- Celebs. Ben Affleck shows off JLo saved on his phone as 'Jennifer Affleck' amid divorce rumors
- Celebs. Paige Spiranac 'adopts' Olivia Dunne: A stunning example of twinning
In the months before his ing, Matthew Perry candidly discussed his experience with ketamine in his 2022 memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing".
The beloved "Friends" actor had undergone ketamine therapy as part of his efforts to manage his depression and he described the drug's effects in vivid , comparing it to "being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel."
As he detailed in his book, Perry initially found the hallucinogenic properties of ketamine intriguing and even beneficial, growing more accustomed to its impact over time.
Perry described ketamine effects
His treatment sessions typically involved a combination of ketamine and the anxiety medication Ativan, istered under medical supervision, and would last about an hour.
"Ketamine felt like a giant exhale," he wrote.
"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.
"[It] has my name written all over it - they might as well have called it 'Matty'.
"I'd been in therapy for so long that I wasn't even freaked out by this. Oh, there's a horse over there? Fine - might as well be.
"As the music played and the K ran through me, it all became about the ego, and the death of the ego.
"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."
Tragically, on October 28, 2023, Perry was found dead, with the cause of death linked to "acute effects of ketamine use," which led to his drowning.
In the aftermath of Perry's death, it was revealed that his longtime assistant, Kenneth "Kenny" Iwamasa, played a direct role in the events leading up to the tragedy.