- [Announcer] "Your Fantastic Mind."

Brought to you in part by Dennis Lockhart in memory of Mary Rose Taylor, and by... (bright music) (bright music continues) - Welcome to "Your Fantastic Mind."

I'm Jaye Watson.

Our show this week is focused on an epidemic playing out in homes and schools across the country.

The adolescent mental health crisis.

- [Lynn] As a parent, we struggle each day trying to understand what they're going through every day.

- [Jaye] It is not a new issue.

- [Speaker] It haunts me and I'm not sure I'll ever quite trust that there's not another shoe that's gonna drop.

- [Jaye] But the mental health of young people has gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic.

- [Dr. Ed] We are teaching one grade below.

- Particularly increased rates in anxiety, increased rates in depression, increased rates in eating disorders, sleep disorders, I mean, you name it.

- Pediatricians in general are overwhelmed.

- Parents are faced with an enormously difficult situation.

- He felt joy and sadness at the same time.

He carried both.

Knowing that my child was in that much pain and agony and I didn't do anything about it, that's what rips my heart out.

- She had thoughts of not wanting to live.

I'll just never forget that day, the realization that this is beyond what I can do.

- [Jaye] At the center, a generation struggling.

- But I do feel pressure sometimes to be the best that I can be, even though sometimes I'm trying really hard and it feels like it's still not, like, enough.

- It's caused me sleepless nights, stress, anxiety, tears.

- They think their parents care more about their grades than they do them.

- I see a lot of anxiety.

Like, I know that we'll be sitting down and we'll be talking about how we haven't had any sleep.

- [Jaye] Headlines proclaim a national emergency, a crisis, a pandemic.

So how do we fix it?

The first step, confronting stigma.

Stopping the shame by sharing our stories for the sake of our children.

- [Announcer] And now the Galloway School presents, "A Chorus Line."

♪ One singular sensation ♪ - Benjamin loved theater and dance.

♪ Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do ♪ He's my fourth.

Oh my God, okay, this one's, so look at this smile.

Oh my God.

- [Jaye] Lynn Handmacher Chanin says her only son's feet did not touch the ground for the first years of his life, because his three devoted big sisters toted him everywhere.

- He had this dimple here that you could eat cereal out of.

- [Jaye] A few weeks after Benjamin Chanin's 16th birthday on a Monday morning, he did not wake up.

His horrified parents got an autopsy, thinking it could be a heart condition.

Benjamin's sisters discovered the truth.

- My daughters found his laptop and he had written six suicide notes.

One to the whole family and then one to each of us.

And at the beginning of each sentence to all of us, it was, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry.

And he talked about his depression.

- [Jaye] The coroner confirmed drugs had been found in his system.

- He must have gotten some medications off the counter, some sleep meds, and he apparently ground them up and inhaled them.

- [Jaye] Benjamin's suicide letters were the first time Lynn learned he was depressed.

He wrote about having a wonderful childhood, but depression began, and worsened as he got older.

- I saw symptoms, you know, in hindsight.

I wish I had been more proactive.

- [Jaye] Lynn says he had a few emotional outbursts in his early teenaged years.

She took Benjamin to therapy.

- [Lynn] You have to ask the what ifs and the shoulda, woulda, couldas, until you've asked them more than you can imagine.

- [Jaye] Lynn would learn after he took his life, that he had confided in a close friend and her mother that he was gay.

- He felt like he couldn't be authentic and he couldn't live his truth.

And so that's why I have to be authentic and live my truth for him.

I wanna be Benjamin's eyes and ears and heart.

I have the video of the performance that I just was able to look at this year.

- [Jaye] Benjamin's favorite place?

♪ 5, 6 7, 8 ♪ - [Jaye] On stage.

His final performance was, "A Chorus Line."

- [Lynn] I put it in and I watched him, his singing and his dancing and his smile.

He's right there with me.

♪ One singular sensation, every little step she takes ♪ ♪ One ♪ - [Abifee] So we're really happy to be with you all tonight.

- [Jaye] It is a spring night at North Atlanta High School in Georgia.

The event is a mental health teen talk for students and parents.

- Me, my friends, and my family, we've all gone through a lot of, I guess, stressful events during the pandemic.

- Oh, one thing I wanna do before... - [Jaye] The school's social worker has been advertising it for weeks.

- We did everything we could to get the word out.

- You just don't know, right, how to handle everything.

- [Jaye] The experts.

Emory Psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Holton.

- Sometimes, it's about finding the right combination.

- [Jaye] And Psychologist, Dr. Joya Hampton-Anderson.

- They have a podcast.

- [Jaye] They do a presentation.

(faint talking) All for a sparse audience of just over 50 people.

- [Henry] I think that the stigma's a big issue.

- [Jaye] Henry, a senior at North Atlanta, understands stigma on a deep level.

- [Henry] I always thought that therapy was for people going through trauma and something that I would never see myself doing.

- [Jaye] Henry comes from a close-knit family with loving, supportive parents.

Even before the pandemic, the academic pressure to achieve at any cost, felt debilitating.

- I had severe, severe anxiety and worries about standardized test scores, and worrying if that was enough to get me into the schools that I wanted to go to.

- [Jaye] When the pandemic hit, the feelings, Henry said he had shoved down, overwhelmed him.

- The lack of social interaction caught up with me a little bit.

It sort of felt like my room, that had become my office and my classroom and everything all in one, it sort of was closing in on me.

- [Jaye] In January of 2021, Henry was diagnosed with major depression, which included suicidal thoughts.

- [Brigitte] He would tell us that he just wanted it all to be over.

- [Jaye] Brigitte Peck says when friends would ask how they were doing, she told them the truth.

Henry had depression.

- No one ever followed up.

I didn't expect people to call me and ask how he was doing or ask how I was doing, but when I would see them, they were almost deliberate in not even bringing up his name.

Maybe it was my mistake from the very beginning?

Maybe I should have told people how bad it was?

Maybe people would understand that I don't care about this stuff that feels like nonsense, because I have spent nine months trying to make sure I could keep my child alive?

- [Dr. Ed] We know historically, that there have been very high rates of anxiety and depression.

- [Jaye] Between 2009 and 2019, the number of high school students reporting persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, increased by 40%.

Those seriously considering attempting suicide increased by 36%.

And those creating a suicide plan increased by 44%.

Since the pandemic, rates of anxiety and depression have gone up by at least 30%, with 25% experiencing symptoms of depression and 20% experiencing anxiety.

Some estimates suggest rates may have doubled at the peak of the impact of the pandemic.

- Not all treatments are equally effective.

- [Jaye] Emory Psychologist, Dr. Ed Craighead.

- It's really difficult to understand the relationship of anxiety and depression.

One of the reasons for that is because they frequently occur together.

The other thing is that they wax and wane so there are data from several different countries suggesting that, you know, children who have anxiety early on, later will have anxiety, but a reasonable proportion of those, probably up to half, will wind up having a depressive episode when depression tends to kick in.

- [Jaye] Dr.Craighead says anxiety often first appears in early or middle childhood, between the ages of five and 12 years old.

- If you have anxiety as a young person, you're at a 50% increased risk of depression when you reach adolescence.

- [Jaye] Dr. Craighead says mood disorders, including depression and anxiety, are two and a half times higher among females than males.

Early intervention and treatment are key.

Approximately 40% of young people will respond to medication alone.

That number's higher when combined with talk therapy.

- There are treatments that work for teenagers and they're very successful and they're not lifelong treatments.

There are treatments that work and you develop the skills that actually seems to change the brain, so that you then are better able, if you've been successfully treated, when you face a stressor later on, to cope with it and not have an anxiety disorder re-emerge or an episode of anxiety re-emerge or an episode of depression.

- [Jaye] So what is causing this increase in youth mental health challenges?

Some people believe part of it is young people more willing to be open about their struggles.

Other researchers point to social media, increasing academic pressure, limited access to mental healthcare, risky behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, and broader stressors such as rising income inequality, racism, and gun violence.

- [Dr. Cidjah] I work at one of the Grady satellite clinics.

Up, up, up, up.

Good job.

- [Jaye] Dr. Cidjah Somersall is among the thousands of pediatricians struggling to help patients in mental health crises.

In October of 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health.

Over the last three decades, teen issues like pregnancy and alcohol and cigarette use, have fallen, while anxiety, depression, suicide and self-harm, have soared.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports "Mental health disorders have surpassed physical conditions," as the most common issues causing "impairment and limitation," among adolescents.

In December of 2021, the US Surgeon General warned of a devastating mental health crisis among American teens.

- Right now we're seeing a huge increase in patients who are suffering from depression and anxiety.

I'm gonna listen to you.

Okay.

- [Jaye] Dr. Somersall often discovers a mental health issue during a visit for another reason.

- So the cough is not getting better.

- [Jaye] With so many patients struggling, all of them are now screened for depression and physically checked for signs.

- I check their inner arms and I check their thighs for signs of cutting, because this can be one of the early signs that if you can detect, can open up a discussion that can lead to diagnosis.

I'm gonna go ahead and add... - [Jaye] Somersall has undergone extra training to better help diagnose and treat her young patients.

But cases can be complex.

- It sometimes can be demoralizing when you have a patient who obviously is in need for help, and you just don't feel equipped, you know, with the proper training or the proper expertise to help that patient.

- Bye.

- [Dr. Cidjah] Bye Bye.

- [Jaye] Connecting her patients to mental health care is not easy.

- It's very, very difficult to find mental health providers who have capacity, who have openings in their schedules, accept new patients, and to treat them.

And it's even more difficult to find providers who accept insurance.

How many degrees do you have to cook it on?

When I get home, I try to take my pediatric hat off and just become mom.

- [Jaye] As a married mom to four children, Dr. Somersall sees the impact of anxiety in her daughter.

- Oh wow, that looks good, man.

- [Jaye] Myla is a high-achieving high school senior.

- You know, I like to keep myself pretty busy and I also have a tremendous amount of anxiety surrounding, not only college, but my future, wanting to accomplish my goals.

So what do you want me to do for my senior pictures?

- [Jaye] Myla says her mother has encouraged her to attend therapy.

- I have gotten treatment.

I guess something that I'm worried about is if I were to, you know, spend more time at my therapist or some more time going and getting help that I'm gonna be behind in classes, or I may not be as competitive as I wanna be in my college applications.

- [Jaye] Myla describes her anxiety as self-induced.

- Like, I know a few months ago I had to take my ACT.

I only got like, three hours of sleep 'cause I could not fall asleep 'cause I was so anxious.

I know that, like, my hands and my feet shake a lot.

And then I also started experiencing physical signs of anxiety, in terms of hair loss.

- [Jaye] Anxiety extends beyond academics to high school social life, which plays out on social media.

- Social media has kind of created this unrealistic expectation of what youth development is supposed to look like.

I know for my birthday, I'll have a professional photo shoot and I wanna have professional makeup, professional hair, professional photographer, just to capture three pictures out of maybe 500 pictures.

- That's what actually made me start coaching 'cause I'm like, they need help, they need to understand what's happening.

- [Jaye] Dr. Jeannine Jannot has spent her career in education, from school psychologist to educator, to college professor, to academic coach.

And it led this married mom of three to write, "The Disintegrating Student," examining why kids are falling apart in school.

(bell ringing) And while the COVID pandemic has had huge impacts on learning loss and motivation for students, Jannot says achievement culture is a big factor.

- My definition of the achievement culture is that success is defined by data.

So it's high pressure, high stakes, you know, test heavy, data driven.

Probably the biggest thing was no child left behind, where in testing, we know we incentivized achievement and that just exploded.

So teaching to the test, more testing, and what that's done is it's made this check the box mentality.

You know, for our kids who are, you know, in high school today, they've grown up in this culture since they were, you know, elementary school students.

So that's all they know.

All they know is I need to check this box, I need to get this grade.

I need to do this thing to get into this college.

Versus what are they interested in?

What do they wanna learn?

How do you make mistakes and recover from them?

- [Jaye] Swept up in that check the box mentality, well-intentioned parents.

- They think their parents care more about their grades than they do them.

And I've heard that so many time over the years.

I think why so many students feel this way is because if you think about the percentage of time that we're in conversation with our kids, and what percentage we're spending talking about their academics or something school-related, it's probably over 50% of the time.

One of the things that I personally found to be very effective, was to stop asking about all the things when my child came home from school, that I had been worried about all day.

What'd you get on that test?

Did you talk to the teacher?

Did you do the thing?

Did you turn it in?

We basically have to fight, you know, swim upstream so to speak, to do it a different way.

And that would be parenting, you know, out of a place of trust versus fear, where we respect our children, we normalize making mistakes and failures, and we're okay with that.

And we show them empathy.

We listen without judgment.

We take down, you know, the criticism, and we really value our relationship with them.

- [Anna Kate] I remember specifically, the first time I woke up and I didn't want to get up and I didn't wanna move and I didn't wanna live anymore, and it was a few weeks in to the first time I got bullied.

I surrounded myself in comfort items to lower as much anxiety as possible.

- [Jaye] Anna Kate Barfield was in sixth grade.

She remembers that incident as the beginning of her mental health struggles, which include anxiety and depression and thoughts of suicide.

At 17, after several years of treatment with medication and therapy, she is doing better.

- I'm not gonna say great because that would be a lie, but I'm gonna say better, because sometimes it's hard to remember, like, how far you've come.

- [Jaye] Anna Kate says many friends are in her same position.

- Yes, I have lots of friends that are suicidal, which is crazy.

I have friends whose parents tell them that they're dramatic or they're making it up or it's not a real thing or just pray about it.

- [Jaye] Parents struggle to determine if their child has a mental health issue.

- Come here, good girl.

Come here, good girl.

- [Jaye] After all, the teenaged years are famously filled with high highs and low lows, sometimes in the same day.

- Anna Kate and I... - [Jaye] Anna Kate's father, Robert Barfield.

- Some of the things that she feels like she explains what she's feeling, I was like, well I feel that same way at times and I felt that same way when I was your age.

But I would look forward to the next thing or have something in my mind that might be the next great thing that I'm doing.

- Grab a bun.

- [Jaye] Amy Barfield says in the beginning she was Anna Kate's rescuer, trying to protect her from any negative feelings.

She didn't want her daughter to hurt.

- I thought I was being supportive.

Honey, you're okay?

Like, you've got this.

Like, God is with us and we're gonna make it.

When what I should have been saying is, "You have every right to feel angry.

You should feel angry.

It's okay to feel sad.

Feel what that feels like and what it's doing to your body and then let's work through what we're gonna do about it.

We will get through it."

- [Dr. Jennifer] We're, I think, really fortunate in child and adolescent psychiatry because we get to intervene early, and often by intervening early, kids and teenagers do get better.. - [Jaye] Psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Holton, saw her patient caseload explode during the pandemic.

She advises parents daily, what to look for.

- You wanna think about the impact of the symptoms that you're seeing, right?

Whether that's changes in appetite, sleep, concentration, changes in how they engage with other people or activities that they would normally enjoy.

- [Jaye] Adult rates of anxiety and depression have also gone up during the pandemic, meaning many parents are dealing with their own mental health struggles.

- We do know that parental mental health has a huge impact on child mental health.

And if a parent is struggling with depression, if a parent for instance, developed a substance use disorder during the pandemic because of all the stress, if we don't treat those things then the child is living in an environment where they're not getting what they need from the parent as well.

- So what are the warning signs?

Your child may experience some of these emotions you see on the screen, such as anxiety, lack of motivation, feeling overwhelmed, unable to enjoy things.

Sleep habits could change.

Their grades might drop.

They may withdraw or report physical pain like stomach aches or headaches.

If you think your child needs help, reach out to your pediatrician, school counselor or social worker.

If you are worried about your child's imminent safety, you can call 988 or take them to the nearest emergency room.

Helpful ways to deal with stress include getting enough sleep, eating regular meals, being physically active, maintaining social connections, and doing enjoyable or meaningful activities.

- There are a lot of really dedicated people.

Historically, you know, people of color have had less access to mental health services.

Black and brown youth and families may endorse higher stress.

- [Jaye] Dr. Joya Hampton-Anderson's research explores the intersection between physical and mental health and disparities for people of color.

- And we also see, kind of more of this over-functioning, right?

And in the research literature they talk about that as, you know, historically, African-Americans haven't had the luxury of kind of having a mental health day or being depressed, right?

There's no option but to keep going.

- [Jaye] Black youth with mental health struggles are more likely to report physical pain, like a stomach or headache.

There's also stigma in communities of color.

Dr. Hampton-Anderson says that is why culturally responsive treatment, which is relatively new to the field, is important.

- One, that we look at the research lit, that we analyze a lot in the research literature, is called race socialization, so how do youth make sense of their race as it relates to the larger society.

And two, positive racial identity development.

How do do they feel about their race and them being a part of that race, right?

Those two things are associated with positive mental health outcomes in black youth.

So I'm really interested in youth, ages 11 to 18.

How does that develop and how can we promote that in the therapy environment along with what we know already works for treating anxiety and depression.

I can say that my experience serving as a therapist for youth during the pandemic and during the times of sociopolitical unrest, has really shown me the urgency of making this integration.

- [Jaye] Historically, black youth had lower suicide rates, but those numbers are rising.

- We know that black youth ages five to 12, are twice as likely to die by suicide than white youth.

And that is a new statistic that we have not seen in previous years.

Therefore, this conversation around mental health is becoming more urgent.

(gentle music) (water splashes) - Work the legs on the kick!

20 seconds rest.

Been coaching for 30 years now.

When you getting in a race, how many times are you gonna swim that race?

- [Swimmer] One time.

- One time.

All levels.

Both YMCA, Summer League, USA, high school.

- [Jaye] Tim Storsteen was an elite athlete who swam for Clemson University.

- Butterflies!

- [Jaye] His adult life has been dedicated to coaching.

- Go ahead and put your phones away.

- [Jaye] And teaching.

- Add eight to both sides.

I just coached him in high school.

He was a high school swimmer.

Was he the fastest?

No.

Was he the funniest.

One of them?

Was he a character?

Yes.

Did he have good friends on the team?

Yes.

Was he a good student?

Yes.

- [Jaye] A few years ago, one of his swimmers committed suicide.

- The news of him passing was hard.

'Cause as a coach and a teacher, and then also as a parent, you sit there and you're like, what could I have done?

And you know, I wish I would've known.

- [Jaye] Storsteen, who had taught elementary school for most of his career, moved to teaching at North Atlanta High School.

- That's a big jump.

It was a very big jump.

So a negative five...

I felt like I could do more to help kids who are the high school age.

High schoolers are under so much pressure.

These kids have it so much harder than we ever have.

- [Jaye] Storsteen works to be the person kids will confide in, to try to thwart another needless loss of a young life.

- Just something so that these high school kids know that there's someone out there that they can talk to.

If you have any questions... That it should never get so bad.

We'll talk to you guys tomorrow.

Have a good day.

That they have to take their own lives.

- [Lynn] I've been in my Survivors of Suicide group since Benjamin took his life.

It saved my life.

- [Jaye] For Lynn Handmacher Chanin, losing Benjamin spurred a passion.

- Two years ago, I got a grant from the Atlanta Jewish Federation for making an SOS group for Jewish families of Atlanta.

- [Jaye] In his profoundly difficult journey, Henry Peck found a calling.

- I wanna be a clinical psychologist and help combat the whole crisis.

And being able to, just able to look into the future and actually see something there and see something worth going for, I do recognize that I've come a long way.

- I cannot say that we are out of the woods.

I can say that we are closer to the edge than we once were.

- [Jaye] After years of treatment and ups and downs, Anna Kate hopes.

- That I can stand on the other side of it one day and just feel peace for a little bit.

That would be nice.

Just some calm at the end of the storm.

And I'm holding onto that for now.

Just fighting for it.

- [Jaye] These young people have shared their truth.

- I hope that I get to a certain point where I'm able to just take a step back and realize that I only live once and that I want my life to be as balanced and healthy and happy as possible.

- [Jaye] This is the beginning of a conversation that must continue.

Mental health is part of overall health.

The way forward requires us to stop the stigma and support our children.

That's gonna do it for us this week.

See you next time on, "Your Fantastic Mind."

(bright music) (bright music continues) - [Announcer] "Your Fantastic Mind," brought to you in part by Dennis Lockhart in memory of Mary Rose Taylor.

And by...