It’s no secret that anxiety is a major mental health problem in America. The pandemic made this point glaringly obvious when many individuals struggled under lockdown, turning to their doctors and mental health professionals for help. But what sets Anxious Nation apart from other documentaries of its kind is directors Laura Morton’s and Vanessa Roth’s choice to solely focus on how anxiety is affecting children and teens today instead of society at large. The result is a film that works to destigmatize narratives surrounding anxiety and mental illness simply by choosing to talk about it on camera with the younger generation. While the stories being told here are occasionally difficult to hear, they also offer up hope to anyone going through similar situations.
Starting with a broad depiction of anxiety in the lives of Morton’s own daughter Sevey and a handful of other teens and their parents, over the course of the film, the focus slowly narrows. Sevey’s own experience acts as a personal springboard into the discussion surrounding mental illness and youth, but it also gives the film a distinct personal touch that provides viewers with a private look into what living with and alongside anxiety can be like. If anxiety is the problem, then Anxious Nation sets out to figure out why by taking a close look at things like nature vs. nurture and the effects that social media has on the lives of children. Morton and Roth also take care to highlight the increasingly negative newsreel that young people are consuming every single day and how larger national and global crises can affect individual lives on a smaller scale. The result is an extremely candid discussion about the impact parents and the world at large can have on a child’s mental health from a very young age. However, when it comes to offering up solutions to the crisis, Anxious Nation shies away from any major suggestions, choosing instead to devote its energies on other things.
Still, one of the unique traits about the film is its choice of visuals. Alongside the interviews and footage of the film’s subjects, the screen often fills up with dozens of artworks and animations that were created specifically for the documentary. Each one of these pieces of art was done by someone between the ages of 8 and 24, and they are meant to depict each artists’ own experience with anxiety. The choice to include original artwork makes for a spectacular visual display on screen, but it also does something extremely distinctive and significant. It gives a face to this often-invisible mental health issue, turning it into something as tangible as a bruise or a broken bone.
Overall, Anxious Nation is an intimate look at the devastating ways anxiety is affecting America’s youth. There are many informative moments that help people understand why anxiety is so prevalent today, but if you are coming to the film looking for a solution or a way to cope, you are probably better off contacting an actual mental health professional. Anxious Nation is happy to provide its audience with an explanation, but it’s not as generous when it comes to handing out a cure.
Photo courtesy of Area 23a
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