7 celebs who opened up about their ketamine use: From Matthew Perry to Chrissy Teigen

7 A-listers who have spoken about using ketamine: From Matthew Perry to Elon Musk

Ketamine has recently become one of the most talked about drugs in the USA. The drug, which is sold at a price as low as $12 a vial, is a potent treatment for depression. However, the drug, if not used in moderation, can prove to be fatal. Over the years, several celebrities have talked about their experiences of taking ketamine which is mainly used by licensed medical practitioners to treat patients. 

1. Matthew Perry

Matthew Perry died from "acute effects of ketamine" in October 2023. Before his death, the 'FRIENDS' actor had opened up about undergoing ketamine therapy in his 2022 memoir, 'Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing'. He wrote, “Ketamine felt like a giant exhale. They’d bring me into a room, sit me down, put headphones on me so I would listen to music, blindfold me, and put an IV in,” and added, “And I often thought that I was dying during that hour. Oh, I thought, this is what happens when you die. Yet I would continually sign up for this s**t because it was something different, and anything different is good.” Ultimately, he denounced the effect of ketamine, by comparing it to “being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel." He noted, “The hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel. Ketamine was not for me,” per Us Weekly. On August 15, the Department of Justice arrested five people in relation to his death, including a woman who is known as the 'Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles'.

2. Chrissy Teigen

Chrissy Teigen lost her baby when she was 20 weeks pregnant in September 2020. Teigen and her husband John Legend named their late baby - Jack. In December 2023, the bereaved mother shared that she spent her 38th birthday doing multiple things including ketamine therapy. She took to her Instagram to write, “I had a really nice birthday, went to to see my friends @flamingo_estate, had a beautiful lunch with friends, then did ketamine therapy and saw space and time and baby jack and some weird penguins and cried and cried and cried. Then laid with my babies, then hot pot, then hung with my best friend.” The 'Chrissy’s Court' star is a mother of four children - Luna, born in April 2016; Miles, born in May 2018; daughter Esti, born in January 2023; and son Wren, whom they welcomed via surrogacy in June 2023.

3. Elon Musk

One of the world's richest men, Elon Musk too had a brush with ketamine which he shared in an interview with former CNN anchor Don Lemon in March 2024, “There are times when I have sort of a … negative chemical state in my brain, like depression I guess, or depression that’s not linked to any negative news, and ketamine is helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mind." The Tesla founder shared that he has a prescription for the drug from “an actual, real doctor” and uses “a small amount once every other week or something like that.”

4. Halsey

Halsey opened up about her experience with ketamine therapy which she took to battle PTSD and postpartum depression in an August 2024 episode of 'She MD' podcast. The songstress said, “A lot of people have a different experience. They cry, they laugh, they relive old trauma," before revealing, "For me, I started going back to before I was sick to old, old trauma in my first session, and it was almost like my brain was talking to me, like, ‘You don’t need to do that, you’re over that'. I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ Then I started traveling to the newer stuff.” Halsey continued, “I don’t feel like I had some sort of identity-altering experience in a negative way. I felt really happy.”

5. Sharon Osbourne

Sharon Osbourne had a positive experience with ketamine therapy which she shared with Daily Mail in September 2021. After the 'Osbournes Podcast' host was let go from the hosting duties of 'The Talk' in March 2021 under the accusations of using racist language, she spiraled into depression. Osbourne shared with the outlet, “I definitely went through a difficult patch at the beginning,” before reflecting, “I found it embarrassing. The humiliation that people would think that I might be a racist. I went through three months of therapy. I had ketamine treatment and I got it all out. All the tears and everything that I felt, you know. All of that, it’s gone.”

6. Lamar Odom

Lamar Odom had disclosed that being treated with small doses of ketamine had helped keep him sober. After the NBA star had a near-fatal overdose in 2015, he resorted to ketamine therapy to deal with his addiction. In a 2021 interview with Good Morning America, he said, “I went to rehab and did some other things, but ketamine came into my life at the right time,” before adding, “I’m feeling amazing. I’m alive. I’m sober. I’m happy.”

7. Tyler Baltierra

The 'Teen Mom' star, Tyler Baltierra opened up about his experience with ketamine therapy to Yahoo Life in 2023. Baltierrra explained, “There are two different versions: the IV version, which is a slow drip, which is a lighter effect, and then what I had, which is an injection in the muscle, which puts you over the edge very quickly." Per Us Weekly, he admitted that he “needed something a little bit deeper and more intense” to get to the “core of my trauma.” “A lot of people have different experiences with it, but for me it was a dreamlike, hallucinating state. It feels very heavy,” added the TV star before noting, “It was very, very visual for me, which is good because even when I meditate, I need visualization, I need to tap into certain things. I knew that potential was there, but the ketamine just unlocked it for me — I could go into a meditative state within five seconds.”