Matthew Perry revealed chilling thoughts on drug ketamine in best-selling memoir

Matthew Perry opened up about his shocking experiences with the drug ketamine just months before his tragic death.

Friends star Matthew Perry wrote about ketamine in his best-selling memoir, describing how the drug that eventually contributed to his death caused him to “disassociate” and made him feel like he was “dying.”

Perry, who died at the age of 54, revealed in Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir that he received ketamine infusions while in a Swiss rehab clinic during the pandemic.

Matthew Perry wrote about his experiences with ketamine in his memoir. Picture: AFP

An investigation by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner found that the much-loved star – who was discovered unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in October – died from the “acute effects of ketamine”.

The report said the star, who openly battled drug and alcohol addiction for decades, had been receiving “ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety”.

However, his last treatment was a week and a half before his death, and the medical examiner concluded the ketamine in his system “could not be from that infusion therapy”.

Matthew Perry with fellow Friends star Matt LeBlanc in 2004. Picture: Getty Images

In his memoir, Perry wrote vividly about the drug that would eventually kill him.

“Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is a synthetic form of it now, and it’s used for two reasons: to ease pain and help with depression,” he said.

“Has my name written all over it — they might as well have called it ‘Matty’,” he wrote.

Describing the drug as a “giant exhale,” the Friends star said he would receive ketamine while blindfolded and listening to music.

He wrote that he would “disassociate” during his infusions and often felt as if he were “dying.”

“‘Oh,’ I thought, ‘This is what happens when you die,’” he recalled.

“Yet I would continually sign up for this s**t because it was something different, and anything different is good.”

Matthew Perry said taking ketamine was like a “giant exhale”. Picture: AFP

Perry wrote: “Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel.”

“Ketamine was not for me.”

While ketamine can be used to treat depression, it is also abused as a recreational drug and is more commonly regarded as a horse tranquilliser.

Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox in their most famous scene on Friends.

According to the medical examiner’s report, the “high levels of ketamine” found in Perry’s blood at the time of his death likely resulted in him lapsing into unconsciousness which then caused him to drown.

Other contributing factors in his death were coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a substance used to treat opioid addiction, although the amount “was not at a toxic level”.

Perry was beloved for his signature role as the wisecracking Chandler Bing over ten seasons of the hit sitcom Friends, although he battled substance abuse problems while in the public eye.

In his memoir that was released last year, Perry revealed how his colon burst due to his overuse of opioids. Picture: Getty Images

In his memoir that was released last year, he revealed how his colon burst due to his overuse of opioids, prompting his doctors to give him just a “two per cent chance to live”. He also spent two weeks in a coma and nine months with a colostomy bag.

“I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No one survives that,” Perry wrote.

After several stints in rehab, he said upon the release of his memoir that he had overcome his addiction problems and was “grateful to be alive”.

Fans pay tribute to late actor Matthew Perry outside the Friends apartment building. Picture: Getty Images

His Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston said she had been texting him the morning before he died and that “he was happy”.

“He was healthy. He had quit smoking. He was getting in shape. He was happy – that’s all I know,” she told Variety.

“He was not in pain. He wasn’t struggling. He was happy.”

The medical examiner’s report said that prescription drugs and loose pills were also found at Perry’s Los Angeles home, although they were not close to the pool where he was found.