13 Reasons Why was created by Brian Yorkey, a playwright and librettist who received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical Next to Normal, which also deals with the subject of mental illness. The series is adapted from the 2007 young-adult novel of the same name by Jay Asher, although it deviates from the book in many ways, particularly in regard to the portrayal of Hannah’s suicide. When the show was in production, a number of mental-health professionals were consulted, including Dr. Rona Hu, a psychiatrist at Stanford Hospital, and Dr. Helen Hsu, a clinical psychologist with the city of Fremont.

Hsu explained to me that she provided feedback on some draft scripts, and on how to portray some of the show’s themes—which include sexual assault, abuse, and addiction—sensitively, but accurately. She emphasized that Hannah’s death had to be portrayed in a way that showed the pain it caused her family and friends, and not in a way that romanticized suicide by making it look serene or pretty. “We had to balance the potential harm of showing it with the potential harm of not showing it, and having it be mysterious or avoidant,” she said.

Nic Sheff, one of the writers on the show, detailed in an op-ed for Vanity Fair why he thought it was vital for 13 Reasons Why to not shy away from depicting Hannah’s suicide. In discussions with other writers, he recounts, he made the case for portraying it honestly by referencing a moment in his life when, after swallowing a number of pills, he remembered a woman describing how horrendous and painful her own suicide attempt had been. “I stand behind what we did 100 percent,” he wrote. “I know it was right, because my own life was saved when the truth of suicide was finally held up for me to see in all its horror—and reality.”

This seems to have been the primary motivation for the show’s treatment of Hannah’s death—that in its ugliness and brutality it would serve as a deterrent to people who might be considering suicide themselves. But this line of thought is directly contradicted by some suicide-prevention experts, who warn about a contagion effect, where the explicit treatment of suicide in media leads to a related increase in suicide attempts. One example is the 1962 death of Marilyn Monroe: After her death was reported in the media as a suicide, suicide rates that month in the U.S. increased by 12 percent.

While studies vary on the extent to which such a contagion effect is felt, suicide-prevention groups have long published media guidelines for tackling the subject responsibly. The British organization The Samaritans advises against publishing precise details about suicide attempts, which can encourage copycat behavior, or over-emphasizing portrayals of grieving family and friends, which can suggest suicide is being honored rather than mourned. It also urges reporters not to include life circumstances that may have been a contributing factor in stories about suicide, since this may cause readers to consider their own similar circumstances equally insurmountable.