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High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum Joshua Bassett is detailing his dependency to ketamine after his near-fatal cardiac episode in 2021.
“My reckless addictions rapidly spiraled, relentlessly growing worse and worse and worse,” Bassett, 25, wrote in a poem titled “Jesus open his eyes” in his new book Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life. “The high highs and oh-so-low lows eventually caught up to me in New York.”
Bassett was hospitalized for heart failure and septic shock in January 2021 weeks after his 20th birthday. Once he was discharged from the medical facility, he began to cope by using drugs to “numb the unspeakable pain.”
“I was consuming six baggies of Ketamine, all by myself, every single night,” he recalled in the verse. “Instead of snorting a line, I’d down a whole bag in one whiff. Before even using the restroom some mornings, I’d inhale more. It was never enough.”
Bassett noted that his “dealer” didn’t begin to sell the drugs until 3 p.m., so the actor set alarms for five minutes prior, go to an ATM to take out the “max daily allowance” and subsequently purchasing another batch.
“After way too many weeks of this, I inevitably reached rock bottom,” he wrote in the poem. “One morning, I woke up and tried meditating.”
While trying to “reach enlightenment,” Bassett felt the “Holy Spirit” enter his room.
“I was painfully reminded of the evil I had become; poor, wretched, naked and blind,” he concluded. “Instantly, I knew that I knew that I knew Jesus is the way, the truth and the life — and I desperately needed Him.”
In another poem, titled “It makes perfect sense that you’re drowning,” Bassett revealed that he kept his substance abuse issues to himself.
“My addictions reached a point, where I knew if I kept down that path, I wouldn’t make it out alive,” he wrote, noting he felt like a “spinning-out-car-wreck waiting to happen” and eventually sought help. “It was only once I admitted I had a problem that I could truly get help. Since then
I can measure my quality of life by the distance between me and Jesus.”
Bassett previously shared that embracing spirituality changed his outlook on life and sobriety.
“I feel this new lease on life, I felt more peace than I ever experienced in my life,” he said on the Zach Sang Show in 2024. “I’m, like, literally jumping for joy like I was a child again.”
Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life is available now.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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