THOUSANDS of professionals in Brighton and Hove could be hidden drug addicts.

That’s the claim from a former cocaine addict who has spoken out about how snorting a couple of lines at the weekend can quickly escalate.

Jackie (not her real name), a spokeswoman for Cocaine Anonymous in the city spoke to The Argus about her spiral into addiction and eventual recovery in the hope of helping others facing similar problems. She said thousands of casual users in the city could be just a matter of months away from becoming serious addicts at risk of injury or death from drugs.

The 39-year-old mother of one from Southwick said: “I went from being a successful, party girl to almost losing my child and my life.”

In the depths of her addiction her marriage broke down and she lost access to her daughter.

From a career in the high pressure world of recruitment, where taking cocaine on office nights out was considered the norm, she sank to taking drugs to get through the working day and losing two jobs.

She ended up hospitalised after collapsing on drugs and trying to take her life whilst high.

“If there are ten people at a party doing cocaine, two of them probably want to continue when others want to stop. And years down the line two of them will be in real danger of losing their lives.

“I totally believe hundreds, if not thousands, of people are suffering in Brighton. If you’re at the tail end of a massive bender and thinking you’re not sure you want to do this any more then you should probably ring our helpline.

“When I see people dying it really breaks my heart. I was doing it 24/7, including at work.

“I don’t know how I managed to be such a functioning user for so long. From the outside you wouldn’t have known how bad things were. I don’t know what could have happened to me, but my story is not unique.

“Any one who starts to break their own rules should think about whether they have a problem. A lot of people said to me ‘but you didn’t seem that bad’.

“By the first time I encountered drug service I knew I had a problem. I had been in hospital twice in a week.

“I had collapsed, then taken a load of pills and cut my arms with a sushi knife.”

Cocaine addiction is a growing problem – last week the drug was attributed to a rise in drugs deaths nationally.

Jackie said: “Services for alcohol and drugs are being cut but we’re here and we’re free. I don’t think people in trouble realise there is help out there.”

Figures released last week showed cocaine was involved in the deaths of 371 people across England and Wales – a rise of 16% from 2015, according to the Office for National Statistics. Cocaine-related death rates have been increasing year on year, reaching a record high of 6.4 deaths per one million of the population.

Jackie believes that that the wider social acceptance of the drug was to blame for more people becoming hooked and dying. “People think if you’re not on a bench or in the gutter you’re not a drug addict,” she said.

I HAD A HOLE IN MY SOUL THAT I TRIED TO FILL WITH DRUGS

FROM the outside, Jackie always seemed successful.

A high flying career, doting husband, beautiful daughter and the life and soul of the party.

But she knew her recreational drug taking was a sign of something deeper.

Baring all to highlight the dangers of cocaine addiction, she said: “I started drinking and using drugs in my teens and for many years I didn’t look any different to anyone else. I was taking party drugs, speed, ecstasy.

“After university I moved to Brighton and met a group of people who partied as hard as me.

“By that point I was doing ecstasy, speed, MDMA, cocaine, alcohol. Mix and match, but I wasn’t ever doing it on my own in my room. I was partying. But it gradually became a problem. Over the years people started to stop doing it, but I didn’t. By my early 30s it was pretty bad. Drinking daily and doing lots of drugs at weekends. I took a lot of risks. I had no regard for my safety.”

Jackie said things came to a head in 2013 when she had a “massive breakdown”. She was hospitalised twice in a week. She collapsed from her cocaine use, then tried to slit her wrists with a sushi knife whilst high on a cocktail of drink and drugs.

She was referred to Brighton’s drug and alcohol services and whilst they got her clean, she still suffered from the underlying issues that had led her to take drugs in the first place. She started taking prescription medications including codeine, Tramadol and Valium.

“From the outside I always seemed quite successful; home, job, relationship and friends,” she said.

“But by that point all those things were gone or under threat. And then I started taking cocaine again, and ketamine and ended up having the biggest breakdown of my life last April/May.

“I became completely dependent on alcohol and was doing cocaine all day, every day.

Jackie’s drug use cost her more than one job, her marriage broke down and she lost access to her young daughter.

“My drug use escalated and escalated,” she said. “My husband tried to support me but it got too much and too awful.

“You can’t support someone when they are in such a state. The people I love in my life had to watch me.

“I can only imagine how awful it was for them. They had to watch me fall to pieces.

“There was a hole in my soul and I tried to stick drink and drugs in there to fill it, but it never did. If my family didn’t hear from me they wouldn’t know if I was dead. If you’re not an addict you think, ‘If they loved me enough they would stop’. But it’s not like that.

“The desire to use again is stronger than anything else. You love your children and family but you can’t stop.

“It was never around my daughter but I was at my worst when my daughter was young. Luckily my family stepped in.”

After being treated at a private rehab facility, Jackie immersed herself in Cocaine Anonymous, which she thanks for saving her life.

She now devotes her life to the group helping other addicts and said the group is now like a family. She said seeing others fall off the wagon fills her with dread about where she could have ended up.

“It’s a life or death thing. People die all the time. I wouldn’t be sitting here if it wasn’t for CA.

“I do still occasionally have the urge to use, but I’m not constantly obsessed with using drugs and drinking, and now I have the tools to deal with it.

“My priority now is helping people who are still suffering. Doing that keeps me clean. I’m so grateful, that I can now be a good mum. My daughter was sheltered from most of it. She now knows I don’t drink and she knows I wasn’t well.”

Jackie is still not sure exactly how, or if, she will tell her young daughter the full truth when she’s old enough.

She said: “It’s not a dirty secret, but I don’t know how I feel about her knowing. My daughter is everything. She is my reason for living. I’m so glad I’m in recovery and the CA gave me the chance to be the mum she deserves.”

GROUP HOLDS 14 MEETINGS A WEEK

COCAINE Anonymous holds 14 meetings a week in Brighton and Hove, 35 across Sussex.

It offers a welcoming, non judgemental environment where anyone who has a problem with cocaine or other mind altering substances can seek help.

It also holds online meetings and has a helpline for anyone unsure about attending a meeting in person.

The website includes a self-test where drug users can gauge whether they might have an addiction.

Test questions include: Do you ever use more cocaine than you planned? Do you feel depressed, guilty, or remorseful after you use cocaine?

After using cocaine, do you have difficulty sleeping without taking a drink or another drug?

Have you ever lied to or misled those around you about how much or how often you use?

Do you use drugs in your car, at work, in the bathroom, on airplanes or other public places?

Meetings are held seven days a week at venues across Brighton and Hove, including St George’s Church, Kemp Town; South Portslade Community Centre; The Vicarage, Wilbury Road, Hove; Hove Methodist Church, Portland Road; Coffee Republic, Church Road, Hove; St Mary Magdalen’s Church, Upper North Street and St John’s Centre, Palmeira Square.

For more information visit www.cauk.org.uk or call the helpline on 0300 1112285 (mobiles).