High School Music: Music: Series alum Joshua Bassett explains his dependence on ketamine after his near-fatal heart attack in 2021.
Bassett, 25, wrote in a poem entitled “Jesus opens his eyes” in his new book, he says: Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life. “The highs and the oh-so-lows finally hit me in New York.”
Bassett was hospitalized for heart failure and septic shock in January 2021 weeks after his 20th birthday. Once he was released from the medical center, he began to cope with the situation by using drugs to “relieve the indescribable pain.”
“I was consuming six bags of Ketamine, by myself, every night,” he recalled in verse. “Instead of snorting the line, I lowered the whole bag in one stroke.
Bassett noted that his “dealer” didn’t start selling drugs until 3 p.m., so the actor set alarms five minutes earlier, went to an ATM to withdraw “a lot of the day’s cash” and bought another batch.
“After so many weeks of this, I definitely reached the top,” he wrote in the poem. One morning, I woke up and tried to meditate.”
While trying to “reach for the light,” Bassett felt the “Holy Spirit” enter his room.
“I was painfully reminded of the evil I had been; poor, poor, naked and blind,” he concluded. In that moment, I realized that I knew that I knew that Jesus was the way, the truth and the life—and I needed him so much.”
In another poem, titled, “It Feels Like You’re Sinking,” Bassett revealed that she kept her stories of drug use to herself.
Joshua Bassett paves his way to Christianity. In an interview on Thursday, August 1 on the Zach Sang Show, the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star, 23, recounts a life-changing experience on an ayahuasca trip that profoundly changed his outlook on life. Bassett prefaced the story by explaining that he already did […]
“My addictions got to the point, where I knew if I continued on that path, I wouldn’t be alive,” she wrote, noting that she felt like a “car wreck waiting to happen” and eventually sought help. “It was only once I admitted that I had a problem that I could actually get help
I can measure the quality of my life by the distance between me and Jesus.”
Bassett previously shared that embracing spirituality changed his perspective on life and sanity.
“I feel this new life, I feel more peaceful than I have ever felt in my life,” he said in a statement The Zach Sang Show in 2024. “Like, I’m literally jumping for joy like I’m a kid again.”
Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life available now.
If you or someone you know has a substance abuse problem, contact the National Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
