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.