r/Ketamineaddiction

they say the withdrawals are only psychological but why havent i been able to stop fir more tgan 10 days in 4 years and always replacing it w something else eg alcohol ghb or dxm or kratom? tell that to my sigma opioid receptors. this shit is a curse its not a joke yes im going to treatment in a few days multiple gs per day for 4 years atraight but what are tgey gonna so? ehat can they do? are we alljust boned until a treatment for this stupid fucking addiction is approved? the fuck

has anyone else experienced these pains? a burning ache whenever i do a binge of k lately i have had these awful pains in my bones.
one night i had to call the paramedics because it had gotten so bad.
it feels like they are creaking and they ache so badly; any relief ideas would be helpful.

I had some awful k cramps last week after about 4 grams. Can I use a smaller amount today with lots of water and don’t swallow the drip and it’ll be ok?

to get a basic understanding i have been heavily addicted to mainly Benzos, ketamine, Cocaine, and XTC

I have been basically using 5/6 different drugs every day for last 2 yrs. i have used maybe 60 different substances.

I have AdHD and have serious mental health issues (diagnosed Depression, Anxiety, and Drug induced psychosis. I fear my ADHD has led me to become obsessed with drugs

I am okay with ecstacy now but in 2025 i did over 60 pills and probably taken like one a month since then

i am heavily addicted to ket and i don’t know how to stop \\\[serious\\\] \\\[1-2 ounces a month for over a year\\\]

so i’ve been doing ket for 2/3 years . i’m 19 UK

got into it autumn 2024, doing maybe a couple grams a week, this went on for a few months i was also on large doses of benzos and cocaine everydsy

i spent £2k on cocaine within like 2 months here

after a year. autumn 2025 came by. i was doing about 2 grams a day of ketamine

october/November/decemeber 2025 was the worst of my addiction. i was going 4-7 grams a day every day. one day i even did 14 grams to myself. sometimes i would do 9gs etc

this year. 2026. i have been doing ket heavily. not as bad as last year, but the last 2 months i’ve been doing about 1-2 grams a day. last 3 weeks i’ve probably done an ounce of ket.

every day is different for me

in the last 2 weeks i’ve had a job interview and got the job, gone to college 6 times, done 1g of ketamine everyday atleast. done xtc twice

sold £300 worth of Valium

did a bunch of cocaine, speed, tramadol , 2cb 3 times this week

did ketamine in college every time i went to colly too. js use the toilet and rail a half a gram

as i type im on my way to get some ketamine. HOW DO I STOP THIS CYCLE

i’ve gone to rehab twice, im on medication (benzo 3x a day) (antipsychotic+ wellbutrin), seen psychologists psychiatrists doctors everything and i can’t stop it’s all in my head

ive even had severe ketamine induced psychosis and am still doing it.

everytime i finish a bag i always tell myself never again. it never works. this morning i was convinced i wasn’t going to do drugs this week. yet here i am about to pic up

on top of this i am addicted to stimulants and benzos which i commonly mix with ketamine almost every day too. such as xanax valium cocaine and speed.

i’m really struggling right now, it’s taking everything in me to not do the little bit of K i have left. I’m a pitiful 5 hours “clean”. I know if i run out, i CANNOT get more and that’s scary(i have the ability to, but know if i don’t stop i WILL die eventually from this).

For the past 4 days ive felt my body really struggling, after a relapse + heavy binge that was brought on by a manic episode (was put on SSRIs, they didn’t listen to me about my family history of bipolar + schizophrenia and concerns i was developing one or the other.) I had to go to the hospital the other day and am getting my gallbladder checked out, liver enzymes are increased but my other labs look fine. I was also in the hospital earlier this month because of K cramps. I’ve tried both times to bring up my concerns about my mental health to no avail.

I use to use ir for fun, but now i use it to cope with my mental health, i’ve had extremely traumatic events in the past 365 days, but also my whole life. I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD + a slew of anxiety disorders and depression. K felt like the only thing that gave me mental relief, but it’s doing the opposite at this point.

I know i need further help, but literally no doctor/psych etc will listen to me. Even my friends don’t seem as concerned as i am. i think because i haven’t lost full touch with reality they think im more stable than i am? It feels like im trying to take the right steps forward and get the help i need, but with no one helping me, it feels hopeless. I don’t want to get to a point of no return, i’ve seen with my older sibling and parents. I’m scared.

So for context, I have been struggling with a ketamine addiction for almost a year now.
I’m doing slightly better, my mental health has improved so I’m using less than before but I’m still using way too much and way too often.
My biggest problem is that it is ruining my social life, every time I’m invited to go out, I end up in such a bad state, barely conscious, unable to move, speak, extremely quickly. I can’t control my usage, I’m doing the biggest lines to get as high as much as possible in the shortest amount of time. It’s compulsive. Same thing when I’m home, I use too much, too quickly, it’s not even enjoyable. I hate k-holes because it’s an horrible thing to experience for me, I see frightening stuff, I hear ominous voices, I feel like I’m about to die. When I sober up, I do it all over again.

It’s also terrible for my finances, every time I buy some ket, it disappears so quickly, I have to buy again, again and again. And I’m not even enjoying the high.
Since I’m struggling to reduce the amount and frequency of my usage, I’d like to, at least, be able to do some smaller lines, or wait more between each lines, so I can actually enjoy being with my friends. And not pass out before getting home in a uber while the night is just starting. But I’m really struggling, I do the same thing with every other drugs (alcohol, mdma etc…). I manage to embarrass myself systematically.

I have no patience nor self control, it’s like I’m trying to harm myself as much as I can, as quickly as I can, and I hate it.
Are there any tricks or mechanisms that might help with that specific problem ?
Sorry for the rent, but I’m feeling very upset, and my friends are distancing themselves more and more, I have a good life, good company, and I’m ruining everything, it’s entirely my fault, I hate myself so much.

Im nearly 3 months clean from ket after a 4 month deep dive for personal reasons

I've developed addictions to many opiates, benzos and fun drugs to see how hard it is too quit.

Physically its been very easy i could feel my bladder and heart healing by end of week 2, but Ket was by far the most depressing mentally because of how perfect of a substance it was for me. And i know its the same for many people.

You are not alone, it does get better.

If anyone has any questions or looking for advice, or maybe just someone to relate too... im gonna be active on this post as much as I can be 😊

I am not an advocate for sobriety btw. I love substance and will always do different substances.

But harm reduction is a massive focus for me and I just wanna help

I’ve been doing k for years honestly and don’t think I have had symptoms but I noticed this pain in my stomach that won’t go away. Could be unrelated but can someone describe what they’re supposed to feel like so I can rule it out? It’s more upper stomach it started after a night of k but hasn’t gone away since. Thanks for any help

I’m curious for anyone that has had the surgery on their bladder for ketamine-induced cystitis.
I have it BAD and have my cystoscopy in a couple weeks.
Nervous I might need surgery.
Has anyone else had this surgery and can tell me a little about your experience? As well as recovery time?

Went to an NA meeting this morning and the V&A right after with my flatmate. It was really nice aside from my lil addict brain buzzing around. Thought about using basically all day - but I’ve hit a wall with my tolerance and I know it wouldn’t even work.
Plus I lost my wallet while high in a bagel shop at 7am a few days ago so I can’t even pull out money to buy drugs. Hooray limiting factors!

Feeling really really really hopeful. Luckily I’m not having crazy withdrawal symptoms, just slightly more anhedonia than usual. If anyone wants to chat throughout the week or the next coming weeks I’d love that. Sharing is what keeps us sober and all that.

This might sound stupid, but I’ve never considered myself an addict or to have an addictive personality aside from nicotine use (I’ve been smoking for 2 decades.)
I started using ketamine maybe 6 months ago. Within maybe two months, maybe less (I have a bad memory and am bad with timelines - this has been an issue pre-ketamine), I started using daily. I use in the morning after I take care of my cats and make coffee, a couple times during the day, and usually before bed. I like the ritual of it (I get water, a vape, usually put on music, have my box with paraphernalia it) and set everything out. I love the feeling, the dissociation, the body high, how it takes away emotional and physical pain, how I’m not on my phone, I’m not bored, I’m just there. I used to only use with my partner, but now I use alone. Sometimes I use without telling her, I’ve started being sneaky. The other day she came home and found me clinging to the wall with powder all over my face and eyes rolled back and had to drag me to bed. I had also taken a benzo and had two drinks which caused me to become intoxicated, but my first instinct when I got home was to immediately go into the bathroom and use, and apparently use a large amount. I don’t keep track of how much I use a week.
I haven’t noticed physical side effects really yet. Sometimes I urinate more frequently, but it’s not consistent.
I really don’t want to stop. My partner keeps saying we should slow down, or use every other day, but I feel anxious and annoyed when she says this
How worried should I be?

i’m an addict of almost 2 years, would go through 0.5-1g a day, sometimes more, and decided to quit at the start of this year. relapsed and returned to my usual ket schedule for two weeks after 17 days of sobriety, then quit again. it’s been almost 3 months since then.

while cleaning out some stuff i found a tiny bag with maybe 3 bumps worth (much less than what id do all at once during my binges) and i put it away while finishing off. it had been on my mind since i found it, so i eventually caved and had a small amount that i thought wouldn’t get me high, just wanted to have a taste i guess. turns out i genuinely felt it, enough to make me dizzy. is it possible that permatolerance isn’t always the case? or could it possibly be placebo? i don’t plan on buying/using any more, just curious.

I’m 26 and I’ve gone through a lot of different phases with substances over the years.

From 17 to 20 I smoked weed daily, around 3-4g a day. Then I met my girlfriend and just naturally stopped because it started feeling pointless and also made me paranoid.

After that I got into LSD for about a year, then got tired of it and stopped too.

Then came alcohol + MDMA. For around 2 years we were drinking and taking MDMA once or twice a week. Eventually the comedowns and overall effects stopped feeling worth it, so we quit.

After that we went through a cocaine phase, abused it for a while, but again — the side effects and overall cost/benefit just weren’t worth it.

Alcohol also doesn’t really work for me physically. It destroys my stomach/GI system and honestly the effect itself feels dirty and unpleasant.

Then I tried ketamine, and weirdly this is the first thing that actually feels “compatible” with me. We don’t use daily or binge for days. Usually me and my girlfriend share around 0.5g once every 1-2 weeks, mainly at music events or hanging out with friends instead of drinking alcohol.

What makes me feel conflicted is that it genuinely doesn’t seem to negatively affect my day-to-day life. I work around 240h/month, stay productive, sleep well, eat well, monitor my blood pressure and do bloodwork every few months. We’re also planning to have kids around 30 and fully leave the party lifestyle behind by then. Honestly even now we already go out much less because our priorities are changing naturally with age.

My main concern is ketamine bladder issues. Most horror stories I read seem to involve daily/heavy use, but I’m curious how risky our pattern realistically is long-term.

Has anyone here used in a similar moderate/recreational way for years without bladder problems? Or did symptoms eventually appear anyway?

anyone who has managed to get clean for longer than two weeks please help me. i’m struggling so much to push past the first few days, i get to day 3/4 and then relapse and the cycle continues. i’m proud of myself for taking more gaps than i used to but fucking hell this is hard and all i want is complete sobriety

So i started using like a year and a half ago. started super slow but now for the past few weeks ive been going through atleast a g a week. However I did just travel and didn’t have access to it at all for over 2 months and didnt feel like i needed it at all. Now that im back i’ve been doing it more than before i left. Before it was mainly just with friends during parties, however i do party a lot ( most weekends). Now i’ve found myself doing it before and after work some days, alone to relax, and when something stressful happens. I really realize using it like this isn’t good at all and ive been making an effort not to do that this week because i feel so guilty for it and makes me scared for the future. Kinda wish i never started using because i love my life and know that this can become problematic. Anyways do you think i need to quit entirely? do you think its possible to just slow down and use it occasionally? any tips are helpful i don’t have anyone i can talk to about it

Edit to add: is severe dry mouth normal when using higher doses per day on k? This has only started within the past two or so days with pretty heavy usage, more than normal because I realized I might have to give it up. I’m wondering if maybe my shit is dirty.

I posted here a few days ago, got some great advice. My use has definitely been unhealthy and I’ve decided it’s time to taper off. I’d been clearing about a gram in a day, sometimes a gram and a half. Gave myself only a half gram for today.
Took a bump in the morning, gave me a mild effect that I like from bumps. Waited till lunchtime to use again instead of doing it consistently all day, got decently high this time. Then I was doing my evening sesh and I railed quite a few lines, don’t really remember how many, but it was a lot for me over the course of an hour. Barely felt anything. Kept trying for a while and finally gave up, gave it an hour, moistened my nose.
Two decent sized lines. I even did loads of research on how to sniff properly cuz I thought maybe I was doing something wrong.
Felt absolutely nothing. Aside from an ever worsening dry mouth.
I’m really sad I guess - I wanted to at least get a few decent night seshes and ration my shit before I have to give it up completely. But honestly it’s for the best. Maybe I wouldn’t have been able to stop if it kept working.
No way I’m moving up anything past a gram and a half a day, I’m a student and can barely afford that as is. Not to mention how much damage that would do to me - and is probably already doing.
I have about a 3rd of a gram left over for tomorrow morning just to stave off withdrawals for a little bit longer, and then I guess I’m done. Not saying I won’t ever do her again but this addict tomfoolery has got to stop.
Time to come back to reality.

I’ve been addicted to ket for 5ish years (23f). It started off only socially at the weekend, then crept into weekdays, then I discovered how much I liked doing it alone. From there it became all day, every day. The amount I picked up would increase, at the beginning it was only a gram maybe two at a time, then I realised buying in bulk is cheaper. Now, it takes me less than a week to get through an ounce.

None of my family knew, my friends just thought I liked it on a night out, even my ex boyfriend, that I practically lived with took 9 months to figure it out. The only people that knew were my uni housemates. However that all changed 2 weeks ago, I got caught by my brother and he told my whole family. So now I can’t use anymore. I was upset and angry at first, but honestly now I think it’s one of the best things that has happened to me. I tried to stop on my own multiple times, but I would always be drawn back. My family have been really supportive and they want to get me help, I’m looking into NA, therapy and other options, but I think having it out in the open has helped the most. It was this big secret that I couldn’t talk to anyone about, I shut people out and isolated my self which made it feel impossible to stop.

I also didn’t see anything wrong with me using I was very high functioning, it didn’t get in the way of my uni work/ job, I have been lucky and had no health problems, and no problems with my bladder. I would occasionally black out, which was fine when I was on my own, bad when I was with people. I’m not sure if it’s related but I have also recently lost about 10kgs, I’m 5’9 and just under 60kgs, which is still healthy but people have noticed and said I look frail.

I’ve now haven’t used for 2 weeks, and I really want to keep it this way. I have been trying to speak more openly to my family and to distract myself I joined a triathlon club (I have been talking about doing this for a long time). I went to some NA meetings but I don’t think they are for me, I’m also starting therapy soon. I’m still worried that this is a phase and I’ll do what I always do and start using again.

Does anyone have any more advice on staying clean and what do to about cravings?

I am also interested if any serious health problems come later, even if I never used again?

Hello everyone,
I started using ketamine in 2019 in New York City. Like many of you, it was introduced to me by a close friend. I had experimented with plenty of substances before, but nothing ever truly stuck. Ketamine was different. The first time I tried it, something in my brain just clicked. It gave me exactly what I didn’t even know I had been searching for.
At first, it felt manageable, something reserved for parties or intimate gatherings with friends. It seemed contained. But when Covid hit in 2020, everything changed. Isolation stripped away the illusion of control. My use escalated from occasional to daily, then to constant. I began using alone. I lied. I hid it. I stole. I sold much of my record collection just to sustain the habit.
I knew I had a problem. I tried to stop many times. I even opened up to my family in the summer of 2023 and admitted I was addicted, but even that wasn’t enough to make me quit.
In February 2024, I moved to Paris. At the time, it felt like moving saved my life. I removed myself from the environment where I was using and from easy access. I managed to stay sober for three months. But then I went to Berlin to visit a friend and convinced myself I could “dabble” responsibly. Within days, I was using daily again. I even brought ketamine back with me on the plane. As soon as I landed in France, I contacted everyone I knew to find a dealer. Within an hour, I was back in full-blown addiction.
I began using it everywhere, at home, at work, constantly. I lost my girlfriend. I lost my apartment. I lost friendships. I ended up back at my mother’s house, cycling between brief attempts at sobriety and deeper relapses.
On December 1st, 2024, after months of daily use, something finally shifted. I understood that I couldn’t get sober for anyone else. Not for my family. Not for my partner. Not for the people who loved me. I had to do it for myself. No one could carry me through it.
That day, I committed fully. I did 90 meetings in 90 days at Narcotics Anonymous here in Paris. I rebuilt my life piece by piece. I found an apartment. I got a good job. I stabilized. Life wasn’t perfect; in fact, learning to feel again was uncomfortable and raw, but it was infinitely more livable than the hell of daily use.
I stayed clean for 18 months.
And then I made the mistake I swore I wouldn’t make.
After completing 30 meetings in 30 days, I grew confident. I convinced myself I didn’t need the structure anymore. That I could handle it alone.
Two months ago, while my girlfriend was away on a work trip, I had an incredibly stressful day. An old dealer had texted me weeks earlier out of nowhere, a door I should have closed immediately. Instead, I reached out. I told myself I could control it. Just a little. Just occasionally.
Within days, I was back to daily use.
At work. At home. Pretending to have the flu so my girlfriend wouldn’t question why I seemed distant and strange. Living a double life again.
I finally told her a month ago. It devastated her. And still, I struggled to stop.
Today, I am choosing again.
Because I know where this ends. If I continue, I will lose her. I will lose my job. I will lose the stable life I worked so hard to rebuild. And beyond that, I will lose myself again.
Right now, I feel ashamed. I feel lonely. I feel like I’ve betrayed the people who believed in me. I know addiction is a disease, but I also know recovery is my responsibility.
If you are reading this and thinking about going back “just a little,” please believe me: there is no such thing. For me, one decision opened the door to two months of chaos. The slope is not gradual. It’s immediate.
If you’re struggling, you’re not alone. If you’ve relapsed, you’re not broken beyond repair. But we cannot underestimate this drug. I certainly can’t.
If anyone wants to talk, share experiences, or just not feel alone in this, my inbox is open.
One love.

Has anyone had success repairing their gut after being sober? Luckily I don’t have much of a bladder issue, but my BMs don’t seem to be happy - sorry for the TMI. Before my addiction I had reliable ones. Maybe I’m just extremely nutrient deficient? I’m wondering if it causes leaky gut or anything like that. Plus I’m sure all those chemical reactions take a lot of minerals etc. For reference my last binge was a couple months ago. My main heavy use window (daily) was between August 2023 to to January 2025.