Teen Driving –True or FalseCar crashes kill more teens than, homicide, suicide, AIDS, cancer, and all disease together

The #1 reason teens get into car crashes is speeding.

Teens are less likely to crash at night because there’s less people on the road.

It’s best for teens to drive the old clunker.

A teen who knows better will not get into a car with a drunk or drugged driver.

Texting while driving is safer than calling.

Parenting Teens 101 – True or False ?Asking my teen about suicide will put the idea in their head

There’s nothing a parent can do about texting and calling in school or sleep hours.

Adult supervised teen drinking results in less teen alcohol use problems.

> 50% teens go thru adolescence with hardly a ripple.

What I say as a parent matters more than what I do.

“Nothing good ever happens after midnight”

Sleepovers and campouts are fine for teens.

It’s not worth upsetting my teen or troubling her friends’ parents to ask if _____ is really happening and supervised.

I can just trust what my teen says about _____ .

I only have to worry about illegal drugs.

Teens get drugs from dealers.

Parenting Teens 101 – True or False ?My kids don’t need a computer or Facebook, etc. till at least college.

Don’t be silly, a phone is not a computer.

I don’t need to know how to supervise or check their phone, computer, gaming consoles, or handhelds.

If I had a 24 hour phone, iPod, computer, TV, and Xbox in my room as a teen I’d never come out either.

My teen’s responsible. We can leave her home when we go away and we can rent him a hotel room after formal or prom or whenever they want.

Adults should not hold teens accountable because their brains are not fully developed.

Adults should limit, monitor, and supervise teens stepwise as they attain and demonstrate growth in their brain and overall developmental abilities.

Parenting TipsCell phones make “flash” parties possible.Call other parents.If you’re the host check what’s up.Have your teen wake you up when they come home. Talk to them, get close.2% of us over age 40 smoke marijuana daily.Teens know homes where parents allow or give alcohol, “weed”, other drugs, or sex to your kids.> 33% of teens “sext”

Parenting Tips YOU are your child’s + teen’s #1 influence !

If they see you drunk/impaired/partying they are 33% more likely to drink or use.

If you say, imply, or even think it’s OK or inevitable that they’ll drink or use, then they are 10X more likely to do so.

If you repeatedly (not nag) tell them not to, then they are 10X less likely to drink or use.Say “No”, Don’t try to be the “Cool” parents, and don’t try to be your kids’ “Best Friends” !

Marijuana, pot, grass, weedPerceptual distortions

Short term memory loss

Apathy, lack of, motivation

Out of touch with own feelings, denial of sad, mad, down, etc

The point of substance use is to alter feelings, thoughts, perceptions, reality

Relationship problems

Self medication of MH and life problems

MJ can cause or worsen mental illness

MJ use in teens lowers Intelligence

Teen and Young Adult Suicide1) Depressed, angry, substance use2) “the person no one would ever guess”3) Eating disorder4) Severe mental illness

• 90% have a diagnosable mental health condition• connectedness, relationships, belonging, family

disruption, substance abuse• 3x as many boys complete suicide tho 4x as many girls

attempt. Guys use more lethal methods. 75% guns in AZ• Self harm• Family history• “disciplinary crisis”• Treatment helps, prevent, intervene, teach alternate

coping strategies, target the underlying problems

It’s not “Nature vs. Nurture”

Nature means biology, inheritance, genetics.

Nurture means environment, experiences.

Ability to learn language is genetic. But what language we learn is purely environmental.

Neither controls how we turn out in life. It’s both, the interaction of nature and nurture.

If a child is not played with, interacted with, nurtured, exposed to stimuli, or is rarely touched he/she will develop a 25% smaller brain.

Brain development proceeds from back to front and bottom to top.

By the time a child is 6, his or her brain is 90 % of adult size.

Between age 6 and 12 neurons grow bushier by each neuron adding millions of connections based on what is reinforced by learning and experiences.

Neuron connections peak at 11 in girls and 12 to 13 in boys before pruning gets serious in the teen years.

This is why such things as learning a second language, riding a bike, swimming, learning to play a piano, or to throw a ball are easier when young and can last a lifetime.

Unused connections are further pruned out in the teen years at the same time the white matter protective coating around neurons called Myelin Sheath cells increase.The Teen brain is becoming more efficient but also losing some of its raw potential for learning and ability to recover from trauma, drugs, alcohol, or injury.

Synapses that are used often are kept and reinforced. Those that are not used are lost.

Thus, how you spend your time and the experiences you have or don’t have, both good and bad, are critical. Experiences shape and reshape the structure of the brain. The Frontal Lobe, which controls impulses, motivation, and improves judgement is the last to develop.This part of the brain that makes teens more mature and responsible is still under construction.

A Neural Signature for DyslexiaUnder-activation of Neural Systems in the Back of the Brain

Source: Shaywitz – Overcoming Dyslexia

Frontal (PFC, VMFC), Temporal (Limbic system - Hippocampus, Amygdala etc); Basal Ganglia> Striatum> Nucleus Accumbens

Nucleus Accumbens is a collection of neurons within the Striatum with major role in reward, pleasure, addiction, and more.

Amygdala is next to Hippocampus in the Temporal Lobe; is key for emotional learning, fear conditioning and memory.

MFB = Medial Forebrain Bundle (collection of axons connecting these areas and more)

VTA = Ventral Tegmentum Area (in midbrain near basal ganglia)

drawing from Psychology Today

What is a memory ? “A memory is merely the probability that a certain group of neurons will fire again in the same way”

Short term vs long term memory

Role of dreams

Hippocampus (temporal lobe)

Thus cramming and little sleep is poor learning method

What and when you eat matters too

Date of download: 4/21/2013

Copyright © American Psychiatric Association. All rights reserved.

From: Suicide and Suicide Prevention in Later LifeFocus. 2013;11(1):39-47. doi:10.1176/appi.focus.11.1.39

Suicide Rates in the United States by Age, Sex, and Race, 2010 Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System [WISQARS])

Source: CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System

41,080

36,450

37,985

Date of download: 6/9/2012

Copyright © American Psychiatric Association. All rights reserved.

From: Physicians and Medical Marijuana

Am J Psychiatry. 2012;169(6):564-568. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2012.12030373

Trends in Annual Marijuana Use and Perceived Risk Among 12th Gradersa

a Risk means percent saying great risk of harm in occasional use. Figure based on data from the Monitoring the Future Study, University of Michigan (13).

Figure Legend:

Suicide Rate for Age Group 15-19 by Year

AACAP NEWS

In Children, neither PFC (self control, impulse control, cognitive control) nor Striatum (risk taking, pleasure seeking) have developed much.

In Adolescents the Striatum has developed but not the PFC.

Finally in Adults both Striatum and PFC have developed a balance.

Note the Striatum (includes Nucleus Acccumbens) develops in a spurt in Adolescence while the PFC develops consistently but slower.

This is one reason why teens who know better get in a car with a drunk driver.

JAACAP Vol 49 Issue 12 pgs 1189-1201

ADHD – Deficits in Brain Reward System JAMA 9/9/09 pgs 1084-91

“…Nucleus Accumbens and midbrain are 2 key regions for reward and motivation …”

“…impaired dopamine reward pathway in ADHD”

“The reward deficits in ADHD are characterized by a failure to delay gratification, impaired response to partial schedules of reinforcement, and preference for small immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards.”

This explains “why the attention deficits in ADHD are most evident in tasks that are considered boring (tasks or assignments that are not intrinsically rewarding.”

Dopamine reward deficit “…underlies the higher vulnerability to substance abuse in this population.”

AZ High School Graduation Rate2009: 72.3% 29th in US (73.4%)

2008: 67%

2007: 68.2%

2006: 68.6%

2005: 73.3%

2004: 68.4%

2003: 69.6%

2002: 66.1%

2001: 67.4%

2000: 58.4%

1999: 48.2%

Nature vs. Nurture

Nature means biology, inheritance, genetics.

Nurture means environment, experiences.

Color perception is almost purely genetic.

Ability to learn language is genetic. But what language we learn is purely environmental.

Neither controls how we turn out in life. It’s both, the interaction of nature and nurture.

FIGURE 1. Medical Marijuana Registrants per Physician in Coloradoaa Data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment, provided to the authors in December 2010. The Ns for the seven categories in the bar graph are, from left to right, 911, 242, 39, 49, 2, 2, and 1. (30% by 5, 80% by 54 Drs)

FIGURE 2. Medical Marijuana Registrants in Colorado, by Qualifying Conditiona

A new “Third Way”

Opiates and more…Vicodin, Percodan, Percocet, methadone, oxycontinOxycontin 50c/mg; Heroin snort, smoked, foil, $40/g, IV Benzos – Xanax “bars”, Klonopin, Ativan, ValiumSleeping pills - Ambien“Triple C’s”, “DXM”, Robitussin, dextromethorphanSynthetics, salvia, DXM, etc don’t show on drug testsADHD medicine abuse, stimulants like AdderallMeth, Crystal, methamphetamine, E made from methSoma, muscle relaxersEcstasy, “club drugs”, hallucinogens, PCP, Inhalants Hookah, Shisha do contain nicotineenergy drinks – caffeine, guarana, taurine, Four LocoBe aware, legal drugs + medicines are just as dangerous to abuse as illegal drugs are.Youth drink to get drunk - binge on as much as possible as fast as possible. Drinking games.

The part of the brain that makes teens responsible is still under construction. Brain development proceeds from back to front and bottom to top. The Frontal Lobe, which controls impulses, motivation, and judgement is the last to develop.Teen’s inconsistent Melatonin production contributes to irregular sleep patterns.

1. Self Control (self regulation)

2. Perseverance (resilience; try,try again)

Hope (Faith)

Love (fun, play, joy, the primacy of relationships, the Golden Rule, honesty)