MADELINE-
“Oh man, I totally forgot about that book.”
This was my first thought when I heard about a month ago that Netflix had come out with a television adaptation of 13 Reasons Why. My first encounter with the book was in eighth grade, right around the time it had hit #1 on The New York Times’s best-seller list. It hardly impacted me: I read about two-thirds of it before tossing it aside because it depressed me too much, and it didn’t cross my mind again until the adaptation was released. I didn’t originally plan to watch it, but reading about the controversy surrounding it sparked my curiosity, and I decided to give the show a shot. So, the week before finals week, whenever I felt the need to procrastinate, I settled into the fort beneath my bed and watched a few episodes. I finished it in about 5 days and have an innumerable amount of complaints, a few of which I will detail below:
In the writers’ defense, it is difficult to adapt the 13 Reasons Why book into a show that properly illuminates the issues of mental illness and teen suicide, because they’re working with problematic content in the first place. Psychologists’ main criticism of 13 Reasons Why is that the whole idea of the book, the concept of labeling 13 people as the cause of your suicide, paints an unrealistic picture of why people kill themselves, and I definitely agree with this criticism. In almost all cases, the cause of a suicide is far, far more complicated than just 13 reasons. For one thing, mental illness, especially major depressive disorder, is involved in over 90% of cases, but Hannah Baker doesn’t seem to struggle with a mental illness. Though she feels the devastating psychological effects of the intimidation, humiliation, and death she witnesses or experiences, there’s no evidence that she had a mental illness before the awful things began to happen to her. She seems pretty neurotypical to me, making her suicide unrepresentative of the suicides that occur in real life. Additionally, all of the other characters, perhaps with the exception of Skye, the emo waitress at Monet’s, seem neurotypical as well, and so it’s baffling why this show is considered a conversation-starter about mental illness.
Even though the show fails to present characters who have a mental illness, it still could have been a show that gives a nod to Mental Health Awareness Month by shedding light on a more general issue that affects even neurotypical people. Specifically, it could have brought up the realities of the aftermath of traumatic events for high-schoolers, how many teenagers experience a sharp decrease in their overall mental well-being due to a traumatic event that is often brushed off by adults as moodiness or strangeness normal in teenagers. Unfortunately, 13 Reasons Why massively fails in this department as well, especially concerning Hannah. The show’s presentation of Hannah’s story reminded me of those “before” and “after” pictures in weight loss commercials. We only see the “before,” the events and people that Hannah pinpoints as the causes of her suicide, and the “after,” the actual suicide (which is another complaint that I have, but we’ll get to that later). We see very little of what’s in between: her inner turmoil, how those “13 Reasons” began to affect her everyday life, and how those effects became so overwhelming that she couldn’t take it anymore. The show mentions that her grades drop significantly, and there are few scenes of her crying, but other than that, we see none of the ugly realities of the psychological aftermath of traumatic events that could make a solid contribution to the ongoing conversation about overall mental health.
And the worst part is, there were some promising moments that made me think 13 Reasons Why could have been a great show about mental health. My favorite one was Clay’s answer to his mom’s question about why he didn’t shower that morning like he usually does:
“Look, I just... I turned the water on just now, and I thought about it all, the whole thing…taking clothes off, dealing with hair. And I just… I couldn’t do it. We shower, like, every day, and it’s just... a lot.”
Hannah’s tapes are clearly affecting Clay to such a degree that he’s even getting overwhelmed by simple everyday tasks, and I can’t even describe how relatable this is to me. During my senior year of high school, when my anxiety and insomnia were getting really bad, I went through periods where I struggled to do basic things such as getting dressed and brushing my teeth. At one point, I didn’t brush my teeth for three days, and when my therapist asked me why, I said something nearly identical to what Clay said. Feeling like everyday tasks are just too much is something that so many people struggle with at some point in their lives, whether they’re dealing with a mental illness or the aftermath of a traumatic event, and this scene is wonderful at bringing that to light. This is exactly the kind of stuff that is great for Mental Health Awareness Month. So why isn’t there more of it? Why don’t we ever see Hannah struggling to eat, go to class, shower, and brush her teeth? Why are the only signs of her mental struggle a quick mention that her grades aren’t as high as they used to be and some eloquent, abstract poem she wrote about how she feels? 13 Reasons Why could have explored in further detail the uglier, more personal realities of traumatic events’ effects on teenagers, but it didn’t, and so the story just felt frustratingly distant and impersonal.
This isn’t even the worst thing about the show. For me, the most disturbing part is the fact that Hannah’s suicide is so graphically depicted. Though I’m not particularly sensitive to content about suicide, that scene was far too much for me. I had to skip it, and I’m sure many others had to as well. But I’m not angry that I had to drag that red circle an inch to the right. I’m angry that 13 Reasons Why contains material that’s potentially triggering or unsafe for people struggling with depression and/or suicidal thoughts. If even I and other people who aren’t sensitive to material about suicide can’t get through the scene, just imagine the effects it could have on someone thinking about suicide. That scene is so graphic that it could essentially serve as an instruction manual for how to kill yourself, if you wanted it to be. What kind of a show, a show that’s supposed to illuminate the issue of suicide, is not even safe for suicidal people to watch? It’s completely unnecessary to portray Hannah’s suicide so explicitly; that part of the story could have been communicated just as effectively with a far more discrete scene. All the scene does is sensationalize suicide and make the show dangerous for the very people it’s supposed to help. The staff of 13 Reasons Why should be ashamed of themselves.
This is honestly just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other problems with 13 Reasons Why and the way it depicts mental illness and suicide: it fulfills the suicide fantasy known as the “revenge fantasy,” it unfairly places all the blame of Hannah’s suicide on the people talked about in the tapes, even though Hannah is ultimately the one who kills herself, and it fails to properly present alternatives to suicide like psychiatric treatment and therapy. There are many articles expanding on these issues that I encourage you to look at, especially if you have watched the show or are intending to. Most importantly, however, please just please be careful when watching the show. Keep in mind that it contains potentially unsafe material, and that it’s definitely not the force of mental health awareness that we need this month.
Happy Mental Health Awareness Month to everyone except the people who made 13 Reasons Why.
illustration credit: herehk
“Oh man, I totally forgot about that book.”
This was my first thought when I heard about a month ago that Netflix had come out with a television adaptation of 13 Reasons Why. My first encounter with the book was in eighth grade, right around the time it had hit #1 on The New York Times’s best-seller list. It hardly impacted me: I read about two-thirds of it before tossing it aside because it depressed me too much, and it didn’t cross my mind again until the adaptation was released. I didn’t originally plan to watch it, but reading about the controversy surrounding it sparked my curiosity, and I decided to give the show a shot. So, the week before finals week, whenever I felt the need to procrastinate, I settled into the fort beneath my bed and watched a few episodes. I finished it in about 5 days and have an innumerable amount of complaints, a few of which I will detail below:
In the writers’ defense, it is difficult to adapt the 13 Reasons Why book into a show that properly illuminates the issues of mental illness and teen suicide, because they’re working with problematic content in the first place. Psychologists’ main criticism of 13 Reasons Why is that the whole idea of the book, the concept of labeling 13 people as the cause of your suicide, paints an unrealistic picture of why people kill themselves, and I definitely agree with this criticism. In almost all cases, the cause of a suicide is far, far more complicated than just 13 reasons. For one thing, mental illness, especially major depressive disorder, is involved in over 90% of cases, but Hannah Baker doesn’t seem to struggle with a mental illness. Though she feels the devastating psychological effects of the intimidation, humiliation, and death she witnesses or experiences, there’s no evidence that she had a mental illness before the awful things began to happen to her. She seems pretty neurotypical to me, making her suicide unrepresentative of the suicides that occur in real life. Additionally, all of the other characters, perhaps with the exception of Skye, the emo waitress at Monet’s, seem neurotypical as well, and so it’s baffling why this show is considered a conversation-starter about mental illness.
Even though the show fails to present characters who have a mental illness, it still could have been a show that gives a nod to Mental Health Awareness Month by shedding light on a more general issue that affects even neurotypical people. Specifically, it could have brought up the realities of the aftermath of traumatic events for high-schoolers, how many teenagers experience a sharp decrease in their overall mental well-being due to a traumatic event that is often brushed off by adults as moodiness or strangeness normal in teenagers. Unfortunately, 13 Reasons Why massively fails in this department as well, especially concerning Hannah. The show’s presentation of Hannah’s story reminded me of those “before” and “after” pictures in weight loss commercials. We only see the “before,” the events and people that Hannah pinpoints as the causes of her suicide, and the “after,” the actual suicide (which is another complaint that I have, but we’ll get to that later). We see very little of what’s in between: her inner turmoil, how those “13 Reasons” began to affect her everyday life, and how those effects became so overwhelming that she couldn’t take it anymore. The show mentions that her grades drop significantly, and there are few scenes of her crying, but other than that, we see none of the ugly realities of the psychological aftermath of traumatic events that could make a solid contribution to the ongoing conversation about overall mental health.
And the worst part is, there were some promising moments that made me think 13 Reasons Why could have been a great show about mental health. My favorite one was Clay’s answer to his mom’s question about why he didn’t shower that morning like he usually does:
“Look, I just... I turned the water on just now, and I thought about it all, the whole thing…taking clothes off, dealing with hair. And I just… I couldn’t do it. We shower, like, every day, and it’s just... a lot.”
Hannah’s tapes are clearly affecting Clay to such a degree that he’s even getting overwhelmed by simple everyday tasks, and I can’t even describe how relatable this is to me. During my senior year of high school, when my anxiety and insomnia were getting really bad, I went through periods where I struggled to do basic things such as getting dressed and brushing my teeth. At one point, I didn’t brush my teeth for three days, and when my therapist asked me why, I said something nearly identical to what Clay said. Feeling like everyday tasks are just too much is something that so many people struggle with at some point in their lives, whether they’re dealing with a mental illness or the aftermath of a traumatic event, and this scene is wonderful at bringing that to light. This is exactly the kind of stuff that is great for Mental Health Awareness Month. So why isn’t there more of it? Why don’t we ever see Hannah struggling to eat, go to class, shower, and brush her teeth? Why are the only signs of her mental struggle a quick mention that her grades aren’t as high as they used to be and some eloquent, abstract poem she wrote about how she feels? 13 Reasons Why could have explored in further detail the uglier, more personal realities of traumatic events’ effects on teenagers, but it didn’t, and so the story just felt frustratingly distant and impersonal.
This isn’t even the worst thing about the show. For me, the most disturbing part is the fact that Hannah’s suicide is so graphically depicted. Though I’m not particularly sensitive to content about suicide, that scene was far too much for me. I had to skip it, and I’m sure many others had to as well. But I’m not angry that I had to drag that red circle an inch to the right. I’m angry that 13 Reasons Why contains material that’s potentially triggering or unsafe for people struggling with depression and/or suicidal thoughts. If even I and other people who aren’t sensitive to material about suicide can’t get through the scene, just imagine the effects it could have on someone thinking about suicide. That scene is so graphic that it could essentially serve as an instruction manual for how to kill yourself, if you wanted it to be. What kind of a show, a show that’s supposed to illuminate the issue of suicide, is not even safe for suicidal people to watch? It’s completely unnecessary to portray Hannah’s suicide so explicitly; that part of the story could have been communicated just as effectively with a far more discrete scene. All the scene does is sensationalize suicide and make the show dangerous for the very people it’s supposed to help. The staff of 13 Reasons Why should be ashamed of themselves.
This is honestly just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other problems with 13 Reasons Why and the way it depicts mental illness and suicide: it fulfills the suicide fantasy known as the “revenge fantasy,” it unfairly places all the blame of Hannah’s suicide on the people talked about in the tapes, even though Hannah is ultimately the one who kills herself, and it fails to properly present alternatives to suicide like psychiatric treatment and therapy. There are many articles expanding on these issues that I encourage you to look at, especially if you have watched the show or are intending to. Most importantly, however, please just please be careful when watching the show. Keep in mind that it contains potentially unsafe material, and that it’s definitely not the force of mental health awareness that we need this month.
Happy Mental Health Awareness Month to everyone except the people who made 13 Reasons Why.
illustration credit: herehk
