Eight months clean after quitting crystal meth can make a big difference.
These photographs show how one man who ditched the drug in April already looks completely different now compared to when he was highly dependent.
The during (left) and after (right) addiction photographs were posted Tuesday to Imgur by Redditor Minnesotapolis, from St. Paul, Minnesota. The toll the drug can take on users' physical appearance is well documented, and is evident in the during picture.
Minnesotapolis appears pale, bloated and bleary-eyed in a police booking shot taken while he was hooked on the drug. Scabs are dotted across his face and neck, which is one of the telltale signs of a meth addict -- users repeatedly pick at spots, with many reporting the sensation that bugs are crawling under their skin.
"My facial hair was so depleted because I never ate, so my body lacked the nutrients to properly grow hair," he explained in a later Reddit post. "It also goes with the open wounds and scars on my body now."
The image taken since he kicked the narcotic show he's lost weight and regained the color in his face. "I quit meth almost a year ago. It's crazy how much can change," he wrote alongside the images.
Minnesotapolis told Metro.co.uk that he started taking drugs when he was 14 and progressed to the extremely addictive crystal form of methamphetamine -- which, when smoked or injected, induces a powerful high followed by an intense low -- four years later.
Initially he thought that he "had some type of special and unique self control that other people don't have when it comes to meth." "It didn't take long and I was addicted," he added on Reddit.
When asked by other Redditors if he watched AMC's hit show "Breaking Bad" -- about mild-mannered teacher Walter White becoming a brutally violent meth-dealing drug kingpin -- he replied he was "too busy doing meth to watch a show about it."
He revealed how he racked up multiple felonies and misdemeanor charges for possession of the drug.
While answering questions from other Redditors, he said his breaking point came earlier this year when the drug finally took its toll on his mental health and he tried to kill himself.
"I finally had just had enough one day and I was going to jump off the Smith bridge in St. Paul. But the police stopped me and brought me to the psych ward," he wrote. It was, he said, around his tenth time in treatment, and he's remained clean ever since.
He says his family is a huge motivation to stay clean, and said being sober meant he could be a proper uncle to his sister's baby girl.
Minnesotapolis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also on HuffPost: