I'm 26. The repeated claims of "Hannah's lying" slowly broke me down over the course of the show. My freshman year of college, I had a best friend (essentially my Jessica) and was loosely friends with a group of people she befriended. When I returned to school after winter break, a rumor my Jessica had created over jealousy relating to a boy caused the entire group to shut me out and slut shame me for something that never happened. I felt as though I didn't have a voice, and lost every friend I had.

Over the next year and a half, I found myself eating in the dining halls by myself more and more frequently. One of the girls in the group continued to talk shit over this thing that supposedly happened, and it just kept following me. My junior year, I was raped. I felt unsafe on campus, and wanted to drop out of school and return home. I tried to confide in a friend about what happened, and instead of discussing how I felt, she told me I needed to "be strong, get past it, and stop letting what happened have power over me." While I know she thought she was being encouraging, I felt like my feelings and trauma were being minimized. I felt as though she wasn't hearing what I was saying. After that I felt truly alone at that school, and ended up dropping out.

I've since seen a therapist and while I continue to struggle with depression and anxiety, I feel more hopeful than I did back then. But consistently hearing the characters convince themselves that Hannah's truth is not the real truth just brought back so many dark and lonely memories for me.