Hannah: Can I use your pencil?
Person: No
Hannah: Welcome to your tape
This is NOT funny and I'm going to explain why.
Suicide is a VERY serious matter, being third leading cause of death from 13-25 year olds. As someone who is often very suicidal (and have attempted three times and almost several others), this is a real struggle. Every day it's on my mind and I have to fight it. There are those who know people who have committed suicide as well, and they have to live daily wondering if they could've done anything to stop them, or even if it's their fault for them killing themselves. It is something they never recover from. So to joke around something so devastating is not funny.
Psychiatrists have all been saying 13 Reasons Why is going to cause more problems than good. The goal for the series was to prevent suicides, but it can actually have to opposite effect because of the final episode where you see her kill herself. I know it did that for me. I am slowly recovering from that (it made my PTSD skyrocket). To joke about this is not funny.
I think people who make these sort of jokes don't understand suicide - what goes on in the mind of someone who's suicidal, or what those who have lost someone to suicide have to go through. My husband watched most of 13 Reasons Why with me, except for the last episode because he had his podcast he was doing, so I watched it by myself - something I regret doing. I had no idea they were going to show her do it, and if I had, I never would've watched it. Sometimes I wish my husband watched it with me so he'd understand how that's been affecting me, but at the same time, I know it'd be really bad for him to see it since he's caught me with two suicide attempts. I wouldn't recommend my parents watching it either because they found me eight hours after my first attempt. I have friends who have lost people to suicide and I tell them not to watch it too because I know it would be too painful for them to watch it. People who struggle with suicide I tell them not to watch it, because it can trigger something in them to actually go through with it.
Making jokes about the show is really making jokes of those who struggle with suicide. If they think people are making their suffering a joke can cause them to go through with it just as much as someone who would've watched that episode. It's not something to joke about. It's not funny. Try to understand what a person goes through that leads them to that point. Try to understand what they're going through. It has to be really bad if they are thinking about killing themselves. Talk to people who have lost someone to suicide. Try to understand what they're going through. It's something they live with for the rest of their lives. As for me, I will probably struggle with feeling suicidal for the rest of my life. I just have to determine that it's not an option no matter how I feel. But not everyone is at that point, and for all I know, it can get to the point one of these days where I just can't fight it anymore. But I have people who support me so they can give me the strength to keep fighting. God is also on my side, so He gives me strength as well. But not everyone has that support. Not everyone has that hope and feel like suicide is the only way that will end their unbearable pain. To even consider suicide means they are going through extreme suffering. They can be really struggling and you wouldn't even know it. It often comes as a shock to those who find out someone they knew or cared about tried to commit suicide. Two of my brother's friends committed suicide, and one of them I knew very well. Suicide is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly.
So please, don't make jokes about 13 Reasons Why, it can really hurt people like me when you do so. It hurts when it seems like people are making fun of my struggles. You wouldn't make fun of someone with cancer. So why make fun of someone with mental health illnesses - to the point where they try and even succeed taking their own lives? Please stop making the jokes, it hurts and is not funny.
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