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Scottish Sun

Ketamine addiction left me peeing glass, wearing nappies and with a MARSHMALLOW face – I took it all day from age 19

'The frequency I go to the toilet is different to normal people, I still get up every two to three hours during the night,' he said 'NO HOPE' Ketamine addiction left me peeing glass, wearing nappies and with a MARSHMALLOW face – I took it all day from age 19 JACK Curran was just 19 when he began using ketamine to cope with the pain from a broken leg. Within just six months, the lad from Essex was hooked taking the drug, dubbed 'this generation's heroin', all day, every day. Advertisement 4 Jack Curran when he was addicted to ketamine and had a 'marshmallow' face Credit: Kennedy News 4 He started taking the drug after breaking his leg Credit: Kennedy News 4 The 29-year-old now, two years sober Credit: Kennedy News And just a few years later, it had ravaged his body – leaving him wetting the bed in nappies, peeing 'blood and jelly' every five minutes, and screaming in agony as it felt 'like peeing glass'. Jack, who is now 29, first tried the class B drug at 16 when his friends started experimenting with substances. "I tried ketamine then but didn't like it, it was too strong," he said. "I would try it intermittently only at the end of the night when there were no other drugs left.' Advertisement That changed after a boating accident left him with a broken leg and a diagnosis of aggressive arthritis at a young age. 'I started taking it in small amounts sort of as a painkiller," he explained. But as his tolerance grew, so did his use. 'I started to like the feeling it would give me, so I went from using small amounts to using a lot more and pretty quickly I started feeling the consequences," Jack said. Advertisement Ketamine, also referred to as 'K' or 'Ket', is a poweful anaesthetic sometimes used in medical settings as pain relief. But it's also known for causing a trippy, dissociative high that can be addictive. The ketamine kids ravaging UK town as dealers hit PRIMARY schools & teen girls draw business plans to become drug lords Long-term abuse can cause severe inflammation, pain, and irreversible damage to to bladder and urinary system, as Jack painfully discovered. Within six months, the first warning sign hit: the dreaded 'ket cramps' - stabbing, excruciating stomach pains. Advertisement 'The first time I had that I was in agony, sweating and screaming, swearing to never do ketamine again," Jack explained. "The belly pains were ongoing, I was crying in bed with a hot water bottle, and I couldn't get up because I was so weak. "But after the pain stopped, I was using ketamine again within a few hours.' By the age of 21, Jack started experiencing bladder problems. Advertisement 4 The therapist in training now hopes to warn others about ketamine's dangers Credit: Kennedy News 'I was getting pain when I went to the toilet like I had some sort of UTI, like peeing glass. "The pain was getting worse, I started urinating blood, jelly. When it was bad I was going to the toilet every five minutes.' Doctors warned Jack they might have to remove his bladder due to severe inflammation. Advertisement 'I was against getting any procedure done because I was scared so I tried to get through it on my own.' He endured life wearing nappies and losing control. 'I was in excruciating pain, I was wearing nappies and was incontinent. I was urinating my bed because the nappy was leaking.' THE TOLL 'K' TAKES ON YOUR BODY KETAMINE can lead to death by putting pressure on the heart and respiratory system. and respiratory system. But its other effects on the body, which are often irreversible, are horrifying, too. 'Ketamine bladder syndrome is one of the worst symptoms,' Dr Catherine Carney, an addiction specialist at Delamere, told Sun Health. This is where the breakdown of ketamine in the body causes inflammation in the bladder wall. It leaves people unable to hold urine and passing chunks of their bladder tissue. Some users face the prospect of having their bladders removed entirely. Dr Carney explains: 'The lining of the bladder can shrink over time and be extremely painful for those experiencing it. 'This can often lead to lower abdominal pain and pain when passing urine, as well as bleeding. 'It's usually what has forced people to get help because they can't tolerate it any more. 'We've had young men in agony, wetting the bed. 'Their whole life is focused on where there's a toilet because they can only hold urine for ten minutes. 'For a teenager or someone in their early 20s, that's absolutely life-changing. 'In some cases, the bladder damage progresses to the kidneys and people get kidney failure, too. 'This is developing in people who have been using for two years, so it is relatively quick.' Dr Carney adds that the urine samples of new guests checking into the clinic are often just a 'pot of blood'. This is followed by weeks of agony coming off the drug. An irony of ketamine use is people tend to take more and more to numb the pain of the side-effects it causes. Dr Carney says: 'There's nothing that we can give which is as strong as a medical anaesthetic (the ketamine). We can use codeine-based products or anti-inflammatories. 'Some antidepressants help at night, but the pain is hard to manage in the early days. 'Most people that come to us, the bladder will improve to the point that they don't need to have it removed. 'But once you've got a bladder that has shrunk to the size of 70ml, that's never getting better.' His liver was also failing, turning his skin yellow and body swollen Advertisement "I was like a skeleton, my liver wasn't processing fluid and you hold a lot of water weight," he said. "My fingers, my ankles and my face were like a marshmallow.' Despite warnings he had just six months to live, Jack battled on through years of addiction. 'I was fighting for my life, but still couldn't stop using it. I never had a life, I never had a personality, I was just a shell with no hope." he added. Advertisement 'Life has changed dramatically' Now two years sober and training to be a therapist, Jack hopes to warn others about ketamine's dangers. 'The consequences will last forever, it does leave you with lifelong symptoms. "I'm not in pain anymore and my life has changed dramatically.' "The frequency I go to the toilet is different to normal people, I still get up every two to three hours during the night." Advertisement He added: 'You don't have to go down the road I went to if you're struggling, please get out of the addiction when you can." "The end of a drug addiction battle is either death or absolute demoralisation.'