Tales of K — Lyla, Jane and Belle clue us in

People use drugs for many reasons. These are 3 stories about ketamine — along with some tips for reducing the harms for people who choose to go the K way.

Lyla’s story

If I could only use one word to describe ketamine, it would be ‘wobbly’. My body feels not quite in sync with itself and my head becomes very wobbly! It’s like the control centre of the brain is still there, still aware of what’s going on, but there’s a distance between it and your foot and there’s a delay telling it to move to that particular spot.

But it’s not like other forms of dissociation, which can make you feel isolated or numb. It’s very relaxed, like yes, there is a distance, but I’m happy chilling back here and watching. That’s where the risk of injury can come in. I have heard many stories where folks have been lying or sitting down and taking ketamine and don’t realise how wobbly they have gotten until they stand up and try to walk or dance. I find that if I do hurt myself, I still feel the pain but it’s over there, not here. I start to think, ‘maybe I didn’t hurt myself as badly as I thought’. With some experience, though, it becomes easier to recognise, with an immediate injury, that I should go get it checked out at Medical even when I think it’s ‘not that bad’.

The struggle I have is with chronic or recurring injuries. I have arthritis in my knees, so they are often in some degree of pain. When I take ketamine and I am dancing, it’s hard to tell when I should back off and let my knees rest. Yes, I feel the soreness, but it doesn’t seem all that bad. I’m slowly learning to be a bit more careful because after the ketamine wears off, my knees don’t hesitate to tell me I’ve overdone it!

Don’t get me wrong, though, I do enjoy ketamine for many reasons. It is short-acting compared to other party drugs, which means I’m not committed the whole night. If I decide I want to do something else, I wait an hour or 2, not 10 or 12. It is also easier to titrate — this means you can take a little more and get proportionally higher. Not every drug allows this — some you take a little more and it will do next to nothing, others a little can send you off the deep end into a crisis. Of course, as with all drugs, this will depend on set and setting and what else you’ve taken.

Jane’s story

I had my first experiences with ketamine at university in Melbourne. I mostly used it when I was out drinking and partying with friends. But I didn’t really think about ketamine that much back then, or its therapeutic potential. It was just something to make music sound better and make the alcohol hit harder so I didn’t drink as much.

A few years ago, I went to a pretty low place. I went through a depression where I would look at the world around me, and everything would seem flat, with not a lot of depth to it. And I couldn’t really see beyond the surface. It had me questioning my life, like “What’s the purpose of this all? Is there anything more than this?”. I knew I needed to do something BIG to change how I was feeling. That I needed to break out of my comfort zone and the path that I was following. So I decided to move overseas: to Amsterdam.

I wasn’t drawn to Amsterdam necessarily because of drugs, though I had heard the city offers some of the purest in the world — and really cheap as well. I chose it because it’s a lovely mixture of a kind of Scandinavian energy and Berlin edginess. It’s also got a really great techno music scene — I love techno. It’s a very happy city. You ride your bikes around. And there’s a lot of sustainability stuff happening, and it feels like a little village but with an international city vibe. So, yeah, it’s a wonderful city.

Shortly after I arrived, I went to a music festival with friends. It was held on this really beautiful sandy island. I wasn’t really drinking at this event, so one of my friends offered me some ketamine. The experience I had that day was a turning point in my life. Here I was, on this island, surrounded by people, looking at life through a dissociated perspective. This phrase just kept repeating over and over again to the rhythm of the music: “Everything is okay. Everything is like it’s meant to be. And it’s just perfect as is”. I think this was one of the first times in my life that I ever felt like this. I realised that I’d never before seen everything as okay.

That adventure really helped to break down my own mental barriers and get an objective view on the world and my place in it. The experience stayed with me for months afterwards. I felt like I’d shed the dark lens that I saw things through. Instead, I saw more depth and colour to the world. What’s more, I lost some of my expectations around what I thought my life should be. I experimented more with ketamine during my 2 years in the Netherlands — mostly on the weekend in social settings, instead of the alcohol I would have normally used. I am a bit of an introvert so I loved the ability to go into my own little world and dancing to maybe techno or house music in a basement somewhere. I enjoyed the ability to have different views and thoughts on life.

I now have a lot of respect for the way drugs can play a positive role in people’s lives. We are told that drugs are negative. We don’t talk much about the positive role they can have. But for me, ketamine wasn’t just a party drug, it helped me change the way I saw myself and the world. My experiences with the dissociative drug helped me to shift my thinking so that I was able to think about my world more objectively and become more self-aware. I learned to analyse my behaviours, open my mind to new ways of doing things and become less rigid in how I approached life.

I wouldn’t say that the way I used ketamine is the best way to deal with depression, but my experiences with ketamine have been therapeutic for me.

Belle’s story

I first tried K (ketamine) in the late ’90s during my early clubbing days. I was offered a line in the bathrooms of a seedy Kings Cross nightclub. I’d heard of K before, that it was a horse tranquiliser! I was already pretty loaded at the time, I‘d had ecstasy and some speed that night, but I love mixing different drugs — it’s like a harmony of connected events, feelings and emotions that become part of the same experience. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance.

I barely made it back to my mates before I started to wobble — my legs became really heavy and I struggled to walk or stand up without holding onto the railing. Everything slowed down, I could hear people talking to me, but I couldn’t respond. Words came out, but I could tell by their look of confusion and amusement that I was talking gibberish. I sat down and felt like I was sinking into the lounge. I was observing my surroundings — the lights, sounds, the people dancing. It was like seeing, hearing and interpreting things from a whole new perspective.

All up, I discovered what a dissociative drug does! I was separated from reality as I knew it. I was on the outside looking in, just an observer to my life.

Over the years I continued to use K with other drugs, but it wasn’t until I tried it on its own through an IM injection that my love affair with K began. For me, being on ketamine feels like I am on a spiritual journey that alters my concept of time, space, mind and body. I feel elevated from my surroundings, like I am observing my environment through a different lens. Lights, colours and shapes seem to intertwine and evolve in sync with the music. The experience feels profound and enlightening to me — almost like it broadens my understanding of myself and life.

However, journeying through a K-hole is not for everyone. Many of my friends refuse to take it after having a bad experience. Feeling detached from your body and surroundings can be overwhelming and give you a sense of loss of control. Changes in perception of sights and sounds can be disorienting and confusing. Some people feel overwhelmed rather than enlightened. In particular, it can be triggering for some people whose mental health issues challenge their sense of reality.

I have learned a few things that have helped to reduce the risk for me, so I can enjoy the experience more. Like if you’ve mixed K with other drugs, the effects can be magnified — so make sure you always have a buddy with you and keep tabs on what drugs and how much you’ve taken. Practicing safe hygiene can also reduce potential harms. Clean surfaces, use fresh equipment and dispose of that equipment responsibly. Most importantly, look after yourself and your mates.

Is ketamine known by other names?

Yes! Other names include: K, Special K, Ketta, Vitamin K, Ket, Horse Tranquiliser, Kit kat

What kind of drug is Ketamine?

Ketamine is from a group of drugs called dissociatives. Dissociatives are a class of psychedelic drug. Other dissociative drugs are nitrous oxide (nangs) and PCP (angeldust).

What does ‘dissociative’ mean?

‘Dissociative’ means detached or separated from reality. Dissociative drugs can produce distortions in the way your senses work – especially your seeing and hearing. They can make you feel apart from the world and distanced from yourself. You might get a sense of floating and disconnection, like a visitor to your life.

What is the medical use for Ketamine?

Ketamine is used as an anaesthetic in surgery and veterinary medicine. Its value is in its ability to provide analgesia (pain relief) along with amnesia (memory loss) to reduce trauma. There is also significant evidence associated with its effectiveness as an antidepressant, rapidly reducing suicidal feelings and anxiety; and as therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

What does it mean to go into a K-hole?

It’s a state of total separation from reality and sense of physical self into an hallucinogenic state that distorts the senses and is completely absorbing.

How do I reduce the risks?

Dose and setting can play a big part in how individuals experience dissociatives. Like other drugs with hallucinogenic properties, some people find them insightful and joyful while others become distressed and fearful. Like every experience on the planet, it’s horses for courses. If you have had a past bad experience with any drug because of a change in your sense of reality, consider avoiding ketamine. Regardless, all first-time users of a new drug should use a very small amount. All users should buy from a trusted source only, do it with someone they trust and have a realistic plan for getting help if they become distressed, become unwell or overdose.

Ketamine: Dose, Risks and Safer Using Tips

Risks

• You can overdose fatally from an excessive amount of ketamine. Know your tolerance and reduce your dose with new gear.

• The risk of fatal overdose increases significantly if you mix ketamine with alcohol, GHB, opioids or benzos.

• Symptoms of overdose include excessive saliva, rapid eye movement, dilated (large) pupils, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, problems urinating — could be peeing without warning or difficulty peeing or needing to pee too often, heart palpitations / chest pain, muscle rigidity, loss of consciousness, difficulty breathing and respiratory failure.

• You could seriously/permanently damage your bladder if you use ketamine when you have a urinary tract infection.

Dose

• How much you take depends a lot on how you take it. You should be thinking at the lowest levels for injecting intravenously and slightly higher for intramuscular or subcutaneous injecting. If snorting ketamine or taking it orally, you may be able to tolerate a higher amount.

• It's important to work out dosing and method before you've had any drugs or alcohol, and stick to your plan. Always start low and go slow if trying something new, and always do your own research first.

• Although the effect with injecting is immediate, it can take 15–20 minutes to fully take effect if you snort it. It’s best to wait at least that long before redosing. Applying ketamine to a place with lots of capillaries, like under your tongue or in your anus will come on faster than snorting.

• Even though the apparent effects wear off after 2 hours, the drug still is active in our system for 3 hours.

• Unlike most drugs, ketamine does ‘stack’ — that is, redosing will keep building on the effect. Beware that redosing too soon or too much can cause a stronger than expected reaction to the drug — AKA an overdose.

• Like most drugs, you will build a tolerance to ketamine the more you use it.

Duration (of Effects)

• Timing depends on how you take it.

• Total Duration: 1–2 hours (note that while the felt effects may last around 2hrs, ket is still active in your system for around 3hrs. It’s worth remembering if you intend to redose at some point.

• Onset: 0-15 minutes – injecting IV is instant, up to 15 mins for snorting or oral us.

• Peak: Straight away if injected, otherwise 20–60 minutes.

• Coming Down: 30–60 minutes.

• Hang-over / aftereffects: 1–3 hours.

Safer Using Tips

• Know what you’re taking. Like all drugs, ketamine can be cut with other substances that can affect its potency. Drug-testing kits can confirm what’s in your bag.

• Start with a low dose. You can’t predict the potency or what other substances might have been added. If your first dose doesn’t have much effect, wait at least 20 mins before having a top up.

• Ketamine significantly impacts your balance and coordination. Remain seated or lying down, particularly when using larger doses.

• Be mindful of potential loss of coordination / balance. Having a comfy place to sit or lay is great, especially if using larger doses. Depending on the potency, dose and other substances you have taken, it is possible you may have difficulty moving or communicating for a period of time. Also, remember the recovery position — it's the safest position to be in.

• Tell your mates what you’re doing. Make sure you have people around you that know what you’ve had, can provide support and seek medical assistance, if required. Use with people you trust. They can support you if you lose coordination, go into a K-hole or lose consciousness.

• As always, practice safe hygiene to avoid infections. Swab or wash your hands and other skin that may come in contact during the drug process. If injecting, use sterile equipment, don’t share with anyone else — even lovers — and dispose of used gear responsibly. When snorting, clean surfaces with something sterile, swab your k-spoon (tiny spoons used for ketamine) or use a new/sterilised snorting device.

• For snorters: If you’re experiencing a burning sensation after snorting, rinse your nose with water or do a saline nasal rinse before/after racking to prevent damaging the protective lining in your nose. Also really helps ease the post-ket sneeze-marathons.

• For people taking it orally: ketamine is not absorbed by the stomach and goes directly to the liver. This can increase the hallucinogenic effects of the drug. Whether this is a negative or positive is up to you, but it’s worth being aware of it.

• Keep your fluids up — people in a K-hole can forget — and if things feel a little too much, grounding yourself with a potassium-rich banana can help.

• Be careful mixing ketamine with other drugs, particularly alcohol, opioids and other depressants.

• Take care of yourself and others. If you (or someone you know) has a bad reaction, seek medical assistance.