Callum Jones
A woman who ripped out her own eyes has recalled the events that led to inflicting the horrific act upon herself.
Kaylee Muthart excelled at school and was very much seen as a straight-A student when she dropped out of the education system at the age of 17.
Kaylee, from Anderson, South Carolina, thought a break from school would be good for her due to working long hours to save up for a car and problems with heart arrhythmia (an irregular heartbeat) taking its toll.
As told in Cosmopolitan, Kaylee said: "By age 18, I was drinking alcohol socially and smoking pot often, while working diligently at my part-time job. I suspected I was prone to addiction, since it ran in my family, so I actively avoided what I considered more serious drugs."
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Continuing to smoke marijuana, at the age of 19 Kaylee experienced a 'strange high' she never previously felt after taking drugs with a pal.
"I'd long been a religious Christian; the high made me feel particularly close to God," she said.
Kaylee believes to this day that the pot was likely mixed with either cocaine or meth, which made her distance herself from the individual she was smoking with.
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The South Carolinian woman never ended up returning to school and her life started to rapidly decline following it - she had no job and her relationship with her boyfriend began to suffer, so she used drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism.
She then experienced a mental breakdown as a result of feeling 'lonely' and 'unhappy'.
"I remembered the way I felt on the laced weed and sought that kind of peace again," Kaylee told Cosmopolitan.
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Kaylee began smoking stronger substances, and as such, hallucinations became a lot more intense.
She recalled: "While on ecstasy, I studied the Bible. I misinterpreted a lot of it. I convinced myself that meth would bring me even closer to God."
After Thanksgiving 2017, Kaylee's addiction became even more intense, despite trying to stop her habits 'two or three times'.
Eventually, Kaylee agreed to go to rehab, but an incident before she arrived led to her ripping her own eyes out.
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After being high from a session the night before, Kaylee feared 'everyone would die, if I didn’t tear out my eyes immediately'. And Kaylee did just that, with the drugs numbing any pain.
Once at hospital, medical professionals performed emergency surgery to remove what was left of the eyes.
It was a long road to recovery, with her recalling: "I was in the hospital for a week, during which I suffered from bad headaches behind my eye sockets and particularly in my temples. They continued to crop up intermittently for about a month.
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"I was offered hydrocodone for the pain but only took it once or twice — I really didn't want to take anything besides Tylenol. I was determined to stay off drugs."
Despite now being fully blind, Kaylee is feeling 'optimistic' about her future and would still like to become a marine biologist one day.
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can call American Addiction Centers on (888) 830-7624 24 hours, seven days a week, or contact them through their website.