Reality star James ‘Arg’ Argent reveals he overdosed twice during cocaine battle

Reality star James “Arg” Argent has revealed he is a drug addict and overdosed twice last year.

The Only Way Is Essex star said his girlfriend Gemma Collins called paramedics twice out of fears for his safety.

Recalling his first overdose in October, he told The Sun: “I locked myself in my house and took drugs for three days straight on my own in the pitch black.

“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.

“Gemma called the ambulance and the police came too and all of a sudden they put my door through. The paramedics did checks on me and I remember being so scared because I had so much paranoia and psychosis.”

He overdosed again two months later, saying: “It was the night before my birthday and I said to myself, ‘Right, ‘I’m not going to do drugs tonight because I want to see my family on my birthday and spend time with Gemma’.

“But my addiction was so bad I couldn’t stop myself. I started early and was in a terrible place. I locked myself in, phone was off and my parents and friends were banging on the door again.

“Gemma called the ambulance and they broke through the door and did all the checks on me and this time they said, ‘There’s absolutely no way you’re staying here’.

“They said, ‘You’ve done so much and your heart is so f***** you could die. You have to come to hospital.’ I’ll never forget being in the ambulance with my poor mum.”

Argent said he was spending £500 a week on cocaine and has been in rehab four times.

He said he was spurred on in his latest attempt to get clean after spending Christmas Day alone.

He told the paper: “My house was a state. I had no food in so the only food I could get was the one kebab shop open on Deliveroo.

“I’ll never forget on Christmas Day sitting on my own eating a kebab for dinner. At that point I knew that was the moment where I said I need to get better and sort this out. You couldn’t get any lower.

“I remember ringing up Mark (Wright, his friend) on Boxing Day saying, ‘I’m ready, can you help me?’

“Mark got in contact with the owners of this boot camp in Thailand who agreed that I could travel there on New Year’s Eve.”

Argent said his loved ones first knew he had a drug problem when he disappeared before he was due to appear at a pool party in Majorca in August 2014.

He said: “My flight was at 4am so in my addict brain I thought I can’t go to sleep at 11pm and only have two hours’ sleep.

“So what I’ll do is take drugs but only do a little bit and then I’ll go straight to the airport.

“But all of a sudden I’m in a bad, bad place and the thought of going to an airport, sitting with hundreds of people on a plane, made me freak out as I knew I was f*****.

“I took myself to The County Hotel in Highams Park, checked in and started using again all morning. I slept through to the following morning and nobody heard from me. My phone had been off for over 24 hours as I had no charger.

“Then – I’ll never forget it – I left my room to ask a cleaner for a charger and when she came back she said, ‘Arg you’re missing, it’s all over Sky News and the internet’.

“When I plugged my phone in I’ve got a thousand missed calls, text messages, WhatsApps. I went on Twitter and ‘Pray for Arg’ was trending worldwide.”