Leah Messer has experienced many ups and downs over the years, but unlike some of her more notorious Teen Mom co-stars, she was eventually able to conquer her demons.
In 2020, Leah published a memoir in which she revealed surprising new details about her painful past.
Readers were shocked by tales of Leah's abusive childhood and her harrowing custody battles.
But it seems that the portions of the book that affected readers most deeply were the ones in which Leah recounted her struggles with addiction.
It was no secret that Leah had abused prescription pain medications at one point in her life.
Longtime Teen Mom 2 viewers might recall the scene in which Leah passed out while holding a young child.
Thankfully, she was seated at the time, and no one was injured.
It seems that wasn't the wake up call that Leah needed, as not only did she continue using, she kept denying that she had ever struggled with substance abuse.
It wasn't until the publication of her memoir that Leah admitted there were times when she was so high she forgot she was making a TV show.
In the book, Leah revealed that a "botched" epidural during the delivery of her youngest daughter in 2013 left her in excruciating pain.
Her doctor prescribed her opioids, and when the prescription ran out, Leah found herself turning to street dealers to achieve the same high.
It's an all too common tale in America, and for many, it ends in tragedy.
"The crazy thing is, I didn’t even know I was that out of it when they were filming. I’ve been taking a lot of medications, but I’m not a drug addict," Messer wrote in her memoir.
She says she developed a physical dependency on Hydrocodone, Oxycodone and Tylenol 3.
Leah was also prescribed diazepam (the generic term for Xanax) for her anxiety, and she noted that the drug “really knocked me out.”
“At first, the medications helped dull the pain in my body and my mind, but at some point, they stopped helping. Now, I’m starting to think they might be part of the problem," she said in the last months of her addiction.
“I just want to feel normal, but I’m either in so much physical pain that I can barely stand, or so foggy from the pills that I look like a junkie.”
Now that a full year has passed since the public learned the full truth about Leah's condition, some fans are curious as to how she's holding up.
Messer hasn't offered any sort of update on her condition in several months -- but that might be a good thing, as it's likely a sign that nothing has changed.
Her last post that addressed the issue of her drug addiction appeared in September of 2020, in celebration of National Recovery Month.
At the time, many fans pointed out that Leah still drinks alcohol, and that sort of judgment might be why she stopped offering updates on her recovery.
The important is that Leah has parted ways with the drugs that were destroying her life -- and we hope that she'll be celebrating National Recovery Month in 2021, as well.