Addiction – It’s Time to Tell the Whole Truth About Puberty

By Lisa Frederiksen |

Addiction is a developmental disease that often begins in adolescence, which makes the brain changes associated with puberty and ages 12-25 so important to understand.

Addiction is a developmental disease that often begins in adolescence. It is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease, which is why the brain changes associated with puberty and ages 12-25 are so important to understand.

So what is the brain / puberty / addiction connection? How does it relate to substance abuse, addiction, treatment, intervention, prevention, underage drinking/drug use, co-occurring disorders, mental illness, and help for families?

Watch this short, 10-minute video, “It’s Time to Tell the Whole Truth About Puberty,” because the short answer is, “Just about everything!” As you’ve read in the past two blogs, addiction (whether to drugs or alcohol) is a developmental disease. It most often begins in adolescence. The brain changes that occur in the adolescent brain from ages 12 – 20, often through age 25, are astounding. These changes are the primary reason early use during the teens years is so problematic and a key risk factor for developing the disease of addiction. The causes of these changes are three-fold: PUBERTY, cerebral cortex development, and the “pruning” and “strengthening” process.

This video talks about the first two brain changes, which is why we must start telling the whole truth about puberty in our attempts to inform, intervene and treat underage substance misuse.


Lisa Frederiksen

Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com
Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.
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Posted in Brain Research | Brain Development, Underage Drinking | Drug Use Prevention and tagged , , ,

2 Comments

  1. Cathy Taughinbaugh | Treatment Talk on February 29, 2012 at 9:57 am

    Hi Lisa,

    Thank you for sharing this important topic. You are right, puberty education is helpful, but is still lacking essential pieces that would really drive home the point of how early drug abuse can affect the brain.

    Reply
    • Lisa Frederiksen on February 29, 2012 at 10:03 am

      …plus, the area of the brain that is affected by alcohol or drugs is the same that is so activated during puberty — so teens have two “things” working on the pleasure/reward neural networks of the brain — yikes! Thanks for your comment, Cathy!

      Reply

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