Before, after photos of meth addiction, recovery go viral
CLEVELAND – Brent Walker never thought he would live a life of sobriety. He was smoking cigarettes at age 9, smoking marijuana at age 12 and selling drugs by age 15.
When his 19-year-old brother died while drinking and driving, Alexander turned to meth.
“I’ve done drugs my entire life. I remember telling people all the time that I could literally never be sober. It would be a boring lifestyle.”
The now-steelworker and heating/air conditioning worker has been clean for two years and eight months.
He made a Facebook post on July 26, showing a before-and-after photo of him and his wife, Ashley Walker, with the #CleanChallenge hashtag.
As of Friday morning, the post has 188,000 reactions, 16,000 comments and 135,000 shares.
The first picture was taken in December 2016, after Brent said he had just served two years for three counts of sale and delivery of methamphetamine and felony evading of law enforcement.
He and his then on-and-off girlfriend, Ashley, were still meeting up to get high. But a close call with a drug test while on probation made Brent re-evaluate their decisions. He told Ashley he was done.
“I asked her if she’d quit with me and she said ‘yes, I go wherever you go.”
That was Dec. 31, 2016.
On the couple’s one month anniversary of being clean, Brent and Ashley got married in a church they still go to today.
They consider themselves blessed, but they said it wasn’t easy by any means.
Ashley had her own history with substance abuse, including marijuana and meth.
Brent and Ashley spent 2 months in friends’ homes before getting their own place. They’d walked to work and the grocery store. Brent was a manager at a car wash and Ashley worked at a local factory.
About four months later, they bought a 2001 Honda Civic.
They joined Celebrate Recovery, a Christian program that serves people with all kinds of addictions.
“It’s just a real good support group of people that truly care about you,” Brent said.
The couple changed their numbers and deleted numbers of people who had anything to do with drugs or alcohol. Now, when they feel a craving, they call someone from their recovery group.
They set personal goals and take weekend trips.
Brent works about 60-70 hours a week between his two jobs, and Ashley is a patient care technician.
Brent got his GED last year and Ashley has plans to become a registered nurse. She eventually wants to help mothers with drug addictions find outlets to become sober. The couple is also working to get custody of Ashley’s two young children from a previous relationship.
NO INTENTION OF GOING VIRAL
Brent said he originally created the post to inspire some friends and family to try a life of sobriety.
He didn’t expect the post to go viral, but he’s grateful that it did.
He said he has had about 20 people message him saying his post has inspired them to go to rehab.
But he knows pushing people into recovery isn’t the way to go.
“Don’t give up, it gets easier. It’s really hard. We had a really hard time, just because we didn’t have nobody to talk to … But if you don’t give up … the grass is greener on the other side. It’s been a blessing. It really has.”