Dr. Dan Siegel - BRAINSTORM: Adolescence, opportunity, vulnerability, and pruning

0:00 the Adolescent period is a time of both opportunity and vulnerability the opportunity is that we learn to think in different ways we connect with our peers in different ways we have a whole new approach to understanding ourselves and others but what's the vulnerability the vulnerability besides the risk-taking that is clearly established during adolescence is that also there's an onset of mental illness during this period that is for thinking disorders

0:32 like schizophrenia mood disorders like depression or manic depressive illness and even anxiety disorders this onset of psychiatric troubles during the Adolescent period is not just random we believe what it is due to is something called pruning the brain during the Adolescent period is literally carving away the existing connections among the brain's basic cells that carve away of existing connections is called pruning

1:02 and it's a part of the remodeling of the brain while adolescence is a natural time where pruning occurs stress can increase the pruning away of those connections and what we believe happens is that someone who may have a genetic vulnerability or someone who may have experiential vulnerabilities from before the Adolescent period will be exposing those vulnerabilities as the challenged neural connections are now carved away

1:33 and what remains is insufficient for the brain to function properly knowing about this we need to be very aware when adolescence go through not just the everyday stresses of life but when their own minds stop functioning well and stresses increased which creates a loop of reinforcing increase in pruning that can make these psychiatric disorders become even more exposed during this time period knowing about this we can do interventions and

2:05 help kids so that they can have the most productive developmental period that they can