SRSLY on Manchester students making tough decisions
submitted by Michaela Buckhannon, SRSLY Manchester
Two thirds of Manchester Middle School and High School students have a best friend who is committed to being drug free. ~ Michigan Profile for Healthy Youth Survey (MiPHY 2018) Being drug free is only one of the many tough decisions teens face. Did you know there is a reason why teens seem to face hard decisions more than others?
Teen decision making is difficult because it involves a chemical called dopamine in the brain’s reward center. Dopamine helps transmit signals in the brain that make people feel happy. The number of brain receptors interacting with dopamine is higher in adolescence than at any other time of life. This means that when, as a teen, you are exposed to a positive reward—such as a compliment—“the reward center reacts more strongly than it would for an adult or a child.” ~National Institute of Health (NIH)
This is why teens have a biological reason for feeling rewards more strongly and responding more intensely to what their peers may think. Dr. Laurence Steinberg, one of the world’s leading experts on adolescence, explains that teenager’s biological reasons for deciding to do things with their friends that they would never do on their own, is due to the increase in dopamine receptors at this age. He explains that this pressure from friends does not always have to be negative. Sometime pressure from one’s peers can be positive, encouraging peers to take on new challenges, try out for a team, study for that test, learn how to play guitar, etc. “But it can also lead to dangerous decisions—such as using alcohol or drugs, or getting into other high-risk situations” that perhaps otherwise a teenager would not find themselves in. (NIH)
Most parents know peer pressure, because they faced it when they were kids or teens, and realize that they still face it today. Being around peers makes all people more sensitive to potential rewards and less sensitive to the risks or downsides of a choice.
Dr. Steinberg says that not all risk taking is bad. He says, “Risk taking is normal during adolescence.” An example of this is trying a new activity when you do not know if you will succeed. This is a type of risk but it helps a person develop into an independent healthy adult. Dr. Steinberg says “the solution is not to eliminate risk taking, rather it is to facilitate good risk taking.” (NIH)
Concerned about a student? A Project Success Counselor can meet with students at school for a screening, brief intervention or referral for services. For more information go to www.stjoeschelsea.org/projectsuccess or contact 734-548-5077. Interested in Joining SRSLY? Contact us at info@srslymanchester.org
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