CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of Teenage Suicide, Violence, Causes of Suicidal Ideation
The 1989 cult classic Heathers and the subsequent musical has a very cynical attitude toward the media’s portrayal of mental health among adolescents. In scene 8, after the events of Heather’s faked suicide, Ms. Fleming appears on TV and says “As anyone who saw The Breakfast Club can tell you, all teenagers are essentially the same” (Murphy & O’Keefe, 52). While this is a very absurd and comical line, unfortunately, there is some truth about the way the media portrayed youth mental health in the 1980s. In short, teenagers who were suffering from mental health were often blamed based on “moral failings” for their mental health problems. While the 24-hour news cycle and the immensely offensive and sensational stories of youth suicide were heavily prominent, the rise of the teen movie also didn’t portray the mental health of its subjects in an overly optimistic light either.
The discussion of mental health was dramatically changed in the 1980s due to the passing of the “Mental Health Systems Act” signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980. What this bill entailed was that funding was to be allocated for creating outpatient community mental healthcare facilities and diverting funding from state-run inpatient mental health facilities (Bell). The MHSA was meant to expand upon the Public Health Service Act of 1944 and the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 signed by President John F. Kennedy. During this time, Congress barred Medicare payments for ‘institutions of mental diseases’ instead of allocating funding to local mental health centers (Bell).
While these pieces of legislation were incredibly progressive and a necessary step in the right direction for mental health treatment. However, due to a lack of funding, these pieces of legislation never fulfilled their intended promises of providing an alternate location for state-run mental healthcare facilities. These facilities or mental asylums were littered with human rights violations and unsanitary, horrifying institutions that needed to be dismantled. Tragically, due to a lack of funding for these community mental health centers, people suffering from serious mental health issues often end up in our extremely inhumane American prison system that is ripe with abuse and egregious violations of human rights.
As a result of the failure of the Mental Health Systems Act, we saw a rise in stigma and inadequate coverage of youth mental health coverage in the 1980s. Often in news coverage of teenage suicide, news anchors and writers covered this nuanced, sensitive topic in a manner that was meant to scare audiences and approach this subject in a way that essentially made it seem as though teenage suicide was a rampant epidemic that can happen to your child.
These segments often included very graphic details of suicide and suicide attempts (Emmerman). Naturally, this article will not contain quotes from these segments. They would go into immense detail about what method they used to take their own life. In addition to the graphic depictions of these violent acts, the full names of the persons who took their lives would be mentioned as well. While it could be argued that adding a name to this tragic event could humanize this event and cause the audience to sympathize with those who have lost a loved one. It could also be argued that mentioning the graphic details of suicide and including their names will only associate violence with that person rather than showing the tragedy of losing a young person.
The news media was not merely pulling these stories out of thin air, there was a rise in suicide attempts by adolescents in the 1980s. In 1987, a report from the CDC concluded that “Overall suicide rates for young Americans fell from 12.3 per 100,000 in 1980 to 11.9 in 1983, then increased to 12.5 in 1984.” (AP). In 1983, suicide was the third leading cause of death for older teenagers (Robbins & Conroy, 1983). It is also important to note that adolescent girls made up 3 out of 4 suicide attempts (Lard & Griffin, 1983). Also, during this time, men who took their own lives would use more lethal methods to take their own lives. (Lard & Griffin, Robbins & Conroy, Emmerman).
Also immensely important to mention is how academic papers analyzing the subject of teenage mental health and suicide chose to depict their subjects. Even the article “A Cluster Of Adolescent Suicide Attempts: Is Suicide Contagious?” is a disgusting title that invokes intrigue in such a nuanced and sensitive topic and to use such sensational language in its title is deplorable. An academic, peer-reviewed paper should never pick a title the same way tabloid news headlines.
Often these news articles, segments, and academic papers attempted to explain the cause of teenage suicide. It needs to be noted that human beings are incredibly nuanced and complicated and often there is no single cause for suicide, however, the media often tries to ignore this nuanced take and attempts to provide a simplified explanation for an increase in coverage of youth mental health. One explanation is that society in the 1980s condoned violence (Lard & Griffin). Another explanation stated that the rise in the accessibility of drugs and alcohol has caused an uptick in youth suicide (Emmerman). There is no general explanation to explain the rise in teenage suicide except for the fact that due to stigma against seeking mental health treatment often creates a false sense of shame and causes people suffering to avoid seeking treatment (Corrigan et. all).
Sensational news articles and segments are not the only form of media to blame for the poor handling of youth mental health coverage in the 1980s, some teen movies are also to blame. The 1986 teen comedy film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, directed by John Hughes, follows the story of our titular character (Matthew Boderick) taking the day off of school with his friends Cameron Ruck (Alan Ruck) and Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara). In this movie, Cameron displays obvious signs of depressive and anxious behavior that are often played for laughs. The very first line Cameron says in this movie is “I’m dying” as he is hunkered down in bed staring at the ceiling. When the mishaps with Cameron’s Dad’s Ferrari occur, Cam is depicted in a catatonic state as a result of this. Then, this behavior comes to an extreme when Cam stumbles into the pool and sinks to the bottom. While Cam plays this off as a prank, this scene can easily be read as a suicide attempt. Ferris saves Cam and then instantaneously, Cam is in a chipper mood and suddenly all of his problems are going to be solved (Dembosky).
While there are other notable depictions of youth mental health such as in the horror film Carrie where our titular character (Sissy Spacek) is almost cured of her anxiety when the kind jock Tommy (William Katt) takes Carrie to the prom and they have a wonderful night until the cruel prank occurs.
These films depict anxiety and other mental health issues as problems that can be easily solved with no professional help. In reality, serious mental health problems often require professional help through a variety of interventions. Anxiety cannot be cured by just getting the boy you like to take you to prom or having a wacky day off of school.
In conclusion, the media depictions of teenage mental health in the 1980s were immensely unscientifically based and harmful. It is important to note that a variety of the problems discussed in this article are still tragically present in today’s media coverage. Many Americans still do not have affordable, safe, easy access to mental health treatment and there is still a prevelant stigma against receiving mental health treatment espically among men (Corrigan et. all). We are told to “suck it up” or “pull ourselves by our bootstraps”. The latter phrase is physically impossible, there is no way to pull a person up from their feet from that position.
Works Cited:
Associated Press. "Youth Suicide Is Rising." New York Times, 22 Feb. 1987, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/22/us/youth-suicide-is-rising.html Accessed 01 Apr. 2023.
Bell, Katherine. “The Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.” Government Documents Round Table, vol. 50, no. 04, 2022, https://journals.ala.org/index.php/dttp/article/view/7933/11034. Accessed 01 Apr. 2023.
Corrigan, Patrick, et al. "The Impact of Mental Illness Stigma on Seeking and Participating in Mental Health Care." Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2014, https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100614531398.Accessed 01 Apr. 2023.
Dembosky, April. “What Ferris Bueller and Other '80s Movies Got Wrong About Mental Health.” KQED, 31 May 2019, https://www.kqed.org/news/11750641/what-ferris-bueller-and-other-80s-movies-got-wrong-about-mental-health2. Accessed 01 Apr. 2023.
Edelbrock, Craig. “Running Away from Home: Incidence and Correlates among Children and Youth Referred for Mental Health Services.” Journal of Family Issues, vol. 1, no. 2, June 1980, pp. 210–228, https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513x8000100205. Accessed 01 Apr. 2023.
Emmerman, Lynn. "The Engima of Teen Suicide." Chicago Tribune,28 June, 1987 https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1987-06-28-8702170668-story.html Accessed 01 Apr. 2023.
Griffin, Mary, and Bob Lard. “Suicide: Can We Save Our Youth?” USA Today, 7 Apr. 1983. Accessed 01 Apr. 2023. Robbins D, Conroy RC. A cluster of adolescent suicide attempts: is suicide contagious?" J Adolescents Health Care. 1983 Jan 10.1016/s0197-0070(83)80247-2. Accessed 01 Apr. 2023.