tonight on this special edition of studio 12 Decode Mental Health.

We're focusing on the voices, stories and solutions impacting mental health in Colorado.

From honest conversations with teens at a statewide summit and their advice to parents, to an unfiltered documentary profiling Colorado teens about their mental health struggles, sharing their personal stories and resources that can make a difference.

It's all here in this special edition of studio 12, and it starts right now, From the Five Points Media Center in the heart of Denver, Colorado.

This is studio 12.

Hi, I'm Bazzi Kanani, and I'm Ryan here.

Welcome to this special edition of studio 12.

Recently, the Colorado Department of Behavioral Health hosted a statewide summit at Q and Shoots Medical Campus in Aurora.

We spoke with several teens who served on a panel at the summit.

The teens were very clear in their message.

They said, you can't make decisions about teens without hearing from the teens themselves.

And that we did.

We heard about their experiences offering a deeper understanding into what they are really living.

Here is that story.

My personal experience kind of started when I was around ten years old.

My youngest sister was diagnosed with something called complex regional pain syndrome, actually at the Children's Hospital of Aurora campus.

And it's a nerve condition and there's no current cure for it.

It's very painful.

And she was very young when she was diagnosed.

And I remember I was probably around ten when we started managing with pain clinics and outpatient therapies and all of that, and seeing a family member go through something like that, and you can't fix it, you can't add to it at ten years old, and you have to go to school and put on a brave face, and you have to take care of the other sister.

It's heavy.

The next question is regarding current.

What do you think are the most common behavioral and mental health challenges youth are facing today?

And how can we break the stigma around talking about mental health?

Who would like to begin?

Okay, so tackle the first part of that question, asking about some of the struggles that our youth are are facing.

I think similar to our online environment, but, the ways that our communities have adapted post-Covid, a lot of these youth are growing up heavily around the internet.

They're growing up using online tools in in ways that in a lot of things can help benefit their growth in mindset learning.

But on the opposing side of that pendulum can also be really harmful and can create issues like loneliness and depression.

And for the second part of that question on how to tackle that, how to destigmatize it, I think just continuing the communication, behind it, of opening that door to conversation and really just reassuring that even though these times are very different than how old most of our parents and family members grew up, change doesn't always have to be a bad thing, and we have to be able to move through that change with these kiddos.

I'm West African, so my parents put a lot of stress on me to excel academically.

But with that, they also they didn't really address my mental health concerns because what I was doing really well in school, my behavior.

I was really like stress.

I had a lot of anxiety and I wasn't speaking to people at all.

I was completely nonverbal, and it wasn't as much of a concern to them because I was doing well in school.

I think growing up I had different behavioral health needs because I think that mental health, especially for youth, it's so different compared to back then because I think that youth like we're aware of it, but we don't always open those conversations, like Monica was saying.

So I think that first, like, we really need to like have more targeted behavior, health interventions, especially for youth that come from underserved identities.

I think our current interventions, it's very centered around like white straight like straight male youth.

And I think we need to expand that to the Bipoc youth, the queer youth, the youth from Grow Up has been real identities.

My real communities.

Because like when we do not address them, that we lack an important part of the mental health conversation.

And in order to make our interventions truly effective, we have to engage everybody, especially those those populations that have not traditionally been engaged in mental health interventions.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

I just think that mental health now more than ever, is more important that as a member of East High School, unfortunately saw the effects of mental health with gun violence and multiple school shootings, the realization that it was almost a shell shock experience that actually one of the kids who committed these acts of violence was in my class.

I talked with him, and I just didn't realize, you don't know what someone's going through at all times.

And seeing that firsthand had me almost more aware and hyper aware that as I was walking around, you just see people with their heads down, quiet, not talking, and recognizing that you really do not know what someone's going through until you're able to ask and get up to know them on that deeper level, and just experiencing that and realizing that isolation, some people feel has me wanted to go out and help others not feel that way.

There is.

I'm going to have you kick this question off because it's, regarding teens and youth, what do you wish adults understood better about youth mental health?

I think something I wish more adults understood is sometimes you don't exactly have the words to describe what you're going through, but that doesn't mean your issues aren't there.

And underlying that, sometimes you're often asked, how are you feeling and how you're doing?

And you just say, good because you don't have the words to describe truly what you're going through.

But being there and listening more to us youth and understanding that we are all going through something and sometimes just get through it, is not the right answer, is something I wish more adults understood.

And I remember at that point I was probably 11.

I remember reaching out to my mom and I said, mom, I'm not okay.

I never said that to anyone in my life.

And I said, mom, I'm not okay.

And my mom's a wonderful person.

She's a great mom.

And she reached out to Children's Hospital and connected me with a therapist.

And since 11 years old, I have seen several talk therapists, and it has gotten me to where I am today.

It's got me into the school that I attend.

It's got me into the career that I want to pursue.

It's saved my life, but it's also saved other people's lives because I'm still here.

So it was my older sister, actually.

We are super close and she's about seven years older than me, and I really appreciate for her because she was kind of the gap between generations for me and my parents.

So she definitely filled in a lot of blurred lines.

And by having that resource, I was able to involve teachers because my teachers, like they reacted very well to my parents, so they were able to like, have like more of like a behavioral health plan.

For me, that didn't really impact my schooling.

So it was small steps at a time, but it was like that continuous like form of engagement that really helped.

I think after seeing the events at my school, I didn't struggle a bit, that I felt isolated, alone.

But knowing my peers and my friends and my mentors I could talk to about what I was going through and realizing I'm not alone in this life.

And I have support from everyone around me, and how having used that to help push myself forward has definitely been something.

It doesn't always pan out in that beautiful, happy ending way for a lot of people, but for me, I'm lucky to be sitting here and advocating, for a lot of kids.

And I'm really glad that I had the support system in my life that allowed me to now support other people through their struggles.

There is so much stigma around mental health, because I think that when you talk about mental health, then you're on that you're crazy.

You automatically have issues.

I think that's like probably one of the biggest issues, because I think that teen where teens were aware of mental health, like, we know that it's there, but we all fully know how to address it, especially in a way that feels safe for us.

So I think that trying to navigate that is really difficult.

But I think at the for at the front line, we need to at least open that conversation.

Yes, I think there's a stigma around mental health because those who are seen getting treatment or getting help are sometimes often perceived as soft or not being able to take care of themselves and helping break down that seem, and realizing that sometimes it's okay to not be okay.

And how can you grow and learn and use your resources in community to help yourself get better?

Because once you're better, you're also able to then help other people, like we're doing with the Youth Council on Mental Health.

I don't think suicide is talked about nearly as much as it needs to be, especially as we make that transition from high school to college.

And it's a huge leap.

And you often feel alone that I've seen many kids, once they're in college, take their lives, actually.

And that rate is alarming almost to see how many are doing that and that bringing up the stigma, signs of what to look out for.

Something that I think needs to be spread more throughout schools and to that more messaging.

I think a lot of it has to do with our remote world, post-Covid, a lot of learning, a lot of development has been shifted to online, and it's become very adaptable in a lot of ways in the workforce.

That's been a really good thing.

It makes a lot of, of resources more accessible to us.

And in some ways that that counts for mental health resources of online accessibility.

For that.

But in other ways, it it can result in anxiety and loneliness and depression or bullying on social media.

And I think it's a harder thing to confront when it's not face to face, when that interaction or when those emotions or, we're struggles are developing from something that you can't actually confront in person.

It's online.

Yeah.

I think there's increased more now than ever and pressure to succeed socially, especially with the rise of social media where you're seeing where everyone's at, how often they're going and where they're going out to and who they're hanging out with and to seeing that makes you kind of feel left out and like you need to be a part of it.

And that social pressure, just like, is automatically applied just because of the access and how accessible social media is for us.

How do you think schools can do better supporting student mental health, continue to continuing to promote the resources schools have and continue to show, and the mental health professionals who are working with inside the school to continue to walk around showing they're there to support.

It's made a huge difference that I, especially after seeing the events in my high school, seeing how those mental health professionals started showing up more and being seen and making sure that no one has a resource around their communities is something I think schools could do better.

I think a big misconception is that if we're sad, it's only temporary and sometimes that is the case.

In other times it it's a longer storm with a longer, you know, evacuation period that we need to wait out.

And that's okay.

But it also means we can't just sit there and wait for it to stop.

We got to start doing stuff to help us get through it.

And I think a lot of youth it from a parent's perspective, sometimes it can seem over dramatized.

But for your youth member, a lot of times when they're struggling, they can't see that light at the end of the tunnel.

Their brain doesn't know.

In five years, I'll look back and think of that as growth.

I will learn from this.

I will mature from this.

But in the moment, if your kid is being bullied at school, they think that their world is falling on top of them.

And I think a big misconception that a lot of adults have is that it'll pass, it'll get better tomorrow or, things like that.

And I think sometimes that is the case, other times it's not.

And we have to continue asking those questions to figure out which side we're working with.

My advice to parents would be to continue to be there and continue to ask those questions and not take greater fine for an answer, but also continue to be there and support and show up for them, that you don't realize how important it is when he show up for your kid.

It makes him feel seen and supported, If you or someone you know is facing a mental health challenge, help is available.

The 980 Colorado Mental Health Line provides free 24 over seven support by call, text or live chat.

Youth can also receive up to six free therapy sessions through Eye Matter colorado.org.

Services are in English and Spanish.

Visit I'm at our colorado.org to learn more.

back to school season can be exciting, but it also comes with pressure, anxiety and change.

And for many students, those first weeks back can feel overwhelming.

That's why we sat down with licensed family therapist Ryan Long.

He's sharing advice directly to teens on how to handle stress, find balance, and keep mental health a priority.

As the school year begins.

Here's our conversation.

Being a teenager, especially nowadays.

Not easy going back to school.

Starting a new school.

Jumping into new classes with new teachers.

Not easy.

Hello, my name is Ryan Long and I am a licensed professional counselor.

I'm also a licensed marriage and family therapist.

I have been working with adolescents and kids and teens and families and young adults for almost 30 years now.

I run groups with teenagers and I love working and helping people.

As you are going back to school.

You are going to notice, most likely, some stress and anxiety.

It's a transition.

You had summer.

You can stay up late and do whatever you want all day long.

Or maybe you had a job.

Or maybe you're hanging with your friends.

And now all of a sudden, you're having to go to bed early.

You're waking up early, you're going to school, and you have a lot of things that you're juggling.

So it's important to recognize and realize and even name the emotions that you're feeling as you're heading back to school.

There could be stress.

There could be anxiety.

There could be just this anxiety around trying to fit in.

Trying to make friends.

Trying to make connections.

You're getting used to the school.

You're getting used to the layout, the classrooms, the teachers.

It is a lot, of changes and transitions, but it is very common to be anxious and stressed and worried about all of these changes.

It's important for you to realize, to be self aware of what's happening inside of your brain and in your heart.

So what's happening inside of your body?

Okay.

This is where I'm at.

This is what I'm thinking.

And also this is how I'm feeling right now.

And then when you name it and and you can recognize it, it then gives you the ability to talk about it.

And when you can talk about it, when you can vent, when you can share, when you can put words to your emotions and your thoughts.

It can bring happiness.

It can bring a sense of calmness.

Also, when you start back to school, there's all this pressure to jump into sports and extracurricular activities.

It's not uncommon to be anxious and worried about am I going to make new friends this year?

Am I going to fit in?

You know, how do I look?

How are people going to perceive me?

Am I being too much?

Am I being too loud?

I'm not, am I?

You know.

Do I have the right shoes on?

All of those thoughts and feelings are normal and to recognize it as such.

Also, when you're getting back into school, don't forget you're jumping in and now you have all these different things that you have to do that you need self-care right when you get home.

Make sure you've got some downtime.

You're not going to want to just jump in.

You got to make sure or try to organize it or schedule to where you've just done this six, seven, eight hour long school day.

Some downtime so you can relax, reset, recharge, do some things that you want to do for a little bit.

You're sitting a lot of the day.

You're learning a lot of the day.

You're tired.

It's tricky because for a lot of you, you're going to want to be jumping on screens, jumping on screens a short amount of time.

That can be pretty good or helpful where it becomes unhealthy or not helpful is when we get home, and now we want to spend hours on our phones or hours in front of YouTube and hours.

And that actually does the opposite.

It doesn't recharge you, it actually drains you.

And the studies show you can be more anxious, more worried, just more on edge.

Longer sessions of screen time.

It is not healthy or good for us and and does not count as self-care.

Good self-care for you.

Teenagers would look like getting good sleep at night, getting exercise, you know, mood movement and playing sports and being outside is good.

Self-care.

Self-care could look like spending time with my friends, doing something enjoyable, picking up or doing some kind of new hobby, or playing an instrument.

Those kinds of things are good self-care through our failures, through our difficulties, through our tough days that we have a positive self-talk.

Do we have a what's called a growth mindset?

A growth mindset means, hey, you know what?

I didn't make the soccer team, but I know I'm sad.

I'm really disappointed.

But maybe there's a different sport that I could pick up.

I didn't do well on this test.

These were the things that I did to prepare for the tests.

Maybe next time I could prepare a little bit more, or I could prepare maybe a little differently.

Next time.

You're going to want to have the urge to compare yourself, compare yourself with what you're wearing, compare yourself with, oh, you're an extrovert.

I'm an introvert.

I'm not as good.

I'm inferior.

I'm less than or even compare yourself academically, my grades or I'm not as smart.

The key is, is that you are being you.

Not that you were trying to be somebody else.

You are going to notice at times for that desire to fit in, that you might do things that maybe aren't you or that are a little bit risky, and to make friends with people that will respect your priorities, your values, your boundaries, rather than trying to be popular and fit in with everybody.

I think the main key is finding your people, finding the people that you know, that you like them and they like you, rather than having the stress to be liked by everybody.

It could be 2 or 3 people.

It could be ten people.

Good, strong connections rather than a bunch of meaningless acquaintances that we don't really know or that we don't really care about.

We're all going to make mistakes.

We're all going to have a test where we don't do perfect on, you know, we're all going to have these things where we are not perfect, and it's important to realize we're human.

We're going to make mistakes.

And that through those mistakes that we can grow and that we can learn from those mistakes, it's important to to have realistic goals around homework and amount of time that you can spend every day.

I've noticed with a lot of teenagers, they won't do anything Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then all of a sudden Thursday they're trying to catch up 4 or 5 six hours of homework and studying.

Well, that is very stressful to leave it all for one day, but it's also not very efficient with the way our brains work.

Shorter segments of studying are actually more efficient and effective, so trying to keep an even pace throughout the week where you decide, okay, I'm going to do 30 minutes every day or an hour every day is a lot more effective than trying to do 4 or 5, six, seven hours in one day or one week.

And I've noticed a lot of kids, they don't even know what they need to do.

They don't even know.

They don't even know what they need to do when they get home.

So it's throughout your school day, having some place where you're keeping track of what needs to get home so that when you do get home, you can go through, okay, I have soccer tonight, but I also have these two sheets of math homework and I need to study for my science test.

And then that way you have a rough idea of how much time it's most likely going to take.

Being a kid today is is difficult.

There are a lot of pressures.

There's a lot of expectation.

There's a lot of peer pressure to be a certain way or to do certain things, to look a certain way, find your support.

What are those activities that you do like to do?

Just give yourself grace.

Your moods might be different for a little while, and not just just to accept it, but to expect it.

The most likely that what you're experiencing is due to the change in transition, but that it's not going to be like that for the entire school year.

Some really great insights from Ryan.

They're reminding us that mental health is just as important as academics.

If you are a student you know is struggling.

Don't hesitate to reach out for help, whether that's through a school counselor, a trusted adult, or professional resources available in your community What happens when young people brave their darkest moments and decide to speak out?

In this Decode Colorado documentary, filmmakers Rob and Chelsea Jackson explore teen mental health across Colorado, from Denver to Sterling.

Through interviews and moments captured on film, they shared stories of loss, resilience and the communities working to erase the stigma around mental health.

Here is the full documentary.

Decode Colorado Teen mental Health.

There is times in my life where I felt really alone.

I'm working through a lot of things.

It doesn't feel like I need to hide that.

It kind of just feels like.

Yeah, we're all to some extent in this boat.

So why not talk about it?

We are finally realizing that mental health is health.

I think for a long time we believed that health was the physical body.

And we're finally putting the head back on the body.

We realize that the brain operates the rest of the body, and it's not fully developed for teens.

It means they have a very emotionally based brain.

The frontal lobe is not fully developed until we're in our mid to late 20s.

So they're going to be acting out what they feel.

If you look at the CDC reports, it's 40% of high schoolers felt persistently sad or hopeless for over two weeks at a time.

If you look at high school girls, it was 60%.

1 in 4 of those girls had thoughts of wanting to kill herself.

We come into the world in our own biology, right?

And some of us feel emotions really sensitively.

And so that's kind of that biological piece.

And then we have the social pieces.

Those social pieces are how we interact with the world.

How does the world interact with us?

There's 1.3 million kids in the state of Colorado, and 80% of mental health professionals don't accept insurance.

And those providers are generally full.

I think that's one of the biggest pushes is how do we increase access?

How do we make sure we think about our families in Colorado that are in rural Colorado to.

I'm Jake Hettinger, I'm from Reno, Colorado.

I'm the fourth generation on this farm.

Started back in 1952.

Merino is a very small farming community.

For example, our graduating class had 20 kids in it.

I spent all my life here.

I never really left the town for any long periods of time until I went to college up in Fort Collins.

I'm an ag business major up there.

I do plan on coming back to Merino.

I like this way of life and where I live.

And, the community is just really great.

I call Merino home.

Living in a rural community.

You don't really hear or know of anybody struggling with mental health.

They're not going to go seek the help because of the stigma in rural communities, because they're going to think that people are going to go around and talk about them and, and, and say that they're weak.

I know of two mental health professionals here in, in sterling.

The stigma is awful in mental health, period.

But in agriculture.

And I was guilty of this with my boys, when I was young.

You got hurt.

Your dad told you?

Toughen up.

Don't cry.

Get back out there.

Get your job done.

The common consensus is, if you're struggling, you.

You figure it out on your own.

You buckle down, you get through it.

There's still a lot of mental health stigma, even in this current generation of young people.

That has to do with differences of where they come from, who has the ability to talk about mental health, what families do they come from, who can afford mental health, who can get access to mental health?

There's still high rates of depression.

Youth who aren't getting access to care, but with like access to care.

My name is aura.

I've grown up here in Colorado my whole life.

I was one Grand Junction, Colorado, and then I came to Aurora when I was seven.

I had a pretty, I would say, a relatively normal childhood.

I was definitely a kid that was outside a lot.

I frequently found myself in trees.

I have a couple scars from a couple falls.

I've taken.

I did gymnastics.

I was quite a rambunctious child, sometimes a bit of a menace, bigger than a bell.

I love to sing and dance.

Sing.

I struggled a lot with mental health, kind of in past years due to a couple of things that happened, and I didn't really know how to identify those feelings or how to talk about them, or even if I could talk about them.

My parents are immigrants, and they've worked really hard for all the things they've had, and they've gone through things that I couldn't even imagine going through.

So it's kind of like the question of like, is this thing as important as the things that they've gone through?

Like, are my struggles even valid because they've gone through so much worse?

The first time that I really heard about mental health was from my mom, when I was like under ten, I'm not really sure when, but.

And then also the school, that was something that they talked about.

I mean, like, you guys like I'm very comfortable with you guys and I am I feel okay sharing it.

At least I'm getting better at sharing.

But yeah, we both know that.

My name is Alejandro Chavez and I live in Firestone, Colorado.

I am a senior in high school and I graduate next Saturday.

It's a lot.

Ever since I was probably 7 or 8, I had really high anxiety.

I wasn't necessarily aware that it was called anxiety or what.

I just knew that certain situations made me feel not okay.

I was six when my parents separated and then seven when they divorced.

That had a large play, and my whole life since then.

I felt very sad for a long time.

My parents tried their best, but we're so wrapped up in dealing with their own lives and each other that I didn't talk about how I felt.

I just repressed those feelings, ignored them.

And then in eighth grade, I was in a really bad spot.

That's when I was actually diagnosed with depression.

What we know about teens is that at least 20% of all teens would like to go to therapy, and we also know that only about half end up in therapy.

That's difficult to hear, because we also know from research and studies that therapy works.

My therapist and I have a really good relationship.

She's not afraid to try different techniques because I want to be better.

I am not afraid to try them, even if they seem kind of wacky.

I think about the multiple factors at play when we think about the development of mental health challenges or illness.

There are individual factors, like your early environments, that are really shaping your brain development that's needed for every thought and every feeling and every behavior, every action, every plan you make.

It's this is the organ.

It regulates who we are, every organ system, our life path and our relationships and that family relationship.

It's probably the most critical early environment we have in our lives.

Parents, grandparents, foster parents.

Caregivers in our lives.

Coaches, teachers, whoever it is in your life that is a stable, caring adult who knows you, who can respond, can see if you're in distress or something's changed, who can help you get support or help support you.

If I would have been explicitly told that having those feelings is okay, it would have been really helpful.

I think a lot of the times that I've been kept or have kept myself from accessing resources for mental health have been times where I thought things weren't that bad, and in hindsight, I realized that they were actually quite bad.

So I think when you validate people's feelings and emotions, they know that they can come forward and talk about those things.

Adults play a powerful role in teens lives, maybe more powerful than they know, but they aren't the only powerful thing in their lives.

There are so many other things that have huge influence over the decisions our kids make that are out of our control.

Right up there on.

Right up there.

Yes.

Yeah.

On a Li was kind of the center cog of everything.

She was the little sister that the brothers always said was spoiled and got everything she wanted.

I met Anna when she came to Marino, when I was a freshman.

She was also coming in as a freshman.

Really quiet.

I went up and talked to her, and right away, we just hit it off.

She was really such a caring person.

Really funny too.

Gosh, she had such a good sense of humor.

Her sophomore year.

There's some kids that were really cruel.

The honor.

You know, there's a boy, an individual boy that was just relentless.

And she told us about it, but wanted us not to take action on it because we live in a small community.

She would tell me all the time about what she was going through.

If it was something on her phone, she would show me it on her phone.

And you know, I'd always talk to her about it and try to help her through it.

I've always supported mental health for all of our kids.

I started calling around, and I could not find a mental health counselor until I got to the Front Range.

The difference out here is the resources that we have available to these kids.

My cousin, who is a mental health professional, she has over 250 clients that she has to try to get through every month.

And, the age of the kid is going down.

They're getting younger.

We just we don't have the resources.

They're six months out to get help.

And when they need help, they need help.

Now.

We got a counselor, and it was a 2.5 hour drive up 2.5 hour drive back, but it was worth it.

I had conversations with the counselor.

I was concerned at that time about the addiction to phone.

She's addicted to her phone.

She's on her phone all the time.

If we can help, maybe try and steer that clear.

And I didn't even know the depth of what she was into.

She would show me, like, girls putting on makeup and stuff and saying, oh, should I do this with my hair?

And should I do this with my makeup or eyeliner?

And I, like, told her I was like, well, I don't know much about this stuff, you know, but, pretty soon that was all her social media would look like whenever she showed it to me was, kind of her comparing herself to these other, other people.

And, I thought it was a little concerning.

You can't unsee what was being fed to her.

It pulls me down a rabbit hole that I have to crawl out of.

The anxiety, the depression.

You have no future.

It's there.

So no wonder these kids are fighting such a battle.

And I remember this like it was yesterday.

Her parents were out of town and, on a texted me and asked if I wanted to go to town with her and get dinner.

She had a big lead in the play before we left for the weekend, and I wanted her to go with us.

We were going to Texas to to see our son and she's like, mom, I wanted the leads in the play.

The teachers were worried that if I go, I'll get Covid, I'm going to stay.

We went to town, got dinner, had a real fun time, and I said, I'll see you tomorrow.

The next day I saw her parked at the cafe over here, and I waved to her and she waved back.

She was getting in her pickup, and that's that's the last time I saw her.

That night, a sheriff came and told me what happened.

And, is is devastating.

When I went to her room that day after she died, I remember opening up one of her journals.

Nobody is going to love me unless I look the part.

I look at other girls profile, and it makes me feel worse.

Nobody will love someone who is ugly and is broken as me.

Technically, if I kill myself, the problem would be gone.

I do want to say something to parents who have lost their kid to suicide.

It's not your fault.

They had great parents and they didn't survive.

And I'm sorry.

Life without honor has been pretty challenging.

Losing a close friend like that so suddenly, and being in a rural area and not, you know, having many people to talk to you.

The shot family have been friends of ours for a long time.

When I got the phone call hearing about on a, I was going, that can't be, that can't be honor.

And our children are the future.

Sorry.

And I just can't stand to see another pre-teen or teen suicide.

Around the time went on a passed away.

We had in northeast Colorado, I believe, seven other suicides in our age group.

This morning, dozens of parents who say social media played a significant role in their children's deaths are pressuring the government to hold social media responsible parents with pictures of their children who were harmed or killed by what they saw and experienced online for change gaining momentum.

41 states now suing meta.

How can any child be exposed to this?

Well, they're growing up in a totally different landscape than we grew up in.

Not everybody had their own devices.

And then the harms of some of these tools, like we're seeing now, a lot of kids are here in our care because somebody has been bullying them online and nobody knew about it.

And some of those kids survived suicide attempts, and those kids did not.

People can see things that they would normally never say out loud, but they'll say it on social media.

And that really does impact young people.

It hits them hard and they take it to heart.

I had no clue she was on Tik Tok until the forensics team was able to get it to her phone.

There are apps out there that we don't even know where on their phone.

They can disguise them as calculators.

Basically another phone inside your phone so they can have tons of pictures or social media apps inside there that you can't get in without a code.

There's so much stimuli out there for kids today, and we have an entire generation of kids who don't necessarily know how to just be.

There's just so much coming at them that their brains become primed for addictive behaviors because of the dopamine release that they get from social media.

Social media is addictive.

We know from studies that it has the same effect on the brain as any other addictive substance.

We've got to decide how they affect our kids, how we create exposure.

When we create exposure, what we hope they have exposure to, limit what they have exposure to as much as you can because you can't control everything.

I found that replacing it with something like, preferably something that engages your mind a little bit more, has helped and can help form a healthier relationship with social media.

Youth culture, I think, is predominantly on social media these days.

So if you're not on social media, like you're always kind of missing out on something.

And I think it's easier to learn how to use social media in a healthier way than it is to completely get rid of social media, because I don't see that happening in the future.

I think it's our responsibility to learn how to step away versus just scrolling endlessly.

Earlier this afternoon, the Senate overwhelmingly passed landmark legislation aimed at keeping kids safer online.

That persistence of the parents who never gave up has paid off.

With the Senate overwhelmingly passing a bill designed to protect kids from dangerous content online.

This is the first major effort by Congress in decades to hold tech companies more accountable.

Doesn't bring our daughter back, but this is a movement.

It's a start towards saving other children and holding social media accountable for what they've done.

At the end of my sophomore year, when I turned 16, I started working.

I became a camp counselor as well.

And with that, I realized that I really love working with kids, and that also helped me feel okay and like I have more of a direction to go in life.

It gave me, I guess, almost like a sneak peek into, like where I can be like, I was happy, like every single day.

It allows me to feel like I'm having an impact, and I know that for myself.

When I was younger, I really just wanted somebody there to support me and always be there.

And it allows me to do that as well.

I'm helping heal that inner part of me.

As more and more things happened.

I realized that this is something that it would be helpful to at least talk about.

So I'm a part of a couple clubs at school and I'm part of the Youth Council on Mental Health.

The big thing for me right now is being able to provide, like the unique perspective that we have as youth into research and use that in order to improve the field of mental health.

The Youth Council has definitely been one of the most important ways to show me that I can become a leader in my community, and I can have a more direct impact on things, and I can walk up to a state senator and tell them about my concerns, and they'll actually listen.

I encourage other people that have mental health struggles to get help, because it's better to get help than to put your friends and family through this situation.

I just hope people realize that and realize it's okay to talk about it.

It's something that you're dealing with and it's something that is a part of your life at a moment in time, but it's never who you are.

A little bit scared about my future.

To be honest.

But I think above that fear is hopefulness.

I'm really excited to see where I'll go.

I know that I am fully capable of it, and regardless of how crazy it may seem to want to do whatever, I'll figure out a way to do it.

Yeah.

There was once a time in my life when I was surrounded by family, friends, peers, and teachers every day, but I felt completely alone.

But today, I can confidently tell you that is no longer the case.

The idea that we as a human race need each other is one that I've come to know very well throughout the past few years.

As cliches, it sounds.

Spreading love to everyone you cross paths with makes the world a better place.

But it all starts with you.

As we start the next chapters of our lives, I would like to ask a few things of you.

I would like you to try try to be emotionally literate, which means recognizing, naming, and expressing your emotions.

Try something you've never tried before and try to show love to the people around you.

But most importantly, try to show love to yourself.

By trying.

By simply putting in a little bit of effort.

You can go a long way, but please do not try alone.

The people you surround yourself with, and the larger community that you become a part of, will have such an important impact on your life.

I hope you find your people, the people who show you unconditional love and support.

I'm so grateful for and proud of every one of you.

I'm honored to graduate with you all and furthermore call you all my family.

Thank you.

This is our moment.

This is the time for all of Colorado to come together and say, what do we need to do to help support young people's mental health and healthy development?

How can we support their physical health and well-being, their learning and education, their home communities and safety and flourishing and resource opportunities?

How can we use technology to fuel innovation?

How can we find public and private partnerships?

How can we use government at every level and move those levers so that we're aligned to building a system of supports for kids throughout their lives and their families for generations to come?

Mental health issues are always going to be there.

They always have been there.

Now it's on us to really teach and mentor what the tools and strategies for dealing with those mental health challenges look like.

And we do that by the way we live our own lives and the conversations that we have with kids.

Never be afraid to ask a teenager or anyone else if they're thinking about hurting themselves.

It seems like an invasive question.

It is.

It probably feels like sometimes it's none of your business.

It is.

And you may have saved their lives.

What I hope is that mental health is integrated into more facets of our lives.

So it's more integrated in schools where kids spend so much time.

It's families are getting education, parents are getting education.

And I think getting youth involved in that process, giving them the sense of they can have a say, they can participate in this.

A lot of people in my generation generally are wanting change and are ready to do what it takes to get the change that we think we need and that we know we deserve.

The openness of my generation is really giving me hope.

Building a strong community with the people around me is really important.

And then as I've gotten into therapy again, I feel like I have a pretty strong sense of myself.

But the stage in my life that I'm in right now is very much so.

Trying to figure out who I am.

And that's okay.

We hope the documentary left you with some new insights, and has opened up a new dialog and awareness into what teens are facing in their mental health.

To continue that open dialog, we also spoke with the filmmakers about how making this documentary impacted their perspective on teen mental health, and what they personally learned along the way.

Here's more from Rob and Chelsea Jackson.

I think when you're talking to somebody about a topic such as suicide, you, you obviously have to approach it with great sensitivity and care.

And I think going into that interview, I was putting, I was sort of feeling that mindset and, in a way that I had never thought about it before, just thinking about the fact that I was going to be sitting with somebody who had experienced this great loss.

I took it very seriously that I would be sitting with her for quite a while, and was feeling really honored that she was willing to open up her home and her space and her story to us.

When I put myself back in that day spending that time with Lori, I think, you know, Rob and I each were sitting there feeling very emotional, and we cried with her.

And, I think it's really important to be willing to sit in that space with your participants, and feel that and not shy away from, you know, we're human.

We're we're not just filmmakers.

We're not a brick wall.

And so we didn't want to avoid our feelings.

I think what we learned from this is that it's really important for parents and other adults and mentors to be regulating themselves.

You see, all the time when you're driving and you see parents who are literally looking at their phones while they're driving, which is obviously dangerous, dangerous and illegal now.

And so but I think all of us have been guilty of things like that in the past.

And so if our kids are seeing us use our phones in dangerous ways, or even just sort of escaping into our phones or, you know, at the dinner table if we're on our phone, that's just setting a really bad example.

And so we hope that by sharing some light on what happened with Annalee and, her family, that, you know, other families will maybe reevaluate their relationship with cell phones and also with social media.

You know, it's really interesting.

We came across a stat when doing this piece that from the years 2008 to 2020, and this is on a national level, girls between the ages of 15 and 24, their suicide rates increased by 87% 2008.

You know, that's around the time that Facebook is really starting to happen.

Within a few years after that, Instagram and these other apps, you know, TikTok and Snapchat since then have really taken off.

Undeniably a direct correlation between kids being super engaged on these social media platforms and their mental health declining.

We spend a little bit of time with Annalise, mother, who was willing to scroll through Annalise TikTok account, and that was probably the most painful part of the interview for Lori shot.

And we try not to press her to do that for too long.

But, you know, just seeing what her daughter was subjected to on social media, it made sense as to how she could have gone down a rabbit hole that really hurt her self-esteem.

And so we hope that other parents, by being exposed to this, will sort of take action and intervene if they see their own children sort of disappearing into their phones.

Decode Colorado team mental health is part of our ongoing coverage of issues impacting communities across the state.

The filmmakers say their hope is that by listening, supporting and speaking openly, communities can help every young person feel seen, safe and understood.

And once again, we want to share information about help that is available.

If you or someone you know is facing a mental health challenge, write the 988 Colorado Mental Health Line provides free 24 over seven support by call, text or live chat.

Youth can also receive up to six free therapy sessions through Eye Matter colorado.org.

Services are in English and Spanish.

Visit I'm at our colorado.org to learn more.

Tonight we've heard from teens, community leaders and storytellers who are helping shape the conversation around mental health in Colorado.

Mental health impacts all of us, and the resources we've shared tonight are here to help anyone who needs support.

You'll find links to those resources and more information on our website, including the 988 Colorado Mental Health Line and I Matter colorado.org.

Thank you for joining us for this special edition of studio 12 Decode Mental Health.

I'm Ryan Haarer and I'm Bazi Kan See you soon.