A former party girl says she wets herself everynight and has to wear incontinence pads after becoming addicted to ketamine.
Amber Currah, 27, from Morecambe, Lancashire, first tried to the drug at 17 whilst on a night out with her friends.
Over the years, she became hooked on the class B drug and was sniffing around 25 grams of it every week. The mum-of-one admitted to spending almost £1,000 per month on her supply, which eventually affected her bladder.
Amber managed to wean herself off the drug 17 months ago, but is still suffering from the complications. Now, she has to go toilet every 15 minutes and is often in excruciating pain due to her bladder.
Speaking about how the drug has “ruined” her life, Amber recalled: “I first tried it when I was 17 on a night out with friends. I tried it and actually didn’t like it, I felt like a zombie.
“When I was about 19, I started taking it more and more. I found that every time I took ketamine, it seemed to calm my mind. At around 21, I just started taking it every single day. I would wake up in the mornings and sniff a line of ket.
“I’d wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and just sniff another line – that’s how addicted I was. It took me around two years to actually admit that I was fully addicted. I was spending around £30 a day on ket, sniffing 25 grams a week.”
Drug harm reduction websites warn that just 150mg is a “heavy” dose. At the height of her addiction, Amber was often consuming more than 20 times this volume a day and soon began to notice the effect this was having on her body.
Amber admits she now spends up to four hours a day on the toilet and eight hours in the bath to relieve herself of persistent bladder pains. “I started feeling like I had a pretty severe UTI and didn’t think it was anything to do with ket,” she said.
“A few years later, my bladder started getting really bad. On nights out I was going to the toilet so much that people were noticing. For five years now, I’ve been fully incontinent. I wet the bed every single night.
“One time I was stuck on the toilet for 26 hours because I was in so much pain. My mum brought a duvet and pillow and I slept on the toilet. I’ve not been able to work for years now or go on holiday, I’m at home all the time.”
In the summer of 2023, Amber made the decision to wean herself off ketamine entirely after eight years. Despite being clean of the party drug for nearly two years, tests revealed Amber’s bladder has shrunk to a fifth of the size of a normal bladder.
Amber is currently on the waiting list to receive a neobladder – an operation in which a new bladder is created surgically from a section of the bowel. Amber said: “They put a camera up my bladder and said it’s an absolute mess. I was told it was a fifth of the size of a normal bladder.
“After the surgery, my bladder should be able to function as normal again. I would do it tomorrow if I could live a normal life. I still feel like I’m paying for what I did to myself even though I’d had all this time off ketamine.
“If I could prevent anyone from touching ketamine again, I would. I regret ever taking that first line at 17. If I hadn’t stopped taking it, it would’ve eventually killed me. This drug has affected me in every way. I’ve not been able to work for five years because of it. Ketamine ruined my life.”
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