As we ease back into the academic year young people across the country will be getting used to a new year and perhaps a new school. Much is made of the transition from primary to secondary school and parents often cite it as particular milestone in both their child’s and their own lives.
It is seen as another step towards independence; a time when parents become less involved with no Christmas shows or sports days to watch. In the young person it can be associated with feeling of anxiety, social pressure and overwhelm, all of which are valid responses to a new situation.
However, more recently I’ve wondered if we put too much emphasis on the physical factors, such as change in friendship groups, bigger schools, a new building and a change in teaching methods and not enough education directed towards what is going on within the young person themselves.
I’m talking about hormones.
The original definition of a hormone was described by Ernest Starling in 1905 as “essentially a substance produced by glands and secreted into the blood to carry signals to target organs”. Today this is seen as lacking due to the interplay of so many other factors which interact to perfectly coordinate the finely tuned vessel that is the human body.
I’ll tell you why it is lacking.
It is because science discusses hormones as if they are an internal private thing secreted in one part of the body to have an effect on another part of the body of that individual only. Any parents of a teenager will tell you that hormones do not just affect the individual who is producing them.
Oh no – they absolutely effect every person around that person and probably the building you live in and the air you breathe (hello mould spores spouting from the several glasses of an identified what was liquid but is now solid mould growing in multiple glasses under the bed).
When children are taught about puberty they are taught that hormones make you grow hair, develop the sexual organs and change your appearance. They are not given information about how hormones can make you more likely to feel angry, sad, lonely, impulsive and less able to deal with things, i.e less resilient. They are not told that this is a phase and it will get better. Instead, they take on the assumption that they aren’t very resilient, they are weak, broken, have anger issues or some other defect within themselves. This is not to underplay how someone is feeling or write it off as ‘just hormones’ (no one would dream of saying that to a woman in labour). The sex hormones (testosterone, oestrogen and progesterone) have a significant effect on how the brain works and how we feel.
Couple that with a developing adolescent brain and all that goes along with it, it is not really at all surprising that the transition to secondary school can feel like a monumental change. I suspect having that knowledge might be reassuring to some young people that what they are experiencing may well be due, in part, to some physiological effect.
I personally find this a fascinating area to discuss and I have so much more I’d like to say on this topic including how hormones effects males and females differently.
I’d love to hear from you if this is something you would like to hear more from me about and if so is there any particular area? Please feel free to email or DM us with your questions and ideas on hormones.
