I take ketamine 2 to 3 times a year through a clinic. The altered state it puts me in is contemplative and gives me perspective-- I explain to people it's like getting a massage for my mind. I don't feel any pull or draw to abuse it or use it more frequently. YMMV of course.<p>That said, the article title is very misleading. It's essentially a (very) thinly veiled hit piece on Musk. As if we need more of those on HN. A better title would be "What Ketamine could be doing to Musk's brain, which would explain explain why he's so crazy/evil/nazi -- and why you should continued to be scared/panic/etc"<p>I can imagine frequent use of any psychedelic (or any drug) being correlated with all sorts of other mental and inhibition issues. That's not new/news.
Readers might also enjoy "The Ketamine Secrets of ‘Ecco the Dolphin’"<p><a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-ketamine-secrets-of-segas-ecco-the-dolphin-347/" rel="nofollow">https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-ketamine-secrets-of-sega...</a><p>More anecdotes from Mr. Lilly <a href="https://www.intuition.org/txt/lilly.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.intuition.org/txt/lilly.htm</a><p>MISHLOVE: Perhaps this is a necessary part of everybody's journey, is to go through the epitome of terror.<p>LILLY: Right. For instance, there's an Iranian psychiatrist, an American psychiatrist, that put a hundred patients in a mental hospital in Iran through what they feared most, on Ketamine, and they all left the hospital. Now, I tried the same thing, after I read that. That evening I took 150 milligrams of Ketamine, and suddenly the Earth Coincidence Control Office removed my penis and handed it to me. I screamed in terror. My wife Toni came running in from the bedroom, and she said, "It's still attached." So I shouted at the ceiling, "Who's in charge up there? A bunch of crazy kids?" The answer came back, "Well, you had an unconscious fear, so we put you through it, just the way the Iranian psychiatrist did."<p>MISHLOVE: In the realm of the mind, the province of the mind, we can face all our fears.<p>LILLY: Well, you may not be able to live with it, but you should try it.
Funnily enough, PCP is a drug that is very similar to Ketamine, but has a very different reputation.<p>Whenever someone sees someone in full-blown psychosis walking stark naked on the side of the road, PCP immediately gets the blame. In reality, both drugs have the same psychosis potential.<p>It's not an immediate thing. Heavy users will just start feeling confident and motivated. Little need for sleep and a spring in their step like they are light as a feather. As the heavy use continues, this can spiral into mania, delusions of grandeur, detachment from reality and paranoia.<p>I have no way of knowing how much Elon uses, but it would not surprise me if he is treating himself with consistent low doses of ketamine. I wonder how his memory is, that would be a pretty good tell.
I had severe depression and did the ketamine nasal spray at a clinic. I didn't feel like it really helped me, but according to my therapist, my mood did markedly improved. Unfortunately, the process is anything but pleasant. The greatest thing I ever did was to say yes to doing shrooms.