Addiction: Our topic for November
The first article I recommend from our current issue is – I'll tell you straight away – not an easy read. For her dossier on addiction, author Virginia Nolan visited three people who slipped into dependency in very different ways. One of them is 52-year-old Claudia. «Our son didn't get enough oxygen at birth and had motor problems as a toddler. The thought that I hadn't been able to give birth to a healthy child tormented me. I started to calm myself down with wine. Later, I numbed my pain with alcohol more and more often.»
What drives people to take drugs? Why do some become addicted and others don't? And how can parents talk to teenagers about intoxicants? You can find the answers in our latest dossier.
The great thing about my job is that I'm still learning. Or did you know why children are particularly prone to boredom during adolescence? Developmental researcher Elizabeth Weybright explains it this way: «The cognitive control system – responsible for thoughtful planning and rational decision-making – develops much more slowly during puberty than the socio-emotional system, which matures first. Young people experience feelings such as boredom very intensely, but are only able to regulate their need for more stimulation to a limited extent.» Find out how parents cope when their «pubescent offspring» lounge on the sofa for hours on end in my colleague Ümit Yoker's interview.
Her name was Margot, she had red hair and freckles. I was 13 and in love for the first time. Once, only a garden fence separated us. We stood facing each other for what seemed like an eternity, wondering whether kissing could result in a baby. Our infatuation lasted one summer, but the heartbreak lasted many long winter months.
«When a child retreats to their bedroom, listens to sad music and loses their appetite, many parents feel helpless,» writes our author Nathalie Klüver. Coping with heartbreak has become even more difficult for teenagers than it used to be, as they are constantly confronted with their former love: on social media, on their mobile phones, in status updates on WhatsApp. At least the best thing about heartbreak is – fortunately, nothing has changed in this regard – that it eventually passes. Read on to find out what can help in the meantime.
I hope you enjoy reading it – and that it causes you little heartache!
Yours sincerely,
Nik Niethammer
