Ketamine has a reputation for being low-risk. It’s often cheaper than cocaine or even a night of drinking, and its legitimate use in hospitals can make it seem less risky. For many people, it also started as something everyone around them seemed to be doing. That reputation is part of the problem, because the truth is, ketamine abuse causes real harm very quickly.
This page covers how ketamine addiction develops, the signs to look for, and what sustained use does to the body and mind. If you’re reading it about yourself, or about someone you care about, most of what follows will be recognisable before it is surprising.
Ketamine addiction is a pattern of use that has become difficult to control despite its effects on your health, relationships or everyday life. It involves increasing tolerance, cravings, using more or more often than intended, and repeated attempts to cut down that do not last.
What matters is when ketamine stops being something you do and becomes something you organise around. Checking how much is left. Topping up alone. Feeling flat or restless on the days without it. From the outside it can still look manageable, which is exactly why it so often goes unquestioned, by the person using and by the people around them.
Yes, ketamine can be addictive. With regular use, people can develop tolerance, cravings and dependence and find it increasingly difficult to control how often or how much they’re using.
Ketamine withdrawal isn’t usually associated with the same medical risks as withdrawal from alcohol or benzodiazepines, but that doesn’t mean stopping is always straightforward. If ketamine has become a regular part of your life, there can be a lot to adjust to when you take it away.
Part of the reason ketamine can become so difficult to stop is what it does in the moment. Its dissociative effects can provide a quick escape from stress, low mood or memories you don’t want to sit with. The more often ketamine becomes the way you deal with those feelings, the easier it is for that pattern to become established.
For many people, this is the harder part of stopping. It’s not only about getting through the first few days without ketamine. It’s dealing with the cravings, changes in mood and anxiety, breaking routines around using, and understanding what ketamine had started doing for you in the first place. Treatment gives you the space and support to work through those things rather than simply taking the drug away.
There’s also an understandable question around prescribed ketamine. Ketamine is now used legitimately in some clinical settings, including for treatment-resistant depression, and that can make recreational use seem safer than it is.
When ketamine is appropriately prescribed, carefully dosed and clinically supervised, the risk of addiction appears to be much lower. It isn’t zero, though, and using ketamine regularly outside of that prescribed or supervised setting is very different from receiving it as part of medical treatment.
Some of the most consistent signs, in the person using or observed by family, include:
The question isn’t whether things are bad enough. It’s whether ketamine has become harder to control than it used to be and whether it is starting to cost more than it gives.
The harm ketamine can cause is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, particularly among younger people.
In England, 5,365 adults started treatment for ketamine problems in 2024–25, compared with just 426 a decade earlier. That’s more than a twelve-fold increase. During the same year, 1,465 children aged 17 and under who were receiving treatment reported ketamine as one of their problem substances.
Ketamine use across the wider population has risen considerably too. An estimated 299,000 people aged 16 to 59 used ketamine in 2022–23. Although use has since fallen from that peak, it remains much higher than it was a decade ago.
Those numbers don’t mean that everyone who uses ketamine will develop an addiction or experience serious harm. They do show, however, that ketamine is causing problems for a growing number of people, and that those problems are bringing more people into treatment.
Bladder and kidneys. Sustained ketamine abuse inflames and scars the bladder wall. Capacity shrinks, urination becomes frequent, urgent and painful, and in severe cases the damage extends to the kidneys or requires surgery. It is one of the most established serious physical harms of heavy use, with around a quarter of regular users reporting at least one urinary symptom, and it affects people in their twenties. Our guide to ketamine bladder damage explains the symptoms, treatment and whether the damage can be reversed.
Stomach and liver. Ketamine can cause severe or persistent abdominal pain, often described as k-cramps, affecting more than a quarter of regular users. Regular use is also associated with abnormalities of the liver and bile ducts.
Memory and thinking. Evidence suggests that chronic, frequent or high-dose use can impair memory, concentration and other cognitive functioning, and may damage neural circuits. Current evidence also suggests that at least some of these effects may improve after stopping.
Mental health. Ketamine use and low mood can feed each other. Depression, anxiety and a persistent sense of detachment are common in regular users, and heavy use is associated with psychotic symptoms in some people. Our guide to ketamine and mental health looks at these effects and what may improve after stopping.
Accidents and mixing. Ketamine blunts pain and coordination while dissociated, which makes injuries and dangerous situations more likely. Combining it with alcohol or other sedatives increases the risk of losing consciousness and choking. Deaths involving ketamine in the UK have risen sharply over the past decade, most involving other substances alongside it.
Ketamine remains a Class B drug in the UK. The government asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to reassess its classification in 2025 because of rising use and harm. In January 2026, the ACMD recommended that ketamine should remain Class B, while calling for stronger prevention, treatment and harm-reduction responses.
Stopping after regular use commonly brings cravings, low mood, anxiety, irritability and disturbed sleep. Our ketamine withdrawal timeline covers what to expect and how symptoms can change after stopping.
Treatment for ketamine dependence focuses on more than simply stopping the drug. It involves understanding what ketamine had come to do for you, working with cravings and the situations that lead back to use, and addressing difficulties such as low mood or anxiety where they are part of the picture.
Stopping ketamine is also central to preventing further physical harm. Bladder, urinary or abdominal symptoms may need separate medical assessment, particularly because some ketamine-related damage can persist even after use stops.
There is more than one way to get help. Community drug and alcohol services, support through your GP, outpatient treatment and residential rehab may all be appropriate in different circumstances. Our Getting Help section explains the main treatment and support options and how to decide what level of help may fit your situation.
If residential treatment is what you are considering, our ketamine rehab page explains how treatment at Abbington House works in practice. You can also speak to our admissions team for a confidential conversation about whether residential treatment is appropriate. There is no obligation to book anything, and no referral is needed.
Ketamine can cause dependence, particularly with frequent or high-dose use. Signs include rising tolerance, cravings, using more than intended, difficulty cutting down and withdrawal symptoms when you stop.
The most established harms are to the bladder and kidneys, the stomach and bile ducts, and to memory and mood. Bladder damage in particular can become permanent if use continues.
No. Ketamine is a Class B controlled drug in the UK. The ACMD reviewed whether it should move to Class A and recommended in January 2026 that it remain Class B.
The risk appears much lower when ketamine is appropriately dosed and clinically supervised, but it is not zero. Use that begins to move outside the prescribed or supervised pattern is a reason to speak to the clinician responsible for your treatment.
