Man posts selfie a year after quitting crystal meth to show progress of living clean
Ryan Harder: ‘One of the greatest things about being clean is that I got to be sober to see my sister have her baby girl’
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Your support makes all the difference.A man has shown just how much of a difference being clean for a year after quitting an addiction to crystal meth can make, through a selfie.
Ryan Harder, from Minnesota, shared before and after photographs of himself, an older one in which he had been addicted to using the drug, and a newer one in which he had been sober for nearly a year.
Mr Harder posted the photos on Reddit, where he received supportive comments from hundreds on people.
He captioned the photo: “I quit meth almost a year ago. It’s crazy how much can change.”
Many of the commenters congratulated him and shared similar experiences.
Mr Harder said one of the best things about being clean was “I got to be sober to see my sister have her baby girl”.
Formerly an IV meth user, which means injecting the drug intravenously directly into the blood stream, Mr Harder talked about being partially homeless during the last four years, facing “multiple felonies and misdemeanour charges”, and feeling suicidal.
He was introduced to meth through a friend, and ended up being addicted to it for five years.
When asked if it was an instant addiction, he said: “Actually, no. It was like ‘oh wow that was really great and it doesn’t seem as bad as they made it out to be’.
“So I kept doing it thinking I had some type of special and unique self-control that other people don’t have when it comes to meth.”
He admits it was an “illusion of control that swept me in”.
Mr Harder also talked about what his body went through, including hair loss and open wounds.
He said: “The reason my facial hair was so depleted was because I never ate, so my body lacked the nutrients to properly grow hair.”
“[The wounds were] because I picked at my skin trying to pull out ingrown hairs and blackheads with a pair of tweezers. And when it would eventually scab over, I’d end up picking at them again,” he continued.
A regular attendant to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, Mr Harder told Metro.co.uk he has been completely sober since April this year, and his family is his “biggest motivation” for staying clean.
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