Speaker 1: This morning we're going to continue our special focus on mental health kids in crisis with a look at solutions to help struggling teenagers. This evening cbsnews.com and our CBS owned stations across the country will exclusively stream the documentary Connecting the Dots exploring the global youth mental health crisis. Meg Oliver spoke with a group of New Jersey high schoolers enrolled in a special class learning simple strategies to ease stress and improve their

Speaker 2: learning and their well-being. Three days a week Grinnell East Cruz, Maddie Torres and Alex Kumar

Speaker 3: meet with their high school social worker Kristen Madden. We could start with some breathing exercises to just kind of get us calm. In 2020 the Persepone Hills School District in New Jersey

Speaker 2: started the strive program. It offers at-risk youth academic support for the classroom and teaches

Speaker 4: coping skills for their emotions. I got depressed and it wasn't really good. I was kind of in my room a lot and it wasn't really fun. How bad did it get for you? It got bad. It's definitely been

Speaker 5: better since I've gotten in this program. I think the last few weeks have been hard for me for sure.

Speaker 6: Yeah. Why have they been hard? Just like school and Miss Madden definitely helped me this morning.

Speaker 2: On this day Maddie was struggling with some online teasing. She's not alone. Numerous studies have shown an association between increasing social media use and depression. Researchers found that teens compare themselves to curated images posted online and feel inadequate and insecure. Raise your hand if you've been depressed. Raise your hand if you've struggled with anxiety. Raise your hand if you feel like you're in a better place today. I'm having more of a smile on my face now. I'm being more positive. Kristen Madden wants parents to know that their children are facing bigger challenges than when

Speaker 7: they were adolescents. It's real for these kids. Usually they're not trying to be difficult. They really are struggling. Have you ever seen it this bad? Never. Breathe in for four seconds.

Speaker 3: Breathe in for four seconds. In addition to academic support, Madden teaches her students coping strategies from breath work. Hold it for seven seconds. To grounding. One of the activities that you can do

Speaker 7: anywhere if you're feeling anxious is a grounding activity. It's called 5 4 3 2 1. So five things

Speaker 5: that I can see is the board, the flag, your glasses, the notepaper, and then my pen. Four

Speaker 8: things you can touch. My water bottle, the pens, the table, and my skin. Three things you can hear.

Speaker 4: Voices, the elevator, and the clock ticking. Two things you can smell. I can smell Alex's food.

Speaker 7: Wow. My lip gloss. And one thing that you can taste. The pizza I ate. It's a tool she says

Speaker 3: anyone can use during an anxious moment. The important part is that you're able to interrupt

Speaker 7: what is going through your mind. It just kind of brings you back to focus on things. I mean if you're in the middle of a state of anxiety and you have to look around and pick five things to see and really focus on them, it interrupts the cycle of anxiety. The prompt that I picked today was, what is one thing you're proud of achieving? Madden also stresses the benefits of journaling

Speaker 2: and focusing on positive aspects of your life. I had a good grade on my math test and I'm like

Speaker 5: really terrible at math so I'm proud of that. We know that gratitude helps reduce anxiety and

Speaker 7: depression and being in a state of here and now and being grateful for the things that you do have rather than focusing on the things you don't. And I think with teenagers that's especially huge because they compare themselves so often to other students. What do you want other kids

Speaker 2: at home to know about why it's so important to talk about your mental health? It's not good to

Speaker 6: keep a bundle together because you will literally lose your mind because that it's happened to me

Speaker 4: before and it's not a good feeling. It's okay to ask for help. You don't need to suffer in silence. It's all right. Not everybody's going to accept but you will find the right people.

Speaker 2: Grinnelly's told me the most important thing she wants parents to know is to just be there for their kids and experts say parents need to take care of their own mental health to best help

Speaker 1: their children. That slogan is catching on the it's okay not to be okay and the more we talk about it the more helpful it is. That grounding exercise what does that do just to make you stay

Speaker 2: in the present? Well it basically breaks up the anxiety so if you're having an anxious moment and you start going down five four three two one you start looking around and what can I see what can I hear what can I taste and then it brings you back. That's something we can all do. I think so too and I want it there to be a really like concrete takeaway for parents and students because we know they're in trouble but these programs are working. But you know the other

Speaker 9: thing Meg that I always think that I took away from this is the amount of when I was a kid and I was bullied I could go home and the torment ended when I walked through the door of my house because there was no social media and also I wasn't inundated with images of who I was supposed to be when I was at home and now kids today I really worry for them because they are 24 7 under the microscope feeling the pressure gun violence in their schools. Because that bully could be in your hands. That's right. Constantly. Or not even not even somebody you know it's an image that you see on social media that tells you you should be like this. That's constant. You were bullied in in school high school junior high school? All through for a very long time I moved around a lot as a kid so always being the new kid was always very difficult. I wasn't sporty I was very nerdy yeah and into you know Dungeons and Dragons and the things that like you know if you could go back and talk to little Vlad what would you say? Well I would try to do that grounding exercise because that really is something that centers you in the moment and also too it's what you said Gail it's okay to not be okay but also that Vlad would not know this Vlad and that is the most beautiful part of life. It's gonna get better. It's gonna get better. And it does get

Speaker 1: better. It does. The other thing I liked in the piece gratitude helps reduce anxiety and depression and this is an area for people to think about. They can use their smartphones to journal.

Speaker 2: Use your voice memos all that kind of stuff. There's a smart way to do that. Thank you Meg.

Speaker 1: Thank you. Well done. Really great Meg. Thank you. Meg Oliver. A reminder the documentary is called Connecting the Dots. It's available on demand right now at cbsnews.com. It's very very well done and very good. If you or your child is in emotional distress distress rather call or text the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.