Ketamine abuse and addiction are harmful kinds of addictions that young people often fall for at the rave parties and clubs. Though it begins with sheer curiosity, it becomes serious and hard to get rid of at a time. And when it becomes a serious addiction, it isn’t easy to get rid of without help. Ketamine is a kind of drug that is given to humans and animals as a tranquilizer. If it is taken without a doctor’s prescription, it can have serious issues on your health and drag you to severe addiction. It is difficult to stay away from the addiction of ketamine as if you want to stop it. The chemical changes in your brain will not let you stop taking it. Only professional treatment for ketamine addiction can help you to get back to your normal life.
A person under addiction will have severe side effects like they will feel detached from the surrounding for several days and become incapable of leading a normal and functional life. Their cognitive capacity also gets affected, along with their memory and speech. If you find someone close to you is addicted to ketamine, you can consult the Rehab Healthcare centers like RehabHC to get the best treatment.
Signs of Ketamine Addiction
Certain ketamine addiction symptoms will notify you about your close one, whether he/she is an addict. The important signs of ketamine addiction are:
- Getting obsessed with something
- Failing to take the responsibilities at school and work
- Neglecting family and friends
- Staying lost for several days
- Feeling the urge to be higher than high
If someone shows any such signs, it is high time to seek professional help so that the experts can treat a person with proper medication and therapy to maintain the brain’s chemical balance and make it easier to go through the psychological recovery process.
What is Ketamine?
Ketamine has several popular names like Special K, Dorothy, Kit Kat, Vitamin K, Cat Valium, etc. In treatment, ketamine is used as a sedative for children who are sensitive to any other strong sedatives. It is especially used for treating radiation and burn therapy where patients fail to handle any other strong sedatives. It is an anesthetic for animals and abused as recreational drugs. Ketamine is highly popular among young adults in clubs and rave parties.
The main reason for this drug’s popularity is that it works as a dissociative anesthetic and comes with sedative side effects. It gives the user an out-of-body experience where he/she feels detached from their surroundings. Not only that, but this drug also warps the hearing and seeing the ability of the user and makes it difficult to move. Users also have said that they have ‘near-death experience’ after this drug abuse. Too much use of ketamine can cause a psychological dependency on the drug, which is not good. Using or selling ketamine without a doctor’s prescription is illegal.
Side Effects of Ketamine Overuse
Ketamine is a hallucinogenic tranquilizer, responsible for creating a full-body buzz to the user and makes them experience a sense of relaxation. Though the high lasts nearly an hour, a severe high dose known as ‘K-Hole’ can make people experience ‘near-death experience’ or ‘out-of-body experience’ where they get the feeling of completely detached from reality. It also has anesthetic properties that make people numb and may cause serious accidents or injuries.
Another danger of using this drug is that the user can’t determine how much to charge as it is quite unpredictable. Sometimes, a small dose can act seriously if the user is already on any other drug or alcohol. As it is a tranquilizer, it can hamper the user’s mobility, which is quite dangerous as the user may not ask for any help if needed. Death due to respiratory failure can happen due to ketamine overdose.
Apart from all these, there are several other side effects of ketamine usage like:
- Increased heart rate
- Respiratory issues
- Muscle rigidity
- Elevated blood pressure
- Paranoia
- Flashback of hallucinations
- Long-term cognitive difficulties
- Depression
Any small dose of ketamine can cause side effects that can last nearly 24 hours or so, such as:
- Stumbling
- Loss of coordination
- Muscle weakness
Ketamine is one such drug that can catch you even after just one charge of a very small amount. The experience won’t be good, and it will only drag you towards having more and more, which will be difficult to get rid of. Consult the best UK addiction treatment center like Rehab Healthcare where you can get the best treatment to stay away from this drug and get a normal life again.