Kaylee Muthart, a former straight-A student from Anderson, South Carolina, shocked the world when she tore out her own eyes.
At 17, Muthart was in the National Honor Society, excelling academically with dreams of studying marine biology.
Long work hours to save for a car, coupled with a heart arrhythmia, caused her grades to slip.
To protect her academic record, she chose to take a break from school midway through eleventh grade.
Her ultimate goal was to earn a college scholarship and pursue her passion for marine biology.
By 18, Muthart was socially drinking and regularly smoking marijuana while working part-time.
She told Cosmopolitan that addiction runs in her family, but she avoided harder drugs initially.
At 19, a strange high from smoking pot with an acquaintance, possibly laced with cocaine or meth, changed everything.
This high made her feel closer to God, but feeling betrayed, she quit her job to avoid that friend.
Muthart never returned to school, and her life began to spiral as she drank and smoked more.
After a breakup, she turned to Xanax to cope with loneliness and unhappiness, further deteriorating her mental state.
Seeking the peace she felt from laced weed, she tried meth, which led to hallucinations and self-harm.
Embarrassed by her actions, she missed work, lost her job, and began using ecstasy, misinterpreting religious texts.
Her mother, desperate to help, struggled to get Muthart into rehab, as she denied needing help.
Despite agreeing to rehab, Muthart used a large dose of meth, leading to intense hallucinations the next day.
While high, she believed she needed to sacrifice her eyes to save the world, gouging them out in a drug-fueled frenzy.
Now blind, Muthart underwent emergency surgery and, after recovery, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, finding hope in her future.