:26whereas the conventional treatments. Again I'm mostly thinking of the pills that are
- 13:30available SSRIs, SNRIs, antipsychotic medications, etc. Benzodiaz a kines know for
- 13:35anxiety. A lot of these drugs really numb people out. They make them
- 13:39feel locked in. They may not feel as depressed or as down, but
- 13:43they also don't allow them to experience the pleasure, joy or highs of life
- 13:46either. They're in a narrower field or scope of their experience. Their lived
- 13:52experience has been narrowed, and it's not particularly good. It's just maybe more
- 13:56functional than it was, and function is very important. But that's again,
- 13:58that's not something to settle for. I mean, we really think everyone deserves
- 14:01to live a life of actually being in joy, and of course we all
- 14:05have pain and sadness and tragedy in life, and life cannot be beautiful and
- 14:11roses all the time, all day, every day, and that's never the
- 14:13standard of the expectation. Though. People deserve to have joy and happiness be
- 14:18an important consistency, you know, foundational part of their lives, and unfortunately
- 14:22a lot of people today don't have that. When it comes to ketamine,
- 14:26I know that there is a pill form versus infusion, and I was given
- 14:31a massive dose for my first dose. I had one hundred and twenty milligrams
- 14:35in a pill form that was given to me the first time that I was
- 14:39given ketamine. It also was the last time I tried it because I went
- 14:41down a ca hole that I don't care. I don't care to remember the
- 14:46bits and pieces that I did go down, And I mean, I'm like
- 14:48one hundred pounds wet you know, and like for them to give me enough
- 14:52to use your terminology herst triculizer, because that's what we all think about when
- 14:54we heard about ketamine. I felt like I was being that. I was
- 14:58like just appbsolutely, like justit gun in the next Yeah, it was a
- 15:03horrible, terrible experience. But I have a girlfriend of mine who's very very
- 15:07dear to me, Lobby, I love you. She also suffers with CRPS,
- 15:11and she's actually doing the pill form of ketamine right now. It's working
- 15:16kind of sorta. Yeah, I would like to talk about the difference between
- 15:20why infusion therapy is so much more beneficial than the pill form. Yeah.
- 15:24Absolutely, And also I do want to mention it as you're bringing up now,
- 15:28I intended to. It's extremely helpful. Ketamine is extremely helpful for neuropathic
- 15:31pain conditions like CRPS, honey, Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's
- 15:37it's really really good for a variety of other trigeminal neuralgia, migraines, certain
- 15:43types of even arthritis, so yeah, fibromyalgia. So it's a really really
- 15:52amazing medicine when it's provided in the right way and in the right context.
- 15:56And just like with anything that has the potential to do a lot of good.
- 16:00It can also do a lot of harm when it's not used responsibly.
- 16:03It's powerful, and that goes for all psychedelics. Psychedelics, really, I
- 16:07believe in many people believe really are the future of our health and wellness in
- 16:11the United States and in the world, and really at a foundation essential,
- 16:15foundational part of the future of mental health for so many people. And they
- 16:22also really can cause harm, and they're not for everyone. So I just
- 16:26want to be really clear about that, because I'm very enthusiastic about them,
- 16:30and I think they're very exciting and they really are already helping so many people.
- 16:34In the amount of people that I'm hopeful that they will help is just
- 16:38exponential in comparison. And again we're not saying everyone should after this episode is
- 16:44over go out and call a dealer for some illegal drugs, or go with
- 16:48a doctor. Yeah, or go to a doctor and you know, even
- 16:52get a legitimate treatment like ketamine from them. I mean, you can acquire,
- 16:56but it might not be for you, and that's okay. So I
- 17:00just want to be clear about about that. Now, as far as roots
- 17:03of administration, you bring up a good point. You know, ketamine comes
- 17:07in all shapes and sizes. I mean, it's just like with a lot
- 17:11of medicines. It can be taken or it can be received in really just
- 17:15about any way you can receive any medicine, the big ones being first and
- 17:19foremost IV IV infusions. And by the way, all of the research I
- 17:22mentioned earlier is about IVY infusions. There's very very little research at all about
- 17:27any other roots. So it's important because there are people who are getting some
- 17:32good results helping people with other roots of administration. But it's important to note
- 17:36that there is not much of any data on those other roots. So plinicals,
- 17:41Yeah, that's important, absolutely. Yeah, So not to say that
- 17:45they're bad or wrong or that you can't get a benefit from them, but
- 17:48again that's an important distinction, right, So just know that now, other
- 17:52than IV we have im intramuscular injections. That's where they you score a bunch
- 17:56of the medicine into a muscle all at once, whereas the IV in fusion
- 18:00in our clinic and and most it's it's a gradual infusion. For most it's
- 18:04forty minutes. We do fifty five minutes. So this is not a shot,
- 18:07right, This is a continuous, steady state of medicine being infused for
- 18:11almost an hour, and we do this six times over three weeks. That's
- 18:15the protocol now with IVY, this slow, steady, gradual is really one
- 18:22of the key things to the therapeutic benefit and to it being not habit forming.
- 18:27Now, ketymine is not addictive and you don't form it a physical dependency
- 18:33on it, even though some people use it recreationally, they might use it
- 18:37as a means of escape, but it isn't something they get dependent on in
- 18:41the way that you would with nicotine or alcohol or opioids where you can actually
- 18:45start to crave it or even look at like Benzo's, like common ones like
- 18:48xanax or klonopin, where you can actually die if you abruptly stop taking it
- 18:53if you're taking high enough doses. So, I mean, this is a
- 18:57pretty important difference between drugs that you can become physically dependent upon and addictally addicted
- 19:03to and those that you're not, like ketemine, you know. So that's
- 19:10that's something that again part of the stigma of people using it on the street
- 19:14is people are afraid, oh, I'm gonna get hooked, I'm going to
- 19:15be a kedemen addict. Well, most of the people who use it recreationally
- 19:19aren't really dependent on it anyways, And if they are, that's a mental
- 19:22thing. That's not like they're physically in need of it or they're going to
- 19:26get sick if they don't have it. So I want people to know that.
- 19:29So one of my questions. I have so many questions for you,
- 19:30they just keep popping up, and I know we only have a little bit
- 19:33more time together. But how long? Okay, So I go in,
- 19:37I do this treatment with you guys. How long does it last? That's
- 19:41a great question. Do I have to see you again? Because I think
- 19:44that's the pressing question, Like, okay, great, I go in there,
- 19:47I drop whatever the cost is of treatment for you guys, and then
- 19:51do I see you again, like next month? Like how long does it
- 19:55last? I'm assuming it differs between people and who they are and what kind
- 19:59of conditions they have, But generally speaking, I'd say, is it different
- 20:02between the mood disorder people versus the pain people? Because I feel like the
- 20:07mood disorder people kind of just spend up. But I know that I've got
- 20:10anxiety and insomnia and depression and all the things that come with living in pain
- 20:14all day because it's very stressful living in pain twenty four hours a day.
- 20:18Yeah, how long does it last? And I'm going to hold you to
- 20:19it. Well, first of all, no, we make no promises or
- 20:25guarantees that anyone will get any benefit. It's very likely, but no promises.
- 20:30And yeah, so it's actually comparable both mental health and pain. Patients
- 20:36typically get around three months of relief. It varies from patient to patient,
- 20:40and it depends a lot of lifestyle factors as well, and how much people
- 20:42are really willing to work on their healing. So we had a patient who
- 20:47was drinking a bottle of whiskey every day and he's like, you know,
- 20:48I'm not feeling better, and it's like, well, you probably need to
- 20:51lay off the whiskey, right, that's not helping, you know, really
- 20:55the brown liquor for a sec buddy. Yeah, you know. So people
- 20:56need to focus on good nutrition, good sleep, healthy interpersonal relationships, talk,
- 21:04therapy, you know, overall fitness, exercise, right, you know,
- 21:07overall wellness. Pillar is taking care of themselves. And these are things
- 21:11that a lot of people already know they should do, but then when they're
- 21:12feeling really depressed or they're in a lot of pain, they can't or they
- 21:17feel like they can't and they don't have the energy or the motivation, or
- 21:19it hurts too much. So Kennemy can provide the relief to make it possible,
- 21:23and the energy and motivation and make it possible. And people have to
- 21:26take carry that momentum forward in a positive way and actually make changes in their
- 21:30life, right, So Kenymine is an opportunity to do that. And so
- 21:34around three months and then people come back for booster infusions and that's usually a
- 21:40pair a day or two apart, and that extends the benefit. Again,
- 21:42they don't need to do another full series. By the way, it's important
- 21:45to mention that in addition to the pain infusions being four hours long, the
- 21:51visits are about six hours because of the prep time, the infusion and the
- 21:56recovery time sometimes longer than six hours. So again it's just a much more
- 21:59intense and process. And they're also usually done five in about six or seven
- 22:04days, whereas the mental health protocol is six over three weeks. These are
- 22:10usually not on consecutive days, sometimes with the day or two off, so
- 22:15that's another important difference. For people to be aware of in the protocols.
- 22:18So why is it longer and in a shorter duration for someone like myself as
- 22:25CRPS versus someone that's going in there because they've just done bipolar, they've done
- 22:30their pills, the thing is working, they're sick of it, they're having
- 22:32nightmares, they're screaming, bloody melt. You know, why is it so
- 22:34much longer and so much more intense for the chronic pain patients, specifically with
- 22:38people like myself with the nervous system conditions that way have The short answer,
- 22:42science doesn't really fully know. I can tell you that it seems like a
- 22:48lot of these pain conditions are just really tough to break through, and it
- 22:55just takes more medicine and more intensive therapy to kind of just break through the
- 23:00issue that's going on there and to help to reset things. There's a process
- 23:04called central sensitization, and that's over time, your pain signaling increases in intensity
- 23:11and frequency throughout the body, and ketamine really is like hitting a reset button
- 23:15on that and it just, for whatever reason, it's hard to do that.
- 23:21It's just a very tough thing to treat. It's one of the toughest
- 23:23crps I'm talking about, and there's not really good treatments out there, and
- 23:27a lot of people end up on really really unhealthy high doses of opioids,
- 23:32and then over time those are less effective and they start taking higher and higher
- 23:34doses, and there's a process where opioids actually ironically increase your sensitivity to pain,
- 23:41so as you're taking more and higher doses than your pain threshold is lower.
- 23:45It's an awful cycle. People have issues with the constipation and all kinds
- 23:48of side effects, and it's just it's an awful, awful thing. Ketamine
- 23:52really has the potential to help that, and it just requires more of it.
- 23:56It's tough. It's a tough thing to treat with. With the mental
- 24:00health patients, they're doing more inner processing during their infusions. There's more of
- 24:04a psychological component there though. There's a lot of psychological issues related to pain,
- 24:10and as you mentioned earlier, when you're in pain all the time,
- 24:11your anxiety, your depression is there, so there's a lot of comorbidity.
- 24:17You're going to have these other issues along with as a result of the pain
- 24:21condition, and those can also be helped by the academine infusions as well.
- 24:25And one of the things that I love about you before we before we kick
- 24:27the can down the road here because they're getting up on time. But you
- 24:32make me feel safe. I do not feel fearful of this where I did
- 24:36before I met you, because I have such a bad experience. I mean,
- 24:38it's true before I have my bad experience with it, and I was
- 24:41like, no, I'm not going to try that again. I was about
- 24:42is like, come on, lindsay like all these other things haven't worked,
- 24:47you know, and and like you've mentioned a little bit earlier about you know,
- 24:49our wellness protocols is the thing that we're doing that you don't. You
- 24:53don't You can't expect to just go and see Sam and get this done and
- 24:56then not take responsibility for your actions when you walk up the door, like
- 25:00don't go drink a bottle of whiskey, yeah to your keet, I mean
- 25:03treatment and expect things to be all hunky dory, like take responsibility for your
- 25:07actions and and you know, advocate for yourself and for your own health care.
- 25:12I mean, and I know that's a lot of part of this conversation
- 25:15as well, but oh my gosh, I cannot wait to see you well
- 25:19I'm really I'm really happy that that I've helped you to feel that you feel
- 25:23safe talking to me, and I've helped you feel I mean, because you
- 25:29know, there's just like with anything, there's a lot of nuance. And
- 25:30we love to think and you know, black and white all are nothing extremes,
- 25:34and you know, we're so polarized on so many issues and social media
- 25:38and politics and whatever, and it's like, you know, pick a side
- 25:41it's A or B, and then be too so extreme and it's so unhealthy,
- 25:45you know. And the reality is, the truth is always somewhere in
- 25:48the middle. There's always it's always the gray where the good stuff really is,
- 25:52you know. And I like to say it's supposed to be purple.
- 25:53It's pururple. I like purple. I think I think purple is is a
- 25:57great come calling him for a had of meine treatment right now. That was
- 26:00this thing going off that I even been distributed and I've already got your phone
- 26:04ring in it. I didn't think this was live. That's so interesting how
- 26:08you did that. I'm that good. Damn, I am that good.
- 26:14You are that good. I love it. Oh my gosh. Okay,
- 26:17so where can we find you? So we can get well. You've given
- 26:22us hope. And that is one of the things that every episode always ends
- 26:26on with the mesoge of that, because that's my message at the end when
- 26:27I you know, I've been fortunate to be on a lot of different shows
- 26:30over the years, and they often ask at the end, if there's one
- 26:33more thing that you would want to say, what do you want to say?
- 26:36That is always my message is a message of hope. Is that there
- 26:38is hope. If you're someone who's listening to this and you're struggling with a
- 26:42condition, whether it's mental health or pain, or you're dealing with something and
- 26:47you feel hopeless and like you have tried everything, I want to assure you
- 26:51that you have almost certainly not tried everything. That Kenymine infusions are out there,
- 26:56Transcranial magnetic stimulation is out there. Other psychedelic medicines like psilocybin in mushrooms,
- 27:04MDMA assisted psychotherapy, you know. MDMA is the active ingredient in ecstasy,
- 27:08which is about to be FDA approved next year for PTSD, LSD DMT,
- 27:15iahuasca, you know, breathwork, meditation, and combinations of all this
- 27:19stuff. There is something out there that will almost surely help you to feel
- 27:26better and get through whatever you're dealing with. And so don't give up,
- 27:29keep exploring, keep inquiring, and just don't give up. No, don't
- 27:34give up. You got that right, because I've hit some spots in my
- 27:37life where I almost did. And that little harp string, the one string
- 27:41left, I climbed up it, and then I rebuilt my harp and now
- 27:45I'm playing music again, and I haven't even gotten out of the pain part
- 27:48of it yet. But that's why we're here, you know. And before
- 27:52we leave, I was on your linked In profile and was looking at your
- 27:56title and I have a question because one of the names or one of the
- 28:00things that you refer to yourself in your title on LinkedIn is rapper. Yeah,
- 28:07that's right, I told you I had something. What the hell is
- 28:14this? Yeah? I know you might not expect it, but it's true.
- 28:19Yeah. Are you a ketamine rapper? Does this only happen after infusions?
- 28:25No? No, No, I've been That's funny. I've been rapping
- 28:29since I was like, I don't know, nine years old. Fun you
- 28:34know, writing poetry and rap and freestyling, and uh, it's something I
- 28:40love and I've been told I'm not bad at it, so well, I'm
- 28:44a I'm an upper singer. So you know, between the two of us,
- 28:47we can wrap, we can offer together and rap together during my kedemine
- 28:52treatment. That's awesome. That's awesome. We have a patient who has got
- 28:56just the most amazing and inspiring story of her own transformation, and she is
- 29:02an opera singer and she actually was able to start an opera company after getting
- 29:06help from this treatment in a time when she was really unable to do anything
- 29:10in her life. And so that's very cool. That's an interesting little wow.
- 29:15Okay, well, I love you. Well. We can find Sam
- 29:18and his dad and the clinic at Ketamine Clinics dot com. It's in Los
- 29:22Angeles. As we said, you can follow him on all the socials at
- 29:26the Sam Mandel. It's all Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, website well,
- 29:30of course LinkedIn is his rapper too. And TikTok? Are you rapping on
- 29:33TikTok for us? Is that why? I have some raps on TikTok and
- 29:37I have some wraps on Instagram, And actually I think the only stuff that
- 29:41I have on there are freestyles, but they're pretty good and I mean by
- 29:44that like one hundred percent spontaneous off the top of my head, not like
- 29:48you know, official songs that I recorded. But check it out let me
- 29:51know what you think. I love it. I can't wait much for spending
- 29:55the time with us and educating us more and certainly taking the fear and safety
- 29:57issues out of ketamine therapy infusion, specifically out of us today. So thank
- 30:03you so much for your time. It's been great. Thank you Lindsey for
- 30:04having me. It really has been a pleasure. I appreciate you. You
- 30:07got it. Thanks man. You are exclusively invited to share this hopeful ketamine
- 30:12renaissance together. VI I Pain Pain Journey. Let's get to the heart of
- 30:17how to heal with you by my side. Do you know someone who is
- 30:21living in and with chronic pain? If you do, send them our way
- 30:25here to the Pain Game podcast and to Sam at the Ketemine Clinic in Los
- 30:29Angeles. We would love to connect with you and hear your stories and help
- 30:33give you more strength and give us more wisdom and continue to support your grit
- 30:37right. I'd love to have my listeners just just hug each other and love
- 30:41each other through this process together. Please follow the Pain Game Podcast. Wherever
- 30:45you digest your podcast content, we will be there. Visit us at the
- 30:48pain gamepodcast dot com and follow us on all the socials. Thanks for listening
- 30:53my little VIPs. Catch you on the other side.