WELLBEING
As Aristotle presciently observed more than 2,000 years ago, ‘The habits we form from childhood make no small difference, but rather they make all the difference’
The darker side W hilst most teenagers go through adolescence without suffering from mental-health problems like depression, eating disorders and schizophrenia, for around 20 per cent of teenagers, these issues are a terrible reality. The worst result of this suffering is suicide. Tragically, this is the second most common cause of death in the UK for 15-24 year olds. Because the brain is such a complex system, we still do not know much about the causes of depression. Lack of sleep and desensitisation of parts of the brain due to dopamine are certainly risk factors. Low testosterone levels in boys and low oestrogen levels in girls also correlate with depression – but as any good biologist will tell you, correlation does not mean causation. Much depends on environmental factors. Indeed, adolescents may be particularly susceptible to depression due to increased exposure to the stress hormone cortisol. Damage to the prefrontal cortex could be yet another factor that results in mental illness and seems to be the case for people with schizophrenia: 25 per cent of the grey matter of the prefrontal cortex is pruned during adolescence in a schizophrenic compared with 15 per cent in a healthy teenage brain. Due to the number of factors implicated in mental health, there is no guaranteed way of avoiding an illness like depression, but it is best to steer clear of psychoactive drugs,
Claim your brain M uch of this explains why adolescence can be such a stressful and tumultuous time as well as an incredibly important one. It also gives an appreciation of mental illnesses as developmental disorders, with their causes in problems with brain maturation. Most importantly, however, as our understanding of the neurobiology of the brain increases, we are finding more ways of avoiding and treating these pitfalls in the pivotal period of brain development that is adolescence. The monsters may roam but we do have ways to understand and control them. binge drinking and bad sleep patterns. And remember, feeling low for a day or two does not necessarily mean you are ‘depressed’ – everyone has a blue day or two. If, however, you are not feeling yourself for a number of weeks, or you have difficulty concentrating or feel extremely and inexplicably tired, the best thing you can do is talk to someone that you trust. By doing this you are already on the path to recovery.
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