APRIL 27 • 2023 | 83

I couldn’t really figure out 
what was going on with my 
child. I was taking her to 
therapists and experts, and I 
just felt like I was completely 
failing her as a mom. No 
matter how many tools I 
shoved in that toolbox, she 
wasn’t getting better. I was 
frustrated and defeated,” says 
Morton, whose family has 
all attended Temple Israel, 
where its Korman Hall is 
named for her grandparents, 
Harry and Anna Korman.
So, she put out a post on 
Facebook in 2019 and asked: 
“Kids and Anxiety, who is 
struggling with it?”

KIDS IN CRISIS 
Morton received very personal 
responses from people she 
closely socialized with but 
with whom she had never 
discussed these issues, 
including friends whose 
children had attempted 
suicide.
“I had no idea. That stigma 
and shame is still very real, 
but it was really eye-opening 
for me because I thought 
that we were alone. I didn’t 
realize that there was an entire 
community of people that 
were going through the same 
thing. I just started putting 
feelers out and I started asking 
these questions: ‘
Are we more 
anxious or are we just more 
aware of it? Why? What can I 
do about it?’ Because I hadn’t 
found the answer, I set off on 
this journey to tell that story,” 
Morton says.
Filming started in 2019. 
When COVID hit in 2020, 
and right before lockdown, 
Morton and Roth already had 
14 cameras out in the field 
for the group of diverse teens 
and young adults who were 
documenting their struggles 
in real-time during the 
pandemic. 

“They allowed themselves to 
be incredibly vulnerable, raw 
and real. And their courage is 
admirable,” Morton says.
Along with personal 
accounts from the teens and 
young adults and parent-child 
conversations, Anxious Nation 
features testimony and insight 
from leading psychologists 
and psychiatrists along with 
archival footage and historic 
cartoons. 
To complete the docu-
mentary, Morton and her 
team reached out to educators 
all over the world to obtain 
artwork from kids between 
the ages of 8-26 on how kids 
view anxiety in themselves. 
Artwork came from as far as 
Ukraine, India and Australia 
and, locally, from Hillel Day 
School in Farmington Hills. 
Morton’s daughter’s middle 
school submitted 40 pieces.
“The reason why my 
daughter and I are in this 
film is that, not only is Sevey 
the inspiration behind the 
film, but I also knew that I 
couldn’t ask another family 
to do what we weren’t willing 
to do ourselves. I thought 
it was important that we 
showed what was happening 
in our family, too — not as a 
filmmaker, because I’m not 
a filmmaker by trade, but as 
a family — as a mother and 
a daughter,” says Morton, 

whose daughter turns 15 in 
July. “I’m a single mom and I 
wear every hat in my family. I 
wanted other families to know 
that it’s OK to not be OK. I 
wanted them to feel seen and 
heard and I wanted them to 
understand that there’s hope.” 
Morton named her daughter 
Seveann when she was born, 
a combination of Morton’s 
mother, Suzanne; and her 
grandmothers Eve and Ann.
“That’s what you get 
when you have a writer for a 
mother,” laughs Morton who 
has taken Sevey to most of 
Anxious Nation’s film festivals.
“Sevey believes 
wholeheartedly that by telling 
her story she can inspire and 
help other kids. She’s now 
using her voice and platform 
to be a youth mental health 
advocate. It’s something she 
feels very strongly about 

and,remarkably, all of the 
kids in the film do. She’s an 
old soul, so wise. She’s leaps 
and bounds the greatest 
teacher I’ve ever had, and 
you can see that in the film. 
It’s not a perfect ending. 
She still struggles with her 
anxiety. The important thing 
to know is that this doesn’t 
define who you are. The 
takeaway that she hopes to 
instill in others is that it may 
not go away but it does get 
better,” Morton says.
“This is absolutely the 
most critical medical crisis 
we are facing in this country. 
While we do ring the alarm 
on the problem, we spend a 
great deal of time in the film 
talking about solutions and 
things that you can do. Our 
hope with this film is to bring 
awareness to it and affect 
change. And any meaningful 
change needs to start at 
home. We know that anxiety 
is energy. We can learn to 
harness that energy and 
repurpose it.
“I’m a first-time filmmaker 
and a mom who really took 
the resources that I have to try 
and put some good out in the 
world,” Morton adds. “That’s 
what the driving force was 
behind it. I’m four years into 
this film — all of my blood 
sweat and tears — because it’s 
that important.” 

DETAILS
Anxious Nation will livestream at 7 p.m. May 3. Screening 
and post-film Q&A with Kathy Ireland and moderated 
by Joan Lunden. $12 adults; $7 students and military. To 
order online viewing tickets: https://watch.eventive.org/
anxiousnation/play/64025cb6b0b29a00e2aa9174 
 
For information about the film, go to: www.anxiousnation.
com Instagram: @anxiousnation; Facebook: www.
facebook.com/anxiousnationfilm 
 
Join the conversation on social media using 
#AnxiousNation, #YouAreNotAlone, #Anxiety, 
#MentalHealthAwareness.

PHOTOS FROM ANXIOUS NATION

Sevey and her mom, Laura 
Morton, in a scene from 
Anxious Nation.

