Page 43 - Silver Lakes_Issue 9_2022

TODAY’S CHILD

DEMYSTIFYING THE TEENAGE BRAIN

By Nicoleen Davies, Director: Life Talk Forum

or some adolescents, the teenage
years are a breeze; for others, this
Fdevelopmental phase is a difficult
journey; and for too many teens, it is a soul-
destroying period dominated by feelings
of low self-worth, depression and anxiety.
Recent groundbreaking research shows how
brain changes that occur during adolescence
can be used to help teenagers achieve their
potential.

These changes can be extremely challenging.
Teenagers may suffer mood swings which are
often hard to control or they may undergo an
identity crisis. Some teens rebel or discover a
taste for adventure and risk-taking; this may
be spurred on by the need for peer approval,
which becomes paramount at this age.

By the same measure, they seem incapable
of considering the consequences of their they are often judged for risky behaviour stronger self-esteem who come from stable,
actions. All this while having to cope and for being impulsive and irritable. This supportive homes where the communication
with academic pressure. Given these behaviour is attributed to raging hormones, channels are open.
factors, coupled with the inner conflicts an increased sex drive and immaturity.
and emotions that define adolescence, How teens interpret their world is based
many teenagers may not realise their full Teenagers feel misunderstood and on their changing social environment,
intellectual potential. isolated. Their turmoil is often ridiculed. the physical transformation their bodies
As neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, undergo and the shifting expectations placed
In a bid to decode and understand the brain’s author of Inventing Ourselves: The Secret on them. These can contribute to teenagers
evolution, scientists have been charting Life of the Teenage Brain, says: “It is not feeling alienated.
the neural changes that occur during socially acceptable to mock and demonise
adolescence. Insights from this research are other sectors of society ... but it is strangely Mood swings can be explained by the
helping to explain why teens behave the way acceptable to mock and demonise interplay of psychological and physiological
they do. Moreover, researchers suggest that teenagers.” processes associated with maturing.
certain traits or skills learnt during the teen Teenagers experience greater fluctuations
years – traits which even an adult would find On the one hand, teens seem to be doing in hormones and neurotransmitters such as
challenging – can be turned into strengths. all they can to separate themselves from serotonin (a feelgood hormone), GABA and
their families in an effort to assert their cortisol, which affect mood.
Understanding the chaos independence. They often challenge
During adolescence, teens start to develop authority and boundaries. Yet teens crave There is also the matter of sleep. It has been
more sophisticated ways of thinking. Abstract approval from the adults in their lives as extensively researched and reported on that
reasoning comes into play. However, it’s also well as their peers. This period of conflict is teens have a different body clock to adults
a time when teenagers are experimenting; normal and may be less evident in teens with and require far more sleep. This is because

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