Matthew Perry ‘had a lot of enablers who meant well’ amid his battle with addiction, a rehab peer of the late Friends star said, days after it was revealed the actor died at 54 as result of a ketamine overdose.

A source who attended Alcoholics Anonymous group meetings in New York City told the New York Post Wednesday that Perry – who was found dead in his home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on October 28 – often bristled when it came to accepting responsibility for his mistakes.

Perry ‘couldn’t stand being challenged by others in the program who called him out,’ the source told the newspaper, adding that he ‘wasn’t able to deal with the tough love which is characteristic of [the] AA group’ they attended.

The source told the Post: ‘I feel for him, but in my 25 years experience, sometimes “helping” someone is really enabling … he was in a golden cage.’

The source described Perry as and ‘ordinary addict’ and ‘said he didn’t want to elaborate much further out of respect for the privacy of the rehab group,’ the Post reported.

Matthew Perry ‘had a lot of enablers who meant well’ amid his battle with addiction, a rehab peer of the late Friends star said, days after it was revealed the actor died at 54 as result of a ketamine overdose. Pictured in 2022 in NYC

Matthew Perry death ruled accident from ‘acute effects of ketamine’

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said in the autopsy report released December 16 that Perry also drowned in ‘the heated end of his pool,’ but that it was a secondary factor in his death, deemed an accident.

People close to Perry told investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy, an experimental treatment used to treat depression and anxiety, according to the AP.

But the medical examiner said the levels of ketamine in Perry´s body were in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery, and that his last treatment 1 1/2 weeks earlier wouldn´t explain those levels. The drug is typically metabolized in a matter of hours.

The report says coronary artery disease and buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder, also contributed.

The amount of ketamine detected ‘would be enough to make him lose consciousness and lose his posture and his ability to keep himself above the water,’ said Dr. Andrew Stolbach, a medical toxicologist with Johns Hopkins Medicine who reviewed the autopsy report at the request of The Associated Press.

‘Using sedative drugs in a pool or hot tub, especially when you´re alone, is extremely risky and, sadly, here it´s fatal,’ said Stolbach, who noted that both ketamine and buprenorphine can be used safely.

Perry was declared dead after being found unresponsive at his home; investigators performed the autopsy the following day.

The actor had taken drugs in the past but had been ‘reportedly clean for 19 months,’ according to the autopsy report.

Perry ‘couldn’t stand being challenged by others in the program who called him out,’ a source who attended AA meetings with the actor told the newspaper. Pictured in April in LA at an LA Kings hockey game

Perry ‘wasn’t able to deal with the tough love which is characteristic of [the] AA group’ they attended, the source said. Pictured in April in LA at USC

Friends stars ‘utterly devastated’ by death of Matthew Perry

Perry had played pickleball earlier in the day, the report says, and his assistant, who lives with him, found him face down in the pool after returning from errands. The assistant told investigators Perry had not been sick, had not made any health complaints, and had not shown evidence of recent alcohol or drug use.

Postmortem blood tests showed ‘high levels’ of ketamine in his system, which could have raised his blood pressure and heart rate and dulled his impulse to breathe.

Buprenorphine, commonly used in opioid addiction and found in therapeutic levels in Perry´s blood, could have contributed to the breathing problem, the autopsy said. It would have been risky to mix the central nervous system depressant with ketamine ‘due to the additive respiratory effects when present with high levels of ketamine,’ according to the autopsy report.

The report said his coronary artery disease would have made him more susceptible to the drugs’ effects.

Perry was among the biggest television stars of his generation when he played Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit sitcom Friends.

His castmates, like many of his friends, family and fans, were stunned by his death, and paid him loving tribute in the weeks that followed.

Perry was open about discussing his struggles with addiction dating back to his time on Friends.

‘I loved everything about the show but I was struggling with my addictions which only added to my sense of shame,’ he wrote in his 2022 memoir. ‘I had a secret and no one could know.’

Matthew Perry remembered: Friends fans pay tribute to beloved actor

Perry – who was found dead in his home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles on October 28 – often bristled when it came to accepting responsibility for his mistakes, the source said

The source said of Perry, ‘I feel for him, but in my 25 years experience, sometimes “helping” someone is really enabling … he was in a golden cage’

A woman whose name is redacted in the autopsy report told investigators that Perry had been in good spirits when she spoke to him a few days earlier, but had been taking testosterone shots which she said were making him ‘angry and mean.’

She said he had quit smoking two weeks earlier.

The woman said he had been receiving the ketamine infusions for his mental health, and that his doctor had been giving them to him less often because he had been feeling well.

Ketamine is a powerful anesthetic approved by U.S. health regulators for use during surgery, but in the past decade it has emerged as an experimental treatment for a range of psychiatric and hard-to-treat conditions, including depression, anxiety and chronic pain.

While not approved by regulators, doctors are free to prescribe drugs for these alternate uses if they think their patients could benefit, and hundreds of clinics across the U.S. offer ketamine infusions and other formulations for various health conditions.