Jamison Monroe joined Lon Woodbury on the “Struggling Teens” talk show, which can be heard on LA Talk radio, to talk about teen prescription drug abuse. The focus of the discussion was about what parents can do when their teens indulge in abuse of prescription drugs because of their mood-altering and performance-enhancing effects.
Guest Background
Jamison Monroe is the founder of Newport Academy, Orange California, and a leading proponent of raising healthy, happy, and well-adjusted children by bringing public attention to the quiet crisis of prescription substance abuse amongst teenagers in our country.
His passion for this work arose from his own personal history. Despite an excellent private school education and a supportive family, Monroe coped with the pressure of having to get good grades and perform well in sports by getting addicted to Adderall, a prescription drug that combines amphetamine and dextroamphetamine to stimulate the central nervous system. His road to recovery began after he was admitted to a treatment center that helped him by providing personalized, comprehensive and holistic treatment. The treatment plan, which allowed him to safely address his individual issues while balancing family therapy, would later become the inspiration for creating Newport Academy.
For adolescents battling issues related to prescription substance abuse, Newport Academy offers compassion and support, as well as a highly effective treatment plan. Counselors, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and certified teachers staff Newport Academy. Boys and girls are segregated, each with their own separate treatment programs. These treatment programs range from 45 days all the way to 90 days. Teenagers enrolled in this program receive 30 hours of clinical therapy, and out of this number 20 hours are devoted to group therapy and 10 hours to individual therapy. In addition, experiential programs are implemented like equine therapy. On-site classes coordinate their curriculum with what is going on in the student’s school while they are away or these classes may work with a Charter school.
The Epidemic Nature Of Teen Prescription Drug Abuse
Monroe explained how teen prescription drug abuse is on the rise and has been classified as an epidemic because it is the leading cause of death among adolescents. Teenagers either overdosed on the drug because of their mood enhancing properties or they added MAO inhibitors to help them calm down from the effects of central nervous system stimulants. There was a drastic increase of hospitalizations and deaths from drug overdose by teens using legal prescription drugs like Ritalin, Adderall, OxyContin, Xanex, and Opana. Drug intake was either mixed during the course of the day, for example, taking Ritalin to get more alert and then later Xanax to calm down or a prescription drug was taken with alcohol. The result of this dangerous drug interaction between stimulants and depressants could lead to heart disease, high blood pressure, organ failure, anxiety, agitation, or even death.
One way to reduce the incidence of illegal prescription drug abuse was to educate parents about the fact that just because the drug had been prescribed by a doctor it was not always a safe choice. Some of the things parents could keep an eye out for that would suggest drug abuse included a change in peer group, an unexpected drop in grades, a loss of interest in favorite activities after school, and signs of unusually high sluggishness and tiredness.
He suggested that the best prevention for teen prescription drug abuse was a strong family bond, where parents spent more time with their kids even when they were teenagers, talked about the dangers of illegal and legal drugs, and worked to create a sense of belonging to the family unit.
Find out more about Struggling Teens. Lon Woodbury has the recorded the entire interview about with Jamison Monroe on his L.A. Talk Radio show for people to listen to at any time.
