Olympic legend Shawn Johnson is opening up about her addictions after welcoming her third child into the world.
On December 12, Johnson and her husband Andrew welcomed their second son, Barrett “Bear” East. Like her first two pregnancies, she welcomed Bear via a cesarean section.
While talking about her latest birth experience she revealed that despite undergoing major surgery, she refused all “narcotic pain meds” opting only for over-the-counter pain meds like Tylenol.
She later took to Instagram to explain why she made such a choice. According to Johnson, she made the decision to decline the narcotics because of her past addictions to Adderall.
“Long story short,” Johnson wrote, “during my comeback in 2010 I was prescribed Adderall to ‘curb my appetite and give me more energy’ by not a good doctor. Fast forward seven years of being heavily addicted to it and having it control me, when I finally freed myself of it I swore anything even remotely addictive I’d stay away from it.”
Johnson continued, explaining that her addiction to Adderall “affected every part of my life and changed who I was. I never want to feel out of control like that again.”
“So, Tylenol and Motrin for me,” she concluded.
Johnson briefly spoke about her addictions in 2020 in an interview with Today. As Johnson explained at the time, her decision to look at how Adderall was affecting her was inspired by her daughter, Drew.
“I mean, it all started out with, ‘What do I want to teach my daughter?’” she said. “And I want to be the mom that teaches her through my mistakes.”
Johnson admitted that this pregnancy will be her last but that doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t have any more children. The former gymnast explained that she and her husband “could talk about adoption. We can talk about having babies in other ways after this, but I am done with pregnancy.”
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