Warning: This article contains discussion of drug addiction which some readers may find distressing.
A woman has described how a ketamine addiction left her 'weeing 200 times a day'.
Amber Currah was 14 when she first tried drugs, taking them at a house party because her friends were doing it, and she described to LADbible how it became a 'common theme' where she and her friends would talk about what parties they'd be going to and what pills would be there.
She described how she experimented with the likes of cocaine and MDMA, and when she was 17 she heard of ketamine and tried it.
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Amber said she 'hated it' the first time she tried it, with the drug leaving her in a 'zombie-like state', but her friends told her that she 'just didn't like it because it was her first time' and she started trying the drug more often.
"Yeah, this is the drug for me," Amber remembered thinking as she took ketamine more often, outside of parties and at other times of the day, though she didn't initially think she was addicted to it.
Eventually she did start thinking 'this is a bit of a problem', and Amber said it was about this time she started experiencing the physical symptoms of ketamine addiction, including 'ket bladder'.
She described how she 'started to get the feeling like she had a UTI', saying that 'it just felt like a little bit of a burning feeling down below'.
"At the time, little 18-year-old me, 19-year-old me, I didn't have a clue about what ketamine could do," the woman admitted. "When I actually first went to the doctors about it, it was in 2021 I finally got the courage to, they did all sorts of tests.
"Wee samples, ultrasounds, stuff like that, and it would all come back normal and they would all be a bit confused. And this whole time I didn't 100 percent know it was actually ket bladder at this point.
"Ketamine bladder, now that I know, is what happens is the way that ketamine metabolises inside your body then affects the bladder wall.
"It basically just shreds the bladder lining and that causes your bladder to shrink or be sunken, which then makes the capacity a hell of a lot smaller."
Amber said that a female bladder should typically be able to hold around 500ml, but hers at the worst point had been reduced to only hold around 20ml of liquid. As such, her 'bladder was working way more than it needed to' and she pretty constantly needed the toilet.
She also said she would 'live and breathe ketamine', and that wherever she was she'd ben thinking about when she could be on her own to take the drug again.
The drug 'ruled her life' at this point and she was wondering 'what are you doing to yourself' as the physical impact on her body became more pronounced.
Amber said it got to the point where she'd have to 'wear nappies all the time' because she was weeing so much, and that at the worst point she was 'weeing 200 times a day'.
She described being in 'constant agony' with pain that meant she could hardly move for up to eight hours at a time.
In the end she felt like had to pee out something that felt like 'a rock' and she spent six hours on the toilet trying to get it out, in pain all the while, and when it finally came out she caught it and realised it was part of her bladder tissue.
The physical impact the drug was having on her body made her want to take more as she felt like she was in a 'horrible place' and couldn't get out.
Amber did eventually manage to kick her addiction, but she said she'd been told her bladder damage was 'fully irreversible'.
Now aged 28, she's still wearing adult nappies, she can't go out with her friends and hasn't been on holiday in years because the pain is still so bad, she can't go on planes.
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can talk to FRANK. You can call 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or contact through their website 24/7, or livechat from 2pm-6pm any day of the week
Joe Harker