It's All In Your Head-Soaps and Mental Health

[teplin]

I was just over in the DAYS Behind the Scenes thread, where they're talking about Laura Horton, so I'm reminded of Laura's mental illness story. I iked how it impacted Laura's work and played into Julie's burn story. In their therapy sessions, Dr. Laura encouraged rather than alleviated Julie's feeling that she was no longer worthy of Doug. Laura also gave very bad advice to Doug, pushing he and Julie further apart. I can also still remember the exterior scenes of Laura depositing little Jennifer Rose on a bus alone.

[cassadine1991]

I wonder if they are on YouTube

[foxhunter]

I don't think any of the current writers could do a true Mental Health storyline. Depression, for instance would take years to get all of the contributing factors right. People don't just wake up suddenly depressed. There are layers if history (ie traumas) that mix with current problems (divorce, loss of a loved one, loss of a job) that create a perfect storm. If we had a Bill Bell-style writer, slow-burning but also long-term, then it could be done. There is a lot of fertile potential angles one could take on this and the descent into Mental Illness could be fascinating. Watching someone circle the drain where things become progressively worse due to poorly made choices would take a good 2-3 years. I recall Nina McNeil going through a suicidal phase but I don't remember the story in full. Then some years after that Tricia went crazy. To me Phyllis and Sheila were simply pyschopaths who were after someone married men. And even then both did not seem to have too many layers. I didn't see Ashley having a breakdown the first time so maybe there's a good example. I can't only remember the David Kimble, Mary Jo Mason, LMLs awful Sheila 2.0, Adam Newman, Patty Williams, Ricky Williams and the like as cartoon crazies.

[Faulkner]

Didn't watch the Karen Wolek story on OLTL, but wasn't that essentially a depression storyline?

[Khan]

Nowadays, that would be part of an evil twin story.

[amybrickwallace]

On a serious note, Patsy Pease had to play out a multiple personality story on DAYS when at the same time she was having nightmares (when she was able to fall asleep at all), becoming physically ill and having panic attacks. She was just coming to grips with the fact that she had been the victim of habitual physical, mental AND sexual abuse at the hands of her mother. Things came to a head one day when she had a breakdown in her dressing room. Thankfully, her then-husband was with her at the time and got her to a hospital. Long story short, DAYS cut her loose and recast Kimberly, but it didn't work and Kimberly was written off before 1993 was out.

Happily, Patsy Pease seems to have put her demons to rest. Aside from her occasional returns to Salem, she seems to be happy living on the East Coast and is very close to her two grown sons (both her pregnancies were written into the show back in the day). The woman is a survivor - and is still dancing. God bless her!!

[Marco Dane]

Janet Green AMC.... Personality Disorder?

[Pine Charles]

Seems like she had a combo of Body Dysmorphic Disorder + Borderline Personality Disorder + Schizophrenia.

LOL

[amybrickwallace]

Then there was the awful multiple personality storyline that drove Eden Capwell Castillo permanently off Santa Barbara when Marcy Walker decided to try primetime. The less said about it, the better.

[Khan]

No, she was just from another planet.

[ellabelle]

YES, oh I hated that story.

[amybrickwallace]

It was a BIG slap in the face to the fans, not to mention MW and AM.