When a floor lamp with a wide grey shade disappeared from the corner of Abby House’s living room at the end of 2024, her youngest son asked where it had gone.

Abby, a single mum, told her son - who is now 11 years old - that the lamp was broken so she had thrown it away.

But the truth was that Abby had sold the lamp online – along with countless other items from around the house – to pay for her out-of-control addiction to cocaine.

The mother of two had been using cocaine for more than 15 years and more recently had become addicted to codeine, too.

Spending up to £700 a month on the drugs, she had racked up close to £30,000 in debt.

Opening up about her addiction, Abby says: ‘Cocaine was more important to me than a lamp or belongings. I also sold clothes and shoes - I just wanted to pay for [the drugs].’

At her lowest, Abby says she was doing cocaine every other night at home. She says: ‘I would do it [the drug] later in the evenings when the kids were asleep. That was like my glass of wine in the evening. It wasn't good at all.’

The addiction started when Abby was aged just 17 and her friends began using cocaine.

Her friends had taken the Class A drug on a night out, which Abby was shocked to hear. But at one house party a few weeks later, Abby decided to try it, too.

She says: ‘I had some struggles as a teenager with my mental health. When I did that line, it felt like it all disappeared, and I was happy.

‘My life would have been a completely different story had I not tried it that night.’

After that, Abby was hooked. She would use every weekend ‘without fail’.

She says: ‘I became obsessed by it, I thought about it all the time. I lived for the weekend to go out drinking and do coke.’

Although she was still living at her parents' house until her early 20s, Abby’s new habit sent a wrecking ball through her finances.

After being paid each month from her job at a doctor’s surgery, she would spend all of her money in one weekend. And then she would have to borrow money from friends and family to get by.

She says: ‘I remember being on my break at work and not being able to afford to get lunch. I would be starving but I had no money in my bank because it had all gone on alcohol and cocaine.’

While her friends would go to concerts, Abby couldn't afford the tickets, so would miss out.

And to make matters worse, she was also offering to pay for cocaine for her friends so she wasn’t using alone.

‘I was offering to pay for it because I wanted to do it so much,’ she says.

Her crazy cocaine-fuelled weekends continued until she had her first son at age 21, and she stopped using while pregnant.

She hoped the break would help cut out the habit for good, but she went straight back to it after giving birth.

She again stopped taking cocaine when pregnant with her second son at age 25. But once again, started using again after he was born.

Abby says: ‘As time went on, I would start doing it during the week. That’s when it really started affecting my life.’

By her late 20s, Abby’s habit was costing so much that she even struggled to buy staples such as bread and milk.

‘I’d have to borrow money for a food shop and to put petrol in my car. Any spare money that I had or credit that I could get went on cocaine and alcohol. I hated the fact I did it,’ she says.

She worked her way up to practice manager at a doctor’s surgery - a job she says she had really worked hard for - but Abby began calling in sick the day after taking drugs because she'd feel so awful.

Somehow, she was able to hide her addiction from her mother and children. ‘It was like living a double life,’ she says.

Over the course of her addiction Abby built up £29,000 of debt.

She started to borrow money when she was around 25 and eventually racked up £9,000 on credit cards and fell behind on household bills.

‘I just wouldn’t pay my council tax or my car insurance. I would drive around in an uninsured vehicle,’ she says.

She got an individual voluntary arrangement – an agreement to pay back debts over a set period of time – and paid back the sum over five years.

But two years after she was handed the IVA, the debts began piling up once more. This time, Abby was falling behind on her household bills. Abby had racked up another £12,000 in arrears.

The mother of two says she buried her head in the sand. Her utility provider and water company would call about the growing arrears, but Abby wouldn’t pick up the phone.

‘I was paying the [drug] dealers from what should’ve been spent on my bills,’ she says.

In the end, her mum paid off these growing household arrears, and Abby eventually paid her back.

During this time, the now 36-year-old had been successful at hiding her habit from her family – and her mum didn’t know the reason she’d fallen behind on bills was because of cocaine use.

Instead, Abby says she made up ‘stupid excuses’ and would blame her spending on clothes shopping.

But the third time she fell into debt - five years ago - it wasn’t just cocaine use that was driving the ballooning balance.

Alongside her cocaine use, Abby had also become addicted to codeine, a prescription opioid medication that is designed to be taken for a short period of time to manage pain. Abby was given the drug following weight-loss surgery in 2021.

‘I just remember taking it and thinking, “I feel so happy. I’ve never felt this level of happiness before”. I then developed gallstones, and the doctor put me on codeine as a repeat prescription.

‘I was prescribed 224 pills a month and I was taking those within a few days. Then I was ordering codeine online for the rest of the month, which was costing me a fortune. I could buy 100 tablets for £100.’

She also was buying the medicine over the counter in pharmacies (you can buy low strength codeine from a pharmacy without a prescription). Abby was using spare money or cash that was meant to pay household bills to get her hands on codeine or cocaine.

At her peak codeine use, Abby estimates she splashed out around £700 every month on the drug.

She racked up another £8,000 of credit card debt, loans and arrears on household bills.

She missed rental payments, and her housing association would call her to set up a new payment plan. This would be put in place but then she wouldn’t make payments on time and the process would start all over again.

At her lowest point, Abby was told she would lose her home unless she paid off her arrears.

This was the shock she needed. Abby realised she had a problem and sought help with her codeine addiction. She stopped using in October 2024.

She also stopped working at this time to focus on strengthening her mental health as she couldn’t concentrate on her job.

This meant she was eligible for a debt relief order for the £8,000 balance. This is a 12-month break for those who don’t own their own home and don’t have much spare income.

During this time, lenders cannot chase you for debts included in the order, and after a year the debts are written off if your financial situation hasn’t improved.

But after she stopped using the prescription drug, Abby says she was in a dark place.

‘I started using cocaine to numb that. I was using every other day, and I just had no money, so I started selling things like lamps, trinkets from around the house and branded trainers.

‘I would give myself a day off to get over the hangover and then get straight back on it.’

At this peak, Abby estimates she was spending around £400 a month on cocaine.

However, in May last year Abby decided to ditch the drugs for good, throwing herself into recovery.

Abby says: ‘I was sat on the sofa and it was almost like something came over me. I thought “you are the only person in control of your happiness, no one is coming to save you. If you want to be happy, you have to work on it”.

‘And from that day I decided I would never use again and it felt different. I put my whole heart and soul into my recovery.’

She started listening to books and podcasts about sobriety and recovery. After being sober for around five months, Abby even launched a TikTok channel, Addiction2Advocate, where she shares stories about her recovery.

She only previously told her mum that she had a problem with codeine for which she was getting help. But at this point, she decided to confess to her mum that she had been addicted to cocaine.

Abby, who is now single, says: ‘She was shocked because I covered it so well. She didn’t have a clue.

‘My family knows everything now and it feels so brilliant. I just feel like my life is what it should have been before drugs took over. And the relationship with my children is unbelievable.’

It’s now been more than one year since Abby last took cocaine. She’s receiving counselling under a drug and alcohol service.

Her finances have dramatically improved, too.

She says: ‘I’ve already saved for Christmas! All my bills are up to date and I’m never late on a payment. I’m a bit frugal with money now and that’s because of the way I lived before – I don’t ever want to get back to that place.

‘I keep thinking “Where has all this money come from?” But it’s money I would have spent on drugs. If the children need new shoes, I can buy them and I don’t need to borrow money from my family.’