We’ve been enjoying the opportunities to hear from patients and publish their success stories this year at The Good Drop. It’s a privilege to be able to share our patients’ highly personal experiences with ketamine therapy as they continue their healing journeys.
As you’ve been reading these stories, you may find yourself questioning what we consider “patient success.” As in, how do we know who to approach for interviews? And, does a patient-success story mean that person has no further progress to make?
The answer to the second question is a definite no. We all have constant healing and self-improvement to work on. At the same time, we thought it would be beneficial to provide our patients and community with some wisdom on what patient success with ketamine therapy at The Good Drop actually looks like.
Spoiler: it’s completely different for every individual.
Here are some examples of positive changes we’ve seen in patients who have started ketamine therapy with us.
You No Longer Have Suicidal Thoughts
If you’ve spent years with constant or reoccurring suicidal thoughts and have dreaded even waking up every day, then you may draw some inspiration from Victoria’s patient story that we published to our blog a few months back.
One aspect of healing that meant everything to Victoria was when she was completing her Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) prior to an infusion and came across the question asking her if she “wished to be dead.” It was a statement she had agreed with for many years. On this occasion, though, Victoria realized she no longer felt this way.
Ketamine can definitely affect you this way! Even if your healing journey is just beginning, we’d certainly call that an early success!
Ketamine works on the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptors in your brain while encouraging the release of neurotransmitters that help regulate your mood.
Essentially, the drug gets your neurons talking to one another in ways they weren’t doing before. These new neural connections can lead to long-term better mood over time, especially when combined with integrative therapy.
The bottom line is that if suicidal thoughts have been part of your life for a while, and you realize after several infusions you don’t feel the same way anymore, we consider that a patient success: one of ideally many to come!
Your Get Relief from Chronic Pain
You may not have known this about ketamine, but it actually goes beyond mental health by providing relief to people who suffer from chronic pain.
Ketamine’s method of doing this is similar to how it alleviates mental disorders: by manipulating the brain’s NMDA receptors that control how we experience pain.
Many of our patients actually come to The Good Drop for both mental health and pain. Take Michael, the subject of our very first patient story. He came to us after years of chronic pain and a mental state that was worsening all the time because of that.
After his first infusion, Michael went home and already felt better from his pain. That relief continued long term, and his mental health eventually caught up, as well.
That result is amazing on its own, but Michael is far from the only pain patient here who has also experienced relief from mental health struggles.
Once again, that’s the ketamine working rapidly on the brain’s glutamate receptors to produce antidepressant and pain-alleviating effects.
If you’ve been suffering from complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) or another type of chronic pain such as fibromyalgia, and more traditional pain relievers don’t help or cause other side effects, ketamine may be for you!
And when our patients do experience increasing relief from complex pain like that – if our treatment has improved the quality of their lives only by a little – we’d call that a patient success.
Your Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Decrease
Most of our patients come to us looking for relief from treatment-resistant depression and anxiety. Being treatment-resistant means you have not responded to multiple more conventional treatments such as therapy and oral antidepressants (SSRIs).
Therefore, these patients often seek ketamine therapy as a last resort once other methods have failed.
In many cases, the people who reach out to us have gone years with little sustainable relief as they struggle using antidepressants that barely help them.
By the time they hear about ketamine treatments at The Good Drop in Avoca, PA, they’re often desperate for anything that can help them get to a healthy place.
Look at Jeff, whom we featured in a patient story earlier in 2025. Suffering from severe depression, he had run the gamut of therapists and antidepressants before discovering The Good Drop.
After just a few ketamine infusions, Jeff said his friends told him he seemed happier. Over the ensuing months, he experienced his depression dwindling more and more until he was able to scale back the frequency of his infusions.
We’re so proud of Jeff and all the progress he’s made!
We’d also like to remind our patients here that your path to wellness may not be a linear journey. Many people experience breakthrough symptoms of anxiety or depression and need to adjust their ketamine dose or infusion frequency.
That is okay! It’s simply part of the process.
We consider all progress, no matter the scale, to be a success along your way, and we’re always happy to celebrate it with you!
Find Your Success at The Good Drop in the Wilkes-Barre & Scranton Area
Your mental health is the foundation of everything you do. Think of all you can accomplish when your brain is in a healthy place.
Our patients work so hard to pursue a better quality of life for themselves. Even though the road may be long, we are right here with them to acknowledge and encourage their successes.
Find your success through ketamine therapy at The Good Drop. Get in touch with us today.
Address: 824 McAlpine St. Ste 6, Avoca, PA 18641
Call us: 570-701-6044
Email us: info@thegood-drop.com