Rachel Cooper, aiming to shed the extra weight gained during the Covid-19 lockdown, turned to weight loss injections, unaware they would also interrupt her destructive patterns of alcohol and drug abuse.

The 35-year-old mother from South Wales saw her weight surge from 13 stone to 19 stone during the pandemic. At the height of her addiction, she was consuming up to three grams of cocaine daily, spending as much as £800 in a single session.

Since she was 17, Rachel estimated she has spent over £200,000 on drugs and alcohol. However, it was in 2020 that her dependency spiraled further out of control, leading her to a point where she felt suicidal.

Her lowest point occurred during a four-day bender when she consumed such a large quantity of cocaine that even her dealer advised her to stop.

Despite having a stable career and a happy childhood, Rachel felt overwhelmed by shame and was reluctant to seek help from her doctor. She feared the consequences on her two sons if her struggles with addiction were exposed.

“As a parent, you’re terrified to ask for help due to worries about the fallout… I didn’t know what would happen,” she revealed to The Daily Mail.

But a turning point came when Rachel discovered Mounjaro. She decided to use the weight loss injections to help shed the pounds after struggling to complete simple tasks like tie her shoelaces, or go out for the school run.

The mother went from a size 22 to a size 10 thanks to the jab – but more importantly for Rachel, the weight loss approach ended up helping her far beyond her wildest dreams as her reliance on drugs and alcohol soon disappeared. 

Rachel had always struggled with her weight, trying numerous diets but never finding the consistency to keep the pounds off – but in lockdown she went from 13 stone to 19 and her alcohol and drug addiction increased while she was furloughed from work.

She explained: ‘I was still getting paid, I couldn’t go out, so I was drinking pretty much everyday. I was ordering loads of takeaways and getting them delivered, my weight just ballooned.

‘I was absolutely mortified, so when the restrictions were lifted I didn’t want to go out. I didn’t want people to see me. 

‘One person who saw me made the comment, “you have been on the Covid diet” and that was it, I was like I do not want to leave this house again.

‘I couldn’t do the school run, I couldn’t tie my shoe laces up, I couldn’t even see my feet in the shower. 

‘It was the biggest I have ever been and my mental health took an absolute hammering and in turn made me drink more. I hated what I was seeing in the mirror so it was escapism.’

Rachel would constantly compare herself to old photos, fearing she would never get back to that version of herself.

The parent – who had taken cocaine recreationally at the weekends from the age of 17 – used alcohol to suppress her feelings of self-loathing and shame towards her body, but the booze triggered further cocaine use.

‘I couldn’t have a drink without getting a bag of coke, so I ended up buying coke as well as drink and it basically spiralled, I was in a really unhealthy state physically and mentally at that point.’

At the height of her addiction, Rachel spent £800 on vodka and cocaine during a four-day binge, and was even told by her drug dealer to stop, explaining: ‘It got to the point that my dealer actually said to me, “you don’t need anymore”.

‘You know it’s bad when a dealer is saying that to you, because they don’t actually care, it’s all about lining their pockets, but he said “no you have had enough”.’

At her lowest, Rachel said she felt suicidal because she believed she had nowhere to turn to for help and was stuck in a cycle of addiction. 

‘I genuinely didn’t feel that I was going to survive another year of doing this to my body, I thought something has got to give,’ revealed the mother.

Rachel knew she had to change and while scrolling online one evening, the mother-of-two came across Mounjaro and thought the jabs might be the answer to her weight gain. 

She initially wasn’t expecting the weight loss drug to do much more than help her lose a few pounds but the injections had another surprising effect on her. 

‘At first I didn’t take it seriously, I still drank while taking Mounjaro but as I increased my dosage and started to lose some weight, I noticed I wasn’t craving alcohol or rubbish food anymore,’ recalled Rachel.

She explained how she stopped wanting takeaways, ‘then sweets or chocolate and then I stopped craving wine and vodka – and because I only ever used coke when I was drinking that eliminated it, they went hand-in-hand.’ 

Rachel, who would sometimes binge on three takeaways in one day during her ‘off days’ from cocaine, revealed the more pounds she lost the more motivated she felt to shed even further weight and the shame over her body started to slowly lift. 

‘It stopped me wanting to self sabotage completely, it stopped me wanting to abuse my body,’ she explained.

Speaking about the misconceptions surrounding addiction, Rachel highlighted that many people wrongly believe it only affects ‘scummy people’ or ‘those who don’t work,’ reinforcing harmful stereotypes.

She added: ‘It can affect everybody, I have worked all my life, I’m a good person and I come from a good family, there is nothing about my life that you could look at from the outside and think she is going to have a drug problem. 

‘People are too quick to blame someone’s upbringing, but I had a perfectly good childhood, I just ended up on a different path.

‘People are so quick to judge, that needs to stop, we need to be less judgemental because then more people will be willing to come forward if they have a problem.’

Before starting Mounjaro, Rachel would often crave food late at night and sometimes even wake up to eat cake – but now, her sleep is undisturbed and she no longer wakes up feeling hungry.   

She started on 5mg of Mounjaro and didn’t notice much of a difference until she raised the dosage to 7.5mg. 

Rachel said: ‘I always had food issues, I was always thinking about food, there wasn’t a day that went by that I wasn’t fantasising about food on some level and that stopped. 

‘I literally just see it now as food is fuel for my body, and I eat when I need to eat, when I’m actually hungry, rather than eating emotionally.’

Alongside the weight loss drug, Rachel decided to calorie count, working out how much calories she could eat to remain in a deficit. 

She said: ‘Because I do love food, calorie counting works better because I can then still eat the things that I like, I don’t like to be restricted but I know it’s important to include loads of protein when on Mounjaro because you do lose muscle mass.’

She was six months into her weight loss journey on Mounjaro when she realised she had completely kicked her alcohol and drug addiction. 

Not only did she lose weight and gain control of her addiction, but her mental health also began to improve. 

This made Rachel realise that her anxiety and depression were closely linked to her previous unhealthy habits.

‘I’m the best I have been since I was 16 years old, at 16 I started struggling with my mental health and that was also the time I started messing around with alcohol,’ Rachel said.

She credited Mounjaro for transforming who she is as a person; she has signed up to run a half marathon in Liverpool next year and recently bought a treadmill so she can keep up her training during the winter months.

‘I started running in June this year,’ she explained. ‘I started off doing Couch to 5K and now I’m running 20 kilometers a week.’

Another positive change for the mother is that she’s been able to save more money since overcoming her addiction to drugs and alcohol and cutting takeaways from her diet.

She said: ‘I have managed to pay off all my debts, I have been able to go on holiday with the kids and been able to save for things.  

‘I used to constantly live in my overdrafts, I would get paid and my overdraft would come out of my pay, so I was always worse off, I would then have to use my credit card, then I would miss payments for things and I would have to borrow money. It was a constant cycle.

‘Now I’m really cautious with money, I’m never stuck, if I need work done on the car I can just take it to the garage and if it’s going to cost a couple of hundred pound I have got it.’  

Rachel shared that her relationship with her family had previously been strained, as they felt ashamed of her behaviour during her struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. 

However, since taking control of her life, Rachel and her family have been able to rebuild their relationship, and she is now included in family events once again.

She explained: ‘I’m invited to my mums on Christmas day, which would of happened in the past but there were times when I went over there and stormed out because I was so argumentative after a drink. 

‘I wasn’t a nice person, me and drink just did not gel. Some people just can not drink and I am one of those people.

‘I didn’t have an off switch and I would just be so nasty after a drink, I would be really argumentative, so I would say horrible things and I would just upset the family.

‘So now I have my mum back, she is my best friend and I’m really close to my aunt and uncle, every relationship I had has improved.’

Rachel encouraged others who may be in a similar situation to the one she faced to invest in themselves and take steps towards getting their lives back on track.

She said: ‘It will change your life, when you start seeing the weight come off, you start liking what you see in the mirror again and your not going to want to self sabotage.’ 

Rachel revealed that although she has now reached her target weight of 11 stone, she is still using Mounjaro but has begun gradually weaning herself off the medication.

She explained: ‘With the pharmacy I am with they give you a maintenance service, so you can maintain a certain does.

‘You can be on Mounjaro forever, as long as you are monitored, I’m not planning on that, but I do have some reservations about coming off it as well.’

Rachel expressed concern that if she regains the weight after coming off the medication, it could trigger a domino effect – potentially leading to a decline in her mental health and, ultimately, a relapse into alcohol and drug addiction. 

‘For me I want to stay on it for the time being but I have also been doing a lot to make sure I can control my weight off the the drug, in terms of running and dieting. I will be coming off it but it will be at my own pace.’

Rachel claimed she once felt the same but decided to put all her cards on the table and create a TikTok account @coopers_troopers to document her recovery and hopefully inspire others to do the same. 

She said: ‘I know it was risky, I was so terrified of the backlash but I had to do something and I felt like sharing my journey on there saved my life, because I got so many people on there who support me.

‘Once I started talking about it so many people messaged me privately and revealed they were going through the same thing. 

‘Nurses, police officers, even social workers messaged me to say they are going through exactly the same thing but they are afraid to ask for help because of their profession.’ 

Rachel shared that hearing others open up about their own struggles and receiving praise for her recovery journey has spurred her on even more to stay on track. 

Knowing that others look up to her has given her an added sense of responsibility not to relapse. 

She now runs a support group called Cooper’s Troopers, which helps others battling addiction and weight struggles to communicate in a safe space without fear of judgement. 

‘Some people in the group couldn’t go a day without taking coke and they are on 500 days clean now. I’m just there to help, I have managed to help so many people become clean and sober and that’s one of my biggest achievements.’

For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or visit www.thecalmzone.net/get-support