The Importance of Self-Care in Mental Health Therapy 

Self-care is not a luxury, affordable only on sick days or vacations. Instead, tending to your needs is an essential aspect of maintaining a balanced life. Allowing responsibilities, work, or relationships to overshadow your health leaves space for burnout, physical illness, interpersonal conflict, and even hospitalization. 

Actions that support wellness are even more important when seeking mental health treatment. Self-care can boost your resiliency when addressing trauma and emotional distress, allowing for the facilitation of true breakthroughs and healing in therapy. 

Below we’ll explore five ways incorporating self-care into your ketamine treatment can enhance benefits and outcomes.

What Is Self-Care?

Self-care is a term that encompasses every action that supports positive physical, emotional, and mental health. These could include simple activities of daily living (ADLs) like eating, bathing, sleeping, and exercising. In other cases, self-care can mean snuggling in a warm bed with a book, drinking your favorite tea, or enjoying an evening alone.

It can be that simple!

Self-care is highly personalized, and no two people have the same idea of individual wellness. Some may set aside time for relaxation at home, while others seek social activities to rejuvenate themselves. Whatever the case, self-care in any form helps you withstand stress, anxiety, and adversities.

Here are a few common examples of self-care exercises:

Physical self-care

• Eating a balanced diet
• Staying physically active
• Having a spa day
• Brushing your teeth 
• Taking a hot shower

Mental and emotional self-care

• Interacting with loved ones
• Getting dressed up
• Tending to your garden
• Journaling
• Setting healthy boundaries
• Cooking a favorite meal

Spiritual self-care

• Praying
• Attending church
• Spending time in nature
• Meditation
• Consulting spiritual advisors

Why Self-Care Is Important Alongside Ketamine Therapy

The benefits of honoring your well-being cannot be understated. Unfortunately, in our modern society, self-care often falls secondary to work obligations, parental responsibilities, relationship stress, and fatigue.

In many cases, mental health challenges can also impede our ability to meet our needs. Self-doubt and criticism can erode our perception of ourselves, leaving us feeling unworthy of sustained wholeness. Depression can zap motivation and energy, making self-care seem an unreachable feat for millions of individuals. 

However, prioritizing wellness can open the door to new opportunities, growth, happiness, and monumental changes. 

Functioning as your best, most restored self offers the chance to pinpoint your struggles and finetune your strategies to address them. When employed alongside mental health treatment like ketamine therapy, self-care can help you combat long-held beliefs that negatively influence your life.

Here are five benefits of self-care when receiving ketamine mental health treatment:

1. Reduced Depressive Symptoms

Research supports the pivotal effect self-care has on depression, and regular practice can safeguard against worsening mental health. In the same vein, numerous studies show ongoing ketamine infusions can significantly decrease symptoms within just 15 days. Now, imagine how combining self-care and ketamine can impact treatment-resistant depression. 

Ketamine performs behind-the-scenes work, affecting chemistry and rewiring neural pathways in the brain. While these evolutions start the snowball toward long-term wellness, personal efforts sustain these efforts. One cannot achieve remission if they do not follow through with necessary lifestyle changes.

Self-care solutions must be tailored to fit individual circumstances. For example, abusive relationships can destroy self-compassion and worth, sometimes resulting in characteristic signs of depression (e.g., a sense of stagnation, “stuckness” in life, or a lack of motivation). To combat these negative emotions, one may need to end relationships that only bring suffering or set boundaries that limit contact. 

No matter your unique situation, focus on identifying activities that replenish and feed your soul. Alongside the transformative influences of ketamine therapy, finding ways to fulfill your needs can be life-changing when living with depression. 

2. Lessened Anxiety

Anxiety can be a crippling mental health condition that limits the ability to function in daily life, let alone maintain self-care. When battling endless worries and fears, many people may feel confined to their situation, struggling to see any light at the end of their journey.

However, while research is limited, some findings suggest ketamine therapy blocks NMDA receptors and influences glutamate levels in the brain. As with depression, these effects help us adapt to new experiences and, essentially, override adverse memories that contribute to anxiety. In turn, many patients can experience rapid relief from generalized anxiety, phobias, and even obsessive-compulsive symptoms. 

Self-care comes into play when we face painful emotions, unexpected events, and triggers that fuel distress. An example could be practicing breath work, mindfulness, or yoga to induce calm and suppress fears. Exercise like these activities also positively impacts the brain, further facilitating the healing that comes with ketamine therapy. 

3. Restored Self-Image

Many patients with histories of trauma, depression, abuse, and physical illnesses experience low self-esteem. Whether they blame themselves for their situations or see themselves as “less than” others, negative self-beliefs can impact their strength to prioritize well-being. Sadly, a lack of self-care only worsens these feelings, reinforcing the cycle of insecureness. 

When receiving ketamine infusions, neural rewiring can directly influence “negative cognition,” including self-guilt, criticalness, and worthlessness. In one study, not only were these changes experienced immediately after therapy, but patients reported long-term relief from symptoms for over a week. 

Of course, how you sustain these effects plays a critical role in the longevity of results. Between each session, delegate space for self-care. Simple activities like taking daily walks, eating regular meals, and challenging negative thinking can boost positive feelings toward yourself. Take things a step further by regularly encouraging yourself and leaving room for mistakes. No slip-up makes you any less deserving of self-care. 

4. Processed Traumas

Trauma can shape how someone views themselves and the world around them. Life-threatening, terrifying, and significant events can alter the brain, instilling a “Fear Circuity” that dictates how survivors interact with their surroundings. For instance, many grow increasingly wary of others, compelling them to push loved ones away in favor of self-preservation. 

Because trauma can create a negative self-schema, survivors frequently struggle with feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability. Rather than tending to their needs, the focus shifts to protecting themselves from potential harm, regardless of the situation. As a result, self-care once again becomes the lowest priority, suffocated beneath seemingly insurmountable distress.

Ketamine is a dissociative drug, thus “out of body” experiences are very common in the therapeutic setting. For patients with trauma, therapy can be a window to their past selves, allowing them to revisit and rewrite painful memories. Over time, their perception of life dramatically transforms from one of fear to one of powerfulness and self-efficacy.

So, how does self-care fit into the equation?

Trauma recovery is often a life-long process, and setbacks are a part of the course. Self-care helps you continue fighting against firmly entrenched negative beliefs and replace them with self-love, compassion, and acceptance outside therapy. 

Find activities that bolster your ability to cope with overwhelming emotions when encountering triggers. Exercise can be as simple as propping your feet up after a stressful day or as adventurous as visiting a different country. Anything that allows you to find meaning in yourself and your life can support long-term treatment success.

5. Improved Relationships

Relationships are enriching and important for overall wellness. However, they can also bring conflict when individuals have difficulty pushing through anxieties, traumas, and codependent qualities.

Unsurprisingly, a secondary effect of ketamine is an improved ability to prioritize healthy connections and shy away from potentially abusive and harmful people. With reduced anxiety, depression, and negative self-thoughts, patients can better recognize their worth, advocate for themselves, and stand against offensive interactions.

Self-care aids in this growth by fostering balance, stress reduction, and positive communication. In practice, fulfilling your physical needs allows you to feel your best, often translating into increased empathy and compassion toward others. Other times, respecting your limits for interactions can prevent arguments due to social burnout, overwhelm, or fatigue.

Again, while ketamine can be the incentive for change, you must honor your role in personal development and prosperity. 

Taking the Next Steps for Your Mental Health

You don’t have to navigate mental health struggles alone–support is available. If you’re ready to take the leap and explore ketamine therapy, the team at New Pathways is here to help you take the power back over your life. Our nurses and staff ensure each patient receives quality care, absolute attention, and complete relaxation before, during, and after infusions. 

Remember, wellness is not a one-and-done undertaking. With consistent treatment and self-care, you can regain the ability to maintain a balanced life, pursue hobbies, cultivate meaningful relationships, and restore self-confidence. 

Interested in a free consultation? If you’d like to pursue this journey, we have locations in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.