(Courtesy Netflix)
It’s the final day (with the full round-up tomorrow) of the 13 ways the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why expands the conversation about teens and mental health:
13. Teen Mental Health Is More Than Just Being Hormonal
Often with teens, we want their mental health to be hormonal because that means it’s just a phase that will pass without needing intervention. But teens’ emotional and mental health is real and for a teen, there are both internal and external factors. The show looks at both. At one point, Tony describes, “Hannah was a lot.” This might indicate there was more than just social isolation and the depicted events going on. Maybe she had depression and/or anxiety, which means her social experiences may have affected her in different, more significant ways. In my practice, parents call in because a teen is being disruptive or not stopping a behavior. Often there is more than meets the eye. There is always something behind the behavior whether anxiety, trauma, depression, etc. and they need someone to get close to this–close to the pain, close to what is going on, and close to them.
