Signs & Symptoms of Ketamine Addiction: Understanding the risks and getting help

With decades of experience treating all forms of substance abuse, the team at Infinity Addiction Solutions can confidently say that identifying and addressing ketamine abuse before it causes permanent physical harm is one of the biggest challenges U.K. parents and addiction specialists currently face within the realm of addiction recovery.

Ketamine represents a three-fold danger. First, it has seen a significant uptake among teenagers and young adults in recent years, with usage rates among 16 to 24-year-olds increasing from 0.8% to 3.2%—a 300% jump from 2013 to 2023¹. Secondly, the onset period for potentially irreversible harm, such as severe bladder and kidney damage, is a lot shorter than most people think. Thirdly, we’re currently experiencing a cultural shift where at-home ketamine use is becoming more commonplace and accepted².

Without being alarmist, combining these three factors is a cause for concern; ketamine abuse is changing lives and futures, especially young people’s, for the worse. It’s affordable compared to other party drugs, easily available on the street, in the club, or at festivals, and increasingly making its way from the club scene into our living rooms.

This guide aims to help you understand and recognise the signs and symptoms of ketamine addiction—a challenge often made more difficult by poly-substance abuse—in the hope that it encourages you or a loved one to seek professional help in dealing with a drug that causes real harm.

In short, very few individuals who develop a ketamine addiction only use ketamine. Identifying the signs of ketamine addiction requires looking at a broader scope of factors and behaviours, rather than just the signs of addiction on a list. The endless variations to polydrug use and how individuals react to different combinations make it challenging to pinpoint ketamine abuse in isolation.

Realistically, you might be able to identify the signs of drug use in a loved one, but the best way to definitively identify ketamine abuse among the mix is through clear, non-judgmental, and supportive dialogue.

Keeping in mind that poly-substance abuse may cause unpredictable variations or additions to the signs of recent and habitual ketamine use, when used in isolation, you may observe the following signs of ketamine misuse. Please note that the timelines indicated may also vary based on the dosage(s) taken and personal factors, such as general health.

While it can be easier to identify a person currently under the influence of ketamine, those effects typically don’t last more than two hours, and the residual symptoms could look like a hangover, a poor night’s sleep, or even a cold the next morning.

First described in 2007, ketamine cystitis is still a relatively newly discovered medical condition⁴. Since then, it’s been observed in urology departments around the world and has become synonymous with continued ketamine abuse, overshadowing many of its other harmful effects. Realistically, ketamine cystitis is more likely to develop over 12 to 24 months in an otherwise healthy young person; however, it can and sometimes does develop much faster, blindsiding a teenager or young adult with symptoms ranging from regular, painful urination to complete renal (kidney) failure.

At the extreme end of continued ketamine abuse without medical intervention, an individual’s bladder may shrink down to less than 100ml as fibrosis causes it to lose elasticity. Urine may backflow into one or both kidneys in a process known as hydronephrosis, causing kidney damage and potentially failure, and, at some point, having the bladder removed altogether and living with an external urine collection system becomes the only option.

While the psychological and behavioural signs of habitual ketamine abuse overlap significantly with other drugs, ketamine’s effects on the bladder and urinary tract make it both easier to identify in cases of continued abuse and a priority to seek early medical intervention before permanent damage occurs.