Preview

Teenage Brains

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
488 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Teenage Brains
Something that surprised me the most in this radio interview about the teenage brain was how adolescents have a higher risk of substance addiction compared to adults (Jensen & Gross, 2015). Substances are more toxic and permanent on teenage brains than adult brains (Jensen & Gross, 2015). Originally, I thought that adults would get addicted faster because they often resort to caffeine to wake up, cigarettes to manage hassles, and other medications to relieve depression and stress (Berk, 2009). On the other hand, adolescents are able to snap out of substances faster since they are in the experimenting stage for a shorter duration. Compared to adults, they are done with their experimenting stage and have been exposed to these substances longer and are able to decide if they want to continue doing substances, which would lead to addiction faster. However, what I thought was not true according to this interview. This interview expanded my knowledge about teenage brains compared to adult brains.
Another interesting fact about the teenage brain is that binge drinking could kill brain cells to the point of permanent brain damage in adolescents’ brain and is less
…show more content…
In order to reduce the experimentation with substances and alcohol, parents could be effective and monitor their adolescents’ activity, educate ways to resist peer pressure, and highlighting health risks (Berk, 2009). These ways will potentially help adolescents because they have an imaginary audience, where they believe that they are the center of everyones’ attention (Berk, 2009). Therefore, adolescents will do everything they can to avoid embarrassment and will resort to peer pressure. The prevention and treatment strategies will help these adolescents become more aware and potentially avoid peer pressure with substance abuse and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Teens who drink don’t realize that weekend drinking is more dangerous than what it’s worth. Dawn Fuller writes an article about binge drinking; although the source does not provide any tables or graphs, the hard evidence is very convincing because the numbers are so shockingly high. She explains “… that binge-drinking--consuming four or more drinks in one incident…--was linked … to the section of the brain related to …paying attention, planning and making decisions, processing emotions and controlling impulses leading to irrational behavior” (Fuller par.2). Brain damage that is elective is just plain stupid. This is exactly what happens when people binge-drink. It is even worse for those whose brain is not fully developed. Sitting at a bar, ordering drinks and getting drunk, all with the aid of a fake id, is equivalent to turning off the light switch to total darkness at any given moment on purpose. Why anyone would want to function without a brain makes no sense.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The article “Inside the Teen Brain” by Marty Wolner, states that research done on the teen brain has helped parents and teens know more about themselves. Teens have more active, expandable brain. One part of the brain in the front is still processing. Some teens can’t fully process information so therefore they often make bad decisions and take longer to process the right thing. Teens don’t control inappropriate or dumb actions. Good communication and proper infomation can ive the teens brain the right idea of common sence. Any kind of communication can affect the teens brain. Parents are a huge part of the process of the teenage brain. First , the teens surrounding, how they are treated, disciplined, and how they are…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Teenagers are vulnerable to aquiring substance abuse disorders. This has much to do with their functional and neurocognitive brain development and how the areas of the brain manage the child’s feelings and cognition (Wiers, Boelema, Nikolaou, & Gladwin, 2015). It is estimated that by the time adolescents become high school seniors 70% had tried alcohol, 50% had tried an illegal drug and 20% had taken prescription medications that may, or may not, have been prescribed to them. There are a number of reasons adolescents abuse these substances such as to deal with stress or personal problems, to fit in or seem cool around other peers, or just to try the experience. While some may be able to try these substances and that be the end of it, others find the substances may help them cope with things, one way or another. (NIH Staff, 2014).…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The brain's reward system could be a good thing, but if a teen is involved in alcohol or drugs, it could be very bad or even fatal. In the video “Insight into the Teenage Brain” by Adriana Galvan, she did a study on the reward system of the teen brain. One of the key points she wanted us to go home with is that “the teenage brain gets really excited about rewards, emotions, and new experiences.” Teens tend to get over happy when it comes to things they like. If a teen is really inspired to get a reward, it doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, they could be striving to reach a goal, but if the teen experiences something they like that is not safe it could lead to themselves or others getting hurt or other consequences. Are Teenage Brains Really Different from Adult Brains, support Adriana Galvan by saying, “In imagining studies that compared brain activity when the subject receives a small, medium, or large reward, teenagers exhibited exaggerated response to… large rewards compared to children results.” But why does that matter for counselors? They need to know that because teens will sometimes do anything to get a reward they desire whether it be a thrill risk or even alcohol and drugs. Are Teenage Brain Really Different from Adult Brains, explains that, “teenagers may try these things because they’re seeking a buzz to satisfy that reward-center, while their prefrontal cortex can’t register all the risks.” Teens are continuing to do things that aren’t the best for them just because they want that reward. One example is alcohol. Are Teenage Brains really Different from Adult Brains say, “studies have shown that teenagers are more likely to become addicted to alcohol and drugs.” Alcohol and drugs may appeal to some teens reward systems. Once they have it for the first time and they can get addicted, the reward system begins to constantly want that alcohol or…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Overall, any benefit or joy alcohol can bring is minimal compared to the greater harms alcohol causes. Although alcohol is harmful to everyone, alcohol harms adolescents much more than older adults. One's brain does not complete development until the age of 25. This time marks a critical period for neurodevelopment. The mind has not fully formed its critical and rational thinking abilities. [1] Studies show that alcohol is deterrent to the process [2] Not only does alcohol consumption affect the brain, it also affects female maturation and reproduction abilities during adolescents [3]. Not only that, but because of an adolescents inability to rationally think or make good judgments, they are more likely to binge drink or engage in heavy alcohol consumption than any other group[4], an action that has obvious negative health effects include liver and brain problems. Many suicides, homicides, motor vehicle accidents and accidental falls are alcohol related [5]. Homicide suicide and accidents are the three leading causes of death among teens. [6] It is unnecessary that alcohol causes the deaths and harmful effects of hundreds of thousands of…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Underage drinking can cause multiple issues with the body's and brain's development. The brain plays a very important role in everyday life. This causes issues since the brain is not fully developed until a person reaches their early twenties ("Teen Brain."). The brain provides basic functions like picking up a pencil or even telling the body what to do. Alcohol consumption can interfere with development of the young adult brain's frontal lobes, essential for functions such as emotional regulation, planning, and organization ("Drinking Age ProCon.org."). Also, alcohol consumption interferes with this early adult brain development, the potential for chronic problems such as greater…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A propers brain development had been put at risk by over consuming alcohol beverages. Mental issues like depression and anxiety may exacerbate when alcohol is being consumed. Also, alcohol abuse ofter creates mental frustrations. In fact,” the National Comorbidity Survey found in 1997 that alcoholics were two to three times more likely than non-alcoholics to also have an anxiety disorder. Another study, NIAAA’s National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey, found that those with a history of alcohol dependence (even former drinkers), had a more than fourfold-increased risk for a major depressive episode than those without a history of alcohol dependence” (1) . Although frequent teenage alcohol abuse may cause a drastic body changes. The loss or even gain weigh are may be very severe, which also may lead the abuser to feel depressed,anxious or even suicidal. In fact, Alcohol is involved over a quarter of all suicides in the US (approximately 7500 per year).…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wetherill, R., & Tapert, S. F. (2013). Adolescent brain development, substance use, and psychotherapeutic change. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors: Journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, 27(2), 393.…

    • 4036 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Alcohol can have damaging effect on the brain especially while the brain is still developing. Alcohol can shrink the hippocampus, the area of the brain that controls learning and memory. This can lead to both permanent and short term memory loss and a drop in grades. Teens who abuse alcohol can develop smaller frontal lobes. This part of the brain oversees emotions, personality, motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, and more. Heavy alcohol us in men reduces testosterone levels causing breast enlargement, infertility and other side effects. Heavy alcohol use in women can cause menstrual irregularities and even infertility. When teens use alcohol and are still is school they withdraw both academically and socially causing there grades drop and a decline in social interactions. more than Half the people who begin drinking before the age of 15 will eventually become alcoholics. Most teens are still in high school or are starting college when they turn 18. And therefore are still in school. If they were legally allowed to consume alcohol it could interfere with there learning. Parents pay thousands of dollars a…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is what is going on internally what we should be worried about. Young people today care so little about their internal health they don’t realize the damage they are doing to their most important asset of all, their brain. Young people of today do very little to develop their brains outside of school, the average young adult spends 16.7 hours online a week and this time is actually lowering reading and writing skills. (Goldwasser) With the little respect teens have for their internal health they have no problem consuming alcohol.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some adolescents are not aware of all of the risk that comes with substance use. They do not know all of the effects that each drug will have on them cognitively, physically and emotionally. As they get older they gain more knowledge about drugs and their effects. They are able to assess the risks and determine that substances are not worth their health. They are not able to assess whether the rewards of taking drugs are worth the risks. Also some adolescents are not able to evaluate the bigger picture of how drugs are going to affect all aspects of their lives in the present and in the…

    • 1575 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Underage, Underestimated

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Underage alcohol use contributes to many health risks associated with the brain. The human brain is continuing to develop until a person is around age 25. Exposing the brain to alcohol during this period may interrupt key processes of brain development, possibly leading to mild cognitive impairment. Mild cognitive impairment is a form of brain damage. This can impair the brain development, causing memory lapses or processing and sending brain impulses slower. In other words, it will lead to long lasting intellectual capabilities. Finally, since the key areas of the brain are still continuing to develop during the teen years, the brain is more sensitive to the toxic effects of alcohol. These health risks associated with the brain will later lead to alcohol dependence (Shannon).…

    • 1533 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Substance Abuse Outline

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Bibliography lists 7 sources. Drugteen.wps Teen Drug Abuse / Literature Review : This 5 page model literature research report addresses the subject of teen drug abuse and peer pressure. A variety of theories are explored. Bibliography lists 4 sources.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In spite of the fact that puberty brings expanded danger for Alcohol use, some elements put youngsters at higher…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drinking Age Debate

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Research has shown that compared with the adult brain, the adolescent brain is very sensitive to some effects of alcohol. Teenage brains are like a sponge, and are designed for maximum learning capacity. Alcohol interferes with the brain, it causes difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, and impaired memory. Those are only the external impairments. Internally, it can lead to lifelong damage in brain function, particularly as it relates to memory, moving skills and coordination. Not only can alcohol hurt adolescents physically, but psychologically as well. An article from Psychology Today states, "The CDC study confirms that teens aren't sipping alcohol --- no, they’re gulping it. This study brings light to the fact that high school students tend to binge drink whenever they consume alcohol. About ninety percent of the alcohol consumed by high school students is consumed through…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays