Matthew Perry: Ketamine Felt Like a ‘Giant Happy Shovel’ Before His Death

A year before he was found dead, Matthew Perry detailed his experience with ketamine in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”

The late “Friends” star, who underwent ketamine therapy to help treat his depression, described the anesthetic in his book, saying the drug felt like “being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel.”

“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,” Perry wrote.

The actor recalled being a fan of ketamine as he became more accustomed to its hallucinogenic effects.

“[It] has my name written all over it — they might as well have called it ‘Matty,’” he wrote, adding that he would often “disassociate” and “see things.”

“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,” he continued.

“As the music played and the K ran through me, it all became about the ego, and the death of the ego.”

Perry shared doctors would use a combination of Ativan and ketamine during his hour-long therapy sessions.

“I often thought that I was dying during that hour. ‘Oh,’ I thought, ‘this is what happens when you die,’” he wrote.

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

Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine use” which led to his drowning on Oct. 28, 2023.

It was revealed last week that Perry’s longtime assistant, Kenneth “Kenny” Iwamasa, was the person who administered the fatal dose of ketamine that killed him.

Iwamasa “admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training” and administered “multiple injections” on the day of Perry’s death, per the Department of Justice.

Despite previous claims that Perry was sober for years, the actor was reportedly “spiraling” with his addiction shortly before his death.

Last week, five people, including two doctors, were charged in Perry’s death. On Aug. 7, the former assistant pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He faces 15 years in prison.

US Attorney Martin Estrada charged five people, including two doctors, with Perry’s death after uncovering an illicit drug trade in Hollywood.

Source: Page Six.