“It was cringe-inducing,” Phyllis Alongi, a licensed professional counselor and the clinical director of the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide (SPTS), tells SELF.Īckerman agrees that Mr. For Hannah to go to Clay and say, “I am depressed and feeling suicidal,” may not have come off as authentic, the Netflix rep explained. They could’ve spent 10 more seconds talking about the warning signs.”Īccording to the Netflix spokesperson, the show's creators incorporated a few other, more subtle, warning signs in season one, like Hannah suddenly changing her appearance by cutting her hair, after learning that teenagers may not always outright say that they are having suicidal thoughts. “But instead of going over the warning signs, what Netflix did is focus on face-the sound fades out and he has a flashback.

“For example, in the very first episode, the teacher says, ‘Let’s go over some warning signs for suicide,’ and I was stoked,” Singer recalls.

The series also neglected to inform viewers about the warning signs of suicide. While the traumas Hannah experienced could indeed contribute to her suicidal state of mind, “to say that a sexual assault or bullying is a direct line to suicide is just wrong,” Dr. Beresin explains, including prior attempts, mental illness, substance abuse disorders as well as a family history of any of those things.

“They only show interpersonal stressors between kids, and we know that a lot of other factors lead to suicide,” Dr.

One example is the decision to completely attribute Hannah’s suicide to the actions of other people instead of exploring the main risk factors for suicide. “They missed opportunities throughout the show to provide this information to the viewer, and that was unfortunate,” Jonathan Singer, Ph.D., a professor at the Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work who serves on the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) board of directors, tells SELF. Critique #2: The show missed an opportunity to educate people about the most common risk factors of suicide as well as strategies that can help reduce suicide deaths.

13 reasons why season 2 controversy