Youth and Adults Working Together for a
Safe and Healthy Community

Keynote Speaker:  Michael Nerney
“Positive Ways to Understand and Interact with Youth”
 

Teenage Behavior

·   Kids between ages of 12 – 25 have a powerful need for acceptance and inclusion by their peers. The social-emotional part of the brain is dominant.

·   The decision-making part of the brain is not fully developed until age 25. It’s not that kids this age willfully ignore the consequences of their actions; it’s that, in many cases, they can’t see the consequences. Their brains can’t project into the future, particularly when their feelings are running high.

·   To get the same biochemical rewards for the risks they took as young children, teens have to take more risks as they get older. Adults’ job is to provide appropriate risk-taking opportunities.

·   Youth experience feelings much more intensely than adults do. Unfortunately, when kids tell adults about the emotional truths they experience, adults don’t tend to react in helpful ways.  i.e., “You’re better off.” It’s no big deal.” “You’re going to look back at this and laugh.” Rather than diminishing, downplaying, or denying the importance of what kids feel and say, adults need to learn to listen and acknowledge kids’ feelings.

·   Without positive adult guidance, kids mislearn how to manage their emotions and often turn to substances to deal with them. When this happens on a regular basis, it becomes their fallback method for dealing with stress, a method that will often follow them into adulthood.
 

Brain Development

·   Because of the dominance of the social-emotional area of the teenage brain, teens feel emotions 2-4x more intensely than adults.

·   In adults, a compound called THP helps the brain problem solve and decrease anxiety in a time of crisis. In teens, this same compound has the opposite effect. In a time of crisis, THP disconnects the problem-solving part of the brain, leaving the emotion-based part of the brain in charge. Alcohol increases THP production in the brain, leading to opposite responses on the part of adults and teens.

o  When adults wonder, “What were they thinking?” in response to a teen’s reaction to a stressful situation, they should realize that a teen isn’t “thinking” at all – he’s reacting to the emotion of the moment.

o  When teens have a powerful emotional stressor, adults need to support kids’ emotional response and help them manage their emotions rather than putting pressure on them to solve the problem.

·   Around 8^th grade (roughly age 13), kids begin to think independently and evaluate information for themselves. As a result, kids this age are more willing to engage in conflict with adults, where before they were more interested in adult approval.

o  This kind of contrary behavior is a normal developmental milestone.

Teens and Alcohol

·         Kids say that the things that put them at risk for substance use are:

o  Stress – Mainly related to social bonding with their peers.

o  Boredom – They lack a passionate interest.

o  Money – Having extra cash gives them the ability to buy drugs or alcohol.

o  For boys, sports and older siblings - There is a standard to live up to.

o  For girls, early puberty and attractiveness to older boys - A good rule of thumb is to allow girls to date kids one year older in middle school, and two years older in high school. Any wider age difference puts girls at a developmental disadvantage, and at risk for other unhealthy and dangerous behavior.

·   The chemical compound that helps teen brains map and migrate cells is severely negatively impacted by alcohol.

o  The greatest risk for damage to this mapping system comes with binge drinking, which is 5 or more consecutive drinks for boys, 4 for girls, in a two-hour period.

o  Appropriate mapping leads to the development of “hot spots” where knowledge, enjoyment, and experience coalesce to produce areas of intellectual interest, often determining a young person’s adult interests and career path.  Heavy alcohol use can undermine this essential developmental process.

Michael Nerney is a consultant in substance abuse prevention and education, with over 25 years' experience in the field. His understanding of adolescent issues is drawn from 12 years' experience as a teacher and coach at the junior high and high school levels, including three years with the Adirondack Mountain School, a residential school for boys. He went on to add 4 years' experience in the chemical dependency field as a substance abuse counselor and Director of the Drug Abuse Prevention Council in Hamilton County, NY, before joining the staff of the Training Institute of Narcotic and Drug Research in 1984. He has been a consultant for two major television networks and has also appeared on the ABC program “20/20”.

Michael Nerney is an internationally-known lecturer, and has served as consultant to a number of federal and state agencies. He is the father of 4 children.