Ketamine Withdrawal

What Is Ketamine?

If you’ve ever done Ketamine, you know what a powerful drug it is. I started using Ketamine in college and quickly became addicted to it. The best way I can describe it is it’s like every drug rolled into one.

Alcohol, acid, cocaine, you name it. It’s intensely euphoric. It is an extremely dangerous drug because it is so easy to get addicted to, and extremely difficult to get off. What is ketamine exactly?

Ketamine is an anesthetic commonly used by veterinarians. My friends and I always referred to it as ‘horse tranquilizer’. The medical use of ketamine is very common not only in veterinarian clinics but also by medical professionals as surgical anesthesia.

When I was first exposed to this ‘horse tranquilizer’, I was at a point where I was looking to get as high as possible. I was experimenting with a lot of drugs at once. Ketamine sounded very strong, which was very appealing to me.

I can remember in college a friend and I used to get liquid ketamine from one of our drug dealers. We lived in a dormitory, and we would take it into the kitchen and cook it up on the stove. I remember thinking how ballsy we were to do that with security guards and residential assistants nearby.

That was part of the fun of doing it. Getting away with it right in front of other people. We began doing this regularly and still thought that we were slick. It wasn’t long before we let our guard down and got caught. I was kicked out of the dorm and eventually, I dropped out of school so I could deal drugs full time.

The side effects of ketamine addiction are very difficult to get through. Mood swings, memory issues, and overall depression were very common for me when I was using.

Ketamine is extremely addictive and once you get into it deeply, it’s tough to get off. Can you overdose from ketamine? You definitely can. Can you die from ketamine? Absolutely. One of the scariest things about ketamine abuse is the dreaded K-hole.

The K-hole refers to the state of mind you reach after ingesting a large amount of ketamine. You are unable to move or do anything. You are powerless to the hallucinations and extreme paralysis.

Coming out of it is very scary. Being in it is just as scary. I’ve been caught in some very frightening k-holes. Even though I was looking for a super intense high, even this was too much at times.

There are also a lot of dangers associated with mixing ketamine with other drugs. Ketamine and alcohol together can be very dangerous. Using ketamine and alcohol increases the chances of memory loss, slowed breathing, and even coma. Ketamine is powerful enough on its own.

Alcohol can also be extremely intoxicating on its own. Combining the two can lead to extreme intoxication that can be life-threatening. Many addicts use multiple drugs in combination with each other, so the risk of using Ketamine with other drugs is very likely.

Getting Off Ketamine

What is ketamine withdrawal? It’s primarily psychological, though it can be physically uncomfortable as well. The symptoms of ketamine withdrawal include anger, confusion, agitation, shakes, fatigue, and nausea among others. Detox from ketamine should be done under medical supervision. You can do it on your own, but it is going to be much more uncomfortable.

There are many dangers of withdrawing from ketamine at home. It’s difficult to know exactly how to treat yourself if you aren’t familiar with detox. Detox from ketamine is different than detoxing from other drugs. It’s a unique substance that requires more than what you alone can offer.

There is no one answer for how to get off ketamine. You must want it for yourself, just like anybody else going through recovery. The ketamine withdrawal timeline is different for everyone, but there are similarities in most cases. The first couple of days are going to be the toughest.

This is when you will feel most of the physical withdrawal symptoms. The Ketamine withdrawal symptoms in some cases can last more than two weeks, but they begin to get easier to deal with as the days pass.

Once you are a few weeks in, you will begin to feel normal again. Again, because it can be very physically and emotionally taxing, medical supervision for detox is highly recommended.

Treatment for ketamine addiction depends on the individual. You are most likely dealing with more things than just your addiction. Aftercare and lasting recovery from ketamine may include a lot of therapy and soul searching.

There are studies being done now on depression and ketamine treatment. There are some medical professionals who believe that prescribing ketamine for depression could be useful.

It’s kind of ironic that there is doctor-ordered ketamine treatment, and at the same time doctors trying to get people away from it. It’s like any other drug. Some people use opiates because of chronic pain. Some just use it to get high.

The people at Pathfinders helped me tremendously in my fight against ketamine addiction. I was at a place where I never thought I would get off it. There were times that I convinced myself that I didn’t want to.

That’s how dark addiction can get. You can reach a point where you tell yourself that you want to do the drug until it kills you. Drug abuse really can bring out the darkest feelings that we can experience. I still have moments where I feel the cravings but going to therapy and networking with other sober individuals has helped me stay clean.

Finding The Right Support

Without the right support system, recovery becomes nearly impossible. Addiction recovery support groups are a vital piece of the process and can be one of the biggest reasons for your success. Without Pathfinders, I don’t know how I could have stayed on the right track.

The staff and the fellow addicts that I have connected with here are both equally important. I had no idea that ketamine addiction treatment was so widespread and readily available. I met many other people who struggled with ketamine addiction and had ketamine withdrawal. They all had a similar experience as me, and it’s helped me stay on the righteous path.

In my experience, recovery isn’t done alone. Yes, there are people that get sober without going to rehab. I haven’t met very many of them. Personally, I needed this to save my life. I needed to be accepted into a group of like-minded people.

I needed to feel included. There are so many lonely moments and feelings of hopelessness when you are in the midst of your addiction. Support for addiction recovery is a huge part of chipping away at these lonely feelings.

The people I’ve met through recovery are some of the most honest and beautiful people I’ve ever encountered. You gain a lot of self-awareness when you go through this process.

There is so much self-reflection. Everyone has a much better idea of who they are and why they do what they do. Through these support groups, we all remind each other of why we are here and what we need to do to keep our sobriety going.

When you enter recovery, you must take a long hard look at yourself. You really begin to unwind years of pain and frustration. It is all about facing your demons head-on and learning about why they exist in your life and gaining more self-awareness.

You learn more about yourself, and at the same time, you learn that people from all walks of life are going through the same things you are going through. You gain a better understanding of how you and everyone else got here.