Disney Actor Says He Did ‘6 Baggies of Ketamine’ Every Night After Near-Fatal Health Scare

High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum Joshua Bassett is opening up about his “reckless addictions” and how he used drugs to “numb” the pain following his near-fatal cardiac episode in 2021.

The 25-year-old former Disney+ star writes candidly of the dark time in his life in his new book, Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life, writing in a poem titled, “Jesus open his eyes,” that his “reckless addictions rapidly spiraled, relentlessly growing worse and worse and worse,” until the “high highs and oh-so-low lows eventually caught up to” him in New York.

After Bassett was hospitalized for heart failure and septic shock in January 2021, the actor wrote that he tried to “numb the unspeakable pain” with ketamine.

“I was consuming six baggies of Ketamine, all by myself, every single night,” he recalled in the poem, as per Us Weekly. “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.”

Because his dealer didn’t begin to sell drugs until 3 p.m., Bassett recalled setting alarms for five minutes before the start time, at which point he would go to an ATM, take out as much money as he could and buy another batch.

“After way too many weeks of this, I inevitably reached rock bottom,” he wrote. “One morning, I woke up and tried meditating.”

As he tried to “reach enlightenment,” Bassett said he 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 wrote that his addictions “reached a point” where he knew he “wouldn’t make it out alive” if he kept going down that path, as he was a “spinning-out-car-wreck waiting to happen.”

It was only once the young star sought help that he felt he got a handle on his life once again, and “since then I can measure my quality of life by the distance between me and Jesus.”

Bassett has been open about how his faith has transformed his life. “I literally can not express to you the peace that I felt in that moment. Every path I was going down looking for peace I found the moment I accepted Jesus,” he said in an August 2024 interview on the Zach Sang Show. “Despite mocking God in interviews, despite me saying, ‘That’s totally wrong, my family is crazy.’ I thought my family was dumb. I thought every Christian was dumb… and then I had an encounter with the actual, living God.”

“I’m literally jumping for joy like I was a child again,” he added. “Some would say, ‘You were having a manic episode,’ but I’m telling you right now it was not.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse or addiction, please call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). SAMHSA’s National Helpline is free, confidential and available 24/7.