Father-of-five, 30, who spent £3,200 a month on cocaine reveals his incredible transformation after going sober
A father-of-five, who started using drugs when he was 14, has revealed his transformation after addiction saw him spend a staggering £3,200 a month on cocaine.
Reece Rowley was addicted to the class A drug for years, but has now been clean for seven months.
The 30-year-old used drugs to cope with his anger after his father left the family when he was a baby.
By the time he was an adult, he was spending an astounding £800 a week on cocaine.
Rowley slept on the streets for eight months and took himself to hospital four times, each time suspecting he was having a heart attack.
Now he’s turned his life around after starting a 12-step rehabilitation programme, and he wants to use his experience to help other addicts.
‘I’m so proud of myself,’ said Rowley, from Harlow, Essex. ‘I feel so lucky and grateful.
‘Things are so different now. My mental health, my financial situation, my relationships are better, and I can look at myself in the mirror.’
Reece Rowley, pictured during his addiction, has revealed his transformation after addiction saw him spend a staggering £3,200 a month on cocaine
Rowley, 30, starting using drugs aged 14 to cope with his anger after his father left the family when he was a baby (Rowley in hospital after suspecting a heart attack from cocaine use)
Rowley said he hadn’t been sober for such a long period since he was 14 years old.
‘People stop me and say I look so different,’ he continued. ‘I’m able to be more grateful. I see pleasure in the small things like getting up and having a shower.’
The father wants to share his experience to raise awareness, but he also hopes he can prevent at least one other addict from dying.
‘You can come out the other side,’ he said. ‘I’m aiming to be someone’s sponsor one day, but I have to stay disciplined.
‘The addiction wants you isolated, but you aren’t alone.’
Rowley’s life started to spiral when he began smoking cannabis at 14. His behaviour got so out of control that his mother and stepfather asked him to leave the family home, and he moved in with a neighbour.
When he turned 18, he became a father and started using cocaine. At the height of his addiction, 5ft 7in Rowley weighed just 9st 5lbs (59kg).
Rowley dealt drugs and stole to fund his habit. He slept rough, stole food and went to prison for actual bodily harm.
Reece Rowley was addicted to the class A drug cocaine for years, but has now been clean for seven months (Pictured: Rowley as a recovering addict)
Now Rowley has turned his life around, gained weight and started taking accountability for the effect he had on his family – and he wants to use his experience to help other addicts
‘Even so young, my addiction had consequences,’ he said. ‘My dad took off when I was a baby and raised his two other children, and it made me angry.’
Rowley remembers how he ‘took it out’ on his mother and stepfather, who then asked him to leave the family home.
‘I was left to my own devices, and it was scary, but from that stemmed more anger and resentment.
‘Addicts are very self-absorbed, and they think “why me?” but I wasn’t thinking about how my actions affected my mum and stepfather.’
When Rowley was 18, he met a woman with whom he had a baby, and the new family went into shared accommodation.
The young father’s work life wasn’t going well. He eventually bumped into a man, offloaded about his troubles, and was given a ‘drug phone’ that he began running for £170 a day.
Rowley’s life changed and he was thrust into a world of partying and hard drug use.
He said: ‘I fell in love with the party life and stayed out for days on end, leaving my child and partner at home.
At the height of his addiction, Rowley was spending an astounding £800 a week on cocaine
The father-of-five slept on the street for eight months, stole to eat and ended up in prison twice
‘Then I got into cocaine. It was a weekend thing at first, but it crept into weekdays.
‘I was irresponsible, aggressive and I couldn’t take accountability, so my relationship broke down.’
In the 12 years since, Rowley has managed to transform his life for the better.
He now weighs a healthy 13st (82kg), works as a landscaper and lives with his grandmother.
‘I used to live in squats,’ Rowley recalled. ‘I slept outside a row of shops in the town centre and would wake up surrounded by pigeons.
‘I had to steal my food and I was skin and bone. I lost everything.’
Rowley went on to have four more children. He says he was trying to get sober for six years and even tried rehab, but left two weeks into the eight-week treatment.
He finally decided to give up drugs for good after his second stint in prison.
Rowley, pictured during addiction, decided to make a change for the sake of his family. He says he now finds pleasure in simple things like waking up and taking a shower
‘It became an existence. Every time I used it, I could feel my heart beating. I had pains and I couldn’t breathe or smell.
‘When I thought about the damage to my family and the trauma I’d caused, I knew I couldn’t go on like this anymore.
‘I looked at myself and knew I couldn’t keep causing pain. I had a choice. I’ve got five children. I can let them bury me, or I can choose to give them hope.
‘I’d let them down, but I wanted them to be able to look at me and say “That’s my dad”.’
Still in the early stages of the journey to recovery and sobriety, Rowley is trying to maintain his progress.
But he is under no delusions about the pain he caused in the decade and more of his drug use, adding: ‘I know that seven months sober doesn’t undo 15 years of chaos.’
