Teen Brain Owner's Guide |



Some Advice For You

Now that you know more about your brain and its effects on you, what can you do? There are a couple of things:

  1. If you're having trouble making sound decisions, look to adults. Adults' brains are fully developed and do not face the same issues as you do. Take cues from them by copying the strategies they use to make choices.

  2. When observation doesn't give you as much info as you'd like, ask adults directly about their decision-making process.

  3. Finally, if you're facing a difficult choice, don't be afraid to let yourself really consider all the options. Ask for advice, list pros and cons, look at it from every angle, and generally make sure that you've really thought things through. It can be difficult, given that your teenage brain is inclined to be impulsive, but it will definitely be worth the effort.

So far, all of this advice helps you and only you. But your parents or guardians can also benefit from this information. If they are more informed about the teenage brain, they might become more understanding to your plight as an adolescent. So, showing this website to them may be helpful.

Fig. 4 - Here's some dopamine to keep you going. If you were paying attention, you should know why giving you dopamine would encourage you to read on.

Alternatively, you could show them more on the next page, including sites that are more focused on parents and therefore outside of the scope of this website. You'd probably learn something new too. All you need to do is click that next button.