Serious Breakdown: Teenage Mental Health in America follows five high schoolers across the US, and the people around them, as they navigate the tumultuous journey of their mental health.
Series slated for Spring 2025
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ABOUT THE SERIES
From mass shootings in schools to the repercussions of contact sports, and the effects that social media play, teenagers are dealing with more now than ever as they battle to have a healthy brain.
Serious Breakdown: Teenage Mental Health in America uncovers the multitude of factors that kids face today and highlights some solutions around the country that are helping teens improve their mental health.
In this series, we follow five teenagers of various backgrounds, races, socioeconomic levels, and geographical locations, who are on their journey to understand, deal with, and heal their mental health.
We also feature teachers, administrators, counselors, elected officials, law enforcement officials, researchers, advocates, and medical professionals on teenage brain development, and social impacts that factor into the whole picture of a teen’s mental health success.
We’ve all been a teenager before, and we know how tough it can be. But with new challenges come new opportunities for positive change. Serious Breakdown strives to provide that hope.
Mental health is often viewed as an invisible issue, but it’s one that touches all of us. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for teenagers in America, and 1 in 5 teens suffer from a mental health disorder.
These statistics are staggering, but they don’t have to be our reality. Join us as we explore solutions and discover what’s working to help improve teenage mental health in America.
We aim to reach people not just with a docuseries, but to develop our interviews into podcast episodes, and repurpose all of our content as social media clips to reach more people, not just to promote the series, but to progress the dialogue of teenage mental health and the myriad of topics we are featuring.
Teenage mental health
is at an all time low.
And it shows in very dangerous ways.
What You’ll Learn:
-How the teenage brain develops and why that’s important to understand
-The warning signs of mental health disorders in teenagers
-How social media, contact sports, and other factors impact mental health
-What schools, families, and communities are doing to help improve the mental health of teenagers
We need your support to get our series made so we all can change the narrative of what it means to have and support mental health.
Want to be part of something amazing?
OPEN CASTING CALL
We are looking for teenagers of diverse backgrounds, races, socioeconomic backgrounds, gender identities, geographic locations, etc. that are willing to share their mental health journey with us and our viewers.
Apply to be part of our documentary series.
We are looking for teens (ages 14-17) who are dealing with subjects like:
• Student who is part of the LGBTQ+ community who deals with bullying and discrimination
• Student who has experienced racism and its impact on mental health
• Driven student who struggles with the demands of an overwhelming schedule
• Student who deals with sleep deprivation and its negative impact on health
• Student who has recurring negative thoughts related to depression
• Student who is struggling with suicidal thoughts
• Student who is dealing with anxiety disorders
• Student who is battling the pressures of social media and how it impacts their mental health
• Student who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and may have auditory or visual hallucinations, and flat emotions
OPEN CASTING CALL
Help others by sharing your story with those who are battling just like you.
The application period ends Saturday, January 28, 2023
at midnight central time.
Help is available. Dial 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline to speak with someone today.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
BEAR WADE
Executive Producer / Director
Award-winning documentary filmmaker has been producing captivating stories for over two decades.
With his passion for magnifying underserved populations, he is a champion for teens getting more support in their mental health journey.
His biggest project to date is Paving The Way: The National Park-to-Park Highway, a multi-award-winning two-part historical documentary that has been airing on public television in the United States and Canada for more than a decade.
He has also produced a film series entitled “Reel Change” for the Missouri Foundation for Health, highlighting stories and solutions around the state of Missouri.
Bear also is a marketing specialist helping business owners be seen, heard, and understood. You can learn more about Bear’s work at BearWadeFilms.com.
ERIC EASTMAN
Executive Producer / Producer
For over 23 years, Eric Eastman has been a teacher, coach, speaker, and advisor in biology and psychology.
Eric was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in 8th grade, and through dealing with this diagnosis he grew a greater understanding of mental illness, and mental health related disorders. Over the course of his career he has been an advocate for his students who were coping with mental health related issues.
His goal is to broaden the impact that he has on the mental health conversation, and to build connections between homes, schools, health care advocates, the police, and communities throughout the United States.
