It seems that I get the unfortunate task of talking about 13 Reasons Why and the suicide that was associated with the show.
Well, if you’re looking for something somber, this is it. Here we go.
’13 Reasons Why’.
The heartbreaking story of teenager Hannah Baker, who kills herself and then leaves a bunch of tapes behind for her classmates detailing the reasons for taking her own life.
It’s taken the world by storm…
Since it came out, it feels like it has been in the news since day one.
It’s dark, it’s gritty and best of all, it’s real.
But things got a little too real for Joyce Deithorn, mother of 19-year-old Emily Bragg.
The two started to watch the show when it first aired in 2017.
And ever since, Joyce begged her daughter not to watch the show.
And this was only after watching the first couple of episodes.
Why? Because her daughter was suffering from mental health issues, including bipolar disease.
And Joyce thought…
That the show, which some have accused of glamorizing suicide, would be harmful to her daughter who already had so many unfortunate afflictions.
Little did Joyce know how right she would be…
June 24, 2017, only a few weeks after the show had premiered, Emily killed herself.
She had continued to watch the show, against her mother’s wishes, and ended up taking her own life in the same manner as the main character of 13 Reasons Why .
Joyce, obviously was distraught.
She told Buzzfeed News that she was the one who discovered poor Emily.
She got PTSD from it and that she’s certain that it was the show’s influence that finally pushed her daughter over the edge.
And now it was time for the producers of ’13 Reasons Why’ to respond.
When they first came out with the series, they argued about taking the scene where Hannah kills herself out of the show.
Because…
The producers, specifically producer Joy Gorman, told Buzzfeed News that they wanted to keep the suicide scene in because:
“I feel like kids need to know that a lot of what they go through is universal.”
There is also the fact that writer Nic Sheff wrote the show because of his own experience with mental health and suicide.
A noble cause, truly, however, it had disastrous consequences in the end.
He said…
In an interview with Vanity Fair :
“It seemed to me the perfect opportunity to show what an actual suicide really looks like — to dispel the myth of the quiet drifting off, and to make viewers face the reality of what happens when you jump from a burning building into something much, much worse,”
But doctors and mental health professionals had been telling the creators to take the scene out of the show for a while.
In order to prevent something like this from happening.
After hearing about Emily, they decided to take the scene out of the show.
However, it’s been two years since the premiere, so how many more lives have been destroyed by this?
One, at least.
Joyce’s.
“It’s destroyed my family and we are still piecing our lives back together,” she said .
“Even knowing that they had doctors that were aware and told them not to show it prior to the show premiering, why would they go forward with that?”
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But doctors remind us not to put the blame for suicide on one thing in particular.
Sure, the show could’ve influenced Emily’s decision, but from what my research has told me she had been struggling for some time.
Also…
Mental health professionals have come out and said that anyone with mental health issues should not in any way engage with the show 13 Reasons Why , for now obvious reasons.
But this is something that should’ve been more publicized, or at least put in a warning before the show comes on.
A kind of trigger warning for those who might be affected by it.
With that all said…
Joyce certainly thinks that it is the show’s fault, because she told sources that :
“I truly believe that that [show] was the final thing that kind of just pushed her over the edge.”
Since then the scene has been removed from the show.
And instead of a graphic thirteen-minute scene, they’ve replaced it with a shortened version, where it leads up to the moment of truth…
And then Hannah’s parents discover her daughter’s lifeless body.
They then proceed to mourn her death for the short remainder of the season.
And that will be the end of Season 1 of 13 Reasons Why from now on.
My first thought was that has to be triggering for Joyce.
However, it’s very doubtful that the grieving mother will be watching a show of that kind any time soon, considering her loss.
So what does Joyce think?
Well, this isn’t enough to bring back her daughter. She said :
“I guess it’s them owning that they did the wrong thing,” she said. “I kind of thought, how much should they own other people that have taken their lives?”
What does now a grieving mother and PTSD victim Joyce have to say about their decision to take the suicide scene out from the show?
She has four chilling words for the producers :
“Too Little, Too Late”.
What do you think?
Should the producers have been more conscious? Or can we really blame art for anything?
Whatever you believe, we can all agree on one thing: this is truly a heartbreaking occurrence.
