Fan-Favorite Disney Star Reveals Ketamine Addiction in Bombshell New Memoir
Joshua Bassett is laying it all out.
The 25-year-old High School Musical: The Musical: The Series alum has opened up about a years-long ketamine addiction that began after a near-fatal 2021 health crisis, in a new interview tied to his just-released memoir, Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life.
"Eventually it became this out of control spiral where the only time I felt like I could just exist and cope was when I was out of my mind high," Bassett said.
A Crisis at 20
Bassett was 20 when his body gave out. He was hospitalized in January 2021 with septic shock and heart failure. Doctors gave him a 30 percent chance of survival. The hospitalization landed the same day he released his single "Lie Lie Lie," in the heat of the "Drivers License" news cycle, when Olivia Rodrigo's debut single had taken over the internet.
He thought it was food poisoning. It wasn't.
"It's a miracle my life hasn't been taken quite a few times, to be honest," he writes in Rookie.
The Six-Bag Breaking Point
The recovery did not stick. Bassett said he was eventually "consuming six baggies of ketamine, all by myself, every single night." Tolerance climbs roughly 600 percent very fast, he said. A line became a bag.
The breaking point pushed him into recovery. He credits a "profound experience with Jesus that people don't necessarily understand, and I don't expect them to" with finally giving him peace.
What He Wants Readers to Hear
"You can't hate yourself out of addiction, you can't shame yourself out of addiction. You can only lovingly invite yourself to a better decision," he writes.
His thesis, in one line: "the cure for addiction is connection."
Rookie is out now.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, contact the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357. For mental health support, text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741.
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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 6:16 PM.