“Understanding the Adolescent Brain: A Guide to Making Better Choices”

[00:00:04] Jake White: Welcome back to Party Talk, where we empower leaders in youth drug prevention. Super glad you made it to this episode, because today we’re going to talk about the brain. If you are in prevention, if you work with young people, the adolescent brain can be frustrating. You get into trouble, the frontal lobes not fully developed. So your decision making doesn’t always seem to make sense. And you ask yourself, why did you do this? What happened? Were you thinking? And the answer sometimes is no. And listen, it’s not to the fault of that students. We are a product of our environment, they’re with a product of our education. And we’re the product of our developing brain. And so when you work with young people, it’s really good to understand where they’re coming from, why they’re doing the things they do? And just to keep in mind that they’re still learning. 

So let’s break this down, we’re going to talk about some areas of the brain, and then also how you can teach it to a student, and maybe some talking points that can help them understand where they’re at, and how they can get better at making decisions. So let’s start here. Let’s start with the one we talked about the most, the frontal lobe. Now the frontal lobe is in a part of the brain called the neocortex. The neocortex takes up a majority of the brain. And the frontal lobe isn’t fully developed until you’re about 21 to 25 years old. But this part of the brain really helps you make good decisions, and helps you with long term thinking, problem solving. And so as you get older, you tend to make better decisions. You can probably remember a time in your life that you did something. And you thought, why on earth? Did I do that? You probably thought was I thinking about it? Was I thinking at all? And the answer might be no, I wasn’t thinking about it, I didn’t think about the long term consequences. I didn’t think about my other alternatives. I just did it, it almost seemed like it was an impulse. And that’s a consequence of growing up. That’s what we deal with when we work with youth. 

So you can help young people understand one thing, is that your brain isn’t fully developed yet. You might have made a mistake, but you’re not a mistake, that it doesn’t define who you are, you can move, past this. And you can learn from this mistake, that’s what our brain is for. Another thing to point out when you’re talking about the brain is that since the frontal lobe isn’t developed until later in your life, when you choose to consume drugs or alcohol, well, alcohol is a drug. So if you consume drugs, at an early age, it stunts the growth of your brain. So if you’ve ever met someone, maybe you’re in their recovery field, maybe you’ve worked with someone who has used drugs throughout their life, you can see a fully grown adult, acting like a teenager, acting like a child. And if you learn, oftentimes, they started using drugs at an early age, their maturity can actually be stunted from that use. So if you are working with young people, let them know that the best thing you can do is wait until your brain is fully developed to start making decisions and trying alcohol. Delaying the use of onset is like number one priority. So you can tell them that you don’t have to make a decision for the rest of your life. But make one to at least wait until you’re 21, 24. Then come to that decision again, with everything that you’ve learned. “One more thing about the frontal lobe is that it’s housed in this part of your brain called the neocortex. And the neocortex actually, helps you form your identity.” And this is another thing when you’re talking with young people is they don’t necessarily know who they are. 

So it’s hard to protect your decisions when you don’t actually know who you are and what you want. That’s why it helps to have parents guide you and adults, be there for you and help you learn what’s correct, what’s not, what can I learn, what can I avoid, what can I lean into. And there basically young people are trying on a bunch of identities as they grow up. They go through phases, they wear different clothes, they join different clubs, they have different interests, and they’re basically trying on these different outfits. Now, as their brain develops and matures, they’re going to help form that identity through these experiences. So as you work with these students, remember, they’re trying on different things. They’re not bad kids. You can help, guide them along the way by helping them realize your brain is still developing. You’re still learning and growing. And that’s all part of the process. It’s normal. We went through it too. So how about posture when you’re talking to young people, and tell them about the frontal lobe, and the neocortex, and how to form your identity, that long term decision making. And that problem solving, that help you make better choices. 

And it doesn’t mean that in the meantime, you have to make terrible choices. It just means you might make mistakes and need to learn from them. And it’s helpful to have people around you in your life, who can help teach you and learn from your mistakes. “The second part of the brain that we’ll talk about is your limbic brain. And this part is what regulates your emotions. It’s the chemicals that release in your brain.” So if you’ve heard of things like endorphins, or dopamine, or serotonin, they’re different chemicals your body uses to regulate how you feel and think. And it’s designed to actually help you learn and to stay healthy. For example, “Dopamine is going to reward you for eating, sleeping, exercising, and doing things that make you happy, like hanging out with friends and laughing because it’s good for you.” These are the things that your body needs. And it’s going to look out for you by saying, yes, spend more time with friends, you’ve been alone for a while, it will make you want to be with people. And you know that feeling in the morning when it feels so good. And you don’t want to get out of bed, you got the sheets up here. That’s because your body is flooded with dopamine. And you’re thinking, this feels great. Why would I ever leave? Your body wants what is good for it. But this is also where drugs come into play. Because what happens is they hijack that part of your brain that releases dopamine. And your brain doesn’t know the difference of that drugs can take away your life and your opportunities and your friendships. All it knows is that drug gave me dopamine, and made me feel good. It’s called the feel good hormone. And so your body has just developed a shortcut to now every time you want to get that same feeling that from working out, playing music, hanging out with friends, eating, your brain actually doesn’t release as much dopamine when you do those things, because it takes more effort. 

Instead, it wants to take that shortcut. It wants you to use that drug again, because that was faster, and maybe it released more of it. So that’s the dangerous thing about using drugs, is you’re tricking your brain into liking something that is unhealthy, and does not help you with your future or your success. “This is also why you’ll see in studies that things like cannabis, marijuana, THC, they make people become apathetic, they care less about their school, their sports, their success, because they’re only focused on getting that short term dopamine hit.” So that limbic brain, understanding the chemicals, dopamine and endorphins and how they work. And helping students realize that you can actually get the same chemicals that you use, when you’re drinking or getting high. Your body can produce those same chemicals by doing healthy things. You just have to find out what is that for you? 

What do you love doing so much that you get that high? “The third and final piece that we’ll talk about here today is your cerebellum. And this is the one that’s kind of back behind your head. And it’s a smaller part of the brain. But it’s really important because it’s all the things that you don’t even have to think about, your subconscious things like breathing, and like how to swallow water.” And you don’t have to think about how to do these things. They just happen. And they’re essential for your survival. It’s also the thing that helps you develop habits and new skills. So if you think of it like this, the parts of your brain where you’re really thinking and you’re problem solving, that are in the front of the brain. And if you do something maybe 1000 times, and you get really good at it, it actually moves into the part of your brain where it’s your subconscious. And so you don’t have to think about how to brush your teeth anymore. You’ve done it so many times. But when you were two year old and your parents were teaching you how to do it, they had to tell you to go in circles, be soft, get the gums and your tongue, things like that. This can help us understand addiction. Because if you break it down, addiction is your brain learning to rely on something over and over again, because you’ve given it opportunities to practice. So in the book ‘Atomic habits’, they break it up into four steps. “And I’ll look here to make sure I get it right but it is a cue and then a cue gives a craving, then your body wants to respond and then it gives you a reward.” So when we talked about that dopamine that is a perfect thing is like a cue of maybe you’re stressed. And when you feel stressed, you’re craving is I want to use a drug. Because that’s what I’ve been doing, then your response is to use that drug and your reward is the dopamine. And so it cycles, so that every time that you feel stressed, you go back to this thing. 

And where the cerebellum really comes into play is, once you’ve done that, 1000s of times, it’s going to store that in the back of your brain, so that literally every time you’re stressed, it is automatic, you don’t have to think about it, you automatically look for that drug. And withdrawals are when you look for that drug, and you can’t find it anymore. And your brain panics. And it will do anything to get that drug in its system and to get that reward. So breaking that habit is extremely difficult. This really just tells us how important our habits are. And when you talk with young people ask them like what, what were the feelings that you had before you made this decision? What could you have done differently? What if you do this 10,000 times over your lifetime? What will your life look like? 

Because every decision is moving you closer and closer to developing a habit, your brain actually wants to develop habits. Because it’s easier, you can store it in your cerebellum, your unconscious mind. And it makes things easier, it expands your comfort zone. So your brain is always looking to do this. If you need an analogy, to go along with this, or a metaphor, related to sports, related to music, anything that they practice over and over again, and you can see, hey, the first time you did this, it was really difficult. Could be riding that bike or that skateboard, playing a drums, playing saxophone, whatever it would be, is it felt really weird, you have to think about every move you make. After you put in all those hours, it is subconscious, for music you can literally look at a map of music, and you can play it without thinking. For sports, you can dribble up and down the court and talk to somebody at the same time. And think about what your teammates are doing. Because now that task is in your cerebellum, it’s easy, it’s comfortable, you don’t have to think about it, it opens up your brain for more things. So be careful about what habits you’re developing, what actions you’re taking. That’s all I had to share about the brain. But I think emphasizing to your students, that their brain is something worth protecting, that it is honestly a miracle. These are the things that are going to change the course of your life. And the decisions that you make now, today are going to impact you for your future. In fact, studies have shown that 9 out of 10 people who are currently addicted, started using those substances before the age of 18. Their decisions matter. So I hope there’s short examples of what the brain can do, some different things about the frontal lobe, about endorphins and serotonin and dopamine, about your limbic brain and the cerebellum can be good talking points with you and your students. And I’m really looking forward to it. I was able to interview Dr. Aaron Weiner, who is crazy smart. He talks about this stuff more in depth and what it means for prevention in our world today. So look out for that episode too, it’s going to be awesome. See you on the next episode of Party Talk.