“The Pain of Withdrawal Is Unbearable”: Years After Losing Son to Suicide and Days After Taking Care of Hospitalized Daughter, Mia St. John Makes a Confession

Former WBC champion at the women’s super-welterweight division, Mia St. John, has long been an advocate of the importance of mental health and a passionate proponent against drug addiction. Moreover, she has also been very vocal about her own addiction and her struggles on her journey to sobriety. This cause even hits close to home for Mia as she lost her son, Julian St. John, to suicide while in recovery from addiction. She recently took to social media to pen a heartfelt note about her journey to recovery.

‘The Knockout’ struggled with drug addiction as a teenager. She often credits martial arts and boxing for having had a major hand in helping her sober up. However, St. John relapsed and broke her 30-year streak of sobriety, after the deaths of her husband and son.

In a tweet, Mia St. John mentioned that it was both physically and mentally taxing to get sober. She also shed light on the constant struggle with withdrawal and the extreme pain that it causes her. Earlier this month, Mia St. John had urged people to take their mental health seriously. She wrote, “May is #MentalHealthAwareness Do u understand #mentalillness? If not, educate yourself. It’s a brain illness & the brain is the most complex organ in r bodies.”

Additionally, she requested people to educate themselves about mental illnesses. It is also worth mentioning that her daughter was recently hospitalized following an emergency, which took a further toll on her mental health.

Mia St. John opens up about her son’s mental health struggles

Mia St. John lost her son to suicide in 2014. He was two weeks into rehab and on a journey to recovery at that time. In an interview with PEOPLE, she delved into her son’s mental health struggles.

As a teenager, Mia St. John’s son developed paranoid schizophrenia as a teenager. Speaking about the same, she said, “They won’t give you a diagnosis until you’re 18. But I had a sense. And with my psychology experience in school, I knew the symptoms of schizophrenia. So I had a fear growing in me that this was schizophrenia. And he was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia. But I already kind of knew.”

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Meanwhile, she also started the Mia St. John Foundation (El Saber Es Poder). The foundation aims at helping people experiencing mental illness, homelessness, addiction, and poverty. What are your thoughts on St. John’s statement? Let us know in the comments below.

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