Written by Anna Cen and Brian Lee
Disclaimer: The following article includes content that may cause severe distress among readers.
A decade ago, The Atlantic published the article “The Silicon Valley Suicides,” detailing the jarring reality of many Bay Area students: an emphasis on education so extreme and an anxiety-driven affluence so toxic that it created a mental health crisis resulting in dozens of suicides. In 2018, before the all-time-high levels of mental health crises driven by the pandemic, there were already over 400 on-campus 5150 calls from only eight of over 50 districts in the area, calls that result in an involuntary 72-hour minimum psychiatry hold. For many Bay Area students, this intense, but misdirected, drive to do well has become a core part of our individual identities. There are only two labels here: success or (absolute) failure.
Despite this, our community is sometimes almost willfully underprepared: even with suicide awareness weeks and efforts to prevent suicide clusters, local schools increasingly withheld public statements. Local outlets have followed suit, leaving suicides, especially among high schoolers, reported on so rarely that it also feels as though we’ve taken a step backward altogether. These practices to cover up, though well-intentioned, create the very stigma that our students struggle under. That is, (real) mental health issues and suicidality are rare.
Though this has always been a problem for modern Bay Area students, now more than ever, conversations about mental health and suicidality and proper media coverage need to be surfaced. Recent budget cuts on the county level mean that Santa Clara County will be facing ~$1 billion deficits annually, resulting in the potential phasing out of local services from entire hospitals to allcove Palo Alto — a center that provides free mental health services to youth. Though new legislation like Measure A helps by reimbursing deficits through their five-year, five-eighths cent sales tax increase, it is projected that only ~$300 million will be recovered annually.
The problem and the spread of mental health and suicide prevention initiatives.
The Bay Area is well-equipped with mental health services. Efforts from Santa Clara County’s Behavioral Health Services Department have tallied up to over 1.1 million mental health and substance use treatment services provided in 2024, districts like FUHSD and PAUSD attempt to increase related conversations by blocking out time to discuss mental health through advisories and courses, while students raise their own initiatives. So then why are mental health issues and suicides still so prevalent?
Among youth, there’s no doubt that mental health issues are and will be widespread. Nationally, 17% of high school students seriously consider suicide. In Santa Clara County, a county that accounts for a significant portion of the south Bay Area’s population, mental health diagnoses among youth include 26% diagnosed with depression, 25% with anxiety disorder, and 26% with trauma and stress-related conditions. Though exact concentrations of these numbers vary across locations, the general statistic is already concerning enough.
While several factors explain this statistic, and are not limited to academic-related reasons, this focus on academics is one that significantly contributes to the mental health crisis within the Bay Area. Silicon Valley masks itself as the center of innovation and progression, but this same illusion of perfection is what drives the problem deeper among young scholars. Despite the plethora of mental health services and prevention programs, we can only do so much to prevent it. We need to turn to the root issue, the Bay Area culture: expectations so high that perfection is not a goal — it’s the standard.
Joking: In the same way that high schoolers feel the need to compete to be the “best” at academics, they often compete to have others sympathize with their struggles the most. Phrases like “I got 2 hours of sleep” or “I’m on 3 cups of coffee” float around the classroom — they’re just your average chatter. But this is the reality: Silicon Valley students are nothing if not competitive.
“I tell people I’m gonna kill myself as a joke like three times a day, and it’s honestly like a reflex,” senior and Lynbrook High School student Ishana Subrahmanyan said. “I feel like for a good 90% of the Lynbrook population, they just say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna kill myself’ at the most minor inconvenience, and people don’t know if they’re actually actively suicidal. I’ve also seen multiple disorders get made fun of as jokes, like people calling others autistic, which is not a joke in good taste, but it’s so normalized that people don’t care.”
Our mental health struggles aren’t actually ignored, yes. But we’ve made it impossible to find rehabilitation in a community that views mental health struggles as nothing more than sympathy-grabbing stories.
“I think right now, we need to realize that mental health is an issue, and that it’s okay, and that we can work on it,” junior and Lynbrook Wellness Committee member Jaclyn Chiu said. “I think accepting that fact and realizing it is the first step to solving mental wellness issues.”
The academic pressure has also been largely set by parental expectations.
“There’s pressure from other students, but also the parents for their students to the next Nobel Prize winner,” junior at Gunn High School Alina Fleischmann said. “A lot of times parents, as well as ourselves, forget that we’re just kids. And so we’re often not ready to manage all the pressure. I think that’s why a lot of students end up breaking.”
However, the Bay Area’s tendency to disregard serious discussions about mental health does not cover the full breadth of issues impacting the culture surrounding mental health conversations and understanding of suicidality.
What about suicides? How does sparse reporting contribute to this issue?
In 2015-16, spikes in suicide clusters in Palo Alto High School and Gunn led to a mirrored spike in reporting, with news outlets like The Atlantic and NPR reporting on Silicon Valley’s concerning suicide rate. However, in recent years, reporting has dropped, while the suicide rate hasn’t.
While mental health is generally recognized within the community, suicidality within the Bay Area tends to receive less coverage and attention. While done to respect privacy and to prevent copycat suicides, a lack of coverage leads to the illusion that cases relating to mental health and suicidality are intangible. An impression that seeking help for mental health struggles is uncommon and socially unacceptable is created. With no widespread coverage of the real consequences of ignoring mental health struggles, people don’t understand the necessity of seeking help until it’s too late.
What we need to do:
Due to the history of mental health struggles among teenagers, resources at both the county and district levels are often readily available in Bay Area high schools. Despite this availability, students still shy away from directly addressing their own struggles. We can hike the available resources, but we shouldn’t force teenagers to receive help. In order to solve the Bay Area’s mental health crisis, we must address the stigma that also surrounds seeking help.
Recognizing the toxicity behind joking about mental health opens discussions on the true impact it has on our lives. Instead of brute-forcing through our struggles, occasionally stepping back allows for healthy healing. Being able to recognize the signs within our health and being open to admitting personal struggles are also the steps toward a better relationship with your mental health. Open and safe reporting, on the other hand, shines a light on the real and prominent consequences mental health struggles have on individuals in our community.
If you are in need of mental health resources, please visit the following links to access compiled available mental health resources for youth under the Bay Area:
Teens of Bay Area 
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