Joshua Bassett is sharing one of the most difficult chapters of his life with striking honesty.
The actor and musician recently appeared on The Zach Sang Show, where he spoke candidly about addiction, trauma, and the period following a frightening medical crisis that changed everything.
Bassett’s revelations also appear in his new memoir, Rookie: My Public, Private, and Secret Life, where he details experiences that fans never saw while he was in the public eye.
The conversation revisits a terrifying moment in 2021 when the former High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star suffered heart failure and went into septic shock.
Doctors reportedly told him he had only a 30 percent chance of survival.
For many people, surviving an experience like that might mark a turning point toward healing. But Bassett explained that the emotional aftermath became far more complicated.
Instead of immediately processing what happened, he began trying to numb himself.
Following the medical crisis, he said he turned to “anything” that could help him escape emotionally — including ketamine.
His account of that period paints a deeply troubling picture of how quickly addiction can intensify.
According to an excerpt from Entertainment Weekly, Bassett described using extreme amounts of the drug.
He would often go through “six baggies” in a single night by himself.
Joshua wrote that he would “down a whole bag in one whiff” rather than simply “snorting a line.”
The behavior quickly became routine.
“Before even using the restroom some mornings, I’d inhale more. It was never enough,” he wrote.
He also recalled setting alarms minutes before his dealer would begin selling and heading to an ATM to withdraw his “max daily allowance” before buying more.
The details are difficult to read — and Bassett doesn’t seem interested in softening them.
Instead, he appears committed to showing how addiction can quietly take over even when success, fame, and opportunities exist on the outside.
Reflecting on how close things came, he admitted that surviving feels almost unbelievable now.
“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,” he said.
Bassett also spoke about the conditions that can allow addiction to thrive.
“It thrives through isolation,” he explained, adding that “having more money than you could know what to do with. That’s just a recipe for a really dangerous spiral.”
