{"id":67132,"date":"2025-08-14T19:39:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T19:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/67132\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T19:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T19:39:12","slug":"gloucester-mum-racked-up-thousands-in-debt-after-hiding-codeine-addiction-from-family-for-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/67132\/","title":{"rendered":"Gloucester mum racked up thousands in debt after hiding codeine addiction from family for years"},"content":{"rendered":"

She warned it could happen to anybodyMark Taylor<\/a> Content Editor and SWNSEmmaDunn (Emma Dunn)<\/p>\n

11:07, 14 Aug 2025Updated 11:10, 14 Aug 2025<\/p>\n

\"SWNS_CODEINE_ADDICTION_004_088128.jpg\"Abby Johnson(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

A single mum from Gloucester who kept her codeine addiction a secret from her family for three years says the habit landed her in \u00a38k worth of debt.<\/p>\n

Abby Johnson, 35, was prescribed the painkiller by her GP after a gastric sleeve operation – and instructed to take two tablets every four hours when required for three weeks.<\/p>\n

She says she “got a taste for it” but had no problem giving it up, and was prescribed it six months later after getting gallstones.<\/p>\n

But she found herself immediately unable to give it up after her pain subsided.<\/p>\n

Once her NHS prescription ran out, she started to get withdrawals – like stomach cramps – and started buying over the counter codeine containing products.<\/p>\n

But Abby – who has no history of addiction or drug abuse – quickly spiralled.<\/p>\n

And within months she was hooked, eventually visiting a pharmacy a day to get her hands on as many over the counter codeine containing products – such as Nurofen plus.<\/p>\n

At her worst she was going through 244 tablets in two days, spending \u00a3100 a time on online pharmacy tablets.<\/p>\n

She’d make up excuses to explain why she looked poorly in front of her grandparents – instead of revealing what was really going on.<\/p>\n

Abby realised she had a problem when it no longer gave her a “buzz” but she was taking it to “survive” – from the moment she woke up, until she went to bed at night.<\/p>\n

The mum-of-two hid the addiction from everyone apart from her mum, Sharon, 60, and wracked up \u00a38k of debt.<\/p>\n

\"SWNS_CODEINE_ADDICTION_004_088128.jpg\"Abby Johnson(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

Now 10 months sober, Abby feels “amazing” and no longer feels any shame.<\/p>\n

She kicked her habit after joining a drug and alcohol service.<\/p>\n

Abby, who has taken a break from work, said: “I felt so alone in this.<\/p>\n

“My family had no idea. I felt like a fraud – lying to people I loved the most.<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t paying the household bills. I got myself into \u00a38k of debt. I was so ashamed of it. It could happen to anybody.”<\/p>\n

Abby, who has two boys – 13 and 10, decided to go for a \u00a310k gastric sleeve operation in August 2021 after putting on three stone during lockdown.<\/p>\n

She was prescribed codeine after the surgery.<\/p>\n

Abby said: “I got a taste for it straight away. I knew it made me feel good.”<\/p>\n

The mum didn’t get hooked then but when she went back on it for “excruciating” stomach pain in January 2022 she started to spiral.<\/p>\n

She was diagnosed with gallstones and remained on codeine until her operation in November 2022.<\/p>\n

Abby said: “I was starting to take it when the pain wasn’t there.”<\/p>\n

When she came off her prescription she started to get withdrawal symptoms.<\/p>\n

She said: “Everything I was eating was coming straight back up. My stomach cramps were horrific. I was tiny. I looked really poorly.”<\/p>\n

Abby began going to the pharmacy every day – going around the different ones in her town so they wouldn’t recognise her.<\/p>\n

She would buy Nurofen plus when she couldn’t get her prescription.<\/p>\n

When she started getting phantom gallbladder pain two months after her surgery she was prescribed codeine again.<\/p>\n

Abby said: “I was taking it for the buzz. It made me feel happy. I would get 224 tablets a month – they would last me two days.”<\/p>\n

She’d spend the rest of the month taking Nurofen plus or black market codeine – which would cost \u00a3100 for a pack of 100.<\/p>\n

Abby said: “I’d go round every pharmacy in Gloucester and rotate so they didn’t recognise me.<\/p>\n

“There is no system in the UK pharmacies that monitor how much stuff you’re buying.<\/p>\n

“I’m not blaming anyone for my addiction.”<\/p>\n

At the end Abby would wake up to get her kids to school – and spend the rest of the day sleeping.<\/p>\n

\"SWNS_CODEINE_ADDICTION_004_088128.jpg\"Abby Johnson(Image: SWNS)<\/p>\n

She said: “I wasn’t being the mum I wanted to be.<\/p>\n

“I was functioning – that was all I was doing. I was there in body not in mind.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t giving me a buzz. I was taking it to survive and not be ill – not withdraw.”<\/p>\n

Abby booked herself an appointment with a drug and alcohol service when she was at work – as an admin – and didn’t have any money left to order herself any more tablets.<\/p>\n

She went in October 2024 – and was put on a replacement medication called Espranor which is monitored.<\/p>\n

Abby relapsed two weeks later when there was an overlap on her prescription – and said she nearly “died” when she overdosed.<\/p>\n

Luckily she had been given an injection to reverse the effects of the overdose – called Naloxone.<\/p>\n

Abby said: “I could have died. It scared me so much.”<\/p>\n

Abby has been sober ever since and hopes to be “free” of the replacement medication by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

She now has a debt relief order and is getting her life back on track.<\/p>\n

Abby said: “I’m grateful to be alive. I’m feeling amazing compared to before. I love cooking tea. I love walking.”<\/p>\n

She hopes to stop the stigma around opioids and addiction and shares her story on TikTok @wedocomeback.<\/p>\n

She has submitted a petition to have a national database which documents all patients details who buy over the counter codeine so it can be easily monitored and not abused.<\/p>\n

Abby said: “Know you’re not alone. Know it’s not shameful. There is help out there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She warned it could happen to anybodyMark Taylor Content Editor and SWNSEmmaDunn (Emma Dunn) 11:07, 14 Aug 2025Updated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,17990,102,104,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-67132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-gloucester","tag-health","tag-nhs","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}