| If teenagers will not listen to caution concerning their | | | | vital pruning process of neural pathways gets |
| bodies and substance usage, will they pay heed to | | | | disrupted by drugs, creating a need for high drama |
| what it could do to their brain? | | | | and excitement and a low ability for rational thought. |
| Maybe, if they stop and realize that the brain is their | | | | Enough disruptions, then, will affect the brain over |
| power source for the rest of their lives. In | | | | the long haul of life, creating a perpetual, immature, |
| computer-speak, the brain is both RAM and ROM and | | | | adolescent brain in an adult's body. |
| everything in between. Most teens have experienced | | | | Other facts to consider:o Adolescents can become |
| the frustration of a computer glitch that wipes out | | | | addicted to nicotine in as few as 10 cigarettes.o |
| their ITunes library or won't boot up their Facebook | | | | Those who start drinking at age 15, are 5 times more |
| page. A lifelong brain glitch caused by repeated drug | | | | likely to become dependent than if they started |
| use will be far more aggravating. | | | | drinking in adulthood.o Modern marijuana is as much |
| Consider that the adolescent brain is still a work in | | | | as 16 times more potent than it was in the 1960s |
| progress. The prefrontal cortex, where all higher level | | | | and 70s.o Marijuana thickens the wall of the brain so |
| thinking occurs, is the last to develop, usually around | | | | that it is less "plastic" (able to mend).o All substances |
| age 25. That explains why high school and college | | | | affect the brain flow inside the brain. |
| students still do things that baffle their parents. They | | | | The bottom line: the use and abuse of substances |
| seek a thrill, but lack the brain power to think out the | | | | harms the developing adolescent brain. In some |
| cause and effect of such thrills. Simply put, young | | | | cases, that harm is lifelong. While it is always tragic to |
| people lack judgment because their brains are not | | | | lose an arm or a leg or to live inside a paralyzed |
| finished forming all the connections they need to | | | | body, living a lifetime with a damaged brain is even |
| have it. | | | | far more devastating. Especially when that damage |
| The field of neuroscience, with its use of brain scans, | | | | begins before the brain's full potential is even realized. |
| reveals that substances literally rewire the developing | | | | (Based on 2009 information from Prevention and |
| brain to need more and more stimulation. This leads | | | | Recovery Services, parstopeka. |
| to young people taking more and more risks. The | | | | |