What Makes Teens Wild?
Pretty much everyone has a teen somewhere in their life and even though we love them, they can be a pretty big handful. But, what makes them so crazy?
Teenagers can be incredibly unpredictable, their trains of thought have completely gone off the rails of common sense and are barreling down the hill of uncertainty and questionable actions. After tests, scientists have found that even though when asked directly teens can give the same direct and sensible answers that adults would but when they face these situations in reality their actions were spur of the moment and without thought.
Teens tend to be blinded by the presence of their peers, they tend to make bolder and riskier choices when their friends are around. They don't put the same thinking and forethought into their decisions when they face them as they do when only being asked the question, they put their emotions first and think later.
It seems that this is because circuits in the brain aren't completely developed while they are in their teen years, there isn't a strong connection between the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system (the decision making and problem solving and the emotional center, respectively).
During these years, the teens' brains are overrun by hormones, their judgement becomes clouded by their emotions. Stress can especially affect the brain's development process. Most teens are suffering from severe stress and anxiety from school, which can turn into a chronic illness and majorly affect how they go about their everyday life and social relationships. This anxiety can cause uncontrollable panic attacks that seem to pop up from nowhere and can make the affected teen do things that they normally would never do.
Resources:
Aacap. “Your Adolescent - Anxiety and Avoidant Disorders.” American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, AACAP, www.aacap.org/aacap/Families_and_Youth/Resource_Centers/Anxiety_Disorder_Resource_Center/Your_Adolescent_Anxiety_and_Avoidant_Disorders.aspx.
Harvard Health Blog. “The adolescent brain: Beyond raging hormones.” Harvard Health Publishing, Harvard Medical School, Mar. 2011, www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/the-adolescent-brain-beyond-raging-hormones.