Getting Creative In Response To The Teen Vaping Crisis

Vaping among teens spiked dramatically among high school students between 2017 and 2018, the biggest one-year increase of any kind in the 44 years the Monitoring the Future survey has been tracking substance abuse by young people. Marketing of these nicotine products has evolved much faster than our approaches to education and prevention, and as result increasing numbers of teens are exposed to nicotine delivery devices designed to be attractive and appear safe. But applications of research into the unique features of the teen brain suggest that creative social-emotional experiences are the best delivery system for the information and skills teens need to have at the ready in the face of these challenges.

The first challenge is getting accurate information about what these vaping products are, what they do, and how teens can handle situations where vaping is involved. “There is a perception, promoted by the manufacturers of vaping devices, that vaping is harmless because it does not involve the burning of tobacco — the source of carcinogenic tar in traditional cigarette smoke,” writes Dr. Nora Valkov of The National Institute On Drug Abuse. But nicotine has a potent impact on the brain’s receptors of dopamine — the “feel-good” brain chemical — that is released when we win at a game, feel loved, earn a high grade, exercise, or get paid for work. A burst of dopamine is nature’s way of saying “this is good! do more of this!” and is triggered naturally when we have some degree of success after putting in an effort. With nicotine, there is a burst of dopamine through no effort at all. With repeated use this primes the teen brain to crave a substance to realize that good feeling. “Considering that the younger a person engages in repeated administration of any addictive drug, the greater the risk of them becoming addicted, preventing nicotine exposure among adolescents whether by vaping or by smoking traditional tobacco cigarettes must be a high priority.”

Creativity is another delivery system that ignites the reward brain chemistry. To teach teens the facts about vaping products and at the same time galvanize their capacity to manage social situations in which vaping is involved, we need to connect that “this is good!” burst of dopamine with creativity and positive emotional experiences. And research shows the essential role that emotions and interpersonal connections play in a teens’ ability to take in and implement new information. “Event memories are tied to specific emotionally or physically charged events (strong sensory input) because of the emotional intensity of the events to which they are linked,” explains neurologist Judy Willis in Research-Based Strategies To Ignite Student Learning. “Because the ‘dramatic event’ powers its way through the neural pathways of the emotionally preactivated limbic system into memory storage, the associated hitch-hiking academic information gets pulled along with it. Recollection of the academic material occurs when the emotionally significant event comes to mind, unconsciously or consciously. To remember the lesson, students can cue up the dramatic event to which it is linked.”

Improvisation games and exercises are exactly the kind of “dramatic event” that drives the new learning teens need now. Improv is social because it involves interaction with other people and emotional because the interactions are dynamic and have meaning. Along with the research showing that creative engagement illuminates, accelerates and integrates new learning, this information is a guide to interventions with teens around the subject of vaping. Some principles:

• The brain is “plastic” and continually changes it own wiring in response to experience and environment;
• Emotion is integral to learning skills and content;
• Practice and repetition produce neural pathways that integrate skills and information;
• Creative, engaging experiences like improvisation games and exercises in a positive social-emotional environment can be designed to introduce and process information;
• The pre-frontal cortex — central to our ability to think things through and control impulses — of the teen brain is still “under construction,” while emotional responsiveness is greatly heightened. This means that under situations that require decision-making, the teen brain is working very hard. Creative, engaging, social-emotional give teens a much-needed boost in exactly the way they need one.

Improv games and exercises combine curiosity with the emotional support teens need to go out on a limb and try out new parts of self. Teen’s brains have a heightened sensitivity to “reward feedback” — the response from others signalling acceptance, that we are doing all right in the eyes of others — especially from their peers, according to research published in Current Directions In Psychological Science, one of the reasons they are more prone to risky behavior when they hang out together. The creative and emotional risks taken in improvisation directs teens’ natural desire to impact one another with a focus on thinking things through and problem-solving skills.

“MRI studies show that the teenage brain is not an old child brain or a half-baked adult brain; it is a unique entity characterized by changeability and an increase in networking about brain regions,” writes Jay N. Giedd in Scientific American. “The limbic system, which drives emotions, intensifies at puberty, but the prefrontal cortex, which controls impulses, does not mature until the 20s. This mismatch makes teens prone to risk taking but also allows them to adapt readily to their environment.” Social-emotional learning through applied improvisation games and exercises takes advantage of that adaptability by making facts fascinating and the experience in which they are shared memorable.

Professionals charged with educating teens about the hazards of vaping or harm reduction will have greater impact by teaching skills for putting that knowledge into action in real life social situations. Improvisation provides a grounded approach to managing unpredictable stresses, with a healthy dose of humor and positivity.

Jude Treder-Wolff, LCSW, CGP, CPAI is a consultant/trainer and writer/performer. She is president of Lifestage, Inc which designs and implements creative training for personal and professional development. Lifestage will offer The Vaping Crisis: Skills and Knowledge For Effective Responding on Sat. Feb. 9, 2019 in Smithtown, NY.