Regardless of whether or not teens should care about body image or physical appearances, the truth is that we do care, a lot. And working out is a healthy way to look and feel better. The trouble comes when people sacrifice their health to look buff—like by taking steroids.
While not that many teens try steroids even once, according to NIDA surveys (about 3 in 100), those who do use steroids are getting a lot more than just larger muscles. Steroids can cause acne and make your hair fall out. They can also damage your heart and change your hormone levels so that girls might grow facial hair, and boys could develop breasts. Seriously. NIDA scientist Dr. Baler reveals more about what steroids can do in the video to the right.
Why do adults seem to blame “raging hormones” for many things teens do? Beyond causing acne and a sudden interest in dating, are hormones responsible for changes in behavior or emotional response?
The answer is yes. The hormones that change around puberty—starting between age 8 and 14—and last until the early 20s when adolescence ends may affect you in more ways than you realize.
NIDA defines a “hormone” as “a chemical substance formed in glands in the body and carried in the blood to organs and tissues, where it influences function, structure, and behavior.”
In preteen and teen years, many new chemicals move around inside your body, transforming you from a child to a teen to an adult.
Growing on the Outside: What’s Happening on the Inside?
During puberty, your brain releases various hormones that help your body to mature by producing testosterone (in boys) and estrogen (in girls). Resulting changes can go beyond physical development to include emotional and mood changes—although some researchers think mood swings may relate more to changes in the teen brain than to hormonal spurts.
Other important hormones also come into play in the teen years. Melatonin is a hormone that helps your body regulate sleep cycles by making you feel sleepy after the sun goes down. Melatonin levels in adolescents don’t start to rise until about 10:30 p.m., which might explain why many teens want to stay up late despite their parents’ wishes. Research shows that for adolescents, melatonin levels remain high, even after they wake up, which is why teens may feel sleepy in the morning.
Our bodies also release something called “stress hormones,” such as cortisol. The stress hormone cortisol governs how well someone responds to or recovers from stressful experiences. Increased stresses in adolescence can cause cortisol levels to rise, which can affect teens’ ability to function calmly and reasonably.
So, while teen bodies are a bundle of changes, the good news is that eventually your body adjusts, and the “raging” hormones calm down as you move into adulthood.
