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After a lifetime of addiction, my mom died of a fentanyl overdose. A year later, my sister did, too.
Then my dad hit rock bottom. He didn't shower, shave, or leave the house for a month and texted me suicidal thoughts like, “you know I love you and if anything happens to me it isn't your fault, right?"
Ketamine therapy saved his life.
In August 2021, my mom was found dead in an alley from a fentanyl overdose. But I lost her a long, long time ago.
As far back as I can remember, my mom was consumed by severe mental illness and addiction.
We tried everything: countless medications, therapy, multiple rehabilitation facilities, and even eastern medicines. Nothing worked.
We were a working-class family in Anaheim, not-so-affectionately called Anacrime. The local addicts that my mom befriended and often brought into our home created an environment of violence, chaos, and fear.
By age 12, I stopped speaking to my mom and tried to avoid her completely, often staying with friends until I knew my dad would be home.
By age 16, it became so dangerous that we had no choice but to evict her from our home.
She spent the rest of her life homeless and I never saw her alive again.
Losing my mom could have been the end for me, too. I never met my biological father, and most kids in my position ended up in foster care, or worse.
But I won the lottery. My stepfather, a mailman and bus driver, adopted me and did his best to build a house full of love under impossible conditions.
Too many Americans are needlessly dying like my mom did. And the mental health crisis is only getting worse.
In 2024:
- Nearly 1 in 4 adults experienced mental illness
- 2M people attempted suicide
- Drug overdose deaths hit record highs
- Less than half of adults with mental illness received treatment
But lack of access isn’t the whole story.
Traditional treatments like SSRIs and therapy are failing:
- Response rates for depression are below 50%.
- 4 in 5 patients relapse within five years.
- The “chemical imbalance” theory behind SSRIs has been widely debunked.
- Nearly 50% of people experience debilitating side effects—insomnia, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, and even suicidality—that often persist long after stopping treatment.
Fortunately, we now have better tools.
Psychedelic medicine is a 10X better mental health treatment.
Decades of research show that these medicines work — but they haven’t been available to most Americans.
Today, ketamine is the only psychedelic medicine that is legal to prescribe in the U.S.
Over 100 studies show that ketamine is an effective, safe, and fast-acting mental health treatment, prompting many to call it the “biggest breakthrough in the field of depression in over 60 years.”
In 2022, the Journal of Affective Disorders published the largest-ever peer-reviewed study of ketamine therapy, with real-world outcomes data from over Mindbloom 1,200 clients.
The study showed that after only four treatment sessions:
- 89% of clients experienced reductions in symptoms of depression or anxiety
- 63% experienced clinically-significant reductions in symptoms
- 30% achieved remission
Remarkably, ketamine therapy also eliminated suicidal thoughts for nearly two-thirds of people who were experiencing them prior to treatment.
And this is just the beginning. Decades of research by MAPS and other organizations have proven psychedelics are highly effective for conditions like PTSD and depression, especially for underserved groups like veterans.
I’ve seen firsthand how psychedelic medicine can be the difference between life and death.
One year after my mom overdosed, my sister died the exact same way—just three weeks after she was discharged from inpatient rehab.
I had tried and failed to get her into treatment with ketamine or other psychedelics, and it hurt to know she never got to try medicines that could have saved her.
After losing my mom and sister, my dad, my hero, sunk into a depression so deep that I was confident he wouldn’t make it out.
- He didn’t leave home or bathe for nearly a month
- He texted me a list of all his accounts and passwords “just in case something happens to me”
- He texted me not to throw everything away in the condo when he’s gone because he has silver hidden inside it
- He refused to let me come see him or accept any help from me
- He texted me “you know I love you and anything that happens to me isn’t your fault, right?”
It was clear that he was preparing to end his life.
My dad had resisted ketamine therapy for years, scared by the same stigma that prevents so many people from getting the help they need.
Fortunately, rock bottom was the catalyst I needed to convince him to try at-home ketamine therapy through Mindbloom.
Working directly with Mindbloom’s Medical Director and my friend, Dr. Leonardo Vando, to whom I will be forever grateful, my dad invested in his healing.
The results were incredible:
- He worked through his grief and found his will to keep going
- He started exercising regularly for the first time in his life and lost 50 pounds
- He reintegrated into his friend group and built his support network back up
- He became open to finding a partner for the third act of his life, got engaged, and became a father to three new stepchildren—I officiated the wedding last summer.
- He reached a place of happiness, vitality, and optimism I never in a million years thought I’d see him have again
Psychedelic medicine saved my dad’s life, and it can help the millions of Americans who are still suffering.
The tools we need to fix the mental health epidemic are right in front of us we just have to use them.
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