I see more and more young people using ketamine
The complex reasons why young people are increasingly using ketamine to experience freedom from themselves.
I recently worked with a young person who was referred to us from her school. Staff were concerned that she was smoking cannabis and felt she would benefit from our services. As it turned out this young person was also taking ketamine, most days before school and every evening, often in conjunction with cannabis and alcohol.
She’d received counselling for depressive symptoms in the six months before coming to us. She told us she was using ketamine to “be” around her family. This isn’t unusual and ketamine as a way to relax or disassociate is becoming more common among the young people I work with.
Whether it’s five minutes staring out the office window or half an hour playing Call of Duty, it’s fair to say that we all want to disassociate sometimes. It’s instinctive, natural and universal to all humans.
Recent emphasis on prioritising our mental health means adults are often aware of this need to take a break. For teenagers, however, it’s not that simple. There are more demands placed on our young people than ever before, in the form of education, social media, identity and environmental factors. Fantastic work has been done to help young people navigate the mental health pressures which accompany these expectations. But the services aren’t always available to support this emotionally literate generation. Many young people I talk to have found a way to relax, one which fits into their lifestyles without compromising their reputation as a risk taker: ketamine.
It’s attractive for many reasons, not least because it’s cheap. Where we’re based in Kent it costs around £15–20 per gram. Another factor is that the effects generally wear off within half an hour. The young people we work with see this as positive, it means their use will go unnoticed by adults. One student said, “You can get picked up from a party and appear completely sober. My parents even give me a pat on the back sometimes for not smoking or drinking.”
In low doses ketamine can feel euphoric and might increase the user’s enthusiasm to dance and socialise. People report feeling slightly detached from themselves, but in control. The effects are sometimes described as getting “wonky” or “ketted”. In higher doses it takes on more of an anaesthetic quality. People may feel a separation between mind and body, experience delusional or hallucinogenic thoughts or visuals or be unable to move. This is referred to as a ‘K-hole’.
There’s a common thread when young people reflect on their motivations for using ketamine. They express a desire to be free, or experience freedom from themselves. The links between mental health and drugs are well documented, but the extent to which young people self-medicate is often overlooked. In a digital world our demands are often met immediately. In comparison our mental health services have high thresholds and long waiting lists. Drugs such as ketamine and cannabis however, which can provide relief from symptoms, are readily available.
We need to offer more spaces for young people to explore their thoughts, feelings and identities. This is especially important in an educational setting, where we can provide information on risk taking behaviours such as alcohol, drugs and sex, or criminal exploitation elements such as gangs.
For the young woman taking ketamine after school, the desire to change came from self-reflection. She attended her Mum’s birthday dinner at an expensive restaurant but was excusing herself take ketamine in the loo. When she was trying to alter her behaviour she found she couldn’t — she went with friends who didn’t use substances to the cinema and halfway through the film found herself in the toilet doing a line.
In this case, as in most, the key was exploring her motivations. While she was keen for her parents to not find out what she was doing, she set herself homework to discuss her feelings with them. Specifically, how it felt when they argued or gave her money to go out, instead of spending quality time with her. They were completely unaware of her substance use, but did change their behaviour as a result of her talking honestly with them.
As a result she felt much better, spent more time with them and decreased her use. Eventually she chose to stop using ketamine altogether and get more support around her mental health.
There has never been more need for specialist drug services delivering accurate, evidence based information. I’m proud to be heading up a flagship team within Addaction, one that gives young people a confidential and non-judgemental space to talk sensibly about drugs. For many, this is the only place they can do that.
