I was high-functioning alcoholic mum on mission to get messed up – I wouldn’t have known if kids had fallen down stairs

RACHAEL Shephard, 43, from Hampshire, admits she had a drinking problem.

Here, she reveals how she tried to hold it all together for her two kids, while secretly falling apart – and how she eventually got sober.

Mum Rachael Shephard has opened up about her battles with drinking Rachael admits she used to put her kids to bed early so she could drink herself into a coma

It was 5pm and I was partying hard.

But not the kind of partying I had done in my 20s, hitting the bar and knocking back shots.