Hormones and Stressors: A Peek at a Teen’s Psychological Evolution
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They are the most misunderstood bunch filled with angst and ideals. They are enigmas caught in many in-betweens – childhood and adulthood, growing responsibilities and rights, newfound freedom and restrictions. Every teen deals with a lot emotional highs and lows and there is only much science can blame. Parents often note how raising a teen is frustrating and challenging. Some even send their children to therapists and others question the validity of such decisions. The thing is adolescent years are turbulent for a reason. The psychologists’ attempts to decipher the mind of teenagers find two means to do so: studying their biological changes and analyzing their environmental pressures. Hormones and Brain Reshape The Harvard Health Blog posted about the common assumption that the raging hormones are to blame for the so-called teenage turmoil and proceeded to bring out other factors including brain reshape. Beginning at puberty, the brain reshapes. The neurons and the synapses in between reshape and prune. The neuron messenger called myelin accumulates and improves neuronal communication until the early 20s. With this, hormonal changes are at work, too. The brain releases adrenal stress hormones, sex hormones, and growth hormone influencing brain development.
Environmental Stimuli There is a misconception of intellectual immaturity, but studies prove otherwise. By age 15 or 16, abstract reasoning, memory, and the formal capacity for planning is at complete development. When asked to answer several questions, teens can respond just like adults. They, however, find difficulty in interrupting an action underway, thinking before acting, and choosing between safer against riskier alternatives. Adolescent’s judgment tends to submit to the urge for new experiences, sexual, thrill-seeking, and aggressive impulses. They sometimes seem driven to seek experiences that produce strong emotions and sensations.
In addition, many things pervade the teenage mind and their responses for it manifest in their outward behavior. This includes:
Depression or loneliness
Home environment
Transition into middle school, high school and college
Shift into adulthood
Academic stress
Violent relationships or Bullying
Character development
Sexual risk taking
Adolescence is best described as evolution. The best thing a parent can do is to help their adolescent children learn how to deal with these changes and offer support whenever they need it.
Resources: http://familycounselingdenverco.com http://www.pamf.org/parenting-teens/emotions/ http://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/the-adolescent-brainbeyond-raging-hormones