28-year-old occupational therapist Elise* loves to take ketamine on the weekends. “I first tried it when I was smashed and a friend was sharing it out with the group. It got passed along to me and I was in a ‘fuck it’ kind of mood,” she tells GLAMOUR.
Elise said she didn’t expect to like ketamine, usually referred to as ‘ket’ but it was like “someone emptied her brain completely” and that was “exactly what she needed.”
“Between my job and my home life, I bottle up a lot of stress. I work for a really big tech company and there’s so much on my workload constantly. I don’t know how one person is expected to get through it all but I try.”
She continues, “I also got a divorce a year ago so my home life has been stressful. Getting into a k-hole helps me forget everything for a while.”
Elise is one of many professional women starting to take ketamine to lose control outside of work. Drug use in the UK is incredibly common, slotting in with our visceral drinking culture. The latest government findings show that 1 in 11 adults in the UK has taken drugs – that rises to 1 in 5 for 16-24-year-olds.
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The interest in ketamine is rapidly increasing. Back in 2015, The Global Drug Survey, an online survey of 100,000 drug users around the world, found that a quarter of British respondents said they had used ketamine over the year preceding. Yet in 2020, the prevalence of ketamine use in the last year among adults in England and Wales was the highest on record.
Now, a warning from Together, the adult drug and alcohol treatment service, says there’s been a 53% increase in the number of young adults taking ketamine use since August 2022.
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Elise says she knows “all about” the side effects of ketamine, and while they do occasionally scare her, she “generally doesn’t mind.” She says, “I think we all know how dangerous all drugs are and take them anyway, no? I just put my head in the sand with [side effects] and pay attention to the good parts.”
33-year-old Katie* is an assistant to a chiropractor in a busy London clinic, which she says puts a lot of stress on her throughout the week. She tells GLAMOUR, “ I actually took ket for the first time legally as a transfusion because a girl I work with tried it and loved it. I found it really helped with my mental health and managing work stress.
But transfusion prices started adding up for Katie, and she didn’t find it as “fun” as “taking it in the pub and it hitting you within 15 minutes.”
“I’m training to be a doctor so, yeah, the side effects do concern me,” she adds. “I try not to think about them too much to be honest.”
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29-year-old office worker Daisy* says she takes ketamine at work to make her shifts go faster, and she’s been doing this for around three years. “I started taking ket at the weekends, although I also took it during the evenings mid-week, if I’m being honest. I like ket just because it’s cheaper than coke and you can have just as good a time, even though it is really different.”
Daisy can’t remember how she ended up taking it during work hours, but says it helped her cope with busy, stressful days. “Doing my shifts on ket makes the day go faster and also takes the edge off when I’m nervous about interviews and presentations and stuff,” she says.
Regarding ketamine’s scary side effects, Daisy says, “I recently told a friend I take ket at work a lot and I also posted about it on Quora. I thought I’d find people who got it but actually, people were pretty horrified.” Daisy had strangers on the internet, as well as her friends, sending her articles that illustrated the dangerous and potentially deadly side effects of ketamine.
“I’m going off it a bit, I’m not going to lie. Ketamine is fun until you found out it can give you seizures and fuck your life up. Honestly, because it’s not a Class A and it's piss cheap I thought it would be right as rain but I’m starting to see it’s one of the worst drugs out there.”
“I’m starting to figure that if work is so stressful I think I need ket, what I probably really need is a new job,” Daisy laughs. “It’ll be hard but maybe I’ll go on Indeed instead of calling my drug dealer.”
*Names have been changed.
If you are struggling with addiction or substance abuse issues, you can book an appointment with your GP to discuss diagnosis and treatment. You can call the Frank drugs helpline on 0300 123 6600.
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