MENTAL HEALTH continued...

admit to substance misuse or depression, they will often claim anxiety. This is your cue to continue asking open-ended questions, like, “When are you most likely to feel anxiety? How would you describe what your anxiety feels like? What do you think would make you feel better?”

Resist the urge to tell them how they should feel. As parents, our instinct may be to say things like, “You have so many friends!” or, “You’ve got that big game coming up — there’s so much to

Audubon Counseling Center

♦ Adolescent Therapy

♦ Anxiety/Depression

♦ Substance Use and Gambling Treatment

♦ Co-Dependency as it pertains to Addiction

♦ Addiction and Family Dynamics be happy about!” While we may do this with pure intentions, it is not helpful, says Magee. If we really want to know our child, we must do less telling and more listening. Often, telling our children how they feel is a reflection of our own desires to shape them into who or what we think they should be, rather than helping them explore what brings them joy.

Share relatable stories when appropriate. “I am a huge believer in using storytelling to help people grasp a message in a real and heartfelt way,” says Magee, who has made peer-to-peer storytelling a focal point in bringing his message to students. “When parents tell teens about their own struggles with sub- stance misuse, for example, it can be incredibly powerful. They probably recognize it anyway. Likewise, you might tell stories of others who have had success in treatment or recovery, like friends or family members who don’t mind being used as an example.

Obviously, none of this is easy. In fact, it’s the sheer complexity of the mental health and substance misuse epidemic and all its moving parts that led to the creation of the William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing at the University of Mississippi. (“It takes a whole institute to even begin getting our hands around these issues,” notes Magee.)

But one thing is undeniable: Holding conversations like the ones described above should be a top priority for parents, says Magee.

“Engaging with your teens this way is just as important as putting food on the table,” he says. “You wouldn’t think of not nourishing your child’s physical health with regular meals. The same goes for nourishing their mental health. These conversations, along with ensuring that teens get plenty of sleep and exercise and limit their time on social media, go a long way toward changing their reality.”

David Magee is the best-selling author of “Things Have Changed: What Every Parent (and Educator) Should Know About the Student Mental Health and Substance Misuse Crisis” and “Dear William: A Father’s Memoir of Addiction, Recovery, Love, and Loss and other nonfiction books. A changemaker in student and family mental health and substance misuse, he’s the creator and director of operations of the William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing at the University of Mississippi and a frequent K–12 and university educational and motivational speaker, helping students and parents find and keep their joy. He’s also a national recovery advisor for the Integrative Life Network. Learn more at www.daviddmagee.com.

MARIJUANA IS GOING MAINSTREAM… BUT DOES THAT MAKE IT SAFE?

— by Larry Walker

Six Insights All Parents Should Know

Now that marijuana is more widely legal and available, teens (and even their parents) may believe there are no consequences. As a guest on The Mayo Lab Podcast with David Magee, Dr. Larry Walker discusses the effects of cannabis on young people’s brainsand their mental health.

As marijuana is made legal in more parts of the country, it’s becoming more normalized than ever before. And teens and young people have taken notice (despite most states’ attempts to limit exposure to young people). Now that it is deeply engrained in our culture, even parents might be wondering what’s the big deal if their children become regular marijuana users.

Dr. Larry Walker says it’s a big deal indeed. Teens who use cannabis are at risk for a range of serious mental and health-related problems.

“Parents and young people alike may believe that marijuana use is not problematic, but that couldn’t be further from the truth where teens and adolescents are concerned,” says Dr. Larry Walker, interim director of the National Center for Cannabis Research and Education (NCCRE) at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi. “Starting marijuana, especially in one’s early years, sets a pattern that can be devastating. We know enough to know that drug abuse in young people changes the way their brains develop.”

Parents need to push back against the culture that convinces children that this addictive drug is safe, says Dr. Walker, who is the latest featured guest on The Mayo Lab Podcast with David Magee, which serves as a single source of research-based guidance for parents, educators, and students. (Listen at https://themayolab.com and on Apply and Spotify.) Marijuana is more powerful — and often more dangerous and addictive — now than it was in recent decades.

Here are six insights parents should know about modern marijuana use and their children.

Street marijuana is far more potent than it used to be. Teens and young adults need to know that this isn’t your mother’s or your grandmother’s mild marijuana. Modern marijuana is far more potent. Dealers and experimenters are finding new ways to strengthen the drug and rapidly distribute it to the brain. Dr. Walker shares that since the early ’90s, the potency of marijuana, which was then running from 3 or 4 percent, is now approaching an average of 20 percent (and many samples are much higher than that). There’s been almost a tenfold increase in the potency of marijuana, not to mention other changes that may be going on as we’re breeding the plants and selecting them. Someone who isn’t well accustomed to using modern marijuana is vulnerable to experiencing serious problems due to its potency alone.

“Parents today have no idea what their children face using street marijuana,” says podcast host and student wellbeing activist David Magee, who, in his role as director of operations at the William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing focuses on helping students with alcohol and other drug education and support. “And many students themselves are duped, unsure of what’s happening to them or why. I hear it all the time, and it’s the single most surprising thing I learn from so many students I get to engage with from throughout the country.”

Legal or not, marijuana can be highly addictive. Though it does not create dramatic withdrawal symptoms like heroin or crack, cannabis causes serious withdrawal symptoms, and many users are surprised to find that they cannot stop without professional help. Magee, whose late son William struggled with drug addiction before dying of an accidental drug overdose, recalls how marijuana slowly took over his son’s life.

“Some may not have physical withdrawals, but rather emotional withdrawal symptoms,” says Magee. “My son wrote journal entries describing how emotionally difficult it was for him to separate himself from marijuana. Because for him, it had become a ritual that began when he woke up, continued at midday, and concluded at night so he could go to sleep. And I hear the same things from continued on page 36