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Russell Leonard

Mrs. Klimas

English 10 Pre-AP

4 October 2017

Between 13 Reasons Why, Out of Sight, and Loud in the House of Myself

In Loud in the House of Myself an autobiography of Stacy Pershall, about how she

survived through teenage bulimia, depression, and bipolar behavior. In relation to Stacy Pershall,

13 Reasons Why a story of suicidal tendencies and depression through self and receiving hate.

Including the use of Out of Sight in which Pershall’s problems are highlighted, through her

depression and hate she translates into Bulimia.

In the Netflix original series 13 Reasons Why, Hannah Baker, the main character of the

suicide notes is going through her phases. Self harm, depression, and self hatred. Stacy Pershall

experiences these same emotions. Through her suicidal phase in high school, just as Hannah, she

felt almost joy in her thought of suicide, so far as to getting mad when she couldn’t take her own

life. Then, Pershall went to her self hatred phase in college where she always felt worse than

someone even if they were completely different from each other, just as Hannah felt in her high

school between many of the other characters. Finally, Hannah’s bipolar disorder sets her into

manic anger into deep depression, Pershall writes, “This is one of the first blinding red rages I

remember, the ones that would become more and more frequent as the BSD progressed,”

(Pershall 81). The BSD or Bipolar Spectrum Disorder, is exactly what both, the character

Hannah and writer and main character Stacy Pershall.

Out of Sight is a documentary about bulimia in which it takes multiple first hand accounts

of bulimia and anorexia. It includes facts on how bulimia is usually an uncontrollable emotional
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instability, in which either bullying or extremely low self esteem play a key role. When Stacy

Pershall was in high school she was engrossed into bulimia, so far that even when she felt so

terrible about herself through low self esteem, Pershall still felt joy at times. Since Pershall did

not eat then threw up the food she had never eaten, when she saw the “popular” or “skinny” kids

eat cake or candy she felt joy, because she didn’t eat those foods, and was then better than those

“popular” kids. Pershall writes, “Take the oversensitive girl in the ‘invalidating environment,’ as

DBT therapists like to call it, and give her a boyfriend who tells her she’s fat but he might love

her if she wasn’t, and you’re off to a roaring start,” (Pershall 54). As Stacy Pershall’s experience

shows, there are many ways for someone to have anorexia or bulimia easily.

Through Loud in the house of Myself, 13 Reasons Why, and Out of Sight, stories and facts

of mental illness and depression are shown clearly. Through these films there’s a clear relation

between each, allowing for the deeper understanding of Stacy Pershall.

WORD COUNT: 500

Citations

Yorkey, Brian, Director. 13 Reasons Why. Netflix, 2017.

Soderbergh, Steven, director. Out of Sight. National Education Television, 1966.

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