Charlie was a high school valedictorian with a full scholarship to college when she found herself suddenly going down the wrong path—an unfortunate detour that included drugs, addiction, jail and plenty of other difficult roads.
After just two semesters at college, Charlie—a chemistry major with a minor in biology—dropped out and was heading into a life of drug use and confusion. At first, she started with cocaine, then she got hooked on pills, and the rest is history.
“My mom was the first person who gave me pills,” Charlie said in a recent appearance on Missy Robertson’s “The Overcomers” podcast. She noted that her mom taught her how to get the pills from doctors. “By the time I was 19, I was doing drugs every day. I would snort cocaine to stay awake and take pills to go to sleep.”
After leaving behind her life of promise, Charlie said that she placed no limits on what she’d do and how far she’d go, as she felt she was headed to hell either way.
“[I thought], If I’m going to hell, I’m going to bust hell wide open,” she said. “That’s just how I lived.”
Her path forward took many twists and turns, with Charlie finding herself addicted, confused—and in legal trouble. Amid the chaos were some truly close calls.
“I remember being so high on Ecstasy and morphine together … that I couldn’t move,” she told Robertson. “And I couldn’t even get any words out. I remember begging God in that moment, ‘Please don’t let me die like this.'”
Eventually, after facing legal ramifications and hitting her rock bottom, Charlie began to turn to God.
Her life came full circle and she left behind the negative behaviors she was engaged in. Now, she’s a staff member with Robertson’s company, Laminin, and she’s helping other women who face similar circumstances change their lives.
“Everyone needs second chances,” she said.
As Faithwire previously reported, Robertson is on a mission to help women “find a new purpose in life”—and she’s partnering with Faithwire to share the harrowing, tragic and ultimately uplifting stories of women—like Charlie—who have overcome the toughest odds.
Robertson owns a jewelry company called Laminin, where she employs women coming out of the sex industry, addiction and poverty, among other life issues. And in her new Faithwire podcast titled “The Overcomers” she’s taking listeners deep into some of these very personal stories. Check out episode one here.
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This article originally appeared on Faithwire.
