NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Lifestyle

From meth addict to apprentice: How Bex Phillipson turned her life around

womans-day
By Cloe Willetts
Woman's Day·
9 Dec, 2023 05:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

This Upper Hutt mum turned her life around for her daughter. Photo / Woman's Day

This Upper Hutt mum turned her life around for her daughter. Photo / Woman's Day

Warning: mention of drugs

When Bex Phillipson tells people she juggles being a breastfeeding mum-of-two with a building apprenticeship, they’re usually impressed. But there’s an even more remarkable element to the Upper Hutt woman’s story.

She’s an ex-methamphetamine addict who was involved with gangs and drug dealing before turning her life around three years ago.

“I had a very Christian, loving and stable family with really good role models growing up,” says Bex, 33, who went to rehab in October 2020, so she wouldn’t lose care of her eldest daughter Lucy, 10. “No matter what background you come from, when you start using drugs, it’s so easy to forget everything you’ve been shown.”

Bex was 16 when she first tried the class A drug with her peers, deciding she wouldn’t try it again because she knew it was highly addictive. But six years later, as a first-time mum, she went through a difficult break-up with her daughter’s dad and tried it again.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“Pretty much as soon as I started smoking meth, I started selling it and it snowballed really fast into me using every day,” she recalls. “I also got addicted to the rush of making fast money. It was a buzz fitting in with people in the drug scene after feeling like an outsider growing up. You’re suddenly really cool because you’ve got the stuff.”

Everyone around Bex Phillipson could see she’d lost a lot of weight, her skin looked unhealthy and her behaviour had changed. Photo / Woman's Day
Everyone around Bex Phillipson could see she’d lost a lot of weight, her skin looked unhealthy and her behaviour had changed. Photo / Woman's Day

In Bex’s eyes, if she hadn’t lost custody of her daughter, she was doing fine. But everyone around her could see she’d lost a lot of weight, her skin looked unhealthy and her behaviour had changed. Even when police detectives began following her and raiding her house, Bex continued to deny her drug use to family.

“When you’re surrounded by other people who are doing it, you think it’s normal,” she says. “I was put on curfew, but I kept breaching it and getting arrested. The last time it happened, an officer said I’d be going to jail the next day and I broke down because I was desperate to change for my daughter.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“He told me that to have any chance of not going to jail, I had to be honest with my mum and get into rehab. I called her to admit I was on drugs and she contacted a private rehab facility in Upper Hutt straight away.”

Able to enter the facility two weeks later, Bex continues, “I was allowed to go on bail to my mum’s home in a retirement village for the weeks before rehab, which she paid for using her KiwiSaver money. It cost around $19,000 for 28 days.”

Woman's Day.
Woman's Day.

During her first week in rehab, Bex panicked when she received a letter from the family court saying she was about to lose custody of her then 7-year-old daughter. She promised herself she’d become a better mother.

“That was my drive and it still is every day to stay on the path I’m on,” Bex shares. “I felt a lot of guilt and shame, and it was heartbreaking. When I got out of rehab and was allowed to pick up Lucy from school, it felt like I’d just run some insane marathon, crossed the finish line and got a big medal. But there was still such a big marathon to run.”

Thanks to the support of her brother Josh, 37, she and Lucy were able to stay in a self-contained studio at the bottom of his house. Josh had her sign a contract agreeing to random drug testing, no visitors unless given permission and having to live by his house rules. After a few months of proving she was serious, her probation officer agreed that Josh could take her to his job sites twice a week and Bex started her four-year building apprenticeship in September 2021.

Bex's probation officer agreed that her brother Josh could take her to his job sites twice a week and Bex started her four-year building apprenticeship in September 2021. Photo / Woman's Day
Bex's probation officer agreed that her brother Josh could take her to his job sites twice a week and Bex started her four-year building apprenticeship in September 2021. Photo / Woman's Day

“My life before was so hard that sometimes I was hiding in a motel room from police and paying people to pick up my daughter, so a challenge like digging six 50cm holes was small!” says Bex, who unexpectedly became pregnant with her youngest daughter Sarah, 15 months, at the end of her first year.

Bex took nine months off with her baby, who she welcomed with her now-husband Ben, 32, an engineer she met in recovery and married in August this year.

“Now I work three days a week building because I’m still breastfeeding, so it’s really different to a lot of the other tradies!” she says. “But everyone is on board with it and BCITO, the building and construction trainer I study through, has been so supportive.”

“I love that my family is proud of me now, especially my daughter. That’s everything.”  Photo / Woman's Day
“I love that my family is proud of me now, especially my daughter. That’s everything.” Photo / Woman's Day

For the inspiring mum, who has spoken on stage in front of groups about her recovery, building keeps her busy and motivated, while also helping her process memories of her troubled past in a healthy way.

“I like seeing the good things I can do with my hands after all the bad things I did with them,” tells Bex. “I love that my family is proud of me now, especially my daughter. That’s everything.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
  • If you’re struggling with drugs or alcohol, call 0800 787 787 or see alcoholdrughelp.org.nz.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
Lifestyle

I thought I was a ‘moderate’ drinker until I started tracking my alcohol

18 Jun 12:00 AM
Premium
Lifestyle

UK sculptor claims NZ artwork copied his design, seeks recognition

17 Jun 10:23 PM
New Zealand

Wapiti burger takes Rotorua eatery to Wild Food Challenge final

17 Jun 08:58 PM

Sponsored: Embrace the senses

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
I thought I was a ‘moderate’ drinker until I started tracking my alcohol

I thought I was a ‘moderate’ drinker until I started tracking my alcohol

18 Jun 12:00 AM

Telegraph: Many of us are prone to wishful thinking when it comes to our alcohol intake.

Premium
UK sculptor claims NZ artwork copied his design, seeks recognition

UK sculptor claims NZ artwork copied his design, seeks recognition

17 Jun 10:23 PM
Wapiti burger takes Rotorua eatery to Wild Food Challenge final

Wapiti burger takes Rotorua eatery to Wild Food Challenge final

17 Jun 08:58 PM
Premium
How to tackle your to-do list if you struggle with executive functioning

How to tackle your to-do list if you struggle with executive functioning

17 Jun 06:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP