Thank you to Louise*, a former Help Me Stop client, who has shared her story about cocaine addiction and motherhood with Grazia. Louise describes so clearly how her recreational cocaine use spiralled into cocaine addiction. She experienced damaging consequences for her health, family, career and finances. To talk in confidence about cocaine addiction treatment, in our London Dayhabs and Online Rehab, call +44(0)208 191 9191 or contact us here.
‘Once the boys were asleep, I’d pour myself a glass of wine and take a line of coke’
Louise speaks about feeling isolated after having her second child, Josh*. She struggled with the loss of identity, missing the excitement of her working life. When Josh was six months old, Louise took a line of cocaine after putting him to bed. This became a regular habit, after her boys went to bed. ‘I felt like it was my reward,’ Louise says. ‘Everyone else seemed to be going out having fun and there I was stuck at home by myself with the kids. My husband was always working. Even at home, he’d shut himself away in his office.’
‘The fact other mums were doing it helped me justify my cocaine use’
Louise talks about meeting up with friends and being offered cocaine, ‘the same way you might be handed a glass of champagne’. Louise says, ‘Sometimes I’d meet up with my mum friends and we’d do cocaine together at their houses or mine.’ Half of her friends were taking cocaine, but they would stop at a line or two. Louise would carry on taking cocaine, including when she got home. ‘My husband could see I was in a bad way but had no idea it was down to cocaine,’ Louise says. ‘Instead, he assumed I was having a breakdown.’ In 2017, Louise’s relationship with her husband broke down and they split up.
‘By the first lockdown, I was taking 10-12 lines of cocaine a day’
Lockdown brought Louise to her rock bottom in cocaine addiction. Feeling very isolated and struggling with home-schooling her two sons, she was taking cocaine everyday. ‘I was spending £100-£200 a day on cocaine,’ Louise says. Having gone back to work, Louise describes how she became unable to keep commitments, cancelling jobs and losing her business partner.
‘I Googled ‘help me give up cocaine’ and found an online treatment centre, Help Me Stop’
Louise chose the Help Me Stop Online Rehab because being a mother meant she couldn’t go away to a rehab. Louise attended group sessions every weekday and had weekly one-to-one therapy in our six-week online programme. Louise says, ‘Getting clean was a phenomenal process. Having been trapped in this dark world of addiction, after a couple of weeks, I realised I could smile again, sleep again, laugh with my children.’
Affordable treatment for cocaine addiction that fits your life
Help Me Stop was founded to provide intensive drug and alcohol addiction treatment that is much more affordable than residential rehab. Our programmes fit around life commitments including family responsibilities and work. We offer face-to-face Dayhab treatment in London and our Online Rehab. Contact our admissions team today, to book a free addiction assessment. Then, you can decide if addiction treatment at Help Me Stop is for you.
*Names changed to protect identities.
