‘I locked myself in my house and took drugs for three days straight’: TOWIE star James Argent reveals he is a cocaine addict and has suffered two near-fatal overdoses
TOWIE star James ‘Arg’ Argent has admitted he is a cocaine addict, and has been heavily using the drug for seven years.
Speaking to The Sun, the reality TV star, 32, admitted he has suffered two near-fatal overdoses at his home last year, and his girlfriend Gemma Collins called emergency services after his family feared he was dead.
Arg says he is now in recovery after spending ten weeks at a Thailand boot camp, after calling his best friend and former TOWIE co-star Mark Wright for help when he reached rock bottom over Christmas 2019.
Admission: TOWIE star James ‘Arg’ Argent has admitted he is a cocaine addict, and has been heavily using the drug for seven years
Speaking about his first overdose in October which triggered paranoia and psychosis, Arg said: ‘I locked myself in my house and took drugs for three days straight on my own in the pitch black.
Adding that he regularly spent £500 a week on his cocaine habit, Arg said of his first overdose: ‘I was at rock bottom. My heart was beating out of my chest, my nose was bleeding, I was shaking and my breathing was terrible.
‘My family were banging on the door screaming, ‘Open up’ but I wasn’t answering the door to anyone. They feared I’d overdosed and was dead in the house
It was Gemma who called the emergency services who forced the door. After tests it was agreed Arg did not need to go to hospital and could stay with his parents, but just two months later he overdosed again on the night before his 32nd birthday, as he admitted ‘my addiction was so bad I couldn’t stop myself.’
The second time he was hospitalised over fears for his heart, with Arg revealing that his worried friends took his phone away while he was in hospital in case he called his dealers.
It was after he found himself alone on Christmas Day 2019 and using cocaine that he decided things had to change, calling his best friend and former TOWIE co-star Mark Wright for help.
Mark got his friend in touch with the owners of a Thailand boot camp, with Arg travelling there in New Year’s Eve,, staying for ten weeks and losing five stone in weight.
He now attends an out patient facility near his Essex home regularly.
Arg explained that he first dabbled in drugs when he first shot to fame with Mark in TOWIE, but his loved ones only found out he had a problem when he was declared missing in 2014, after failing to turn up for a flight to Majorca for a paid appearance.