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How to Talk About the Huge Attraction to Teen Suicide Drama: A Response to 13 Reasons Why

 

If you knew your child was engrossed in a chronicle of a schoolgirl’s suicide, or a game that ends in taking your own life, how would you respond? Be ready to answer, because this is the world we live in.

We live in a world where children as young as 10 are binge-watching 13 Reasons Why. This series dramatizes a teenage girl’s suicide, through a high school boy’s encounters with cassette tape recordings she made before killing herself. I recently shared my own binge-watching experience of this show on Facebook. The show’s enormous popularity is shocking… and yet not! It’s not a surprise to see strong reactions published in Rolling Stone, CNN, and many mental health media outlets.

Yes, we live in a world where children are seeing the Blue Whale Challenge—a social media phenomenon targeted at teens, encouraging participants to harm themselves daily for 50 days, tag friends to encourage them to play, and ultimately commit suicide while documenting everything.

We live in a world where suicide is glamorized as a way out of overwhelming life events, instead of a tragic symptom of depression and mental illness. I’m sad and frustrated by the casualness and normalcy surrounding the topic of suicide, but it’s happening. Social media is making it so much harder for parents and loved ones to know what is going on and intervene. Sadly, this month marked yet another tragic incident of teen suicide in Northern Virginia at Woodson High School—a school already struck by so many of these tragedies in years past.

Parents, therapists and educators: pretending this isn’t happening is not an option. Teen suicide is happening! We must be aware and help children and young adults to realize there are other ways to cope with being bullied, experiencing trauma at home or in school, and even being sexually assaulted. Suicide is not a way out!

Why 13 Reasons Why Is More Dangerous as a Show than a Book

I had read the New York Times bestselling book, 13 Reasons Why about 10 years ago. I thought the book was well written and thought provoking as an adult reader.

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