Former ketamine addict still using adult nappies years later due to side effects
A young mum who 'lived and breathed' ketamine has told how she is still dealing with the impact of her addiction more than two years after she stopped taking it.
Amber Currah continues to deal with the consequences of using the class B drug, despite overcoming her near-decade-long dependency on it.
The 28-year-old admitted she is forced to wear adult nappies due to incontinence, can't drink alcohol and endures excruciating pain because of the damage the substance has done to her body.
Amber opened up about the devastating impact of her addiction to ketamine in a recent episode of Minutes With.
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She told LADbible that after using it recreationally, she eventually became so reliant upon the drug that she needed to 'sniff a line before doing the food shop'.
The mum, who hails from Morecambe, explained that she first dabbled in substances when she was just 14-years-old and heading to house parties with her teenage pals.
"Even though that's a shocking thing to say, at the time, that was just like completely normal," Amber said. "Everyone did it...then I'd experiment with other things - MDMA, cocaine, pills, you know, stuff like that.
"It wasn't until I was around 17 that I heard about ketamine. I actually tried it for the first time at a party, and I hated it."
She explained that it initially put her in 'a zombie-like state' which she did not enjoy, but later found that it helped her to calm the thoughts that were constantly 'racing' through her mind.
"It felt like it would numb your body, numb your mind, which is probably one of the big reasons why I loved it so much," Amber continued. "I didn't really think I was addicted at the time.
"But now looking back, I probably was at this point."
The physical impact of abusing ketamine soon caught up with Amber and she began to experience symptoms similar to that of a UTI around a year after she first tried the drug.
"I didn't have a clue about what ketamine could do," she went on. "A female bladder should hold 500ml and a male is 600ml. And mine, at its worst, was holding 20ml.
"I would literally live and breathe ketamine. No matter where I was. It just ruled my life at this point. I was just thinking about it wherever I was."
Amber said at this time in her life, the physical impact her addiction had wreaked on her body had 'become really bad' - and she explained that it left her running to the toilet hundreds of times each day.
"I got to the point where I was now having to wear nappies all the time. I'd say at my worst, I was weeing 200 times a day," the mum admitted.
She was stuck 'in her bathroom' constantly as a result of needing to urinate so much and said she spent the rest of the time in bed or the bath.
"Sometimes the pain could be that bad, I wouldn't be able to move for eight hours," Amber said. "And that's not an exaggeration. You will do anything just to stop the pain, even for a second.
"It's relentless. It will go on and on and on. The physical effects made me want to take more ketamine, because I just thought, 'I'm in this horrible place, I can't get out of it'. Without it, I'd be dragging myself around.
"I couldn't even walk a hundred metres down the street. I couldn't even walk to the bottom of my driveway or out my door, down the stairs, just because of the physical pain and how bad it was."
Amber admitted this addiction saw her spiral into depression, as she battled with feelings of 'shame and disgust', saying: "I would constantly beat myself up. Constantly."
She finally hit a turning point in 2023, when she realised her pals 'lives were moving on' while she was 'stuck in the bath, stuck in my house, seeing barely anyone'.
Amber went on to kick her addiction to ketamine - but says she has been told the damage to her bladder is 'irreversible' and admitted that her life is far from 'back to normal'.
"I'm two years, three months sober now and I'm still in a bad way," she said. "I'm still wearing adult nappies at the age of 28. I have to constantly think about what I'm wearing.
"I can't go out drinking, I can't drink alcohol. It's not the be all and end all for me, but I want to be able to go out with my friends and stuff like that.
"I've not been on holiday in seven years because I've not been able to get on a plane because of the pain."
Amber said she hopes that sharing her 'shocking' story will help other people who might be in a similar position to her.
Topics: Drugs, Health, Mental Health, Lifestyle
Olivia Burke