Adolescent Anxiety

Intriguing:

But there is a darker side to adolescence that, until now, was poorly understood: a surge during teenage years in anxiety and fearfulness. Largely because of a quirk of brain development, adolescents, on average, experience more anxiety and fear and have a harder time learning how not to be afraid than either children or adults.

Different regions and circuits of the brain mature at very different rates. It turns out that the brain circuit for processing fear — the amygdala — is precocious and develops way ahead of the prefrontal cortex, the seat of reasoning and executive control. This means that adolescents have a brain that is wired with an enhanced capacity for fear and anxiety, but is relatively underdeveloped when it comes to calm reasoning.

My adolescence was certainly dominated by anxiety. I am full of regrets about that part of my life because I passed up doing so much out of fear. Anxiety kept me to a narrow path of school, home, study, and dreams of college. I could have done so much more, if I had not been afraid to.