This image gives us a visual of the significant brain developmental changes occurring from ages 5 – 20. It’s now understood this brain development continues through age 22 on average for girls/women and 24 on average for boys/men.

Advances in imaging technologies now allow scientists and medical professionals to observe and study the live, conscious human brain like never before. The resulting findings – some in just the recent 10-15 years – are revolutionizing our understanding of this three-pound organ. Think of it. Just three pounds, just a fraction of our total body weight, and yet it controls everything we think, feel, say, and do.

If our brain doesn’t work, we can’t feel pain or love or run or drive a car. If our brain doesn’t work, our heart can’t pump, our lungs can’t breathe, and our limbs can’t move. If our brain doesn’t work, drinking alcohol and toxic stress would have no effect on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. So, it’s knowing the basic facts about how our brain works that will help us understand:

• how drinking alcohol can hijack a loved one’s brain and what can be done to return their brain to health
• how the physical and emotional health and the very quality of a family member’s life is so dramatically changed by repeatedly coping with a loved one’s drinking behaviors and what can be done to reverse those impacts
• what it takes to heal, to repair, to rewire our brains for better health, thoughts, feelings, coping skills, and behaviors.

Personally, I found these basic brain facts life-changing because they answered so many of the questions I had. “Life-changing” is also the description given by so many of the people with whom I’ve worked when they learn of this research, as well.

But understanding these basic brain facts starts with understanding concepts like…