Those crazy, crazy hormones!

There was so much in these two chapters!! Like the two of you, I was fascinated by the chapter on the Teen Girl Brain and just how dependant on hormones a woman is!! I really hope, though, that this wasn't just talking about the teen girl cycle, because I saw so much of myself in this chapter!!
But I'll just go off my Post-it's for these chapters.
The first place I stopped was when Brizendine was talking about how seriously a teen's brain takes social connections, she spoke about how desperate a woman's brain is to make social connections because, in an evolutionary sense, that's the way her offspring are most likely to survive. She ends with, "The primitive brain is saying, 'Lose that bond, and both you and your offspring are toast.'...No wonder girls find it unbearably hard to cope with feelings of being left out," (43). I had a major flash back to Jr. High and just how desperate I was to be a part of the group...

The next section that really stood out was Brizendine's talk on hormones and "why the teen girl brain freaks."
"These adolescent girls and adult women have regular, dramatic shifts in their moods and behavior because, in fact, the very structure of their brains is changing, from day to day and from week to week," (48).
See, I don't remember myself being a terrible teen, in fact, my mom even says that she doesn't remember me this way, it was more my sister who suddenly fell into drama...but I'm wondering if this can change as your age...it seems like a woman should mellow the older she gets, but as I get older, my hormones seem to have more sway from week to week...while I never used to be able to predict "Aunt Martha's visit," I now know within two days when she'll be knocking...even Jesse knows. But that might be more like what Brizendine was saying about women getting to be more familiar with their own hormone cycles.
That was pretty much it for chapter 3 though.

Like you, Emily, I enjoyed the way that Brizendine kept the story of Rob and Melissa throughout the entirety of chapter 4. One thing that started to get to me at this point was her continual return to the "cave man brain." It's probably more because of my personal beliefs than anything else, but that's just a side note. But I did find a lot of this chapter explaining a lot to me. The place where she notes that falling in love shares the same brain space as mania, obsession, and intoxication--it explains a lot from the way my sister acts when around the family now-a-days...her favorite question, "Don't you think Darrin is handsome?" is only slightly tongue in cheek--she really expects everyone--even our dad--to answer "yes" and the tell her why he's handsome!! I guess I can give her a break if it's just that her brain really is intoxicated with Darrin.

I also was interested in the part where Brizendine talks about just how powerful physical touch is to the woman's brain--that touch actually causes a hormone release! The fact that hugging causes trust was fascinating to me...I'm just that much more paranoid about my teen daughters now! But I loved the 20second hug! I'm going to make that a daily requirement in my house.

There were a few other points that I enjoyed, but I'm ready for bed...it was something about the transition from romantic passion to comfort love...how that's actually a good thing if caring for children is ever going to come up. I also was interested in how rejection hurts so much because it actually triggers the same circuits in the brain as physical pain.

--Mary