Substance Use and the Adolescent Brain

By Vickie Hull      

If teenagers will not listen to caution concerning their bodies and substance usage, will they pay heed to what it could do to their brain?

Maybe, if they stop and realize that the brain is their power source for the rest of their lives. In computer-speak, the brain is both RAM and ROM and everything in between. Most teens have experienced the frustration of a computer glitch that wipes out their ITunes library or won't boot up their Facebook page. A lifelong brain glitch caused by repeated drug use will be far more aggravating.

Consider that the adolescent brain is still a work in progress. The prefrontal cortex, where all higher level thinking occurs, is the last to develop, usually around age 25. That explains why high school and college students still do things that baffle their parents. They seek a thrill, but lack the brain power to think out the cause and effect of such thrills. Simply put, young people lack judgment because their brains are not finished forming all the connections they need to have it.

The field of neuroscience, with its use of brain scans, reveals that substances literally rewire the developing brain to need more and more stimulation. This leads to young people taking more and more risks. The vital pruning process of neural pathways gets disrupted by drugs, creating a need for high drama and excitement and a low ability for rational thought. Enough disruptions, then, will affect the brain over the long haul of life, creating a perpetual, immature, adolescent brain in an adult's body.

Other facts to consider:
o Adolescents can become addicted to nicotine in as few as 10 cigarettes.
o Those who start drinking at age 15, are 5 times more likely to become dependent than if they started drinking in adulthood.
o Modern marijuana is as much as 16 times more potent than it was in the 1960s and 70s.
o Marijuana thickens the wall of the brain so that it is less "plastic" (able to mend).
o All substances affect the brain flow inside the brain.

The bottom line: the use and abuse of substances harms the developing adolescent brain. In some cases, that harm is lifelong. While it is always tragic to lose an arm or a leg or to live inside a paralyzed body, living a lifetime with a damaged brain is even far more devastating. Especially when that damage begins before the brain's full potential is even realized.

(Based on 2009 information from Prevention and Recovery Services, parstopeka.com)

Vickie Hull, M.S., LCMFT
Licensed Clinical Marriage & Family Therapist
1201 Wakarusa Dr., Suite E2, Lawrence, KS 66049
785-856-1395
vhullmft@yahoo.com

by Vickie Hull, M.S., LCMFT

Vickie Hull, M.S., LCMFT, is a marriage and family therapist in Lawrence, Kansas. She conducts individual psychotherapy with people of all ages (including children and teens), couples counseling (premarital, marital, cohabitating), family therapy, medical family therapy (involving medical situations), and grief therapy. Vickie can be reached at 785-856-1395 or through http://www.psychologytoday.com (type Vickie Hull in the "Find a Therapist" box). You can read more about her work at http://www.google.com/profiles/hulltherapy

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