Discuss The Archers here. There's hut construction, new teen arrivals, pastured eggs, pining Pip and other fun Spring-like stories to choose from.

[PseudoBadger]

Maybe if we don't look directly at the other storyline it will disappear?

Knob would love Helen not to be able to breast feed whilst making sure she feels an utter failure for it. Ursula would probably settle in for at least the next five years to make sure that SOK is properly looked after till he can get shunted off to boarding school as well.

Rob wouldn't be the first abuser to be shocked to discover that the medical establishment didn't think he was God on earth.

I think Rob will be popping up suggesting Helen is locked up while he and Arsula take care of SOK, thinking he looks a hero while actually unintentionaling highlighting a forest of red flags to Helen's perinatal psych team.

One of the things that worries me about this SL is that it seems to be leading up to show that a woman with mental illness cannot be fit to look after her child. The many comments on here that R will try to get H sectioned (implausible in RL, but looking more likely in TA SW land) do suggest that from suffering anxiety/depression to a hospital admission is a short route, when the opposite is true.

grumpy - an 18 plus tonight I'm afraid.

I remain optimistic that the SL is going to show the NHS coming to the rescue but appreciate I'm a new and naive Archers listener.

My worry is that having dragged this story out in real time for a couple of years the denouement will be SOC's swan song and as well as wrapping up HellRob everything else will come tumbling out in one go and we will have all the loose ends like Stefan and the dairy fiddling sorted in two episodes whereas all that would take much longer even once Rob's been unmasked as a domestic abuser especially the Berrow stuff...

I hope we don't get a nonsense no breastfeeding whilst on Ad's line. There are at least two I can think of that are ok up to fairly high doses and there are mothers who stay on ad's throughout pregnancy and have extra monitoring for baby after birth.

True - no way would a perinatal psych have prescribed the no-breastfeeding ones unless there were very specific circumstances.

I can see Rob and Helen making a lot of heavy weather about the decision to take anti-depressants though - don't think Rob will be in favour especially as he is pushing the ridiculous home birth.

BBC1 have a documentary on tonight at 9 about domestic abuse, following 3 women's stories. I applaud this but hate the fact that they're fucking up this radio story so much.

I agree that the infinitesimal step from possible mental health problem to sectioning/separation from children that they're threatening to portray is seriously wrong.

But the moment Rob lied about what happened in Henry's bedroom it stopped being "an everyday story" and turned into the sort of sepia toned, gothic melodrama I used to watch on Saturday afternoons in a previous century. They've wrenched the whole concept of TA out of shape.

But it doesn't matter what's true, it just matters what Helen thinks it true.

I imagine Rob may also try the 'I'll help you stay off the Anti-depressants, just do everything I say and go for a lie down'

Yes you definitely do get perinatal psychs. Mine was lovely and a great comfort as he told me in the (iho unlikely) event I couldn't cope they would admit me and the dcs to the mother and baby unit (yes Knob together). That's all I needed to know.
I'd expect H would have been referred to perinatal psychiatrist as a matter of routine.

Tbf mine didn't pick up that exwas an arsehole but he wasn't actually too bad when I saw the pn psych the first time and when I saw him the 2nd time ex was there and I was too tired to say much having been awake for 3 days. He did tell the ex though that my sleep had to be protected and I needed 6 hours per night without fail

I think Rob is trying to get 'evidence' H is abusive in case she ever reports him he covering his back. He even used the word 'abusive' (perhaps he has been hud up for it before and hence knows what he is likely to be accused of)

Yes, obstetric psychiatrists exist! i don't know how many there would be in Borsetshire. Probably not many. But things would go through the gp/mw route, surely? I thought, ButteredParsnips that you said "Easy Psychiatrists"... I have seen a fair amount of both over the decades. They are not the same. As Wolpertinger wrote, both are highly qualified but in different things. A CBT therapist is not necessarily a clinical psychologist but will be well trained in their field. Oh no, they're all out standing in their fields, this being the Archers...

I agree Wolpertinger. We spend ages convincing mothers that it's ok to get help, take meds, that we won't take her children away for doing this. I just don't want this story to undo that. Even Eastenders can manage a PP psychosis with a stay in a mother and baby unit without cocking it up too much. Surely TA can match this?

My greatest wish is that this psychiatric involvement will bring the beginning of the end for Knob's reign of terror. I want him to lose all he thinks he has - Hel, Henwee, the shop, his credibility. And then the rest of his life comes tumbling slowly down with exposé after exposé over a looong period of time. We need arrests, custody, court appearances (note the multiple for his many misdemeanours) as Helen rebuilds her life with the love and support of her family and community who rally around her to assuage the guilt they feel that not any single one of them (Kirsty excluded) had noticed (or acknowledged) what had been going on right in front of them.

Yes! That's what I want too. But I also want Helen to do some work on herself to understand how she ends up in relationships with dysfunctional men and the impact of her behaviour on her family. I want a new improved Helen; not a fragile one that everyone needs to baby.

The frustrating thing is that, time after time, when there's an opportunity for Knob to be unmasked it seems to slip by. I shall not be happy if the psychiatrist thing just turns out to be yet another in the long line of missed chances for someone outside to find out what's going on.

That is lovely, Grumpy, but the Archers will run and run and run, unless it becomes like Brookside. It would be easier if Grin was a bit different on the keyboard to Groin.

CBT therapist prob wouldn't be a Clinical psychologist unless you were especially lucky.

I'm medical but not a psych but have seen more than my fair share and in the more touchy feely specialties, which psych definitely is, you would expect a medic to be picking up on family dynamics, non-verbal cues and valuing view points from other people in the multi-disciplinary team. Not just knowing pharmacology and reading scans can't remember last time I did either of those

Horrible listening...... but there is hope??????

We don't know what she said to the psychiatrist, only what she told Rob she said, so she may have, knowingly or not, disclosed enough to raise concerns about him.

He may think that if he fabricates concerns about her mental health, fitness as a parent etc that they'll lock her up and give him the baby. In reality they as a family group, not just Helen, are more likely to come under the spotlight from mental health and social services and the dysfunctional dynamic be picked up. If he succeeds in getting her admitted lets hope she gets to a mother and baby unit..........if she's more anxious and distressed around the times he visits, they'll pick up on it.

My sleepwalking always gets more frequent during pregnancy. Luckily DH is no knob and would only regale me with tales of the nonsense I was spouting, not some psychological torture bullshit.

I think there are only around 120 mother & baby mental health beds in the country, but luckily there is a unit in the Birmingham area which may include Borsetshire in its catchment. Perhaps Helen can spend Cameron's new maternity budget on a proper support team who will ask the right questions & see through Knob.

And now for an ultra-hilarious 'Eddie pretends he doesn't know about the surprise party' story line. How restful.

PS thanks for the thread :) [ ]