Teen Trouble

By Juveria Asif

"Teenagers are so vexatious!", "My teens are becoming the death of me!", "How do you handle teens the right way?", "What are the reasons for teenagers' baffling behaviour?", and most importantly, "How can I control my teen?" are just some of the questions asked by seemingly 'worried' parents and teachers. As a teenager myself, I wouldn't blame them. Who wouldn't get annoyed with the emotional tantrums thrown, like, every moment of the day? Leaving aside tears and yells, why don't we look into the deeper meaning of all this gobbledygook and think straight? The problem starts with parents -- who go to all odds to make their seemingly 'worthless' teens see the real meaning of life, the teachers -- who think that the real reason for teenagers' diabolical behaviour is that they are too much into 'other' things, and lastly, the teens -- who think that both parents and teachers are responsible for making their lives so monotonous and uninteresting. The reasons for our seemingly 'revolting' behaviour are many. First, teenagers tend to act on impulse. The part of our brain called the Frontal Cortex, that helps us think before we act, is still in developing process, which continues well into adulthood. To cover up

this anomaly, our body has another, though weaker temporary replacement of the Frontal Cortex. The part of our brain called Amygdala, which is responsible for institutional reactions including fear and aggressive behavior, is very highly developed in teens. This is the main reason why we get into accidents of all kinds, mislead and misinterpret social clues and emotions, get involved in fights and engage in dangerous or risky behavior. Indubitably, this is the time when we need maximum support from our parents and teachers. Instead, we get yelled at, have to listen to tedious lectures, and in the end, we get blamed at for 'creating' these tantrums, not trying to 'understand' the gravity of the problem and for not acting on 'problem-solving' lines. Dear grownups, it's not our fault. It's not even our choice. It's biology! Considering all these aspects, it's not surprising that teens are not very open to their parents and teachers about their problems and dilemmas. This has resulted in the much-lamented 'Generation Gap' and has left many, many parents and teenagers feeling equally frustrated. In the end, I'd like to request you all to give some more time to us. We are metamorphosing into adults, and obviously, we don't have a cocoon to protect us from the outside world. Oblivious to this fact, our biological clock is still ticking; we are still growing and growing. What's the use of spoon-feeding us with all the rules of life just right now? We will learn as we grow. And this will take place through chronology.