Joshua Bassett details ketamine addiction after nearfatal health scare: &x27;A miracle my life hasn&x27;t been taken&x27; Mekishana PierreWed, May 13, 2026 at 6:45 PM UTC 0 Joshua Bassett in 2024Credit: Kevin Winter/WireImageKey Points Actor Joshua Bassett is opening up about his addiction to ketamine after a nearfatal cardiac episode in 2021. "It&x27;s truly a miracle it didn&x27;t take my life," said the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star. Bassett shares more insight into his tumultuous journey with drug abuse in his new book, Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life.
Joshua Bassett details ketamine addiction after near-fatal health scare: 'A miracle my life hasn't been taken'
Mekishana PierreWed, May 13, 2026 at 6:45 PM UTC
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Joshua Bassett in 2024
Credit: Kevin Winter/WireImageKey Points -
Actor Joshua Bassett is opening up about his addiction to ketamine after a near-fatal cardiac episode in 2021.
"It's truly a miracle it didn't take my life," said the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star.
Bassett shares more insight into his tumultuous journey with drug abuse in his new book, Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life.
Actor Joshua Bassett is opening up about his dependency on ketamine after suffering a near-fatal cardiac episode in 2021.
Looking back on the dark period — which he described as the "worst year of my life, by a landslide" — the High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star said he thinks much of his healing has been stalled because of his "attempt to find some sort of tool that will help me get to XYZ."
"I think a lot of addiction is an attempt to bypass and/or delay and snooze that healing process," Basset said during an appearance on the latest episode of the Zach Sang Show. "And you can do that and you can do it pretty successfully, but eventually it's going to run you over."
Bassett, who became a household name thanks to his role playing opposite Grammy winner Olivia Rodrigo on the Disney+ series, recalled his struggle with various substances, which he also details in his new book, Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life, including his addictions to alcohol and ketamine, which began in 2021.
That year, Bassett revealed that two days after Rodrigo released her No. 1 hit "Drivers License" and the day he released his own single "Lie Lie Lie," he'd experienced septic shock and heart failure. While he was at the center of pop culture gossip due to rumors that Rodrigo wrote the song about him, he said at the time that he "didn't have any energy to be able to focus on anything but staying alive."
Joshua Bassett performs in 2024
Credit: Jeremychanphotography/Getty
The singer revealed that he was using "anything to make me numb at any given time," adding, "whatever was the most effective in that moment at sort of putting me at ease."
In Rookie, Bassett claims that he was "consuming six baggies of ketamine, all by myself, every single night."
"Instead of snorting a line, I'd down a whole bag in one whiff," he writes. "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 would set alarms for five minutes before that, go to an ATM to take out the "max daily allowance," and purchase another batch.
"I think that's the thing about a lot of drugs — is that they can be fun and enjoyable for a little while, but … what happens is, you have a good time and then now you're at a dopamine deficit," Bassett told Sang on the show. "So now you need a little bit more, but then your tolerance goes up. So when you're at the next deficit, you need even more ... It's a very easy one to fall into. And for me, again, it was just an escape."
He confessed that using the drug would allow him to "temporarily finally feel like I could just, like, exist, you know? I wasn't in torment."
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Bassett has opened up before about the difficultly of being thrust into the spotlight after speculation surrounding Rodrigo's release of "Drivers License."
The song launched her career, took her to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and spawned theories that the "blonde girl" referenced in its lyrics was Rodrigo and Bassett's fellow Disney alum Sabrina Carpenter. The online speculation at the time, and investigation into Bassett’s rumored relationship history, spiraled into intense internet discourse, with the actor revealing that he dealt with severe online hate and even death threats.
Weeks after Rodrigo dropped "Drivers License," 's Carpenter released her song "Skin," which was widely believed to be a response to "Drivers License" based on the lyric "Maybe blonde was the only rhyme." Her song "Because I liked a Boy" came out the following year, detailing the abuse Carpenter faced regarding her rumored relationship to Bassett.
Joshua Bassett on 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series'
Credit: Disney/Natalie Cass
Bassett told Sang that he got "pretty good" at hiding how he'd turned to drugs to deal with his mental and emotional torment, explaining that he believes the self-isolation also played in a role in his addiction. "Another part I'll say about addiction is, really how it thrives is through isolation," he said. "And so it was everything I was going through, plus I was isolating myself."
Bassett added, "That — plus having more money than you could know what to do with — that's just a recipe for a really dangerous spiral. And it's truly a miracle it didn't take my life. It's a miracle my life hasn't been taken quite a few times, to be honest … You know, it's a miracle I'm here for sure."
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While the singer and writer said he's been embracing a moderate approach to his vices — such as smoking cigarettes only twice a week — and his friends are holding him accountable, he hopes that confronting his past demons will help someone in a similar situation find some healing amid their own addiction.
"I say in the book, 'The artist paves the road for the audience to stroll down,'" Bassett told Sang. "What I mean by that is pretty obvious, but it's … me doing the hard work of having to go through and sit and just relive and really craft and find all the right words to give the exact nuance to everything I was feeling … though that is incredibly difficult and painful. Those hours of work can become minutes of catharsis for somebody. And so that transaction is worthwhile every time."
Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life is available now.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: May 13, 2026 at 10:00PM on Source: RED MAG
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