When you’re young, impressionable, and in high school, I think it’s easy to watch TV shows centered on the high school experience (like Gossip Girl or Skins) and think you must be missing out in some way.
But when a teenager starts emulating the risky behavior they see on the screen in their real life, do you think that’s cause for concern or an indicator of an underlying problem with their mental health?
This girl and her best friend were only 14 when they started watching the HBO show Euphoria, and her bestie quickly developed an obsession with Cassie Howard, played by Sydney Sweeney.
“While I would usually watch an episode and move on with my daily routine, she reacted very differently. She would spend hours doing her makeup, dressing up, acting out scenarios that mirrored Cassie’s struggles, and often imagining herself in toxic relationships,” she explained.
“I initially assumed it was just a phase and tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t listen. By the time we were 16, she told me about a boy she wanted to date.”
“He was a year younger and already in a relationship with someone she was friendly with. I advised her against getting involved and encouraged her not to put herself in that position, but instead she began keeping things from me.”
Shortly thereafter, a video of her best friend doing some inappropriate things with said boy quickly went viral, and everyone in their high school saw it.
She addressed the video with her best friend, who revealed that this boy had manipulated her into doing what she did, and she had no interest in playing along.
She felt deeply distraught and shaken up, and she didn’t press the topic further. After her best friend turned 18, she confessed to her that she had lied about that manipulative boy and had engaged in those specific actions in order to imitate Cassie Howard from Euphoria.
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Her best friend went on to say she felt a lot of remorse about the video and had an interest in coming across to everyone as pure and classically feminine.
But now that season three of Euphoria has come out, and her best friend is watching it, she’s slipping back into her old ways, and it’s scaring her.
“She has started talking about creating provocative content again, saying she feels ‘inspired.’ What concerns me most is that while the show clearly portrays Cassie’s emotional instability and unhappiness, she appears drawn only to the aesthetic,” she added.
“Now, my friend is talking to this drug addicted guy who already has a girlfriend, and they are planning to get engaged and possibly [be] in an open relationship. Not to mention, she is failing to get into a good college and is behind all works in reality.”
“I don’t know if it’s because of the show or she was just ill from the beginning. She was just like any other 14-year-old girl before watching the show.”
Well, I don’t believe that mentally stable girls go around acting like unstable TV characters, so I think it’s not unreasonable to suspect that her best friend has some kind of mental illness that’s gone undiagnosed.
The problem is her best friend and whatever it is that she’s experiencing or struggling with, not the show itself.
Maybe she can gently suggest that her friend see a therapist to get help, and if that doesn’t work and she feels comfortable reaching out to her parents, that could be an option as well.
What advice do you have for her?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
