Why Shawn Johnson Refused Narcotic Pain Meds After Giving Birth

Shawn Johnson is relying on over-the-counter medications to provide her pain relief after welcoming her third child.

On Dec. 22, ten days after giving birth by C-section to her and husband Andrew East‘s son Barrett “Beau” Madison East, the retired Olympic gymnast said she refused narcotic pain drugs to aid her recovery.

“They made me SO sick,” she wrote on her Instagram Stories, “and frankly after being addicted to adderall it just scares me so I don’t even mess with it.”

Adderall, a combination of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine, is a medication typically prescribed to treat symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or the sleep disorder narcolepsy. The drug can be habit-forming, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

“During my comeback in 2010 I was prescribed adderall to ‘curb my appetite and give me more energy’ by a not good doctor,” Shawn wrote on her Instagram Stories. “Fast forward 7 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.”