Featuring Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, anxiety is the subject of the documentary Angst, being presented by Frisco ISD Tuesday from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m for students and parents in the  FISD Administration Board Room.

“So many people struggle with anxiety and have trouble talking about it. We want to change that,” producer Scilla Andreen said in an article on angstmovie.com. “We felt it was important to make a movie that could raise awareness, to open up the conversation and provide hope.”

For school nurse Emily Mikeska, the pressure to perform is something that can lead to anxiety for students on campus.

“I think a lot of the anxiety that I see is keeping up with what they feel are the expectations of either their parents or themselves,” Mikeska said. “They have very high goals and if they don’t meet them then they feel like their letting someone down and then it causes anxiety.”

Mikeska also believes that students taking on too much at school can cause them stress and anxiety.

“I see they’re overextended,” Mikeska said. “It’s very difficult and stressful then to learn how to budget time and try to get everything done and that tends to cause a lot of stress and anxiety too.”

Grace Miller, a sophomore with anxiety, hopes that this documentary will allow parents and adults better understand what a teen with anxiety is going through.

“Overthinking too much about any situation, you think about the worst things that can happen and not the best things,” Miller said. “It’s constant worry about something bad’s going to happen, the hardest part is having to deal with it almost every day, even the littlest things can affect you.”

RSVP for the film here.