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Han Zhu

Instructor Andreea Corona

Linguistics 3C - Monday

10/21/2022

The Impacts of Fear on Adolescents

When thinking about the characteristics of teenagers, people always talk about their

outlandish behaviors. They are prone to risky behaviors, become anxious quickly, and feel it

difficult to suppress their feelings. Parents always blame their children for their inexplicable

behaviors and think teenagers' unruly and vulnerable character generates these actions. In

fact, these behaviors are usually caused by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, which usually

combine with one of the most influential emotions: fear. Due to brain structure and social

pressure, fear impacts adolescents both positively and negatively.

Fear negatively impacts adolescents due to their unique brain structures. Adolescence is a

magical time of brain development. In the past, people believed that adolescents experience

rapid brain development. When they become adults, their brain structures are nearly fully

developed—however, recent studies using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology

told another story. MRI is an excellent tool for studying the brain because it can create

detailed pictures and record videos of the brain to detect its reactions and movements in

different parts. According to Sarah-Jayne Blakemore’s TED Talk “The mysterious workings

of the adolescent brain," MRI experiments showed that the brain continued to develop

throughout adolescence till twenty, even thirty years old. Some parts of the brain are

precocious in this extended period, while others mature later. This situation leads to
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occurrences of brain functions at different times. For instance, the amygdala, the part of the

brain that process fear, is developed in the early stage of adolescence. In contrast, the

prefrontal cortex of the brain, which is in charge of cognitive function and reasoning, like

decision-making, planning, and inhibiting inappropriate behaviors, matures much later

(Blakemore). Because of amygdala development, teenagers can experience a strong feeling of

fear. However, due to the lack of the prefrontal cortex, teenagers cannot clarify the reasoning

behind this emotion, so controlling fear is troublesome. In his passage, "Why Teenagers Act

Crazy," Richard Friedman points out that the prefrontal cortex can top-down control the fear

alarm from the amygdala, helping people better assess environmental risk. Without this

control, it is difficult for teenagers to modulate their fear. Another precocious part of the

brain that matures early in adolescence is the limbic system. According to Blakemore, this

system's function is reward processing, which is why people feel delighted when they do

specific actions, like some risky behaviors. Although this system encourages people to do

things they want, without the prefrontal cortex to give reasoning support, it often leads to

undesirable behaviors. During the period that a teenager has a mature amygdala and

prefrontal cortex but an immature prefrontal cortex, he will be vulnerable to fear, injury, and

trauma. “The top three killers of teenagers are accidents, homicide, and suicide” (Friedman).

Adding to this statement, when teenagers are unable to find a way to reduce their fear and

when they find that doing risky behaviors can make them feel comfortable, excited, and

delighted, they will try more. This link between risky behaviors and brain structures can be

the reason for the high suicide rate of teenagers. Undesirable behavior, which is closely

related to adolescents’ brain structures, is one of the negative impacts of fear.

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Another negative influence fear has on adolescents is fear of social pressure, which

leads to anxiety disorders. Nowadays, teenagers are preoccupied with pressure: "70% of

teenagers in the U.S. say anxiety and depression is a major problem among people their age

in the community where they live" (Horowitz and Graf). According to Horowitz and Graf's

report, stress comes from different factors, including getting good grades, looking good, and

fitting in socially. This report is consistent with current society- the population grows much

faster than resources, leading to a highly competitive situation. Therefore, the goal of

academic accomplishment, believed to be the precondition of early success, becomes the

most salient burden teenagers experience. Besides the academic pressure, the stress caused by

the wish to look good and fit socially increased dramatically because of internet development.

With the faster information transmission, people are always overwhelmed by others’

wonderful life and beautiful appearance. These elements combined create unprecedented

pressure on adolescents, and stress is a significant cause of anxiety disorders. “Up to 20

percent of adolescents in the United States experience a diagnosable anxiety

disorder…probably resulting from a mix of genetic factors and environmental influences”

(Friedman). Undoubtedly, environmental influences must contain the considerable pressure

adolescents feel. Anxiety disorder is a mental illness that makes people feel stressed even

after the threat has receded for a long time (Friedman). Although everyone may get anxiety

disorders, teenagers with this mental illness are different. As mentioned in the previous

paragraph, teenagers develop the prefrontal cortex of their brain much later than other

components, which means they are hard to adapt fear. This situation results in difficulty in

using standard therapeutic methods to treat teenagers. Cognitive therapy is a typical practice
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to deal with anxiety disorder, mainly to expose the patient to the threat again under safe

conditions to alleviate his anxiety towards the danger. This method is less effective when

applied to teenagers because of "their impaired ability to extinguish fear associations

successfully" (Friedman). By making this claim, Friedman suggested that the relationship

between anxiety disorder and teenagers is quite complex. Teenagers are prone to anxiety

disorder due to the pressure they fear, and it is difficult to treat them when they get this

illness. Fear derived from social pressure certainly influenced adolescents negatively. On the

one hand, it increases the probability for teenagers to get anxiety disorder; on the other hand,

it impacts teenagers with anxiety disorder more severely because it is difficult to recover. It is

a chain of cause and effect that deeply affects adolescents.

Fear has a strong negative impact on teenagers due to their brain structures and the

possible anxiety disorder it may cause. Nevertheless, fear can influence adolescents in a good

way if they pay more attention to it. Fear is a natural emotion that everyone experiences.

Friedman asserts that there is a hallmark between anxiety and anxiety disorder: the

persistence of anxiety that causes intense distress. Adolescents will not develop terrible

anxiety disorders easily if they know the maximum fear and anxiety they can bear. At the end

of her speech, Blakemore suggested that adolescence is the period when the brain is

exceptionally adaptable and malleable, so it is a good time for education. She also stated that

risky behaviors should not be stigmatized. From a personal viewpoint, the statement is

correct. The event related to this point is how anxiety and fear promote students' study.

Whenever the final exam is near, students will become anxious and afraid of getting a poor

grade. Nevertheless, anxiety and fear do not develop into disorders if students know how to
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control the pace of study and recede from heavy school work when exhausted. They should

never cross the benchmark. Instead of becoming stressed, students who pay attention to their

emotions focus more on their studies. The anxiety and fear are like a clock inside one's body

to remind him of the need to work. Rae Oliver indicates in “Fear Not! Why Having Fear Is

Actually Good For You” that systematically exposing to fear will propel people forward,

making them better. Teenagers, whose brains are undergoing significant change, need to be

exposed to fear as a kind of education, and the experience they learn is valuable to their

future development. Fear can motivate teenagers to work hard and prepare for more complex

tasks in the future.

Because of the brain structure and social pressure, fear creates a significant problem for

teenagers. They are exposed to fear before they can effectively deal with it; they are prone to

anxiety disorder because of social pressure; they also find it difficult to heal from mental

disorders. However, people need not worry too much about teenagers. They will benefit

greatly if they know how to use fear. Society needs more fear education for adolescents to tell

them how to keep their emotions lower than the benchmark and use it as a motivation to get

better. After all, education is crucial to adolescents-the future of the world.

(Word Count: 1346)

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Works Cited

Friedman, Richard A. “Why Teenagers Act Crazy.” The New York Times, The New York

Times, 28 June 2014, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/opinion/sunday/why-

teenagers-act-crazy.html.

Horowitz, Juliana Menasce, and Nikki Graf. “Most U.S. Teens See Anxiety and Depression

as a Major Problem among Their Peers.” Pew Research Center's Social &

Demographic Trends Project, Pew Research Center, 30 May 2020,

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/20/most-u-s-teens-see-anxiety-

and-depression-as-a-major-problem-among-their-peers/.

“Tedtalks: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore--the Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain.”

Performance by Sarah Jayne Blakemore, The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent

Brain, 2012,

https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_jayne_blakemore_the_mysterious_workings_of_the

_adolescent_brain. Accessed 21 Oct. 2022.