Alex changed her life after years of ketamine addiction & traumaAlex changed her life after years of ketamine addiction & trauma
Miracle Mansion Podcast by Broadway Lodge
Alex shares a candid account of childhood trauma, ketamine addiction and severe bladder damage, and how treatment at Broadway Lodge helped her start healing. She talks about ongoing pain, repairing family relationships and building a new life grounded in love as action.
51:01•20 Oct 2026
From Ketamine Agony to a "Beautiful Life": Alex’s Story from Broadway Lodge
Episode Overview
- Early exposure to drugs, alcoholism and violence at home can normalise harmful behaviour and feed addiction later in life.
- Self-harm, fantasy and creativity became ways for Alex to cope with abuse, racial hostility and feeling unseen by her primary caregiver.
- Long-term ketamine use caused severe bladder damage, ongoing pain and loss of mobility, showing how physically destructive the drug can be.
- Trauma-focused work, including group therapy and EMDR, helped Alex reduce the emotional sting of past abuse and continue healing after rehab.
- Alex highlights that love is shown through consistent behaviour, as she rebuilds her relationship with her daughter and maintains recovery one day at a time.
“I didn’t really want to stop. I just wanted the consequences to stop.”
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? This conversation between Marcus and Alex offers a raw look at ketamine addiction, deep-rooted trauma and the long road to healing. Aimed at anyone curious about residential rehab or living in active addiction, it gives a clear picture of what long‑term treatment at Broadway Lodge can look like.
Alex talks openly about growing up with an alcoholic mum, a home full of using, and violence and abuse that left her “desperate for connection”. She shares how self‑harm began in childhood, how racial abuse at home fuelled self‑hatred, and how fantasy worlds, art and plants became her escape. Her first spliff at eight and early normalisation of substances sit starkly beside the emotional neglect she describes. Her ketamine addiction escalates into injecting, sex work and brutal bladder damage.
She explains, “I didn’t really want to stop. I just wanted the consequences to stop,” capturing the twisted logic many people in addiction recognise. The physical agony of ketamine bladder issues, screaming in pain every morning and struggling to walk, adds a sober warning about the drug’s long‑term impact. At Broadway Lodge, Alex finds both structure and compassion, plus a trauma group that lets her finally open the door on childhood abuse and loss of her daughter.
Marcus’s tough line — “Love is behaviour” — becomes a turning point as she starts matching her love for her child with real action. She reconnects with her creativity, fills the centre with flowers, and later continues EMDR and further counselling. Now drug‑free, in a relationship with fellow former resident Phil and reunited with her daughter, Alex talks about having “a beautiful life” while still living with chronic pain.
Her story might leave you asking: what could change if love, honesty and action finally lined up in your own life?
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