Thanksgiving’s About More than Food… Think About It…

Thanksgiving isn’t just turkey and dressing. Shocking…right? But it’s not about the food.

It’s about being thankful. Appreciating every good thing in your life. Expressing your appreciation, recognizing you can’t do this life alone. Thanksgiving’s about more than food, and it’s worth the effort to focus on what gratitude is really about.

You may feel alone in the world, but there’s an army of faithful workers who make your life function. From those who work for utilities companies, to those who farm your food and those grocers who sell it to you, the list goes on…and on.

It’s an attitude of gratitude that empowers you to live in joy. Without gratitude, you may be left with dark resentment twisting into bitterness and anger deep in your gut. But it’s amazing how allowing yourself to choose gratefulness and appreciation can transform bitterness to joy. Watch what happens when Grace tries out an attitude of gratefulness:

Grace walked along the sidewalk, grumbling to herself. She was a graphic designer for a marketing firm, and when the decorations went up at work…her outlook plunged. The holidays had arrived again, and she wasn’t happy about it.

She felt so alone in the world, and holidays were a time for sharing with loved ones. Grace knew she’d burned her bridges, but how she wished her family and friends would forgive her failures and welcome her back into their gatherings.

Grace knew why they ignored her. Because she had caused scenes at so many gatherings in the past. She either stomped about in a rage, or drank too much and ended up breaking something or making an utter fool of herself.

She didn’t like herself very much because she knew others didn’t like her either.

She’d been going to AA, and the leader talked about doing the next good thing. That you didn’t have to have all your life and future figured out…that was overwhelming to anyone. Just do the next good thing. Maybe load the dishwasher, or wash a load of clothes. Then, there was walking the dog. Or maybe making brownies for the elderly lady next door. If you keep doing the next good thing, it keeps your hands busy and your heart engaged. 

And it’s easier to not drink.

Even so, Grace could’t seem to stay focused on the next good thing. She was angry, resentful, bitter. Her other siblings were loved and admired by her parents. They were invited to every gathering.

They were the crown jewels of the family…she was yesterday’s garbage.  At least that was the way it seemed to her.

And when she had been invited to the family gathering, the feelings of inferiority she had led to her drinking before she arrived. Just to get the courage. But that’s what caused the problems.  

Grace couldn’t seem to have a single drink of wine, beer, or “special” eggnog. She always wanted another. The more she drank the better she felt and the easier it was to blend with everyone.  

At least, that’s how she felt.

Because Thanksgiving’s about more than the food. It’s about a loving gathering of people. She wanted to fit in. Still, she always seemed to mess up.

And then, they began ignoring her, resenting her behavior… and showing their disrespect of her. 

By the time she felt woozy, she realized the family was offended, and she’d failed again.

Now the family didn’t speak to her anymore. And she resigned herself to going to AA everyday to get through the holidays without a binge.

At the meeting that day, someone talked about how important it is to come to peace with your feelings toward the people who have hurt you. To face that you’ve also hurt them. And to turn it over to your higher power while you practiced forgiving them and expressing gratitude for the power to forgive them.

Grace hadn’t looked at it that way before … the power to forgive them. She didn’t have to live with the bitterness that was eating her alive.  She had the power to forgive them.

Because again, Thanksgiving’s about more than food.

After the meeting,  a friend told her about a treatment that can make it much easier to not drink, so she can put these forgiveness lessons into motion more effectively.

She told Grace about IV ketamine treatment, and how it can remove the desire to drink.

It sounded too good to be true, but her friend said she had received this treatment herself, and actually felt transformed. That she’d been sober for five months so far.

She said the treatment actually makes you feel better.  That it hadn’t occurred to her that depression had fueled her drinking, but she didn’t feel depressed anymore and actually felt a lot of joy…and hope for the future.

Grace decided then and there, she would find out how to get this treatment. She also decided she would adopt an attitude of gratefulness and give it a chance to change her angry bitterness.

What a delight it was to realize that what she was learning from AA and her friend about IV ketamine treatment was creating new expectations for her holidays going forward. Thanksgiving’s about more than food now, and she was learning to live with freedom, gratitude, and sharing.

So Grace expressed her gratitude for the people she met at AA, and all she was learning.  She was grateful that she had people with good hearts to spend her time with when she felt so alone. She was thankful she didn’t have to face the holiday season alone, and that there was a way to have gratitude…and peace…at a time when she had seethed with bitterness in the past.

She realized she needed to ask forgiveness of her family for creating the scenes she’d made before, and she needed to make every effort, partake of every solution she could, to stop the drinking, and all that went with it.

She called the psychiatry practice her friend had told her about to learn more about IV ketamine treatment. And she made an appointment.

Three days later, she walked into the practice wearing her mask for the pandemic. The nurse led her to a long consultation with the doctor, and then later, a private treatment room and she settled into the comfy recliner.

The treatment lasted about 45 minutes and she went back for a few more over the next couple of weeks. By the time she received her 4th treatment, she was feeling so much better. She felt hopeful. After she’d had 7 treatments, her desire to drink had become very weak.

She found it was so much easier to forego offers of alcohol, and her hope kept growing.

Grace decided to write a letter to her family right before Thanksgiving, so they could read it together. She told them she was receiving treatment for her drinking, and was also attending AA.  That she hoped they could all forgive her for the messes she had made during previous holidays. She was also hopeful that she’d be able to join them some year for holiday gathering—but she wasn’t pressing for that to happen

She set about making a Thanksgiving meal for the AA group, and experienced such joy doing it for those who had nowhere to go and no family to share with. Grace was astounded at the joy flowing inside her as she chose gratitude to hold in her heart through the holiday season. 

While she was sad to miss her family time, she was grateful she had the wherewithal to provide Thanksgiving dinner for her AA “family” and anticipated sharing her effort with excitement.

She knew in her heart that the time would come when she’d be with her family again, but meanwhile, she was learning to bloom where she was planted.

And she did bloom, didn’t she? Gratitude, forgiveness, and a generous heart combined with IV ketamine treatment transformed her holiday, didn’t it?

And the same can happen for you.

We talk about the infrastructure that helps you maintain the benefits of ketamine treatment, like forgiveness, joy, generosity, and kindness. Practicing gratitude and joy…practicing forgiveness, can pave a smooth pathway for ketamine treatment to take hold and continue working. 

The stress of anger, bitterness, and resentment can make that road rough and difficult…and can weaken the benefits of your treatment.

IV ketamine treatment is a safe and extraordinary treatment for depression, bipolar depression, PTSD, social anxiety, substance use disorder, alcohol use disorder and suicidal thoughts.  And while it’s treating and relieving one disorder on the list, it may also treat others you’re suffering with.

Like with Grace’s friend, it relieved her depression along with her alcohol misuse.

Ketamine turns on mRNA which switches DNA to ON, signaling the brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor to trigger dendrites and dendritic spines to flourish in the brain cells. The result is a bumper crop of connections to move signals around the brain fast.

You feel energized, motivated, full of initiative, joy…and hope. You can excel in your job, build strong, healthy relationships, enjoy life!

While ketamine is amazing, it’s not for everyone. It works best in those with severe treatment resistant disorders. For whatever reason, it seems to be at its best in those with severe illness, and sometimes has a less dramatic effect in those with milder symptoms. While we don’t understand why this remarkable treatment isn’t equally effective for everyone who needs it, the percentage of those for whom it’s not effective is small. For this reason, chances are that it could be transformative for you.

At Innovative Psychiatry, we love seeing people like Grace — who’ve been unable to stop drinking or using substances — find the kind of relief ketamine can provide. To see their hopelessness changed to hope is extraordinary. and sometimes breathtaking.

When you come for treatment, we’ll meet you at the door and lead you to your private treatment room where you can settle into your comfy recliner. Because we go the extra mile, you’ll see a white box on the table that’s busy destroying all the viruses (including COVID and its variants), bacteria, and molds that are in the air. We also have surfaces disinfected in a similar way. 

We want you to rest in confidence, knowing you’re as safe as possible from infection while you’re with us… so you can focus on getting the most from your treatment.

IV ketamine treatment can restore the synapses — nerve connections — in your brain to such thorough function that it’s as if they’ve been turbo boosted. In addition, ketamine tamps down the bursting cells in the lateral habenula so you can feel pleasure, experience joy, and rise above depression. Ketamine also moves the G cells off lipid rafts so they can get to work helping your thoughts and feelings to move around your brain.

You deserve to feel better, to function at your best, and to share your hope with others. 

Reach out and embrace gratitude. Revel in hope.

If you suffer from the symptoms we’ve talked about here, call us.

Hope, gratitude, and a rewarding life are yours for the taking.

To the restoration of your best self,