It seems too simple to be true, but studies continue to show how being outside, surrounded by the color green, can substantially reduce anxiety and improve overall mental health.

Considering the dire state of adolescent mental health, this information feels vital.

In 2023, almost 20% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 experienced a major depressive episode, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health .

According to SAMHSA, 1.7 million adolescents made a suicide plan and 3.4 million adolescents had serious thoughts of suicide. 953,000 adolescents attempted suicide.

“In 2022, 29.8% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 (or 7.7 million people) received mental health treatment,” the SAMHSA survey states.

These are statistics from one year. This is a crisis.

It is time to prioritize getting teenagers outside without their phones, preferably combining this outdoor exposure with exercise and relationship.

“A study from New Zealand indicates that spending time around the color green – from walks outside to plants in the classroom – can help reverse the negative effects of screen time,” explains Dr. Michelle Yang, resident at Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

Dr. Yang summarizes how the study “noted the higher amount of ‘green time,’ regardless of screen time, showed an increased self-efficacy, positive identity, and decreased anxiety in teenagers.”

Various other studies look at how the color green can reduce fatigue, enhance focus, and induce calmness.

“Regular access to green space has been linked to lower risks of depression and improved concentration and attention,” reads an article by UC Davis Health.

This article goes on to discuss a study conducted in Denmark, the results of which “found that children who lived in neighborhoods with more green space had a reduced risk of mental disorders later in life.”

This is pretty remarkable because it indicates that we have a tool to fight back against the teen mental health crisis right at our fingertips just waiting to be utilized.

Even if access to nature is not easy to attain, say you live in a New York high-rise surrounded by mostly cement, simply adding houseplants to the environment can potentially increase mental health.

Imagine the difference we could see in society at-large if teens started spending one hour a day standing on grass, surrounded by trees, rather than staring at smartphones. What if they were encouraged or incentivized to spend one of those 7-9 hours a day of screen usage, outside?

We, as human beings, have a natural tendency to understand the healing powers of nature, fresh air, sunlight; however, we also have acquired a tendency to hole up inside the four walls of our homes under fake lighting, breathing in old air and depleting ourselves of Vitamin D, which is essential for proper bodily function.

American teens are facing a conglomeration of threats to their mental health and numerous stressors, many of which are coming at them through their devices: public shaming, body dysmorphia, social hierarchy exacerbated by social media, sextortion, exposure to pornography at younger and younger ages, not to mention the disconnect and lack of in-person, present relationships.

“As the MIT professor Sherry Turtle wrote in 2015 about life with smartphones, ‘We are forever elsewhere.’ This is a profound transformation of human consciousness and relationships, and it occurred, for American teens, between 2010 and 2015,” wrote Jonathan Haidt in his book The Anxious Generation.

Nature provides us an outlet, an escape from the alternate reality proposed to us by smartphones. The world we exist in on our devices is transcended when we enter ourselves back into reality, and no where is reality and our intricately woven place in it felt more acutely than in the great outdoors, surrounded by towering green pines or blossoming flowers, feeling all our sensations activating at once: touch, smell, sound, sight. Even our sense of taste seems to grow sweeter when we are outdoors. Think about the last time you went for a hike or spent a few days camping by a lake. Why is it that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches just taste better out there? There may not be a scientific study done on this, but I’ll pull from my own experience and the experience of those whom I know. PB&J gets tastier and something unfolds within you as you sit amongst the trees.

The research supports this “unfolding” experience. Perhaps it holds at least part of the key to reclaiming adolescent mental health. Perhaps it is at least one piece in the increasingly complex puzzle to reclaim the childhood stolen from our teens.

Get outside. Find the green. Ditch the phone. If nowhere else, we can start there.