My £120-a-day Ketamine addiction left me in nappies and using Klarna for food

Caitlin MacLening first tried the class B drug with friends in the bathroom of a house party aged just 17 before it took over her life

A young woman claims her £120-a-day ketamine addiction left her wearing nappies and buying takeaways through Klarna as she ‘couldn’t afford to eat’.

Caitlin MacLening first tried the class B drug with friends in the bathroom of a house party aged just 17.

At the beginning, the now 26-year-old says a gram would last her and her friends two weekends.

But when Covid lockdown hit in March 2020 and she found herself ‘depressed’ with nothing to do, Caitlin admits she began spending £150 on 12 grams of ketamine a week to ‘numb her emotions’.

After she decided to move out of her family home in 2022, she claims her addiction spiralled and this is when she started to get excruciating bladder pains, which eventually left her wearing nappies.

At her worst, the car dealership worker says she was forking out £120-a-day on 12 grams of ketamine in December last year, which she claims ‘wouldn’t even affect her’.

By this point, she says she weighed 7.5stone [48kg] as she ‘couldn’t afford to eat’ and would use the credit facility Klarna to buy a takeaway every few days.

Caitlin admits this is when she hit rock bottom and felt like she ‘didn’t want to be alive anymore’.

This is when she decided to turn her life around and jetted off to a £7,000-a-month rehab centre in Chon Buri, Thailand, to get clean.

Now three months sober and back up to a size eight, Caitlin is raising awareness about the dangers of taking the party drug to warn others about how easily it can turn into an addiction.

Caitlin, from Lincoln in Lincolnshire, said: “December was the worst point in my life.

“When I was doing it [ketamine], it wasn’t even affecting me, it was just causing me so much pain.

“I remember being sat there and thinking I don’t want to be alive anymore.

“This is when I turned to my parents and told them I needed help.

“[My first time I did ketamine aged 17], I only did a key of it and it was really strong.

“At the start it was just at house parties. My friends and I would buy a gram of it and we’d share it and this would last two weekends.

“Then Covid hit and you could get dealers that would drop off at your house.

“I got to a point where I was really quite depressed and I couldn’t handle feeling any kind of emotion.

“I figured out that it [ketamine] numbed me and this is when I progressively started getting it more and more often by myself.

“During lockdown I was doing it three or four times a week. I would probably buy three grams at a time and was going through about 12 grams a week, so I was spending roughly £150 a week.

“It definitely got worse. That’s when I decided to move out [in 2022] and this is when I really started spiralling.

“I decided to move out [again in September last year], and this was possibly the worst decision I’ve ever made in my life as there was no one there to tell me ‘no’.

“By December 2025, I was either picking ketamine up or getting it dropped off every day and I would be getting between nine and 12 grams a day, which was around £120.

“I stopped eating as I didn’t have any money. I started getting takeaways on Klarna.

“I would only get like a bagel and a drink takeaway and I would get them every two or three days when I felt really hungry and my stomach started hurting.”

Caitlin said her addiction temporarily ruined her relationship with her parents and friends and she suffered many debilitating physical side effects from taking the drug.

Caitlin said: “I started to have bladder issues in 2022 and I would also get ketamine cramps and these have hospitalised me a few times due to the pain.

“When I was at my worst, just before I went to rehab, I would be going [to the toilet] every 20 minutes.

“The pain felt like you were getting stabbed with a burning hot rod in your bladder and your urethra.

“It was deliberating and when it was bad I couldn’t walk. All I could do was sit on the toilet and cry, I was in so much pain.

“I wasn’t able to walk properly and just before I went to rehab, I ended up in nappies as I was going so often.

“I wasn’t able to have sex in over a year because of the pain.

“I was a horrible person to the people that I loved. All I cared about was getting drugs and I would happily manipulate people.”

After spending two-and-a-half months at the Thai rehabilitation centre, Caitlin is now clean and says her bladder pain is slowly improving.

She is now attending online counselling sessions and NA meetings and wants to spread awareness of how taking ketamine can ruin your life.

Caitlin said: “Rehab saved my life. I think I would have died [if I didn’t go].

“The reputation I had, I was known for doing it [ketamine] and I just feel really sad for who I was. I was just lost in my addiction.

“But I’ve had nothing but amazing support from my friends and family and been able to rebuild my relationship with my parents.

“As much as people think ketamine is fun, it will ruin your life.

“You think it won’t as you think it’ll be a one-time thing, but that can then turn into every weekend and then every day.

“It’s so cheap and so accessible. How quickly it ruins you mentally and physically is really scary.”