13 Reasons Why Doesn’t Deal with Suicide the Way it Should

Jay Asher’s young adult novel, 13 Reasons Why, has recently come to Netflix as a thirteen episode series. In short, the plot involves a teenage girl, Hannah Baker, who commits suicide. She leaves thirteen voice-recorded tapes explaining why she feels that each person who receives the tapes played a part in driving her to suicide.

Many people are excited that there is finally a show that realistically depicts the horrors of depression, suicide, and other tough subjects like rape and bullying, but I don’t think 13 Reasons Why does anything to help people struggling with any relating issues.

First of all, in one episode of the show, Hannah’s suicide is graphically shown. I’ve heard from many of my peers that though it was difficult for them to watch, they appreciated that the raw reality of suicide was shown. However, according to reportingonsuicide.org/recommendations, “Risk of additional suicides increases when the story explicitly describes the suicide method, uses dramatic/graphic headlines or images, and repeated/extensive coverage sensationalizes or glamorizes a death.” This means that the way 13 Reasons Why depicted Hannah’s death could actually be the cause of “copycat suicides”. It’s actually preferred by suicide prevention organizations that suicide is reported on more carefully.

A big takeaway I’ve seen from the show is “be nice, it could save a life.” In some ways, it is good that the people realize that their words and actions can hurt. That’s definitely a good intention of the show: teaching people to be kinder to others. But the show suggests that preventing suicide is as simple as being nicer to people, which invalidates the reality of depression. Once the main character, Clay, realizes his part in Hannah’s death, he states, “I cost a girl her life because I was afraid to love her.” Clay’s kindness and love could not save Hannah’s life. People with depression often need professional help, not romantic love. Additionally, the message that seems to come across from the show is that you should be kinder so that you don’t have to feel guilt, not so that someone else isn’t hurt. This teaches viewers that the whole objective of being nice is just to avoid personal guilt, which, in my opinion, is a pretty selfish reason to be nice.

Hannah also makes it so that she is remembered after she’s gone. Everyone seems to think of her in a very positive light: an innocent victim of a terrible fate. But what this really does is glorify her suicide and make viewers think that her actions brought her justice against all who wronged her. Hannah may have been ignored while she was alive, but she has some serious power after she’s gone. She puts a very heavy burden on everyone who receives the tapes; they are left feeling responsible for her death. Of course, some of those people truly did horrible things to her, but who deserves that type of pain that will stay with them for the rest of their lives? Hannah had bad things happen to her, as everyone does, but she had a choice on how to deal with that. She chose to let those things ruin her life. These people, though, left with this towering guilt, don’t really have a choice on how this will effect them; they are forced to feel largely responsible for her suicide. How is that fair? Showing people that it’s okay to let other people’s actions completely control your happiness and drive you to suicide is really dangerous, especially for a young target audience.

One of my big issues with how this show can be received is that hardly any advice is given. How about some alternatives to suicide? It’s made pretty obvious that suicide is not a good thing, it’s not what Hannah should have done, but they don’t show what else she could have done. I think it really would have benefited the show to depict healthy problem-solving techniques that Hannah could and should have employed. Humans like being sad--we’ve all had those times when we listen to sad music when we’re sad to feel even more sad--so it’s no surprise that people struggling with depression would want to watch 13 Reasons Why, because it can be kind of comforting to see that other people have the same issues as you. So wouldn’t it be helpful for these types of viewers to receive some advice on how to cope, instead of just seeing someone deal with their issues in a tragic way?

I understand the fascination with this show, but I just want people to be wary of the messages being sent out by such a sensational, romanticized depiction of suicide. I fear the repercussions of this show being so popular because I know that so many people are already dealing with mental health issues, and I don’t want anyone to be inspired by Hannah’s actions. I want people to see that their bad experiences do not define them, that there are ways to push through the bad times, and that it’s nice just to be nice. The national suicide hotline number is 1-800-273-8255.