About the fellowship
What Ketamine Anonymous is, who it is for, and where to find meetings in the UK.
Ketamine Anonymous, or KA, is a free, anonymous fellowship of people who help each other stop using ketamine and stay stopped, one day at a time. It follows the same twelve steps as Alcoholics Anonymous, adapted for ketamine, and meetings are open to anyone who wants to stop.
There are no fees, no referrals, and no waiting lists. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop using ketamine.
KA is for anyone who feels their ketamine use has become a problem, whether it started on nights out, with a prescription, or somewhere in between. A lot of people in the rooms describe the same drift: a weekend thing that quietly became a daily one, or using on your own to feel normal rather than to feel high. It does not matter how much you use or for how long, and you do not have to be sure you are an addict. You do not have to have stopped before you come. If part of you wonders whether using has stopped being a choice, that is reason enough to walk in and listen.
Ketamine also carries physical harms that catch a lot of people off guard, and they are often what brings someone in. The best known is damage to the bladder, sometimes called ketamine bladder: needing to pass urine constantly, pain, and sometimes blood. Many people also get the severe stomach cramps known as k-cramps. These can be frightening, but caught early they often settle once you stop using, so KA encourages members to see a doctor alongside the rooms. The fellowship is for the recovery side, not a substitute for medical care.
A meeting usually lasts about an hour. Someone chairs it, reads a short opening, and members share from their own experience of using and recovery. You will not be called on or made to speak, and most people just listen for their first few meetings. What is said in the room stays in the room, and a first name is all anyone uses.
Ketamine Anonymous is one of the newest twelve-step fellowships, started by people who found ketamine had its own particular grip and wanted a room that spoke directly to it. It uses the same twelve steps that AA and NA do.
In the UK it is still small and growing. There is a handful of in-person meetings, mostly in the north of England and on the south coast, plus an online meeting you can join from anywhere. While KA grows, two other rooms welcome you too: Narcotics Anonymous, which is open to any drug, and Cocaine Anonymous, where some groups run meetings focused on ketamine.