By Jason Klaiber

Staff Writer

On the night of Jan. 16, area residents made their way through snow and gusty winds to attend Jamesville-DeWitt Middle School’s screening of a documentary focused on ways to deal with anxiety.

Directed by Matt Skerritt, the 2017 documentary “Angst” tackles symptoms and global experiences of anxiety with the help of interviews conducted with teenagers, educators, mental health experts and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

The 56-minute IndieFlix film was shown in the middle school’s large group instruction room to an audience of 48 people.

The school’s parent-teacher group funded last week’s event, which was open to the public.

“We have a parent-teacher group that is so incredibly supportive,” Principal Andy Eldridge said. “The idea of them funding this says a lot about our parents and our community—that they value this type of work and this type of discussion and openness about such a large issue.”

A panel discussion followed the screening of the documentary.

Syracuse University psychology professor Kevin Antshel and independently practicing psychologist Amy Goodrum joined the school’s assistant principal Mia Woolery and counselor Chris Butler on the panel, which answered questions from the crowd.

Amy Harmon, a psychologist at the middle school, said anxiety can be “healthy and necessary for survival and normal functioning” but that for some people such feelings can “spiral out of control to an unhealthy level.”

Harmon said interactions resulting from “instant access” to the internet and social media outlets have seemed to increase pressure to fit in for students and affect the “fabric of society.”

Similarly, Eldridge said he believes the demands of school work and simultaneously the preservation of one’s place in a peer group has contributed to anxiety encountered by students.

Eldridge said the middle school has helped students struggling socially or emotionally by staffing more counselors in recent years, applying “the understanding and the philosophy that satisfied and happy children do well in school.”

He said the school’s professional development training has centered on trauma-informed care, social equity and developmental responsiveness.

Additionally, the district school resource officer has stopped into classrooms to speak about topics like internet presence and health troubles associated with vaping.

Harmon said “Angst” presents helpful information on coping strategies used to treat or at least partially alleviate anxiety, such as avoidance of environments with the potential to cause anxiety and adoption of the mindset that not all anxiety is a response to a harmful situation.

“It’s all about shifting out of that anxiety mode and into using a different part of your brain so that you can think and reason more clearly and lower that anxiety level,” Harmon said.

She said the reminder to take a deep breath and activities like drawing, writing or squeezing a stress ball can benefit students with anxiety.

“Different things will work for different kids,” Harmon said. “Having different tools in the tool box ends up becoming really important.”