Blame it on your Prefrontal Cortex

When I read somewhere that the prefrontal cortex does not properly develop until the age of 25, my immediate reaction was like ahh, finally… now I understand the reason for all the bad decisions I’ve made.

Prefrontal cortex; located at the front of the frontal lobe, is crucial for higher cognitive functions, including decision-making, problem-solving, impulse control, and regulating emotions and social behavior

…the prefrontal cortex matures last, not finishing until after age 25. That means that executive functions such as reason, long-range planning and impulse control aren’t fully operational during adolescence. Harvard Medical School, Under the hood of the adolescence brain.

This site for reasoning and intelligence I saw for the first time, no, the second while scrolling a reel. The first was on a blog; only by 25, you start to fully know yourself, understand the processes of decision making and have a brain fully formed to make good decisions.

I am only a few years below 25, I can say for sure I’ve had my fair share of mistakes, terrible decisions and choices of which some I still bear the consequences. Some of these choices have been hard to move on from, because how could I have made such decision, I’ve been overwhelmed by my expanding curiosity and made rash decision and if blaming these decisions on my underdeveloped prefrontal cortex makes it any lighter and easier to extend grace to myself, I will.

For how could I trust myself to know how reliable a decision would be if the site in my brain responsible for it isn’t even fully developed? Forgive yourself for the mistakes you’ve made, especially the irreversible choices that has crippled you from moving on, you’re so young and yet even science confirms you can’t make good decisions.

Forgive yourself even for the irreversible mistakes you have made, the choices that make you look back with regret and the many woes you’ve experienced because of your failed decisions.

If you’re seeking who or what to blame your mistakes on, put it on your underdeveloped pre-fontal cortex and move on.

And if you are well over 25,

Its okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to learn from them and choose to be better.

You are allowed to change your life anytime and as long as death has not taken you away from this world, you can always press the change button on life.