A woman shared a powerful transformation photo to celebrate 4 years of sobriety
The INSIDER Summary:
Dejah Hall is a mother and student from Glendale, Arizona.
She posted on Facebook to celebrate four years of sobriety after a drug addiction.
Her radical transformation inspired other former addicts to share their own stories of struggle and triumph.
On December 6 - the fourth anniversary of her sobriety after years of drug addiction - 26-year-old Dejah Hall made a photo collage and posted it to Facebook.
"Today marks 4 years clean from heroin and meth. The top left is me in full blown addiction," she captioned the collage. "The bottom left is me the day I was arrested."
The photo on the right shows what Hall looks like today, after four years without drug use.
Her radical before-and-after photos have been shared tens of thousands of times - and Hall has become a living example of triumph over addiction.
That transformation was a long time coming: Hall began experimenting with painkillers when she was just 17 years old, Us Weekly reports. By 2011, she'd developed a heroin habit that cost her $240 a day, and the next year, she started to smoke and inject crystal meth. She realized how badly she needed to change her life when she visited her grandfather on his birthday in December 2012.
"My grandfather was sitting in his wheelchair and he looked at me he said, 'You're hurting me Dejah,'" Hall told ABC15.
She promised to get clean, and, hours later, was arrested by local police on felony warrants. She spent two years in prison, where she began her life of sobriety.
Things couldn't be more different today. "I am completing my BA and hope to one day be a prison minister," she wrote on Facebook. "I have a beautiful 18 month old and everyday I thank God that I am not where I once was!" Us Weekly also reports that, in the new year, she'll start a job as a peer support specialist at a rehabilitation center.
About a week after she made her initial post to Facebook, Hall's story was picked up by the Facebook account Love What Matters, where it was shared by more than 15,000 people. Many commenters on the post were spurred to share their own stories of overcoming addiction.
"I am 6 [months] sober from my addiction," wrote one commenter. "There are days that are hard, but now that I am able to see the bigger picture, my struggle is not as difficult [...] I tend to be an impatient person, [but] seeing these success stories lets me know that my goal is ahead of me."
Follow Dejah's journey on Facebook and Instagram.
PostbyLove What Matters.