How Recovery Opened New Doors After Ketamine Use: Anonymous Story

With ketamine use rising across the UK, many people don’t realise how quickly physical and mental health problems can appear with regular ketamine use. As part of our national Know Your K campaign, we've been speaking to people affected by ketamine.

I am just over a year in recovery from substance use. I had started to use drugs and alcohol when I was around 13 in social settings like house parties which at the time was very occasional and was realistically my way of trying new things purely based on it being a ‘teenage experience’. 

This continued through to the age of about 18 through recreational use at raves and free parties, and then gradually became more prevalent and more frequently used when I started going to bars and clubs. At this point, I started to sometimes use outside of partying, whether that be at home or at friends' houses, which now looking back on this I realise was where I stopped using substances for recreational purposes and started using them to cope with my mental health, current and past traumas, and neurodiversity issues. 

This persisted and ended up to a point where I had become addicted to multiple substances and was poly-using daily. I was working in management roles throughout this time, so the high pressure and stress was most likely a factor towards my using too. My morals and behaviour were at their worst, I experienced overdoses, my physical health was poor, I was extremely underweight, and my mental health was at its absolute lowest.  

Then on 2^nd November 2024 I decided to turn my life around. I decided to start the process of stopping using drugs and referred myself into Lincolnshire Recovery Partnership. I was terrified of starting this process but just under a week later I had my first assessment with my newly appointed treatment worker who greeted me with a smile and spoke to me like a human being, also disclosing that they were in recovery themselves, as are a vast majority of the staff in LRP. 

This immediately put me at ease and made the coming months less gruelling than they would have been without the support I was receiving. After a few months, I then moved onto the recovery side of the service which is where I started to really get involved in looking towards my future and planning ahead, which is something I had never really thought about. My keyworker was amazing and the tools and opportunities for change were a huge factor in my recovery staying consistent. 

I was then given the opportunity to join the peer mentor course in LRP, an 8-10 week learning course where you can gain the skills and knowledge needed to volunteer and potentially work in this sector. I absolutely loved the course and learnt so much from it, so much so that I became a volunteer for just 2 weeks before I was interviewed and offered a full-time position as a Recovery Academy Trainee in the service. 

This has been the best job I have had and has given me such a high sense of purpose and belonging, being able to now use my lived experience and knowledge to benefit people who are also in recovery is the most rewarding and meaningful role I could ask for. The opportunities and opened doors I now have in my life are essentially endless, my recovery is going amazingly having passed my 1-year mark, and I cannot wait to see what my future holds.