I've blogged about this before as it's a bugbear of mine. I'm up on me soapbox and blogging about it again today as this happens to be World Mental Health Day so it's as good a time as any.
One in four of us (the usually quoted statistic) will experience a mental health problem at some point in our lives. All of us will know someone who's been affected. It's part and parcel of every day living, and that is why it pops up in Corrie storylines. We all know that Corrie is not real. It's soapland. We can't expect an in-depth analysis of 21st century attitudes towards mental illness. But I'd just like them to do a bit better. The storylines are just a bit too rushed, for my liking.
Two examples. The Natasha Blakeman storyline ( and like most of you I thought Rachel Leskovac was superb by the way) in which Natasha takes an overdose. How many of us know someone who's done the same? I know I do. One minute she's semi-comatose, the next she's kicking back-sides down Coronation Street saying "Back of the net." Doesn't happen like that. Too rushed.
My other bugbear is the Claire Peacock post-natal depression storyline, which I've written about before. We all know how ignorant people can be, calling others "nutters" and so forth. We've all heard it. It's unacceptable. And that's why I WISH the Corrie writers had given the latter end of this storyline a little bit more time, and provided some consequences for those such as Sally Webster (and I do like Sally as a rule!) whose verbal abuse of Claire was shocking. Okay - in "real life" perhaps there are no consequences for those who say such things. But they can have a terrible effect on those on the receiving end - and I'd like to have seen a bit more acknowledgement of that, in the script. There was some, I'll give them that - but it wasn't sharp enough. It's obviously not Corrie's job to tackle stigma, but if they're going to have these types of storylines, then I think they should make sure they're doing them justice.
very well said!
ReplyDelete"remove" stigma attached to the disease
ReplyDeleteYou imposed it, attached it, not a very good example.
Harold A. Maio
Sally's agoraphobia was realistic in some aspects (speaking as a fellow sufferer who has managed to learn to live a normal life), as was her treatment. Exposure therapy is the best option, but any doc worth his/her salt would at least broach the subject of medicine, and if the show had any integrity it would NOT have the usual knee-jerk "oo scary do not give me pills" attitude. These medications save lives and do not turn people into zombies or anything like that. If anything, it turns them back into themselves.
ReplyDelete