09 April 2025
I used party drugs for about 20 years. Ecstasy, ketamine, MDMA, cocaine... I just partied my way through life. I never thought I had a problem because I had a full-time job.
Billy, Dundee
Billy, who was in the army in his teens and works as a scaffolder, explains that he used cocaine for the first time in his 20s with his friends. But as his friends started getting married and having children, they stopped using drugs. And Billy found he couldn’t.
He explains: “I took cocaine every single day, even at work. Being a scaffolder, I worked on big tall buildings, worked over the water… And I still took coke every single day.
“I racked up debts, got loans, got credit cards… Over the last five years, I would say I probably spent about £70,000 on cocaine. I don't own my own house. I don't own my own car.”
Billy was referred to WithYou in Dundee by his GP after he started having seizures. He began attending group sessions and one-to-one meetings with his support worker, Lee. Lee also helped Billy to prepare for a stay in residential rehabilitation.
Billy continues: “Residential rehabilitation was the hardest 84 days of my life. I'm an outdoors kind of guy. The cold doesn't bother me. The rain doesn't bother me. Being indoors, having people telling me what to do and when to do it... I struggled.
“Today, I'm nearly six months without using drugs and that's a really really big deal. Without WithYou, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. I would be dead, I genuinely would be. Every single person in here saved my life.”
Thinking about the future, Billy says: “I just want to be happy. I am planning to go back to scaffolding, I love my job. But I don't want to just be a worker. There's a lot of drugs in the construction industry. I want to change that, I want to help people.”
