Page 43 - Waterfall City Issue 12 2022

Moreover, researchers suggest that Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage and the shifting expectations placed
certain traits or skills learnt during the Brain, says: “It is not socially acceptable on them. These can contribute to them
teen years – traits which even an adult to mock and demonise other sectors of feeling alienated.
would find challenging – can be turned society ... but it is strangely acceptable
into strengths. to mock and demonise teenagers.” Mood swings can be explained by
the interplay of psychological and
UNDERSTANDING THE On the one hand, teens seem to physiological processes associated
CHAOS be doing all they can to separate with maturing. Teenagers experience
During adolescence, teens start to themselves from their families in an greater fluctuations in hormones and
develop more sophisticated ways of effort to assert their independence. neurotransmitters such as serotonin
thinking. Abstract reasoning comes They often challenge authority and (one of the feelgood hormones), GABA
into play. However, it’s also a time when boundaries. Yet they crave approval and cortisol, which affect mood.
teenagers are experimenting; they from the adults in their lives as well as
are often judged for risky behaviour their peers. This period of conflict is There is also the matter of sleep. It
and for being impulsive and irritable. normal and may be less evident in teens has been extensively researched and
This behaviour is attributed to raging with stronger self-esteem who come reported that teens have a different
hormones, an increased sex drive and from stable, supportive homes where body clock to adults and require
immaturity. the communication channels are open. far more sleep. This is because their
melatonin (a hormone made in the
Teenagers feel misunderstood How teens interpret their world body that regulates sleep cycles) rises
and isolated. Their turmoil is often is based on their changing and falls later in the day than in adults.
ridiculed. As neuroscientist Sarah- social environment, the physical This explains teens being able to party
Jayne Blakemore, author of Inventing transformation their bodies undergo till the early hours of the morning.

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