• Video
  • Shop
  • Culture
  • Family
  • Wellness
  • Food
  • Living
  • Style
  • Travel
  • News
  • Book Club
  • GMA3: WYNTK
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your US State Privacy Rights
  • Children's Online Privacy Policy
  • Interest-Based Ads
  • Terms of Use
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Contact Us
  • © 2025 ABC News
  • Wellness

Next chapter in ‘Screenagers’ documentary tackles depression in teens due to social media

3:55
New documentary tackles the depression teens face due to social media
ABCNews.com
Becky Worley
ByBecky Worley
October 09, 2019, 1:04 PM

The 2016 documentary “Screenagers” hit a nerve.

More than 4 million people trekked to schools and community centers to watch a screening of the documentary that chronicled the rise of kids’ addictive behavior with digital devices.

Related Articles

(MORE: How to find a healthy relationship with your smartphone)

The maker of the film, Dr. Delaney Ruston, thought she had this issue under control in her family, but her teen daughter’s battle with depression forced her to look harder at screens and other forces in modern childhood that are factoring into troubling mental health issues.

Now she’s made a second film on that related topic, called "Screenagers: The Next Chapter."

The documentary premiered at Eckstein Middle School in Seattle Tuesday night in front of more than 500 concerned parents and educators. It starts a run of showings this week in community screenings nationwide highlighting the rise of teen anxiety and depression.

Parents in Seattle seemed perplexed about how to help their children look away from devices and towards other people as a way to combat isolation and social anxiety.

One mother told ABC News, “It’s a normal part of being a middle-schooler, they talk about panic attacks and being anxious.”

Related Articles

(MORE: Social media is harmful to teen girls’ mental health: What you should know)

Another father who was also worried said of technology, “Their faces are always in front of that stuff, and it’s informing how they view themselves and what is normal and around them.”

With headlines of the teen suicide rate doubling since 1999, and sky-rocketing anxiety and depression rates, parents are concerned.

The film does not tackle the issue of what’s causing this crisis, but it does look at the many forms of mental health challenges that face families, such as anxiety, stress and unresolved trauma.

The central story of the film, however, focuses on Ruston’s 16 year-old daughter Tessa, who suddenly dipped into depression.

While Ruston did see the signs of depression, she says even as a practicing physician, she didn’t know what to do.

“I had no idea when to step in, what to say, and often it felt like anything I said made it worse,” she said. “It felt like I was just tiptoeing. If I say the wrong thing, it’ll make her never talk to me again. It’s emotional just thinking about it, just how stuck I was.”

Meanwhile, Tessa found little comfort in social media, the medium for much of her communication with friends. She posted what she thought was a raw assessment of her deep sadness, but it didn’t evoke the response she needed and wanted from her friends.

Related Articles

(MORE: How to host a social media detox for your teen or tween)

She said, “I said this year has been really hard and I’ve learned a lot and I’ve grown a lot, (but) I felt like the response wasn’t acknowledging the truth that I was really trying to put out there … crickets was almost how it felt to me. I tried so hard to say look I'm not perfect at all and they're like, 'Oh, we love you, we're here for you, and it almost hurt to feel not understood in that sense."

PHOTO: Teenager on iphone cellphone social media in undated stock photo.
STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images

And when Ruston realized how serious her daughter's depression was, this isolation scared her. “I was amazed how many months into her depression she was, and I assumed she was talking to a friend or something, and she said, ‘No, I haven't told anyone.’”

At that point, Ruston realized she and her husband, along with mental help professionals, would need to be there to talk to Tessa, but that talking and support needed some work. Ruston says, “I needed to learn how to be comfortable with my feelings, but not over-respond. [I needed to] let her know that I could handle it.”

Through trial and error, Tessa's parents found some ways to communicate that can work for all parents and teens.

Tessa says, “Some of the things my parents said that really helped in the moments of hardship were you’re doing the best you can for where you’re at and what tools you have, especially when I felt really low and incapable. My favorite quote that my dad said that actually really got me through the hard times that felt like forever is ‘this too shall pass.’”

She added that a huge barrier to talking with her parents was guilt and shame, that it was her fault that she felt so depressed. But something Ruston said really helped. “My mom especially reiterated that I wouldn’t be feeling this way if I had the choice.”

Related Articles

(MORE: Social media, screen time linked to depression in teens, study says)

The documentary offers specific advice for parents who feel stonewalled from teens who won’t talk. Here are some of them:

Validate their feelings, accept that they truly do feel the way they say, that it’s not just teen drama. Ruston adds, “the most important words you may say are ‘that sounds really hard.”

Editor’s Picks

10 girls go 14 days without any social media: Here's how they fared

  • Nov 05, 2018

Pediatric group recommends asking adolescents about social media use during checkups

  • May 01, 2018

What parents should know about the 'constant pressure' of social media for teens

  • Nov 01, 2017

Take advantage of the moments when teens do want to talk. These sometimes rare occasions are opportunities to prove you won’t judge them or scold them.

When you don’t know what to say, ask more questions. Noted therapist John Gottman, who is featured in the documentary, offers some prompts like, “What did your friends say? Were you mad? What do you want to do now?”

Avoid offering fixes or solutions. Tessa said, “All the problem solving, solutions, and enforcements feel so judgmental and stabbing because sometimes I don't even think it’s a problem I just want to share it and the problem solving itself makes it into a negative thing, right away it’s like ‘this is wrong and you need to make it right.’”

Praise kids with specifics -- hold a mirror up to them so they can’t refute what you say and just like we do with toddlers, catch them doing something right, and then praise the work.

Related Articles

(MORE: These social media habits may point to depression, new study says)

Don’t give up on finding ways to limit screen time -- even if you think that ship has sailed. Sleep and limiting exposure to social media can help kids find their resilience.

Learn how to tolerate a teen’s explosive reaction over screen limits -- you are giving them the gift of boundaries that adults even struggle with.

“Screenagers: The Next Chapter” will be screened in schools and community settings across the country. For information on how to have it seen in your town, go to their site here.

Editor’s Picks

10 girls go 14 days without any social media: Here's how they fared

  • Nov 05, 2018

Pediatric group recommends asking adolescents about social media use during checkups

  • May 01, 2018

What parents should know about the 'constant pressure' of social media for teens

  • Nov 01, 2017

Up Next in Wellness—

Barbie introduces 1st doll with Type 1 diabetes

July 8, 2025

Olivia Munn opens up about living with trichotillomania

July 1, 2025

Bacteria levels prompt some beach closures ahead of Fourth of July

July 1, 2025

Uterine cancer projected to rise in US by 2050, Black women likely to be hit hardest

July 1, 2025

Shop GMA Favorites

ABC will receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Sponsored Content by Taboola

The latest lifestyle and entertainment news and inspiration for how to live your best life - all from Good Morning America.
  • Contests
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Children’s Online Privacy Policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Your US State Privacy Rights
  • Interest-Based Ads
  • About Nielsen Measurement
  • Press
  • Feedback
  • Shop FAQs
  • ABC News
  • ABC
  • All Videos
  • All Topics
  • Sitemap

© 2025 ABC News
  • Privacy Policy— 
  • Your US State Privacy Rights— 
  • Children's Online Privacy Policy— 
  • Interest-Based Ads— 
  • Terms of Use— 
  • Do Not Sell My Info— 
  • Contact Us— 

© 2025 ABC News