A Tennessee couple shared before-and-after photos on Facebook of their successful journey from drug addiction to a happy and healthy life free of drugs for nearly three years.
Brent and Ashley Walker, of Cleveland, posted their amazing photos on Facebook on July 26. They had been battling drug addiction for years.
Brent, now 30, started smoking cigarettes when he was 9, did Marijuana at 12, and at 15, he says, “I was full-blown into anything and everything I could get my hands on, including acid, ecstasy, and Molly,” Fox News reported.
“I’ve done drugs my entire life. I remember telling my friends that I will never live the sober life—it was so boring, I couldn’t see how people could live sober,” Brent told Inside Edition.
Not only was he into consuming drugs, but he also started dealing with 18, together with his younger brother. A habit that made him rack up several crime-related felonies, and jail time, more than once.
But when his brother died in a driving under influence accident, Brent went even deeper into trouble and got hooked on meth.
“There’s hope. You don’t have to live that life forever,” Brent told the outlet.
Ashley, his wife, added, “Your dreams can be possible. You just have to wake up.”
The pair got to know each other, as Ashley, who has her history of drug abuse and jail time, was a customer of Bret’s for marijuana and other drugs.
They started a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship, but somehow managed to stick together over the years.
“It was very exhausting,” said Ashley, now 32. “It was like you’re on a roller coaster. He would have his few days that he wouldn’t be on the drugs and we would be coming down, and he would be him. When he would get back with his old friends, he would be a totally different person,” Inside Edition reported.
Brent added, “I’ve treated her like complete garbage. Meth makes you do crazy stuff, overthink things, hallucinate. I would think she’s doing something even though she’s been at the house the whole day. We just fought all the time.”
“I always told him I see something different in him, and I want to have that long-lasting relationship with him. I always wanted to be sober with him, have a family, have a life with him,” Ashley said. “I knew we would be able to do it. We just couldn’t get past the drugs.”
Then, on December 31, 2016, “I asked her if she’d quit with me and she said ‘yes, I go wherever you go,” Brent told Knox News.
They cut off all their former drug-related contacts and made new friends. They joined Celebrate Recovery, a Christian rehabilitation program for people with all kinds of addictions.
And after one month of being clean, on January 30, they got married in the same church they still go to today.
“I hope… my transformation can encourage an addict somewhere”
Recovering meth addict Brent Walker posted before-and-after photos of him and his wife on Facebook – and went viralhttps://t.co/d8v1XiYJLy pic.twitter.com/XDa63wTp6r
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 6, 2019
“Just making small goals is how we started,” Ashley said.
First, they bought a car. Then Bret has earned his GED, and Ashley is planning to become a certified nurse.
The couple is also trying to improve their financial situation by fixing their credit score to be able to put down a payment on a home.
They are also trying to regain custody of their children they had from previous relationships.
The Facebook post was initially intended for an inner circle of 20 friends or so but it soon exploded on the internet. It now has more than 141,000 shares and 18,000 comments in 11 days.
“I hope that my transformation can encourage an addict somewhere! It is possible to recover!!” Brent said, according to Fox.