ANXIOUS NATION

Here's the decision. ANXIOUS NATION is an important documentary about the anxiety plaguing so many young people today, and it doesn't just diagnose the problem — it offers solutions parents can actually use. It shows the hardships of growing up with anxiety, and how parents can walk their children through it.

It also handles heavy things honestly. The film discusses suicide, and it warns that feelings of anxiety can slide into depression and worse. There's brief foul language along the way. That combination is why this one calls for a parent's judgment before a younger child watches.

But the payoff is real. Experts talk through healthy ways to combat anxiety, and one storyline follows a girl saved from an attempted suicide who has since become a Christian and found purpose. So: if you're a parent, grandparent, or teenager trying to navigate this cultural moment, watch it — and gain some insight into what your children are facing.

Teenagers in the 1990s wrestled with drinking, smoking, and teenage pregnancy. Today, the film argues, something else is soaring: mental health struggles, and especially anxiety — not only among teens, but among children under twelve and as young as nine.

ANXIOUS NATION sets out to understand why. It listens to families living with anxiety, and to experts who suggest a child's fear may sometimes mirror a parent's own worries. Along the way it traces how the world these kids grow up in — the news, social media, the constant churn of the negative — shapes the way they see themselves.

Four stars, and here's what that means: this is a documentary that knows exactly what it's for. It names a real and growing problem, then does the harder work of offering solutions, keeping parents and teenagers in view the whole way.

Its strength is range. It moves from the personal — one family's brush with a child's attempted suicide — to the cultural, examining how a media economy built on clicks rewards the negative, and how social media leaves teenage girls and boys feeling they must change themselves in drastic ways. The film points toward concrete resources students can use when they're struggling, which keeps it from being merely a portrait of despair. It's a serious, useful piece of work.

ANXIOUS NATION carries a strong moral worldview. It doesn't wallow in the crisis it describes; it insists there are healthy ways to face anxiety, fear, and depression, and it points families toward them. That posture — refusing to leave young people alone in the dark — is where the film's heart shows.

Faith is part of that hope. One of its most affecting storylines follows a girl who survived an attempted suicide and afterward found God and a reason to live, becoming a Christian. Another young person is shown going through her Bat Mitzvah. The film also carries a few references to homosexuality, which parents will want to be aware of.

There's wisdom, too, in how the film treats the culture around these kids. It suggests that a steady diet of the news — where negative stories are honored over good ones — can pull anyone into a downward spin. The healthier path is to fix our attention on what is good, true, and beautiful, and that instinct echoes Scripture directly: "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely... think about these things" (Philippians 4:8). The anxiety this film maps is real, and God's word meets it: "do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6).

Some documentaries only frighten you. This one hands you a map. ANXIOUS NATION names the anxiety weighing on today's young people and points families toward real hope — including the hope of the gospel. Because it discusses suicide and other heavy topics, use a parent's judgment with younger kids. For everyone else, it's worth the trip — ages 10 and up.