I’m 28 years old and I started taking ketamine 19 months ago.
I used to take cocaine every Friday night through to Saturday morning and not touch a thing until the next Friday.
Then I discovered ketamine. Every single experience I’ve had on ketamine has been euphoric. It’s almost as if I have an epiphany after each usage. It’s absolutely brilliant in managing mental health.
However. After just a few weekends of taking ket literally probably just about 0.5 grams on a Friday.
It changed to a couple of days a week to every single day for 18 months of my life.
I went from making a teenth 1.75 grams lasting me 3/4 days to now 3.5grams a day some days.
Despite my depression improving because obviously ketamine is an escape from reality.
My stomach and bladder and pelvic floor muscles have been absolutely battered.
I used to get regular UTI’s when I first started heavily taking it. I’d just mask the pain with more ket and ignore it. However in October last year I developed mild gastritis and ketamine cystitis.
They both always manage to flare up together aswell which makes each experience 100 times worse.
The cystitis would last for around 3 weeks at the start and I would sniff ketamine to avoid the pain until it became completely unbearable then I’d take opioid medications to ease the pain which lead to chronic constipation and feacial impaction. This was reoccurring every month because I refused to stop after suffering a very close bereavement and ongoing abuse from my ex partner.
I was refered to a urologist I havnt been honest with them as to why I get the cystitis but I think it’s time to make them aware. I had a cystoscopy done in early February. I found out I had a urethral stricture (narrow urethra) this was caused by the frequent utis and cystitis. They performed a urethral stretch which actually helped. I hadn’t had a flare up for 2 months. Despite continued ketamine abuse.
However. On the 4th of April I started with urethral pain again. I knew the urethra had shrunk again but I continued to take ketamine for the pain. Then I got a chronic uti which wouldn’t budge despite having 5 different anti biotics which obviously has now turned to cystitis. I’m currently on my 4th week of ketamine cystitis and this is the worst it has ever been. I have my results for my cystoscopy next week by the sounds of things my bladder was okay. But this time it’s different I have a sharp pain in my pelvic area and the burning from the urethra is terrible I never usually get this burning pain. My bladder is soasaming and so is my urethra. I can’t walk for longer than 5 mins without setting off a flare. I think I may have ulcers on the bladder and maybe urethral lesions. Now because I’m in pain I’m back on opioids and I have chronic constipation but because I can’t push without setting off extreme pain with my bladder and urethra I’m stuck.
My bladder is also slightly prolapsed too due to poor pelvic floor muscles from constipation and from the constant urge to push urine out which comes with ketamine cystitis.
I’m at my whits end with it and I need some relief. Does anybody have any suggestions I’ve seen the green tea but this aggravates my gastritis.
I would like to put forward that I have just started useing an over the counter pain killer specifically for UTIS called azo and it has worked wonders. However it’s damaging on my gastritis so no doubt I’ll have to stop them very soon. The morphine isn’t even touching the sides this time round.
I would like to mention I havnt taken ketamine now for 8 days. I’m so proud of myself because this is the first time in a very long time I’ve been sober. Normally I only last 2 days abstinence from it but I’ve stuck it out. I honestly never want to touch it again I’m so petrified. I’m really hoping the fear is enough to end my addiction.
I am going to try CBD oil or CBD vapes when I can get my hands on one because it’s supposed to have benefits to the bladder.
I’ve also read that a teaspoon bicarbonate soda in a glass of water and drink the full drink acts as a natural anti inflammatory and is great for UTI pain relief. So I’m going to ask a friend to grab me some from the shop tomorrow.
Please please please do not fall into the ketamine trap. Despite it feeling good when you’re depressed you just remember it is only a partial escape. Masking problems with maladaptive behaviours, addictions and distraction are detrimental to your mental health. Since having this flare up I’ve had the most suicidal thoughts I’ve ever had in my life. Your physical health matters too much to be gambling with especial when you suffer mentally.
Every single drug abuser suffers mentally. There isn’t a single person who wakes up in the morning craving an escape from their reality in the form of an illicit substance that isn’t a sufferer of some sort of mental health. The average joe doesn’t take drugs. Even if it’s just a weekend thing wanting to escape in itself is a mental illness even if you don’t realise it.
So In all due respect compassion and understanding is needed. I love these threads because I get to see the side of the world who isnt so judgmental. Addiction is the biggest illness in the world and is by far the worse because the world doesn’t see it as a disease they see you as selfish, vulgar and like you’re making the choice to carry on off your own back. Drugs flip an irreversible switch in your brain.
I got to my third year in uni last year with social science I wanted to be a physiologist however my addiction stopped me achieving it. The cystitis caused me to miss so much. So I’ve made a promise to myself now I no longer want to engage with drugs.
I want to become a mental health and drug advocate specifically for ketamine use. I’ve noticed how many young people are taking it regularly and it’s so scary. These kids are going to be with catheters before they’re 20 and society are just going to look at them like scum. I’ve always wanted to make a difference in peoples lives and this way I can with my own experience and knowledge of that specific situation.
Wish everybody the best and good health I hope those still choosing to take ketamine are extremely careful. I hope those willing to stop find the will too. I hope those on the recovery path understand it will eventually be easier you’ve just got to find a purpose
Thank you very much for sharing your challenging path. I‘m 33 and have almost the same story to tell.
I always loved to party hard on psychedelics and loved deep holing with K during LSD trips or after raves. During my mid 20‘ies I raved too hard on MDMA (every weekend) and screwed myself a little bit up - luckily I was able to stop before it became too bad with my stress/anxiety issues and I wasn’t really up with K at that time.
I quit, for a while, became the best version of myself… and then covid happened + relationship broke up. I am generally ultra healthy, used to have real abs (6 month ago) and my general physical condition was just absolutely impressive.
There was a friend who told me he has 20g K and I bought 10. I knew I liked K but being totally locked down and no GF to deal with, made me fall in love with K at that time.
In the beginning it was -for sure- only on weekends (100-150mg) but that didn’t last long. Pretty soon I found out that housework, walks and meditation became SOO much more enjoyable/powerful with just a tiny nose of K (maybe 20-50mg) and I started to use it regularly under the week.
I paused when I thought it became too much and frequent after a while… but never more than 4 weeks. Someday I found out that banging me down into the hole after a heavy gym workout to instantly relax, made me even more motivated going into the gym almost every day. It was impressive: I never, ever felt so good in my life, had the best physical and mental condition I ever had and everything was 110%.
After doing this on-and-off for 1.5 years (consumed 15g in total), someday I realized a little tension in the pelvic area. Not much, no pain, but annoying. I thought it had something to do with my bowel, but quit using K to be sure. That was December 2021. It was gone after some days and I stopped using K for about 4 weeks which made all symptoms go away. I did some research during this episode and found out the first time about Ketamin related bladder issues, but I took K now and then until May 2022 when I first told me: STOP.
But the feeling of K pulled me back and I was still addicted so I wanted to try it out again, just to proof myself that its not from the K or I can deal with the “little” discomfort from time to time.
Sure, I felt discomfort immediately… paused a month or two and tried it another time. But again, discomfort and itchy feelings around the bladder. I was sure now that it was K, so I quit October/November 2022.
I found a new girl then, new job and life turned out to be quite nice even without K. But then… without using K for 3 months and not having issues, it started somehow around mid-February when I felt real pain in the bladder and kidneys. REAL pain so I went to the hospital and asked for help, told the Dr. that I abused K previously but he said, that he doesn’t believe it has something to do with it. Blood and urin analysis were super clean and probably because my overall health condition: he told me that I made things up in my head and it’s just bowel… I shouldn’t be worried and eat healthier. Two weeks later, I visited an urologist, told him about my K abuse and the problems I have. He was surprised, urin was clear and ultrasonic showed nothing as well. He said, it’s all fine, I shouldn’t do K. Two weeks later, I visited a different urologist and got the exact same diagnosis: all fine, there is nothing we can do - it will go away.
Two weeks later I visited my general Dr., was honest and got handed over to the emergency room at a hospital because bowel infection. I went there for sure, was honest about my history, but they didn’t perform cystoscopy or MRI and I was sent home without any diagnosis. I was told to make a bowel screening - what I did (all fine… lol).
After another 4 weeks… symptoms became worse and worse, I went to a specialized urological clinic and was honest again. The first Dr. told me, better not to tell anything about my drug abuse but sent me to their emergency department where they did nothing besides urin analysis and ultrasonic (lol) which revealed nothing.
I asked for cystoscopy but they said, they don’t believe it is coming from the bladder so they won’t perform it and I got two different antibiotics that didn’t help at all.
So, being unable to live my life because of serious pain episodes since Feb 2023, can barely deal with work, lost my new girlfriend, lost my shape and visited several Drs:
6 different Drs, 3 urologists, 3 times hospital (2x emergency), bowel screening and I was honest with everyone… can’t be true and I ask for cystoscopy or any other help, but they don’t.
I eat super healthy, drink tons of water and tea, no alcohol or other drugs besides Cannabis, spent 250€ on supplements like omega3, hyaloron, chondroitin, glucosamine and so on. I believe it has become a little better now since 1 week (I got a prostate pill 10 days ago that relaxes the muscles in the bladder and urethra). I have printed out two case studies and a medication (hyaloron acid + chondroitin sulfate - this will be injected directly into the bladder), for the next time I will visit my urologist after the MRI.
I hope he is open minded or does something else that helps me!
It’s so frustrating, even ChatGPT seems to be a better Dr than all of the 6 I have talked to. Ask: “pelvic pain ketamin”…
Tomorrow I have finally MRI. Next time I will see the Dr will be hopefully on Thursday. Keep you updated.
Sorry for my English, I am a german kartoffel.
Research studies:
Ketamine was first synthesized as a clinical medicine for anesthesia in 1970. It has been used as a recreational drug because of its low cost and hallucination effect in the past decade. Part of ketamine abusers may experience ketamine-related cystitis (KC) and suffer from lower urinary tract...
www.mdpi.com
Ketamine abuse is an emerging issue in many countries, and ketamine cystitis (KC) is a growing disease which more and more urologists may encounter with. There was no gold standard diagnostic criteria of ketamine cystits established yet, but well-accepted ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
