No more walking on eggshells for Helen! Heading for an eggsplosive Easter weekend in The Archers - will Helen Archer be resurrected by the end of this thread?

[PseudoBadger]

Helen knows she's not cracking up - Knob is an eggomaniac.

Are we eggshausted with this storyline?

Always thought Peggy was a judgemental old cow but tonight she was the pits!

But also have to agree that she represents the attitudes of a different generation to a certain extent. My GM comes out with similar sentiments at times, she is so lovely but grew up in harsher times where I suppose she very much had to fend for herself. No NHS, counselling, support groups, and of course, no advice lines such as WA for example.

I agree with you, EasyToEatTiger, to a large extent. But psychiatry was not in its infancy. I read years ago that the USA put in place an extensive programme of support/therapy for men who had come back from WW1 shellshocked (ie suffering from what we would now call PTSD). The UK had no equivalent. The government of the time just chose to ignore this problem and the already overstretched/primitive mental health services just had to pick those cases up. Shocking.

My first thought when the reporter was questioning the insurance was a link to Nigel falling off the roof....

It would have been more useful if Peggy had come up with that stuff about rolling your sleeves up months ago when the rubbish about not driving came up. Had she said then "What nonsense, there's no reason why pregnant women can't drive, you drove right through your last pregnancy" it might just have made Pat get her brain in gear and stop her being such a bot.

we haven't heard any more about the fire in the chicken house for ages

My goodness, just marking my place and we're quarter of the way through the thread already!

Totally agree Peggy would say they kind of thing about hormones. Things were just shut up and got on with in her young day. She may have "interesting" views on rape within marriage, too.

With everyone here re: Peggy. Totally in character but still insufferable!! That comment about Henry and soft toys!! no wonder she loves Rob.

Question: why does Pat say Tony when talking to Helen and not "Dad"?? Is it for the listener's benefit?

Gaspode the Ghost Road trilogy of fiction books by Pat Barker explores mental health issues suffered by WW1 officers (Seigfried Sassoon & other poetsare included) & the real facility of Craiglockhart hospital in Scotland. It was for officers to get better & return to the front.

Sorry for the derail.

Anyone listen to the radio 4 breakdown of the knob/Helen story just now? Nothing you lot haven't discussed but glad that the 'expert' generally agreed with us. No mention of Ursula though.

My knowledge of the history of psychiatry is rudimentary, Gasp! Psychiatry is still in the baby stages of understanding, and still nobody really knows why people become ill (with anything) or why some people get better. I have my theories... Who thinks CBT will benefit Helen? Yes it's shocking. Really awful, and the impact of war is felt down the generations.

told it was the Regeneration, wasn't it, not Ghost Road? I was thinking about this too.

Richard Lock is definitely keen on Elizabeth isn't he? Despite Shula's Spring lamb. First he's inviting her to join him on the merry-go-round, then he's seeking her out to talk to at every opportunity, despite Lillian's interruptions, praising her organisation and imagination and finally securing a "date" with her at the pageant.

However, given what she said about her birthday being soon and how brilliant Nigel was a birthdays, Dr Lock had better come up with something pretty damn impressive to mark the occasion.

Did anyone else feel that Lillian was just as, if not more, bitchy than Peggy this episode? She went on and on about Lynda pursuing Justin and obsessing about her pageant when she was doing much the same thing to Elizabeth about the Borsetshire Woman of the Year. I got the impression that Dr Lock was getting rather uncomfortable hearing Lillian running Lynda down. I don't think that you can say that you count someone as a friend and then describe them as being like "an annoying little gnat" to a comparative stranger.

Yes, Regeneration trilogy was great. I read it about 20 years ago, I think - must give it another try some day.

Re CBT - my knowledge of psychiatry is also rudimentary, but such as it is, I believe that CBT has been shown to be pretty successful for many conditions, and it's also relatively cheap, so successive governments have been keen to fund it. Not sure it would do Helen any good, though.

I wonder if CBT might actually help Helen as it deals with your reactions to things not the background.

It might help her remain detached.

CBT has had limited success ( I listen to More Or Less when I can). It is undoubtably cheap, short term and well known for teaching the obvious to the uninitiated. Dr Lock is very keen on Elizabeth. Pants down!!!

I'm aware of two or three teens who have benefited a great deal from CBT. My impression is that they are encouraged to talk and discover their underlying problem. This could work for Helen because she is unable to talk through her feelings with anyone at the moment.

Peggy's vile.

I agree with whoever said that Helen is watching and listening now, she's not about to suddenly run off, she's trying to see if her barely-acknowledged suspicions about Rob's behaviour are right before she starts criticising him to her Rob-worshipping mother...

Regarding CBT, it's got a good reputation for dealing with anxiety and stress is my understanding of why it's so popular at the moment. I have actually had CBT for a stress-related phase of depression about 7 years ago. The process as I recall was to identify a situation in which you felt stressed / anxious etc, and unpick the thought process that goes on in your head at that time, so it's about understanding your own reactions to events and why your reaction is disproportionate and how to manage those situations/ thought processes in future. So it would be interesting with Helen because all her problems would start with something Rob said or did. I wonder how long it would take a therapist to figure out the real problem. Mine was group therapy so if it was group once a week it could take a long time to identify the issue.

I haven't listened yet but wrt Peggy's generation - we have a male family friend who happened to drop in when DS1's precious guinea pig had just died.

DS1 was 7 or 8 & was cuddling the poor dead piggy & crying. Family friend was shocked & horrified & obviously thought the corpse should be removed & disposed of & life should go briskly on.

So I wouldn't judge Peggy for that. Plenty of other awful claptrap she comes out with but not that. (& I still allow her an extra bit of leeway for giving it straight to Kate a time or 2 )

(Family friend is around Peggy's age in case that wasn't clear)

Checking in.

50th thread woop woop!!! I've been here since the first one saying little and not often .

Still not listening (such a wimp!), but it seems to be two step forwards one step back at the moment - is that fair? Reading what Peggy said is giving me the rage. Does she think Rob is independently wealthy, do we think? I can't believe she wouldn't have expressed some concern at the lack of income into that house.

I think that Peggy assumes her wedding gift to the happy couple was squirrelled away and they are living off Rob 's savings and income from the shop. They don't live a particularly extravagant lifestyle, so it wouldn't occur to Peggy that Rob was frittering away her money on hunting, frumpy clothes and unwanted gifts.

Right! I am finally de-lurking. This bloody storyline is keeping me awake at nights. I could have banged Patbot and Peggy's heads together tonight.

It's just struck me that Helen isn't getting love or nurturing from anyone. Even Kirsty (who is being a fantastic friend and doing what is needed most) is bracing rather than soothing.

This is very close to how I picture Rob, medium-dark brown hair, maybe even slightly reddish beard. The actress who plays Helen is a pretty close fit to my mental picture.

Just listened and rather disappointed as I'd been getting on edge about it, now have to wait til tomorrow.

Peggy was awful about the cuddly toy but I think completely of her generation with the hormones comment. My grandmother is similar age and told me morning sickness didn't exist in her day, as if I was imagining the need to throw up ten times a day.

I liked the rolling up her sleeves line though. Peggy has been pretty detached from Helen since Rob arrived. She so obviously saw Rob as a good thing, a man to make her single mother granddaughter respectable (and if memory serves was one of the first to welcome him by giving him a suit of Jack's) that Rob has not needed to create any sort of alternative image of Helen in the way that he has with Pat. This means that Peggy's image of Helen as a mother is actually a pretty capable one so why on earth would she think that Helen couldn't roll her sleeves up and cope as she did with Henry? It sort of gave me an inkling of hope that Pat would remember this too.