How to Support Someone in Rehab for Ketamine Addiction

October 6, 2025

7:46 pm

K hole Supporting someone in Ketamine rehab

Supporting Someone in Ketamine Rehab is a challenge. But with all challenges, the end result is worth it.

Ketamine addiction is no joke. It is a very serious problem that can, sadly, be fatal. Not only can it destroy your bladder, it can also cause severe psychological problems. If you want to stop, you are in the right place, but don’t just stop: Doing so will see you experience very distressing withdrawals. These can be so extreme that the only way you feel you can stop them is to go and use Ketamine.

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have experienced addictions clinicians who have decades of experience treating people caught up in the madness of addiction. Having helped countless people with Ketamine addiction their advice is free and without obligation. If you need Free Clinician Drug advice, perhaps a Free Rehab Referral Service: Call.

If you want to help someone you know recover from Ketamine addiction read on. It may well be a challenge but with the right professional help and your informed assistance it can be done. The transformation may be beyond what you expect. It is often the way in addiction treatment that the more severe the addiction the more the transformation when someone goes into recovery.

Supporting Someone in Ketamine Rehab

Having that difficult conversation with someone who doesn’t want to acknowledge they need help needs careful planning. If you go in, all guns blazing, it is likely they will close up. With an informed, empathetic approach, you may just be able to get them to seek help. A lot of people using Ketamine know they have a problem but don’t want to loose the effects using Ketamine brings: Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.

Our experienced addictions clinicians have helped many people addicted to Ketamine in private rehabs, statutory services and prisons. Let us look at their advice, which is available to all: For free.

Supporting Someone in Ketamine Rehab

What is Ketamine?

Ketamine is not new. An anaesthetic, it is widely used in hospitals, by vetinarians and emergency roadside medical teams for serious injuries. Sadly, as with a lot of prescribed medications, it has seeped into the illicit market.

How is Ketamine Taken?

It is produced for the healthcare field in either powder form or a colourless liquid. Outside of prescribed use it is often snorted (powder) or injected. Occasionally, it is taken in tablet form but this is rare.

How Long Does Ketamine Take take effect?

The time it takes to have an effect depends on how you take it. If snorted, it will take around fifteen minutes. In tablet form: Up to an hour. If injected into a vein: Seconds.

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have experienced addictions clinicians who have decades of experience treating people caught up in the madness of addiction. Having helped countless people with Ketamine addiction their advice is free and without obligation. If you need Free Clinician Drug advice, perhaps a Free Rehab Referral Service: Call.

How Long Does someone experience the effects?

A Ketamine high usually lasts around half an hour to an hour but is dependent on how much you take. When someone takes a sufficient quantity that renders them into a state of significant intoxication this is known as a K hole. Coma can follow, as can fatality. Users who recover from this will tell you that, when in a K hole, they feel totally powerless and can not speak.

Spotting the signs of Ketamine Addiction

Being able to see the signs of addiction is not easy. Someone who uses Ketamine may well be aware that they have a problem so will try and hide it, often very successfully. Sadly, a lot of the signs of Ketamine use are the same as a mental health condition making it even more difficult to detect. What is important is not to challenge the person simply because they are displaying some of the signs of use.

The signs and symptoms of drug use vary from person to person. Ketamine addiction is no different. However, there are some common indications and our clinicians have listed them below:

  • Severe anxiety
  • Rapid onset depression
  • Worsening of existing mental health conditions
  • Unable to concentrate on work or domestic tasks
  • Extreme fear
  • Chronic paranoia
  • Memory loss
  • Unexplained euphoria
  • A sense that the person can float on water or fly
  • Appearing in a trance like state
  • Using Ketamine to relieve stress which becomes a vicious circle

Social indicators:

  • Overriding feelings of guilt
  • Crippling sense of isolation
  • Erratic behaviour
  • Despite knowing the risks, continues to use Ketamine
  • Prioritising Ketamine use over everything else
  • Thinking it is impossible to stop

Physical Signs of a Ketamine Addiction

  • Extreme fatigue
  • Fast pulse
  • Unconsciousness
  • No feeling of pain
  • Paralysis
  • Having to use large amounts to have the effect a small dose used to have (Tolerance)

Withdrawal Symptoms of Ketamine

  • Fast onset depression
  • Extreme agitation
  • Crippling anxiety
  • Suicidal thinking
  • Violence and aggression
  • Being persistently irritable
  • Chronic bladder pain
  • Painful stomach cramps
  • Profuse sweating
  • Rapid pulse
  • Poor eyesight
  • Uncontrollable cravings for Ketamine

Understanding Their Addiction

If you know about Ketamine, what it is and what it does, you will be in a much better place to have that conversation you want to have around Ketamine use. First thing to know: It is not about a lack of willpower. All the willpower in the world is not going to fix the problem. Ketamine changes brain chemistry. You can no more stop using willpower as you can stop a train with a feather.

Supporting Someone in Ketamine Rehab

No one sets out to be addicted to Ketamine. It is not a choice. Very often there is something going on that is causing that person to seek an escape.  Underlying trauma, mental health conditions or both. An empathetic approach is going to be more beneficial.

Someone using Ketamine will believe that they can never stop using it. Users often know , from others, what happens if you stop using it without medical supervision and therapy.

Once an individual has developed an addiction, stopping may seem impossible to them. Not only can stopping take a toll on them mentally, but physical withdrawal symptoms from ketamine can be very hard to endure. 

Opening up about addiction can be incredibly difficult. Users can feel embarrassed. If you can guide them with the information on this page, you might just get them to accept help.

Looking after yourself

If you pay attention to cabin crew on a plane, they will always tell you to fix the oxygen mask to yourself before helping others (in the event of cabin depressurisation). The same rules apply here: If you do not look after yourself you can not help someone else.

The person you care about may well have had a significant impact on you because of their Ketamine addiction. It would be natural to be angry but addiction is not a choice. Sometimes just stepping back, taking a deep breath and counting to ten can take you out the loop for long enough to remember that the persons brain has been affected and that Ketamine is in control.

Do not be afraid to set boundaries on how you support someone: It will make you more able to help. You can not solve their problems but you can be there for them.

How To Have That Difficult Conversation Around Ketamine Addiction

Try:

  • Have the conversation where you will not be interrupted
  • Make sure you have sufficient time
  • Explain how the persons use of Ketamine is causing problems for those around them. Often, someone with an addiction has lost self respect but remain concerned for others welfare.
  • Make sure you are not intoxicated

Avoid:

  • Judging the person. You may not agree with what they are saying but, remember, they are the one caught up in the madness of addiction.
  • Giving up on them. Difficult conversations are called difficult for a reason. You may think no progress is being made but with patience and time, you may well break through.

Supporting Someone in Ketamine Rehab

What Does Professional Help for Ketamine involve?

Trying to stop Ketamine use at home is not going to work. While there is no detox as there is with alcohol or heroin, medical supervision is necessary due to the extreme withdrawals and the overriding urge to use (cravings).

Clinicians often prescribe medication, on a short term basis, for clients in treatment for Ketamine addiction. This is to bridge the gap from withdrawal to abstinence. The cravings that people experience from Ketamine withdrawal are beyond explanation. With adjunctive medication the withdrawals can be managed and, in turn, cravings will reduce.

Residential rehab starts with a free confidential assessment with one of our experienced addictions clinicians. They will be pleased to signpost you, without charge, to any rehab centre in the country. We never charge for this service.

As soon as the person is phsyically able to join in with the therapy programme there is an expectation, as part of their treatment plan, that they do so: The therapy is essential to recovery.

The core of any rehab centre, anywhere in the world, is group therapy. This is augmented by individual therapy, art therapy, gentle exercise, etc. Unresolved trauma is explored and treatment for mental health conditions given.

The person in recovery amasses a mental toolkit so as to prevent relapse when they go home. All centres provide a minimum of a years aftercare. This can be either in person at a weekly support group or by video conferencing if they live a long distance away. Telephone support is also available.

Supporting Someone in Ketamine Rehab

Here at Find Me a Rehab we have experienced addictions clinicians who have decades of experience treating people caught up in the madness of addiction. Having helped countless people with Ketamine addiction their advice is free and without obligation. If you need Free Clinician Drug advice, perhaps a Free Rehab Referral Service: Call.

Need help finding the right rehab for you or a loved one? Get in touch today and take the first step toward recovery.

Speak to us