Adolescence a unique and natural period of risk, violence and other considerations.
Young people today are tyrants. They contradict their parents, devour their food, and disrespect their teachers. Socrates (470 BC-399 BC) Greek philosopher.
Acquiring such and such habits from a young age is not unimportant: it is of absolute importance. Aristotle (384 AC-322 AC) Greek philosopher.
Young people today seem to have no respect for the past and no hope for the future. Hippocrates (5th century BC-4th century BC) Greek physician.
Since ancient times it has been thought that risky, crazy or violent behaviors of adolescents were due to a malfunction of their brain. However, this is not so. Simply in their brain development process they go through a series of adjustments both in their structure and in their functioning. Having adequate communication or a maturity in the expression of emotions (brain amygdala) and impulses is a matter of reason (prefrontal cortex). And, it is a process that has two conditions: the structural development of the corresponding areas and an adequate interconnection and transmission of physical, chemical and electrical information between those areas. This characteristic puts them in a very particular situation that is not experienced in other stages of life; makes them risky, sociable and vulnerable to risky behavior, violence and being exposed to different mental conditions.
Going through adolescence should consider as analytical behavior a whole range of possibilities; Among them the family, upbringing, personality, environment stand out. And, a multidisciplinary approach from the perspective of: neurosciences, sociology, psychology (clinical and social), economics, religion, politics, culture and many more.
Throughout the life cycle, the human being faces internal and external changes, which may or may not be shared with others and which, in many cases, lead to the appearance of immediate and mediate psychopathological problems. Childhood and adolescence are still considered fundamental to understand various phenomena that are more tangibly appreciated in adult life, regardless of whether or not they may have pathological manifestations (De la Fuente & Heinze, 2015).
The line between the development of adolescence, risk behaviors (drug use, episodes of violence, unwanted pregnancies, etc.) and mental illnesses (anorexia, bulimia, antisocial disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, etc.) It can be very thin, but we can use the following criteria to find out if the support of a specialist is required. And, it is not just an adolescent situation that parents can resolve..
The four axes below are based on current diagnostic procedures used in the mental health community, and these are:
Contents
The learning capacity that a baby has is amazing: in less than three years: he crawls, walks, assimilates a language and learns to relate to his environment.
However, a brain that adapts quickly to changes is also vulnerable to hostilities from the environment during its growth and even into adulthood..
A young child who continually experiences stressful experiences (such as neglect, abuse or even terror), experiences physical changes in his brain. The continuous flow of chemical substances related to behaviors that produce tension, tends to restructure the functioning of the brain, putting its defense system in a state of constant alert (Duhne, 2000).
Sarah Jayne Blakemore, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, notes that: The plasticity of the brain - its ability to continuously adapt to new circumstances - critically depends on how much it is used (Germanicus, 2009). And he also points out, in terms of brain development, maturity does not reach until 20 or even 30 years. Adolescence is defined as the period of life that begins with the biological, hormonal, and physical changes of puberty and ends at the age when the individual achieves a stable, independent role in Society (Blakemore, 2013). As can be seen, adolescence can be very long.
The brain learns and adapts to new good or bad learning (brain plasticity), also depending on age, repetition of behaviors, proper nutrition, and constant training. Definitely to expose him to a positive environment (learning to play an instrument or speak a language) or a negative environment (training for the guerrillas). So to speak, it is the process of learning to learn.
Just as mental health is part of integral health, psychological medicine is part of general medicine. Because although biology is irreplaceable in the approach to the study of people, healthy or sick, so are their psychology and the environment in which they develop (De la Fuente & Heinze, 2015).
There is no universal agreement on the definition of aggression. However, we have found an agreement in classifying some behaviors as aggressive.
Sangrador (1982) summarizes these behaviors in a very simple way, we speak of aggressive behavior when: 1) it is an action whose objective is to harm someone, 2) that the individual who is trying to harm wants to avoid the harm and 3) that it is socially defined as aggressive behavior.
The theories of the last century to explain aggression range from instinctive ones such as that of the ethologist Konrad Lorenz where this energy needs to be discharged into someone and its ultimate goal is survival..
For his part, Sigmund Freud, supposed that human nature was guided by primitive, sexual and aggressive forces (instinctive instincts of life, Eros and Thanatos death) hidden in the minds of all human beings. Forces which, if not controlled, would lead individuals and societies to chaos and destruction (Curtis, 2002). If we are violent by nature? little can be done to reduce human aggression.
Another format that contrasts with the previous ones was the one proposed by John Dollard and Neil Miller of Yale University, it is known as the "frustration-aggression" model, but there is not always a frustration so that an aggression occurs later.
For the second half of the previous century, social learning theorists postulated that aggression is learned. And, that is, a social behavior acquired like any other and in which the environment or social factors can explain it.
One of the most accepted definitions of aggression is any form of conduct that attempts to harm or harm someone, oneself or an object (Björk & Niemelä, 1992).
Charles Manson, his name is synonymous with evil, evokes the darkest fears. The Manson murders are more than horrible killings, they are unique crimes, says Columbia University psychiatrist Michael Stone, where teenagers who did not show any violence were forced by this evil leader and turned them into murderers. The life of Charles Manson was full of rejections and abandonments. Often hatred and anger towards society are the product of significant rejection that was suffered in childhood. He was an unwanted son, he never met his father, his mother leaves him for days or weeks in charge of anyone who receives him even strangers and the mother gives him to a waitress in exchange for beer. He is an insignificant person rejected by his family and by society, that taught Manson that the only way to be recognized to validate his existence is by acting in an increasingly destructive way (Stone, 2016).
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, in 1999, these young people entered their school with two shotguns, a pistol, a homemade bomb and several explosive devices; With all this, the teenagers fired numerous shots in the cafeteria and the library, killing 13 people and wounding 24 students. That same day they both committed suicide in the library (Mundo.com, 2017). Both had suffered a general rejection by their high school classmates. Eric Harris had a great hatred towards all people, and Dylan Klebold had a very strong depression, since he said that life had treated him badly and that he would never find happiness. Eric was a nice guy, slim and with excellent academic qualifications, introverted, not very expressive with others, and he locked himself in his group of friends. Despite these characteristics, Eric had a great hatred, which he expressed by writing in his diary or on his website. The first investigations after the massacre indicated that Harris and Klebold were victims of bullying in Columbine. The other students rejected them, since they were not "normal" boys; they dressed differently from most of the students; they were clumsy at sports and didn't have many friends; in fact, they called them "The Outcasts" (excluded). In one of their videos, as they walk through the hallways of the school (a friend of both is holding the camera), a group of popular kids (jocks, which Eric and Dylan made sure to kill) approach (Wikipedia, 2017).
Brenda Ann Spencer is a convicted murderer who, at the age of 16, starred in a shooting with several wounded and two fatalities in an American school on Monday, January 29, 1979. She injured eight children and a police officer, killed the director of the Cleveland Elementary School, Burton Wragg, and the custodian, Mike Suchar, of the same institution in San Diego, California while shooting at random aiming at said school from one of the windows of their house that was in front of the building (Wikipedia, 2017). This girl had everything in life to be happy, but she lost it for a Christmas present. At the Christmas holidays of 1978, Brenda received a rifle as a gift from her parents, and we really don't understand what kind of gift that could be. In January 1979, the strange young woman decided to use the weapon in her school, injuring eight children and killing two teachers who tried to prevent the tragedy. When asked why he did it, his answer was: "I don't like Mondays" (Mundo.com, 2017). Brenda Ann also mentioned: "I just did it to cheer up the day", adding then, "I have no reason anymore, it was just for fun, I saw children like ducks walking through a pond and a herd of cows surrounding them, like this they were easy targets for me "(Wikipedia, 2017).
In 2001, she accused her father, Wallace Spencer, of drunkenly subjecting her to beatings and sexual abuse. He denied all the accusations.
From the work in Neuroscience, some explanations have been given about the brain and aggressive behaviors:
Structurally and functionally, as can be seen in all these examples of adolescence and violent behaviors, communication between emotions, impulses and self-control and feeling empathy are part of the conflict. These same areas in a person with better regulation of emotions and reasoning the consequences of committing a violent act against another person, would make him stop and not reach disastrous consequences, hurting someone else.
One of the brain regions that changes most dramatically during adolescence is the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is an interesting area of the brain. It is proportionally much higher in humans than in any other species, and is involved in high-level cognitive functions: decision-making, planning (what we are going to do tomorrow or next week or next year), inhibiting inappropriate behavior. , holding back from saying something very rude or doing something very stupid. Understanding of other people, and self-awareness, is also involved. In laboratory work, the mesial prefrontal cortex (area just in the middle of the prefrontal cortex) shows that activity in this area decreases during the adolescent period (Blakemore, 2013).
Metaphorically, if we think of neurons as a tree, an oak, the trunk would be the axon and the branches the dendrites, and the adolescent brain first needs to thicken its trunk, have many branches, and when it reaches maturity, retain its strength. of its trunk, prune the branches that do not bear fruit and keep only those that will.
To reach the necessary maturity, the adolescent brain undergoes substantial changes:
At the same time, the frontal zones develop greater speed and richer connections, allowing to generate and weigh many more variables and plans than before (Dobbs, 2011).
A personality trait is a permanent pattern of perception, relationship and thought about the environment and others, and that distinguishes one person from another, for example, Rubén is very angry, while Francisco is very nice.
A personality disorder also involves a maladaptive and enduring pattern of internal experience and behavior, dating from adolescence or young adulthood, and manifesting in at least two of the following areas: 1) cognition, 2) affectivity , 3) interpersonal functioning and 4) impulse control. This inflexible pattern is evident in various personal and social situations, and causes discomfort or deterioration (Halguin & Krauss, 2004).
People with personality disorders often feel unhappy and maladaptive. They get caught up in a vicious cycle of social interaction, their behavior irritating others and others irritating them for their behavior. In the specialized literature, several of them can be distinguished, which makes their precision difficult, they stand out:
In particular, antisocial disorder is associated with childhood passing through the other stages and persists for most of adulthood. It manifests itself in children or adolescents: uncontrollable, impulsive, restless, distracted and generally violent. With problems in their environment: home, school and neighborhood.
The central personality traits of the adolescent with conflicts derived from antisocial disorder: they include lip and superficial charm, great self-worth, tendency to pathological lies, lack of empathy, remorse and disposition to take responsibility for one's own actions. The antisocial lifestyle revolves around impulsivity, a characteristic that can lead to behaviors expressed in an unstable style, juvenile delinquency, early behavioral problems, lack of realistic long-term goals and the need for constant stimulation (Halguin & Krauss, 2004).
Social neuroscience today studies the relationship between neurological processes in the brain and social processes. This analysis not only emphasizes how the brain influences social interaction, but also how social interaction can influence the brain (Franzoi, 2003). A healthy person in an adverse environment will sooner or later catch up with you, and a healthy environment has a better chance of rehabilitating an emotionally ill person. And, in the best case scenario, you can keep an emotionally and physically healthy person.
One of the strategies that adolescents most naturally activate to cope with tensions in social life (school and neighbors) in the face of distancing from family ties is to seek the company of peers and friends.
While not within a group, the adolescent feels perceptually excluded, with hopelessness and social life becomes complicated and suffers from not feeling that they belong to one. Being integrated into a group is like a tribal certified social behavior that gives them social strength and makes them prone to pay a cost. A solo teenager is completely different when under the influence of the group.
In any group that is more or less uniform in terms of style, race, fashion and social class, there will always be one member who is tougher than the others, another more clever, another more sensitive, another more reckless, another more timid, etc. ., and each of these represents the hardness, cleverness, sensitivity, recklessness, smallness, etc., that is in each and every one of the members. Being accepted by others and being able to maintain your rank within the group are very important things. Betrayal and deception are extremely painful. Within the group there is also competition and efforts are made to improve rank, but not with such intensity that group cohesion is jeopardized (Waddell, 1998).
Teenagers take risks, sometimes they are in a bad mood, they are very embarrassing. Today we are trying to understand your behaviors in terms of the underlying changes that occur in your brain. They are particularly prone to taking risks when they are with their friends. There is a significant drive to become independent from parents and to impress friends in adolescence. But now we're trying to understand that in terms of the development of a part of the brain called the Limbic System and it's involved in tasks like emotion processing and reward processing. It gives us a sense of reward for doing fun things, including taking risks, and the prefrontal cortex that prevents us from taking risks is still developing in adolescents (Blakemore, 2013).
The limbic system, which governs emotion, is exacerbated at puberty. In contrast, the prefrontal cortex, which slows down impulses, doesn't mature until your twenties. This gap, which leads young people to adopt risky behaviors, also allows them to adapt quickly to their environment. Today, boys are reaching puberty earlier, and the period of maladjustment is widening. The most recent studies indicate that reckless behaviors arise from a gap between the maturation of the networks of the limbic system, which drives emotions, and those of the prefrontal cortex, responsible for impulse control and judicious behavior. It is now known that the prefrontal cortex continues to undergo noticeable changes well into one's twenties. It also appears that puberty is anticipating, prolonging the "critical years" of maladjustment. The plasticity of the networks that connect different brain regions, and not the growth of such areas, as previously thought, is key to ultimately achieving adult behavior (Giedd, 2015).
This type of analysis to study the brain in vivo is possible due to techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalograms, liquid chromatography, magnetic electroencephalographs and more..
The way in which the different brain areas and their neurons are connected are verified using graph theory, a branch of mathematics that quantifies the relationship between "nodes" and "links" in a network. Nodes are any detectable object or entity, be it a neuron, a brain structure such as the hippocampus, or a larger region such as the prefrontal cortex. The links correspond to the connections between nodes, either material such as synapses, or statistical correlations such as when two parts of the brain are activated in a similar way during a cognitive task (Giedd, 2015).
Having a greater knowledge of the structure and functioning of the adolescent brain will allow us to have more efficient therapeutic strategies to guide parents, teachers and counselors on the limit between habitual risk behaviors at this age and mental illnesses or risk behaviors to which they are exposed.
A mature brain requires not only the development of the different areas involved, but also the neural wiring and the transmission of adequate physical, chemical and electrical information to regulate the control of emotions, the impulse and to be able to plan the gratifications towards the future, and have empathy for others. And, when this has been achieved and the independence of the parents, that is, when one is self-sufficient, then it is said that the person has stopped being an adolescent. However, today this happens many times when young people reach 30 years or more..
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