Archers thread #142: Kill Jill? Is Ambridge heading for a Tarantino-style bloodbath on Stir Up Sunday? Discuss The Archers here!

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that , or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please! We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, @DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have - BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Well, things have taken a turn for the better in the last few days! The SWs have re-discovered their form and the actors and directors have risen to the challenge. I won't say much more than that for fear of jinxing things. Over to you!

(Thanks to @JanglyBeads for the thread title idea!)

It seems not to have been in the direction of self-immolation. He has not done it or tried to do it, and he has been firm that he has not felt like doing it, during the month between 3rd November and 2nd December; if he'd been seriously being suicidal all that time I think someone might have noticed, or found the corpse. Suicide isn't difficult if someone is determined (and doesn't stupidly think they can overdose using paracetamol). On a farm there are many ways to have an "accident" if that's what he intended.

So concentrating on "he thought about killing himself that night" and missing out "but didn't, and hasn't since" makes Pip's insta-angst a bit of a red herring.

Come on, that's not how life works. A close friend was suicidal in 2019, I'm still worrying about him now as I know the underlying cause (trauma) still affects him. Another seriously self-harmed last year, I know she does it repeatedly sometimes with weeks or months in between and could easily accidentally kill herself this way even though she doesn't want to die. Another has an eating disorder that has put her in hospital more than once. And so on.

While many many people probably do have that one day when things feel awful and they contemplate suicide and then move away from it never to return (thank god), many many others have fluctuating MH problems where they may be fine for a while and then get worse again, then better, and so on.

The fact that Ben felt suicidal and then had a psychotic break of some kind indicates that things are more serious than just him having had a sad day and then moved on.

If he were my brother I'd be doing everything I could to inform myself about how he was feeling and making sure he had all the support he could. Not going "oh well, he's over it now".

I'd be worried sick about Ben if he were in my family. I had not really understood before this that depression could lead to psychosis. www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/psychotic-depression/ This NHS webpage says People with psychotic depression have an increased risk of thinking about suicide.

You definitely can overdose using paracetamol.
It is very easy to take too much paracetamol without thinking, by combining painkillers and calpol and flu/cold relief products.

To be fair, I am still angry about the "go in to A&E and be seen, help is immediately available" narrative; my experience has been that this is not how it works. That NHS website advises seeing your GP; when would that be? At this surgery, call it ten to twelve days' time, if you can get through on the phone at all... And the last time someone I know had to call an ambulance it took five hours to arrive. I don't know about the out-of-hours service; the last time I had anything to do with 111 they rang back after two hours and booked me into a hospital that was not equipped to treat what was wrong with me.

My experience of people killing themselves has been that it has happened without any warning at all, not "we all saw it coming".

I assume what Asking meant was that some people take an overdose without really meaning it to be fatal, but can end up with irreparable liver damage.

I did say way upthread that I thought the production team were on a hiding to nothing with this storyline as they will be accused of bias whether they show the reality of the NHS at the moment or the NHS as we would like it to be.

(New thread poised and ready, possibly for later this evening, depending on what happens tonight ...)

Sure, six paracetamol taken too close together can kill you. Eventually. Not a way I would choose if what I wanted was to be dead, though: liver and kidney failure takes far too long, and is far too painful, to be a good way to do it.

I knew what you meant Asking but jumped on an opportunity to point out that it is easy to take enough paracetamol to have nasty side effects without knowing.
If you take too much it can make you very ill, so it's best not to combine different products like cold remedies, nurofen and panadol.

I think people who are very depressed might not express how they feel in a way that they'll be taken seriously. For example, they might say 'I don't want to talk' or 'I feel lost/down/lonely' or 'I'm struggling a bit' when what they mean is that they feel competely overwhelmed and see no way through it.

Cereal!!!

But no, she got bored with the gently gently soft approach within about a minute and decided to go straight in with the 'so I hear you're suicidal' tack instead. It's her fault if Ben feels that Leonard can't be trusted. But that’s what we’d all expect of Pip anyway. Bad enough that Leonard betrayed Ben’s trust, but of all the people to chose to confide in!

It was well acted tonight.

Just wish Leonard hadnt said anything the doctors and nurses know so he didnt really have to worry that only he knew. but Ben implied to Leonard that Leonard was the only one to know

Yes, Leonard needed to tell someone, but not the way he did.

Finding the comments about everyone having a day when they feel suicidal interesting. No-one in my circle has admitted to that, except for the one guy with serious MH problems who took another overdose a month later. Makes me feel a bit more normal. Now off to google suicidal ideation/intention

I think we might as well move to the new thread now. I live in fear of forgetting to start it in time. Here it is: www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4694793-archers-thread-143-in-the-bleak-midwinter-ambridge-folk-make-moan-best-christmas-ever-probably-not-discuss-the-archers-here

Wrong thread!