The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence with NYT Bestselling Author, Jessica Lahey

10/18/21 • 54 min

In this supportive, life-saving resource, the New York Times bestselling author of The Gift of Failure helps parents and educators understand the roots of substance abuse and identify who is most at risk for addiction, and offers practical steps for prevention.

Jessica Lahey was born into a family with a long history of alcoholism and drug abuse. Despite her desire to thwart her genetic legacy, she became an alcoholic and didn’t find her way out until her early forties. Jessica has worked as a teacher in substance abuse programs for teens, and was determined to inoculate her two adolescent sons against their most dangerous inheritance. All children, regardless of their genetics, are at some risk for substance abuse. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, teen drug addiction is the nation’s largest preventable and costly health problem. Despite the existence of proven preventive strategies, nine out of ten adults with substance use disorder report they began drinking and taking drugs before age eighteen.

The Two Jess(es) welcome this incredible third Jess, once again, for another rattling WeSTAT conversation on the topic of alcohol, your kids, substance abuse disorder, and how our relationship to ALL of it, desperately needs to be examined- for the sake of our children's brain development.

Meet Jessica!
Jessica Lahey writes about education, parenting, and child welfare for The Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Atlantic and is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. She is a member of the Amazon Studios Thought Leader Board and wrote the curriculum for Amazon Kids’ The Stinky and Dirty Show. She lives in Vermont with her husband and two sons.
To learn more, go to: https://www.jessicalahey.com/
Link to FB Video mentioned at end of show:
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&v=382651633389095

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Previous Episode

We Should Talk about Teens and Their Mental Health with Influencer & MH Advocate (and Rising 9th Grader!) Zach Gottlieb

Meet Zach Gottlieb, the "TEEN Instagrammer" who is getting guys and other teens to talk about their mental health, in particular those issues related to male feelings and toxic masculinity. In this episode, the Two Jess(es) are blown away by this teen's articulate way of expressing his experiences and observations around his own mental health, as he shares WHY he started his Instagram page (@talkwithzach) and how teens all over the world and looking to him for advice to source answers to their questions that most teens are not talking about openly, but should.

To find out more about Zach, you can read about him here:
https://katiecouric.com/health/teen-wants-to-get-guys-to-talk-about-their-feelings-end-toxic-masculinity/

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Next Episode

Give Up or Get Up. A Conversation on Surviving Grief and Perfectionism with author and 100% Human Founder, Karen Allen

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When Karen Allen was 29 years old, she was a wife, a mother of a two year old, and had the whole wide world ahead of her. And then, it all fell apart- and in the space of a breath, her life was completely derailed, and a new one began, when an armed shooter walked into her husband's Crossfit studio, and shot him in the head, killing him instantly.
A widow before she turned 30, it was when her 2 year old wandered into her bedroom and wanted to know if she was going to get out of bed- that she realized she had two choices. She could either give up, or get up. And then she realized, she always had more than one choice in life. And the best choice is always going to be to embrace the messy middle of being 100% human.
A conversation on perfectionism and recovery- on authenticity and excellence- the fullness of the human experience- Karen breaks down how to have a more meaningful connection with their own humanity with the Two Jess(es).
Meet Karen:
Karen is proud to be a...
✔ Super-mom and totally figuring it out as I go
✔ Keynote speaker who still gets bubbly butterflies (learn my trick to turn those anxious nerves into uplifting excitement)
✔ Healthy eater who also loves pizza and greasy burgers
✔ Super organized person who can never find her Airpods
✔ Amateur musician who sings off-key sometimes while cooking, cleaning and driving
who helps people all over the world get out of a rut and wholeheartedly pursue their biggest goals; because she knows first hand that when you choose to be better, you make the people and the world around you better, too. Karen turned her epiphany into a clear, actionable mindset that provides a “get out of perfection free” card for all of the beautiful, imperfect humans out there . 100% HumanTM is about developing the mindset and tools to stop feeling tossed around by life and start focusing on the joy and abundance that is actually under your control.
https://www.karenallen.co/about

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