Today’s teenagers have been stereotyped as adventurous and harebrained individuals.  They are generally fond of experimenting with things until they get in touch with drugs, sex, guns, alcohol among others. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures, 16,000 young adults die each year from unintentional injuries and accidents.  The most common justification for teenagers’ care-free attitude is that their brains just aren’t developed enough to know better. However, recent research shows that in some cases the fact is just the opposite, the brain matures not too slowly but perhaps, too quickly.

According to a psychiatrist, an adolescent who engages in more dangerous activities have white-matter pathways that seem to be more mature than those of risk-averse youths.  White-matter is the brain’s wiring, the neutral pathways that connect the various gray-matter regions of the cerebrum that are independent of one another.  Having a mature white-matter is necessary because it allows faster brain processing speed.  Nerve impulses also travel faster in mature white-matter. Experiments also reveal that the more mature the look of the brain, the more adventurous the teenager tended to be.
Another possible explanation is that some teenagers whose brains develop more rapidly than others become uncomfortable and a little confused owing to the gap between their biological capabilities and the social norms they must follow as kids. Precocious development of these neural tracts may make some adolescents more susceptible to engage in behaviors that society considers too adult in nature for their chronological age. It is also a common notion that teens make dumb decisions because their brains are immature. In other words, having a more mature brain may actually motivate some teens to try out new and potentially harmful experiences.
For now, these theories are mere speculation, and the researchers concede that the interaction of white and gray matter is so complex that hard conclusions remain elusive. The results of the study are relatively bare and by no means conclusive. The human brain is so intricate in nature, and one has to consider the fact that there are other factors that come into play such as the environment and certain genetic predispositions that are equally complex to study.

Because sexual activities are activities that also involves teen nowadays, the problem with the rising number of teens who acquire sexually transmitted diseases have also become an issue. Teens are generally hard to control and more often than not, some of them are defiant and rebellious. Due to this fact, parents and authoritative persons find it hard to control the teen’s increased exposure to sexual activities.

In 1997, approximately 48 percent of American teenagers of high-school age were or had been sexually active. Now, of course, the number has increased to an alarming number. This year alone, nearly 3 million teens will become infected. Overall, roughly one-quarter of the nation’s sexually active teens have been infected by a sexually transmitted disease (STD).

Teens are thus cautioned to be more careful in engaging in sexual activities. If celibacy is not an easy option, then at least go for the safe choice. More than anything else, protecting one’s self should be the running theme.

People with OCD may be diagnosed with other conditions, such as anorexia nervosa, social anxiety disorder, bulimia nervosa, Tourette syndrome, compulsive skin picking, body dysmorphic disorder, and trichotillomania. There is some research demonstrating a link between drug addiction and obsessive compulsive disorder as well. Many who suffer from OCD suffer from panic attacks. There is a higher risk of drug addiction among those with any anxiety disorder (possibly as a way of coping with the heightened levels of anxiety), but drug addiction among obsessive compulsive patients may serve as a type of compulsive behavior and not just as a coping mechanism. Depression is also extremely prevalent among sufferers of OCD.

It is very difficult for parents to talk to their teens about sex. Therefore it is almost impossible to tell if their teens are, god forbid, addicted to sex.

Sexual addiction is not limited to “having sex” with the opposite gender, it can also involve pornography, masturbation and obsession about the act and the participants.

There are ways to spot if a teen is addicted to sex without interrogating them, parents can do this by just observing their kids. Some of the things to look for are pornographic materials, friends and their activities and how the teenager interacts with the opposite sex.