wpainterw

In today’s (Sunday’s) New York Times there is an interesting article entitled “Why Teenagers Act Crazy” by Richard A. Friedman, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Weill Cornell Medical Center, in New York. Although the article is not about alcoholism it has an interesting tie in with the theories expounded by Rational Recovery, particularly the Addictive Voice or “AV”. This article reports recent research which indicates that the amygdala, which forms part of the primitive portion of the brain, also the seat of the “AV”, develops more rapidly in adolescents than the more rational areas of the cerebral cortex. Since the amygdala deals with sensitivity to fear and governs fear response, as well as risky situations, adolescents are more prone to experience fear, as in certain social situations, and have greater difficulty unlearning fear responses. Paradoxically they are also inclined to seek out risky situations and are thus prone to be “risk takers”. When they encounter fear, such as in social gatherings, they often respond by self medication with alcohol.
Does this sound familiar? It does to me! I used alcohol to adjust to social gatherings, to make myself more comfortable with women, called “girls” in those early days. I liked to drive fast, sometimes under the influence. My AV developed quickly to encourage such activity and, as my metabolism and neurology changed to accommodate to the booze, my AV sent many a “witch message” to my numbed and underdeveloped cerebral cortex to have “just one” or “just one more” or “that didn’t do any harm- guess I can now drink moderately, a glass of wine ‘now and then‘ just like the rest of the folk. How very sophisticated!"

W.

PurpleKnight

It's an interesting observation!!

Though I did some pretty crazy and reckless things in my late 20's too, so I guess we don't grow out of our AV like we do other things we did as teenagers!!