Dad kicks £1,500-a-weekend cocaine binges with 5 minute ice baths

A dad addicted to £1,500-a-weekend cocaine binges is sober for the first time in 18 years – and puts it down to a daily five minute ice bath. Lewis Milton, 36, started going to casinos to gamble and drink – and eventually do cocaine – aged 18, with friends he played football with.

Dad-of-one Lewis, from Dagenham, Essex, quickly became hooked – gambling, drinking and sniffing away £3,000 he was given by his family, in a matter of days. The former recruitment account manager even stole his parents’ credit cards and pawned his grandmother’s jewellery to fund his habits.

And despite trying to get sober “at least 15 times”, he always went back to drugs – cycling through employers and blowing thousands of pounds.

Over the years, Lewis was arrested for aggressive behaviour, hospitalised with liver damage, suffered from rotting teeth and ended up suicidal and homeless after his relationships with his family and friends broke down. But in 2025, Lewis heard about cold water therapy as a form of addiction support – and he decided to give it a go to get sober.

He says the six-degree water in the inflatable plunge pool in his back garden gives him a shock which reduces his anxiety and grounds him. Lewis has now been clean and sober for over 100 days – and credits all his progress to his ice bath therapy.

He said: “I remember being 17 and going into the bookies with my older football friends – I hit a big win one time and from there I fell into gambling. I ended up out every weekend, drinking to fit in and taking cocaine – and soon it became one continuous binge for seven days and nights without sleep.

“I stole credit cards, pawned my nan’s jewellery, lost my job for not showing up, and racked up debts with dealers. I would go days without eating – just smoking 20-25 joints a day.

“I was numb to everything. I was waiting for something like a heart attack to happen – I didn’t see a way out, or how I would ever stop.

“But now I’m over 100 days sober. I’ve put on weight, eat well, have new teeth and I do an ice bath every day.

“I was destroying and abusing my body – I feel lucky enough to have another chance in life.” When Lewis began going out with football mates, trips to the pub led to the casinos and he began drinking and dabbling with cocaine while gambling every weekend.

Soon, it was no longer “just a bit of fun” and was essential for him to enjoy his nights. Lewis said: “I came into £3,000 from family and I remember having no control – within days I had spunked all the money.

“I started stealing mum and dad’s credit cards when I ran out of money – I would claim the winnings in cash and try to pay it back before they noticed. But eventually their cards started declining – and that, coupled with the drink and drugs, got me kicked out my home.”

Lewis would borrow cash from friends but never pay them back, and then he began racking up debts with dealers. He said: “Once, I won £5k from a £20 bet in the bookies and within two hours it was all gone.

“It got nasty. Once my dad had to pay back £2,500 to a dealer who threatened to kill me if I didn’t get the money back to him.”

He first interacted with Gambling Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous aged 24. He even got clean for 88 days – and thought he had cracked it – until he relapsed with a seven-day “bender” alone, with no sleep.

Things took a dark turn when he began using marijuana more heavily – which made him “angry, aggressive and a horrible person”. He said: “I would kick and throw things, once my mum went upstairs and called the police and I was arrested.

“I went apesh*t.” He spent hardly any time with his daughter, now two, when she was born in April 2024 – because he was on a “bender” after losing his most recent job.

Lewis was hospitalised in June 2025 with liver damage, a hernia, and jaundice. The same year, he was banned from his football ground for bringing in drugs.

He said: “I was in such a destructive mode. I would smoke a joint and have a cup of tea, that’s all I took in for weeks.”

His turning point finally came when he was introduced to ice plunging through a video he spotted of Wim Hof on Instagram Reels, and decided to try it. In an attempt to help his son get sober, Lewis’ dad gifted him a plunge pool for Christmas 2025 – and in January he started attending Fellowship meetings again.

He went sober once and for all on January 30 and hasn’t looked back. He sees his two-year-old daughter, Marla-May Milton, regularly, got dentures to replace his broken teeth, eats a healthy diet and has got back up to a healthy weight.

He does a five minute daily ice plunge – and found it helps to keep cravings at bay due to the cold shock. Lewis is still paying off £10k of debts from gambling and drug use – but said he is on the right path now.

He said: “I feel incredible – I feel so proud, I don’t even know how I’ve done it, but I have. Once, I could never be without a pocket flask of Jack Daniels and I was taking a minimum of five grams of cocaine a day.

“Now, my life is so different – I get goosebumps thinking about it.” Lewis can be found on Instagram @‌iceolatedroots.

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