Drug Users Forget they Only have One Brain One Life
Straight Talk on Drugs
Katherine Ketcham
You have one brain, I tell the adolescents I work with at the Juvenile Justice Center. I say the words over and over again. You have one brain. You have one life.
I always say these words with lots of emotion because I've had some experience with addled brains. When I was in second grade, I ran headfirst into a tree during a game of tag.
I couldn't see straight for three days, and I still wonder if I can blame that injury for my migraine headaches and miserable mastery of mathematics.
Several years ago my mother, 75 at the time, suffered a brain injury in a car accident. She survived but for the rest of her life she struggled with simple tasks like dialing long distance phone numbers and remembering to turn off the oven burners.
And I've seen, firsthand, the damage drugs can do to developing brains. I've talked to kids who are 11, 12, and 13 years old who tell me their short-term memories are shot.
"It's probably all the weed I've been smoking," they admit.
Adolescents who are 14, 15, and 16 years old and like to party hard tell me they are tired of school. I press them for details and they say are having trouble because they can't concentrate. Their minds, they tell me, are elsewhere.
"I used to be really smart, but I can't think straight anymore," says one 15-year-old. The other kids in the group nod their heads. They know what she's talking about.
So, I keep talking. I keep telling them about the toxic effects of drugs on the brain and showing them pictures of real brains that have been eaten away by drugs.
And, I keep repeating those words, "You only have one brain."
They listen, but they think they're invulnerable. Like Justin, for example. He's 16, and he's used about every drug you can imagine. Marijuana and LSD are his favorites. You know that commercial about frying an egg—this is your brain on drugs? I fear that's what happened to Justin's brain. He looks right through me and laughs at nothing. He stares off into space and pulls out his hair in big clumps.
"You can't stop us from using," he told me once. "But you sure can ruin a good time."
I can live with that. It's a beginning, at least. If we teach kids about drugs and their devastating effects on the brain, planting the seeds early and repeating them in school and at home, maybe we can ruin their 'good times.' Maybe then they'll think about what they have to lose.
Check out Brainplace, the website is the brainchild of Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist, the site is full of fascinating facts.
Read the 50 Do's and Don'ts for Your Brain. Learn why singing in the shower is healing to your brain.
And discover how drugs damage the brain, with pictures to prove the point.
They are not pretty pictures.
Here's how to find them. Once you're on Brainplace, click the Brain Spect Atlas in the horizontal blue bar. Then select Chapter 15: Images of Alcohol and Drug Abuse. One more click and you're in the world of drug-damaged brains.
The brains, which belong to a 16-year-old marijuana user, a 24-year-old cocaine user and a 28-year-old methamphetamine user among others, look like they were used for target practice. The holes represent areas of decreased activity and blood flow.
Even if you're too young to understand how drugs damage the brain, those holes make quite an impression.
If you're a parent, grandparent, or teacher, show your children and students these pictures. And, please, don't wait until they are 11 or 12—start teaching them about their brains when they're 5 or 6. And then keep repeating the facts, year after year.
Tell them what drugs can do to their brains and their lives. Show them the holes and explain what a brain full of holes means in terms of getting good grades, making friends, controlling your anger, expressing your emotions and being a good, decent human being.
Because that's what it all comes down to—our brains aren't just for thinking. They're for feeling, reacting, discovering, creating, and expressing ourselves.
"Your brain is the hardware of your soul," writes Dr. Amen. "It is the hardware of your very essence as a human being. You cannot be who you really want to be unless your brain works right. how your brain works right. How your brain works determines how happy you are, how effective you feel, and how well you interact with others."
And, remember—you only have one.
Katherine Ketcham's column Straight Talk appears twice monthly in Living Life Boomer Style magazine. She has co-authored books, works part time at the Juvenile Justice Center and volunteers her time in creating developing Trilogy Recovery Community, which is part of the national recovery movement currently in the process of becoming a recovery community organization. This is her passion.
She has written 14 books, including the New York Times bestseller Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption with William Moyers and the bestselling classics Under the Influence with James Milam and The Spirituality of Imperfection with Ernest Kurtz. More than 1.5 million copies of her books are in print, and her books have been translated into 16 different languages. She has three adult children and lives in Walla Walla, Washington with her husband.
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