Matthew Perry Wrote 'Ketamine Was Not For Me' & Compared Taking it to Dying in His 2022 Memoir

Matthew Perry wrote about the drug he ultimately died from in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

The Friends star tragically passed away on October 28, 2023. He was 54.

On Friday (December 15), the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office released the actor’s toxicology report, which revealed that he died of “acute effects of ketamine.”

In his book, Matthew wrote about taking ketamine infusions while in rehab in Switzerland – and he gave the treatment a negative review.

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

He quipped, “They might as well have called it ‘Matty.’”

The actor wrote about getting the infusions in hour-long sessions while blindfolded and noted that he “disassociated.”

He recalled, “Oh, I thought, ‘This is what happens when you die.’ Yet I would continually sign up for this s-it because it was something different, and anything different is good.”

“Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel,” Matthew added. “But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel.”

He emphasized, “Ketamine was not for me.”

Matthew was “reportedly clean for 19 months” prior to his death.