Lennox visits JWP, talks mental health, addiciton

Jason Lennox, a mental health and recovery advocate, visited with all high school students at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (JWP) schools on Nov. 14 about the importance of paying attention to mental health and the harm that comes from stigma. He told students he hoped they would develop awareness, a new perspective, and a new level of compassion.

 

Lennox, originally from Massachusetts, grew up mostly in Minnesota. He shared the story of his own recovery from addiction after a drug overdose in 2010. Over the years, he has used his story in his speeches as a transformational speaker at churches, schools, and various other organizations. In 2022, he wrote a memoir called “A Perfect Tragedy,” parts of which he read to the JWP students in the auditorium.

 

During his discussion, Lennox shared some statistics, starting with one that reveals half of adolescents begin to struggle with mental health by the age of 14, including depression. Among all teens, about 40 percent experience consistent sadness and struggle with hopelessness. Distressingly, about six percent of teenagers attempt suicide.

 

“Suicide and mental health struggles are the second leading cause of death for teenagers in Minnesota,” Lennox said. “We are trained to just suck it up,” he commented, meaning that many people in crisis choose not to tell others about their struggles out of a desire not to seem weak.

 

Lennox set the stage as he began with an emphasis on respect and asked students to open their minds and be curious rather than judgmental. 

 

After asking the group how they would respond if they knew someone was in pain, he gave them a minute or so to talk among themselves before asking what they had come up with. Some answers included being there if the person needed anything without bailing them out, talking with them, and getting help with therapy.

 

Referring to a mugshot projected to the front of the room, Lennox asked group members for their initial impressions of the individual. Words including “rock bottom,” “drugs,” “guilt,” “scared,” and “disappointment” were called out. He went on to caution that emotionally charged judgments are often based on a lack of awareness. 

 

Lennox shared that his own dad died from alcohol abuse at 39. Three years earlier, at 36, he had been warned by a doctor he had developed cirrhosis. The doctor gave him two options: he could stop drinking and extend his life, or he could keep drinking and probably die within a few years. Lennox’s mom, who lived in Minnesota, invited the dad to live with her and their two sons under the condition that he give up alcohol. He took her up on the offer of a place to stay, Lennox said, but couldn’t stay sober and died two years later.

 

“It’s not a matter of choice or knowing better,” Lennox stated. “It’s the inability to know something new about an old problem.”

 

For a long time, Lennox said he wondered why his dad couldn’t make a better choice but after his years in studying alcoholism and addiction, he learned it’s a disease of the mind. Believing that it was all about choice, he added, nearly killed him. There would be times he said he promised himself he was done with alcohol after he was released from jail but within hours, he found himself at the liquor store waiting for it to open.

 

“There’s a mental lapse that happens when it comes to this disease that does not allow people the choice in that,” Lennox said. “That doesn’t mean it excuses anything, but I’m telling you, for so long I heard from society that my addiction was a matter of choice:  I believed it, which then put me in a spot where I wondered why I was still living. No matter what decisions were in front of me, I kept screwing up. It took me a lot of painful experiences to realize it wasn’t a choice.”

 

When Lennox got sober, he said he also realized that people’s beliefs and judgments around substance use were unintentional and stemmed from not knowing any better, not because that’s what they wanted to believe.

 

Lennox suggested students can help by observing others in their school and community: “Consider and observe those around you, and forget about being ‘cool.’” Lennox admitted that, during one period of sobriety in high school, he achieved a level of popularity because of his accomplishments as an athlete. He shared that, during that time, he behaved unkindly toward others. After that period, he told himself he could control his use of drugs, then discovered he couldn’t as drugs and alcohol again took over his life.

 

 As he closed his talk, Lennox encouraged students to be open with their love and appreciation for the people in their lives, check in with loved ones, and to not leave room for regret. He asked students if they had anything to add. Some of their responses included to always be there for others, involve people who seem alone in events, let them know they can get help, and “just a good hug helps.”

 

“People have stories to share and want to share,” Lennox said at one point of his talk. “They just need the space to feel like they can.”