A 24-year-old has opened up about how his party drug addiction destroyed his life. He was just a child when he was first introduced to the substance and now has life-changing health struggles
A 24-year-old who spent more than £300,000 on ketamine has revealed how the drug has destroyed his body.
Oliver Westall, from Neath, Wales, first tried ketamine he was just 15. It was introduced to him as a party drug but quickly spiralled from occasional use to full-blown addiction. “The first time I used it, I felt like I was floating on a bubble,” he explained. “It instantly took away my anxiety and made me feel warm and numb inside.”
At the height of his substance abuse, he was taking up to 21 grams a day. But it wasn’t just the addiction that nearly wrecked his life – it’s the dire health consequences he still lives with now. Oliver now has to urinate every 60 seconds as a result of his drug use, and is facing life without a bladder.
Aged 16, Oliver says he “noticed a gap in the market” for the substance and decided to start dealing to fund his £55k a year habit. But being around it “constantly” meant he couldn’t escape it.
Oliver soon hit rock bottom and when he was living ‘at his worst’, he stopped functioning altogether. “I sat in my flat all day and night sniffing ketamine, I would lock myself in my flat with my head in a bag,” he admitted. “Sometimes no one would see me for two weeks”
“At my worst, I was using 21 grams every single day,” Oliver added. It wasn’t long before the physical and mental side effects started to take a toll. The teen became psychotic and started speaking to and seeing dead people, “including past relatives”.
Aged 18, he experienced further side effects – but this time it was different. He began to get an intense abdominal pain known as “ket cramps” – sharp, constant agony that later came with bleeding and clots. This was further proof that made him realise the drug was destroying him.
“The cramps felt like my body was dying, I experienced them daily along with constant bleeding and clots. I lived like this for about five years,” he said. “But the only thing that helped the pain was more ket.”
Then followed the bladder damage, which caused him to need to pass urine frequently. But it was worse than regular runs to the toilet. “I started bleeding, passing clots the size of £2 coins,” Oliver explained. He would also constantly pop blood vessels in his eyes, leaving him in pain and with black eyes. “I looked like I’d been beaten up for three weeks and I was in so much pain. I knew it was destroying me, I felt like I was dying.”
It wasn’t long before his bladder was so damaged he had to wear incontinence pads full time, at the young age of 20. “It was horrible. I was going through 10 pads a day. I still do,” he said. “My bladder has shrunk to 10ml. I wake up every morning soaked in urine. This has massively impacted my mental health and wellbeing.”
Oliver tried to quit the drug numerous times, but he struggled to stay clean for more than a few weeks. He visited the hospital more than 20 times over the years, but claims hospital staff kept turning him away. It wasn’t until he was 22 when the doctors finally put a camera inside his bladder – and the results changed everything.
“The urologist told me ‘it’s end game.’ They told me my bladder was way past the point of healing and I needed surgery to remove it to stop my excruciating pain,” Oliver said. “It was really scary. I spiralled and lost all hope. I had been clean for 11 months at that point and then relapsed.”
But things finally took a turn for the better, when he checked himself into The Carpenter’s Arms, a Christian rehab in Loughborough. It didn’t only help him get over the crippling addiction, but helped him find something deeper – faith. “Padre Alan saved my life and I owe everything to him and the team,” he said. “Through recovery, I learned to love again and to forgive myself and others. My addiction didn’t just ruin my life, it broke my family.”
He became clean on 17 June 2024 and hasn’t looked back since. “I found faith in God through my recovery, finding my faith truly transformed my life,” Oliver explained. “I now run a Facebook page called God’s Grace of Sobriety and a TikTok account called Oliver’s Recovery.” He has plans to turn them into a charity once he is healed from the surgery.
He’s still awaiting his bladder removal surgery and has been sober for 11 months, but the impact of ketamine still follows him everyday. “I can’t walk far, I can’t sleep for longer than two hours without waking up and I’m constantly peeing and it’s very draining at times,” he admitted. “On some days, I do feel like my world is falling apart, but it’s all about being strong and pushing through the bad days to get to the good. I’m only 24 and I’m going to have a bag for the rest of my life, but I know I’ve got this.”
Oliver says accepting that his body won’t heal has been one of the hardest parts – but he’s finally come to terms with it. His dream now is to eventually run his own church and to help other addicts.
His message to others is simple: “Break those toxic relationships, even if they’re friends or family. Put your recovery first. If I had quit four years ago, I might still have my bladder.”
“I know where you are because I’ve lived it,” he said. “With the right help, you can find freedom too. Reach out, be vulnerable. Don’t try to do it alone like I did for so many years”
If you need support, contact Talk To Frank on 0300 1236600 or visit www.talktofrank.com