Flamenco - Limited Edition of 9 Print

PLAYING WITH FIRE’ When we hit adolescence we tend to transition from ‘playing’ to ‘playing with fire’. From an evolutionary perspective, the task of adolescence is to prepare us to leave home, venture into the world and forge an identity. This is why the teenage brain entices us to experiment with emotional intensity, creativity, socialising, and the need for peer approval. Like a car with a powerful gas pedal and weak brakes, the adolescent brain is activated by the mere excitement of the presence of peers or anticipation of being observed by peers. Lower baseline levels of dopamine leads teens to feel easily bored and ready to rev up. Fueling the fire, the teenage brain releases higher levels of dopamine in response to novelty, creating an intense rush and making teens more vulnerable to taking risks. It’s not that teens fail to understand the risks involved or that they cannot use higher mind thinking and planning to make good judgments, but when their reward system is activated around peers, the power of the anticipated rush is so strong that this feeling dominates their mindset and the thrill of ‘playing with fire’ just seems worth it. The most interesting thing, however, is that many of us grow into adulthood still seeking this risk taking rush, needing the resulting peer approval, the false sense of identity through surviving emotional intensity, the associated dopamine hit. Is it that we never really grow out of adolescence, the games just become more risky? Or is it that through ‘playing with fire’ we can test or even toy with our mortality - and therefore feel truly alive?