13 Reasons Why’s Controversial Depiction of Teen Suicide Has School Counselors Picking Up the Pieces
"But the premise of the show, which treats Hannah’s death as something caused by the actions of other people, ranging from the ex-friend who blamed her for a breakup to the senior who sexually assaulted her, goes against everything we know about suicide, its causes, and means of prevention. It places the responsibility for a person's suicide on the survivors of suicide loss, creates a false illusion that a suicidal person can be in control after her death, and offers up no alternatives for Hannah besides killing herself. Paired with a graphic depiction of the act itself and the show’s wild popularity, 13 Reasons Why now has mental health advocates and suicide prevention organizations doing damage control.
13 Reasons Why flouts the established guidelines for depicting suicide, including the widely-accepted Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide, which exist to reduce the likelihood of suicide contagion, or “copycat suicides.” While the recommendations are geared more towards media coverage than fictional portrayals, they use data from more than 50 studies showing that certain ways of depicting suicide can present a risk of contagion. For example, coverage that sensationalizes or glamorizes suicide, that shows grieving loved ones or memorials, or that explicitly describes the suicide method can be dangerous to people who are already at risk.
13 Reasons breaks several of these rules, but its most talked-about departure is a scene in the show’s thirteenth and final episode, in which Hannah’s suicide is shown in graphic detail. In a deeply personal essay for Vanity Fair, Nic Sheff, a writer for the series, said that the scene was included “to dispel the myth of the quiet drifting off” and recalled how he once changed his mind about killing himself while remembering another survivor’s account of her own suicide attempt. But it’s critical to remember that Sheff’s essay, while emotionally compelling, is based on a single example—his own—and his claim that it would be “irresponsible” not to show the suicide is contradicted by numerous studies showing the harm that exposure to graphic depictions of suicide can do.
“Research indicates a vivid description, real or fictional, of a suicide can contribute to and perpetuate sensationalism and glorification, which may lead to copycat suicide behaviors or contagion,” said Phyllis Alongi, the clinical director of the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide and a licensed school counselor. Alongi also identified other problems with the show, including a scene in which students take selfies in front of a memorial on Hannah’s locker, as well as the series’ failure to meaningfully address mental illness, which plays a role in 90 percent of suicides. A set of “considerations” about 13 Reasons Whycreated by the National Association of School Psychologists recommends that vulnerable youth do not watch the show, as “its powerful storytelling may lead impressionable viewers to romanticize the choices made by the characters and/or develop revenge fantasies.” It also emphasizes that people do not commit suicide simply because they have been bullied; rather, it is typically the result of a combination of “treatable mental illness and overwhelming or intolerable stressors” and a lack of adequate coping mechanisms. Even the notion that a suicide could have been prevented by “loving someone back to life”—or at least trying, as the show suggests—can be damaging to survivors of suicide loss, who may already experience guilt."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/05/01/school_counselors_talk_netflix_s_controversial_teen_suicide_drama_13_reasons.html
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