“Becoming a mother has definitely been a huge turning point for my mental health,” Zhang said.
After giving birth to her daughter, Zhang suffered from postpartum depression for about a year, followed by rapid repeated episodes of depression due to bipolar disorder. Her situation continued to worsen as she continued to try all of her medications to get her condition under control, and then she became ill.
“During the pandemic, I contracted COVID-19 and was treated with steroids, so the steroids triggered my second manic episode,” Zhang said. For example, I was sick for several weeks and couldn't speak. I couldn't swallow. I couldn't take regular medications. So it was a perfect storm of different things.”
Due to the ups and downs of bipolar disorder and the lack of effectiveness of the medications she was trying, Zhang wanted to find a better way to treat her condition. Only recently was she introduced to a new treatment that truly made a difference: ketamine therapy.
Ketamine therapy for mood disorders
When you hear the word ketamine, people's minds often go to “party drug,” but before it became illegally popular, it had a special place in the medical system. Medical professionals and veterinarians have used ketamine as a sedative to induce unconsciousness in patients and animals requiring certain procedures requiring sedation.