Ketamine Therapy: The Door That Brought Me Back To LifeKetamine Therapy: The Door That Brought Me Back To Life
I Love Being Sober
Tim Westbrook talks with Chad McLean about how ketamine therapy and later psychedelic work shifted him from decades of trauma, addiction and rage into sober, present living. The conversation also highlights Mental Joe, an apparel movement aimed at sparking open discussions around mental health and recovery for ordinary people and veterans alike.
50:18•4 Nov 2025
Ketamine, Rock Bottom and Mental Joe: Chad McLean’s Road Back to Life
Episode Overview
- Recovery often starts with recognising long-standing thought and behaviour patterns rather than just focusing on substances.
- Ketamine and other psychedelics can act as a door-opener to deeper work, but they require commitment to honest self-examination.
- Finding the right clinic and supportive facilitator is crucial for safe and effective ketamine treatment.
- Service, creativity and community – such as through Mental Joe – can turn pain into purpose and keep sobriety meaningful.
- Simple daily practices like journalling, exercise and reducing digital noise help maintain mental health and emotional presence.
“It was a repeated thought pattern for 20 plus years, and I never knew it. Now I'm more present than ever.”
What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol and without numbing their pain? This conversation follows Chad McLean as he talks with host Tim Westbrook about how ketamine therapy became "the door that brought me back to life" after decades of addiction, rage, and untreated trauma.
You’ll hear Chad trace his story from a brutal parachute accident in the 2nd Ranger Battalion, through years of pain pills, alcohol, bar fights and near-prison experiences, to a rock-bottom moment with a loaded gun pressed to his head. That crisis pushed him and his wife Carrie to search desperately for something different, eventually landing on ketamine therapy after exhausting traditional pills and talk-based approaches. The episode mixes raw humour with tough honesty.
Chad jokes about being "one bad weekend and a bowl of ice cream away from waddling down Target aisles" at nearly 300 pounds, but he also explains how repeated patterns of sabotage ran his life for "20 plus years" without him even seeing them. Ketamine sessions, followed later by psilocybin and other therapies, helped him slow his mind, spot those cycles, and finally feel his emotions instead of numbing them.
This shift in sobriety and mental health sparked Mental Joe, Chad’s apparel brand built to get ordinary "average Joes" talking openly about trauma, addiction, and recovery. Clothing becomes a way to say "I’ve been there" without a long speech, and to connect veterans, first responders, and civilians around shared struggles.
For anyone sober-curious, already in recovery, or stuck in that numb, angry place, this episode offers straight-talking stories, practical routines like journalling and the gym, and a reminder that change often starts with one honest conversation. Could ketamine therapy or another brave step be the reset you’ve been waiting for?
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