Sharon Osbourne, who left the chat show “The Talk” in March, had to undergo ketamine therapy for her anxiety, according to PEOPLE.
On Monday, the 68-year-old TV personality told the Daily Mail that she has struggled with the fallout when she was accused of using racist, homophobic, and bullying language in her interactions with her former co-hosts.
She told the outlet, “I definitely went through a difficult patch at the beginning. I found it embarrassing. The humiliation that people would think that I might be a racist.”
After the fallout, Osbourne said that she and her husband Ozzy Osbourne started getting death threats. They even hired round-the-clock security as protection. She said this experience caused her to develop anxiety.
It was Osbourne’s friend and former co-host Sara Gilbert who suggested Osbourne to give ketamine therapy a try. Osbourne said, “I went through three months of therapy. I had ketamine treatment and I got it all out. All the tears and everything that I felt, you know. All of that, it’s gone.”
Ketamine is a medication that is used to induce loss of consciousness, or anesthesia,” according to Medical News Today. It can produce relaxation and relieve pain in humans and animals. Ketamine is a prescription drug that is categorized under Class III Scheduled Drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved ketamine for the treatment of depression and anxiety, but it is considered an “off-label” treatment for these mental health issues.
It is unclear how ketamine reduces the symptoms of depression and anxiety, but it is presumed that the drug works on certain brain receptors that can help neurons better communicate with each other, thereby improving mood.
Osbourne said that the ketamine therapy helped her overcome anxiety after exiting The Talk. She said that she does not plan on going back into daytime television.
“I’m not going to go on another TV show that’s talk because I know right now it’s not a safe place to be,” Osbourne said. “The slightest thing and you’ve pissed off half the nation and I don’t want to put myself up for that grief. I really don’t.”
