A recovering meth and heroin addict who tried to take her own life while behind bars has shared inspiring before and after photos showing her dramatic transformation.
Jamee Valet, of Sweet Home, Oregon, was featured in a Tuesday post on 'The Addict's Diary' Facebook page where she shared her recent milestone of receiving her GED diploma.
'My name is Jamee and I am a recovering heroin and meth addict,' the post reads. 'These pictures are 2 years apart. The better looking version of me being just a few months ago when I got my GED! Recovery is possible!'
Two photos of the recent graduate are included in the post - one showing a bruised Valet in 2017 and the other, showing the now 25-year-old in July for her graduation ceremony.
Jamee Valet, of Sweet Home, Oregon, was featured in a Tuesday post on 'The Addict's Diary' Facebook page where she shared her recent milestone of receiving her GED diploma.
In an interview with DailyMail.com, Valet - who works in construction but wants to be an esthetician - shared that she snapped the bruised photo in 2017 as a means to get her life together.
In an interview with DailyMail.com, Valet - who works in construction but wants to be an esthetician - shared that her childhood was 'really rough'
'I love popping zits really bad and that was something I did when I was on meth,' she said. 'I am a picker really bad.'
Valet continued: 'I had been sitting all night in my car in a parking lot to meet up with someone for drugs. I stayed there afterwards and was using the rearview mirror to pick at my face. It was morning time and I realized I'd been sitting there all this time.'
The recovering addict has a long history of drug usage, having started smoking pot at the age 13.
Describing her childhood as 'really rough,' Valet said that drugs, sex and alcohol quickly became 'ways that I found to escape reality.'
By the time she turned 15, Valet started dating a boy who got her hooked on pills, including: Vicodin, Morphine, Oxycodone, Dilaudid and Percocets.
'He was the person who taught me how to crush them up and snort them,' Valet said of her boyfriend and the time. 'That very quickly took over and opiates became my best friend.'
She started using pot at 13, pills at 15 and started using meth and heroin at 17 after she was raped by two men
Valet shared that at 17, she dropped out of high school and was raped by two men in one night while she was so incoherent from being drunk.
Two months later, she would be introduced to heroin and meth.
She said: 'I was traumatized and depressed from the rapes, and the the first thing I did the day I walked out of the door was met up with some guy.'
Valet described how she met up with a man who informed her that he was a drug dealer, showing her some heroin in tinfoil.
The two went back to his home and that's when Valet got hooked, stating that there were 'so many drugs' at the residence and that the dealer 'kept feeding it' to her 'all night.'
Valet, who was using daily, started stealing to get her hands on drugs. By the time she was 19, the teen was arrested for the first time.
'I didn't know limits,' she said. 'I remember throwing up and doing more and throwing up and doing more. I made a fool of myself.'
She added: 'He sent me home after four days and it took me two weeks to come down. I felt the effects for days but recouped and went right back out.'
Valet, who was using daily, started stealing to get her hands on drugs. By the time she was 19, the teen was arrested for the first time.
She has been arrested six times throughout the course of her life
For her first arrest, she had been caught trying to rob a home and had also stolen a grandmother's purse from WalMart.
While in jail, she tried to hang herself.
'Suicide was my escape plane my whole life,' Valet said. 'When I was in jail for the first time, I didn't have drugs to numb myself and my actions kept catching up to me.'
Valet took her sheet and hung herself, only saved when her cellmate returned back to their cell earlier than anticipated. Paramedics came to resuscitate Valet - who did not have a pulse.
She was in a coma for two days as a result. When Valet woke up, she declared to her mother that she would not do drugs again.
'After that, I went straight to a man that I had sex for money with and went straight back to it,' Valet stated. She has been arrested six times in total.
Valet would wind up on probation and when she was 19, she stayed clean for nine months.
'I did okay in that time but something kept gnawing at me saying "you're not done,"' she said.
While in jail for her first arrest, Valet she tried to hang herself. She was in a coma for two days as a result
Valet relapse and wound up in a year long inpatient program, where she met her current boyfriend - Jake.
The two completed the program and eventually moved in together, with the then 20-year-old Valet believing the newest chapter meant that she was done with her drug addiction.
'I got pregnant and miscarried, which caused me to relapse,' explained Valet. 'I put my boyfriend through hell. I stole from him.'
The couple share two dogs - Prince and Belle - and Valet said that she would often leave Jake and her 'babies' at home so that she could get a fix.
Valet relapse and wound up in a year long inpatient program, where she met her current boyfriend - Jake. She would suffer two miscarriages that motivated her to relapse but she turned her life around thanks to Jake's mother
Jake almost left Valet but a chance trip to visit his family helped the recovering addicts life.
'That's when we told them we had a problem,' she said. 'I wound up going cold turkey for 16 days and his mom nursed me back to health before sending me to a 90 day inpatient program.'
Valet describes the program - the Cheshire Center/Williamette Family, Inc - as being one of the 'best programs.'
The woman continued on her path of recovery, eventually getting her license. Another miscarriage motivated her to relapse for a 'super short period of time' before she got her life together.
Valet pictured receiving her GED diploma in July
She has since been clean for a year and celebrated getting her GED in January. Her graduation ceremony was held in July.
The construction worker is currently working to build her relationship back up with her family.
The construction worker is currently working to build her relationship back up with her family
While she struggled through addiction, Valet stole from her family: she took her uncle's gun and pawned it for heroin, she stole her grandmother's card and took money out of the woman's bank account and she even took some of her boyfriend's tools and pawned them.
'Family was such a big loss in my addiction,' she said. I'm fighting to earn their trust back and earn my place back.'
Valet has made progress with them - her brother is coming to stay with her and her father has plans to visit for Christmas.
'I'm spending quality time with the ones I want to fight for and also focusing on which ones are toxic and which bring me down and bring me back to my addiction,' she added.
For other people struggling with addiction, Valet just wants them to take baby steps.
'My heart breaks for people who are hopeless,' Valet said. 'I don't want them to feel that way because there is always hope.'
She continued: 'No matter how low how you're feeling or how your life is, it does get better. It is up to you to make it better, you can't be like "my life sucks" and not do anything to change it.'
College is in Valet's future, as she has hopes of being an esthetician.
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