I Was Kidnapped, Nearly Raped Twice & Found Myself in a Sex Trafficking Gang’s House — And I Still Didn’t Think I Had a Problem

Episode 58 | Kaitlin Reeve — From Sitting on a Window Ledge at Nine to Nearly Three Years Clean: A Story of Escapism, Danger & Recovery

In this searingly honest episode — released on Kaitlin’s birthday — Jimmy sits down with Kaitlin Reeve, founder of the Sober as a Mother Focused Instagram and one of the most unflinching voices in the UK recovery community. Kaitlin’s story spans childhood trauma, drug-induced psychosis, kidnapping, and the quiet moment in her garden that finally changed everything.

Kaitlin grew up unhappy — a child who never felt okay, who escaped into fantasy, books, films and food before she had words for why. She was drinking at nine, allowed to get drunk at 13, and watched the adults around her become happier, calmer and less shouty when they used drugs and alcohol. The message she took from that? When I’m a grown-up, that’s what will make me happy.

At 16 she had her first line of cocaine in a penthouse on High Street Kensington, surrounded by people she’d only ever seen in magazines. A girl from nothing, suddenly rubbing shoulders with Hollywood. She associated cocaine with glamour, freedom and escape — the antidote to every moment she’d spent feeling less than. She embraced it completely.

What followed was years of escalating use: being locked in trap houses, kidnapped, nearly raped twice, and finding herself in the home of an international sex trafficking gang — all of which she shrugged off because the good still outweighed the bad. A controlling, abusive relationship followed. Then a period of sobriety, then relapse triggered by her body going into fight-or-flight shutdown so severe she couldn’t go to the toilet without cocaine. Then drug-induced psychosis — hearing things, seeing things, a size 4-6 frame barely eating or sleeping.

The end came not with a dramatic rock bottom but with a quiet moment of exhaustion in her garden in late August 2022. Sick and tired of being sick and tired. She Googled 12-step fellowships, put on full makeup and her best outfit so nobody would think she was that bad, walked in — and by the end of the meeting said: Hi, I’m Kaitlin, I’m an addict. Her clean date is 6th September 2022.

Nearly three and a half years on, Kaitlin sponsors other women, maintains her daily prayer and meditation, and uses Sober as a Mother Focused — a beautifully named Instagram — to share the reality of recovery for mothers without tips or preaching. Just her story, honestly told.

You can find Kaitlin on instagram at

https://www.instagram.com/soberasamotherfocused

and on Tik Tok

https://www.tiktok.com/@soberasamotherfocused

Addicted to Recovery Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/addicted-to-recovery/id1727956037

Rachel’s Holiday - Marian Keyes

https://amzn.to/4dJD2rG

Again Rachel - Marian Keyes

https://amzn.to/431tjbB

One Day

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16283804/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Thirteen

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0328538/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug stats

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/substances-risk-factor-vs-direct-deaths

My Instagram is:

https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:

https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…

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Alcohol Explained - William Porter

https://a.co/d/0854fIb6

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace

https://a.co/d/0gy6mT9Z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

https://a.co/d/0jdcIjGb

Donate:

https://motiv8.im/donate/

https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/

My Instagram is:

https://www.instagram.com/recovery_jimmy

And you can find all my other links at:

https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

Buy me a coffee…

https://buymeacoffee.com/afterhourswithjimmyt

Alcohol Explained - William Porter

https://amzn.to/4uMmkyB

This Naked Mind - Annie Grace

https://amzn.to/4eC6L6z

A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

https://amzn.to/44jOV3i

Donate:

https://motiv8.im/donate/

https://nacoa.org.uk/get-involved/donating/donate/

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