I was addicted to k for about 8 months and have been sober for 2. The 8th months where I was using anywhere from 5-20 times a week, I felt normal. I somehow managed to attain a 4.0 while doing k nearly every day. I felt that it didn't affect me at all. It did wonders for my depression - lifting away all the pain and stress while I was under the influence, and I would still feel pretty good for the next few hours after I'd come down, but later feel not so great and would usually end up doing a little bump to give me a boost.
Long term effects? Well, while I was using it (maybe about 3-4 months in) I began to get frequent bladder infections. I saw my doctor so often that he usually would just ask me if it was another bladder infection when I came into the clinic, and he'd have a pee sample container ready nearly every time. I had to change medications each time to ensure that the bacteria or whatever wouldn't become resistant.
Around this time, I also began to get skin irritation around my nostrils, particularly the right one. The skin would become red and itchy, and eventually would dry up and scab. It was if the skin was being corroded a little. My nose was also constantly drippy and I began to develop a rash-like area above my lip from blowing/wiping my nose so often (the skin around my nostrils was becoming irritated from being wiped so often and dried out).
Around 5/6 months in my short term memory started to go. I would forget simple, everyday words, or it would take me a bit to remember them. Once I forgot the word "spoon". Sometimes I mixed words together while talking/writing or would just say a completely different word than what I had meant to say. I had difficulty remembering new people's faces, previous events, and I began to also have problems remembering my k-holes.
Once I quit doing k (took me a few weeks to do), I noticed that my thought processes were "off," as if I didn't quite see reality the same. Sometimes I would get dissociated a little out of nowhere, and my perception would be slightly altered. I feel more spaced out than I have before (I have ADD and have always felt rather 'spaced' but it is worse than before). My memory is no longer what it used to be. Although I feel my intelligence has not been altered, I am much slower at accomplishing tasks than I used to be, and it takes me longer to learn and absorb new things.
I wasn't really even that seriously addicted. The man I was dating at the time, who was a dealer and was also addicted to k, did more than I did and now inhales half to a whole gram in a line and is usually able to stand afterwards. I know people who do grams and grams every day. Though my addiction luckily never quite reached that point, I still feel like my mind has been permanently damaged in some way, like I'll no longer be completely in reality.
I also experienced k pains, or k cramps, during my heaviest month of usage. These are basically intensely painful cramps in the abdominal area that hurt so much I felt that I could not move at all. Sometimes I'd end up just doing more k to alleviate the pain, which, of course, just led to greater consequences later on.
I know that long-term addicts can get such serious bladder problems that they feel like they must pee every 10 minutes, can barely hold any fluids in their bladders, and must have them removed as the tissue has been scarred and shrunken so much that it can no longer expand and is practically useless. Others have serious memory issues; nasal problems/deformations; depersonalization disorder; k pains; visual and verbal memory issues, and more. Reading stories of serious k addicts is rather saddening. And though it takes a lot of k to kill you, I have heard of one person injecting enough ketamine into their system and overdosing. D. M. Turner and Louise Cattell (a 21 year old fashion designer) both died from drowning in bathtubs while under the influence of k. One of my father's friends died when he had been drinking, did some k, and then went in his hot tub by himself, thinking that he'd join his wife 20 or so minutes later in bed. Sadly he also drowned and was found the next morning- let's just say it wasn't pretty.
I still dream about k every once in a while and after these dreams I crave it, but I haven't let go just yet. It's been really difficult lately as I have been craving it the most these past 2 weeks, but luckily each time I came in contact with some and was offered a line, I declined because I didn't feel like it at the time. I'm afraid I may go back to it. And though I don't do k anymore, I just replaced my addiction with that for cocaine (only use it 2-5 times a week on average). It would seem that I feel the need to put something up my nose, no matter what it be. It's difficult..
It's interesting how such expierences cannot really be imagined until you've been there, & I have to say it wasn't anything like I thought it would be. Over all a Good expierence.
