I saw those spoilers as well, which also made me think it would be Carly.

Personally I'm bored with the psycho Sienna storyline. Sienna is supposed to be having therapy but non has obviously helped.

I agree. They also would have tackled domestic abuse and rape well. It's a shame at what this show has turned into.

I love the name One pube Non Robbie!!

I hope it's not true that I don't want them to turn her into a killer

She's never been properly punished for her crimes. Everything with Nancy the first time, attacking her and nearly killing her, kidnapping Tom, kidnapping Dodger, pushing Reenie down the stairs as well as

I'm sure there's plenty of other things I can't think of too!

Still, we must give them credit for at least bothering to do that.

And then revoke it, for hiring someone as thick as Not-Robbie

I agree. Honestly, if it wasn't for this thread I would have given up watching Hollyoaks a long time ago.

Totally true & ridiculous!!

What has actually incensed me now, is that I've just read that someone who suffers from Bipolar is ashamed to admit their condition because of this storyline. Hollyoaks should be ashamed at making such a joke out of mental illness!!!

That's horrible to hear, but I'm not surprised. How the hell could anyone working at Hollyoaks put this out without seeing what it could do and how it is not how bipolar should be portrayed AT ALL!!?

Well any research has clearly gone out the window. They are just sensationalising & making a mockery out of the condition.

How is this supposed to help & raise proper awareness? I heard that Hollyoaks had been in contact with the charity 'Mind' when doing this storyline. I hope the charity speaks up & says they are unhappy with what Hollyoaks have done!!!

That's really sad.

No-one should be forced to reveal their health to anyone, but no-one should have to feel like they can't or even FEAR that they can't.

It's bad enough that the government has a war on the disabled, then the papers and benefit programmes, now the soaps at are it.

They used and abused Sienna, she is clearly mentally ill but they wanted more and more drama and took her well beyond what they should have and then they just took her off screen for a short time and didn't bother to show her getting the treatment she needed and then months later they just did it all over again. Now people just think of her as a crazy psycho that has avoided punishment instead of someone that had a abusive isolated upbringing that it has affected her mental health and who needs treatment to get and keep well, not just for her sake but for her daughter.

This and last week has really showed what HOs thinks of mental illness. The joke of Sienna's first and only seen therapy and no more needs to be said about Cindy.

I have mental illnesses but I would never want to say what because of the fear of negative reactions and those reactions come because of the way the government treat those with a mental illness, how the media only ever focus on the fakes and ignore the genuine which gives the wrong impression and soaps using them for drama and laughs.

how long will it be before Sienna has kidnapped Ben and chained him to something because he prefers brown sauce to ketchup

Cindy's Bipolar has often been used for comedy purposes onscreen & Instead of a sensitive & realistic portrayal to give viewers a better understanding of the condition. It's been totally wasted & left people who don't know about the condition totally ignorant of the truth of Bipolar. Some younger viewers for me are particularly a concern & will not have been educated by it but left with a false impression & sensationalist drivel.

Sienna is also past her sell by date on the show. I think Anna is a great actress but Sienna needs to go. Her mental illness was never dealt with properly. She's now just a nutter on the show which will never get proper help & will forever continue scheming & doing other crazy things.

I don't blame people for seeing Sienna as a psycho or a nutter, even though she is meant to be someone with a mental illness they have just made a awful mess of it and Sienna just goes around in circles because they want the drama and don't care what they have to do to get it.

But I would hate to see her leave, I love the Blakes and I keep hoping for a change, but I doubt that will ever come even with Ben coming in to 'save' her.

I just saw Sam's Tumblr and I am really glad he posted that, I would hope that this gets picked up (just like the rating issue did a couple of weeks ago). If this was done on another soap that had more viewers there would be outrage, but HOs doesn't have a loud voice for things like this, especially when some of those voices are laughing. HOs need to see that the way they write mental illness is insulting and damaging.

I've seen Sam's Tumblr too!! He's great & I totally agree with him.

Everytime Cindy has come on screen with all the stupid Jason, Mason & Mindy stuff I've cringed. It's been awful to watch & I've hated the direction they've taken Cindy & the depiction of mental illness!

Six grand for childcare ? I know it's expensive today, but six grand? Dora's Nancy need to pay half of year upfront?

Personally I find the actress who plays Sienna great. It's just a shame they waste her on shitty story lines.

Wow just caught up. This Cindy crap is drivel isn't it! At leat the legal highs SL could be a breath of fresh air...Amanda clapham has grown on me.

It really is, it's such an insult to people with bi-polar.

I like Amanda's Holly too. But only when she's away from Turd-ective Roscoe (these names are getting harder to come up with )

She works well with Cindy and hopefully this legal high story will give her a chance to shine.

Alright that's it, I'm out. Need to skip a few episodes at least, it's unbearable. The Cindy shit today was the last straw, I cannot watch this utter shite.

Hollyoaks

I totally agree with all you've said and am sorry you're made to feel afraid to talk about your illnesses. I only have depression (well not "only" but hopefully you know what I mean) and I'm really scared it might have affected my employment prospects among other things.

I have always been afraid, it's just gotten worse over time because of the way certain sections of society has made it clear how they feel about the mentally ill. HOs really hasn't helped.

The reaction to depression is one of the worst, not only are people struggling to cope with depression and the reactions from other people because it is a mental illness, but also some of those reactions being 'cheer up' or they accuse you of faking being 'sad', it's insulting and people clearly don't get it. I know what you mean.

I completely know how you feel about employment.. I have no idea what I would ever do. They can't discriminate, but they do.

With the way people treat others, especially the vulnerable, life just feels like it has become so cheap. It shocks me how some people don't have empathy for others, over the last month or so I have read 2 different cases of a bunch of people shouting 'jump' to someone contemplating suicide while police try to talk them down. Who does that? And how can they live with themselves?!

Thankfully HOs hasn't gone that far, but they certainly aren't raising the right awareness for the mentally ill and I question how much involvement charities really have in the storylines.

It's no wonder you have, really.
Agreed, the likes of the govt and Daily Mail brigade are pretty clear about their contempt and ignorance, the likes of HO are just taking the piss for cheap "drama." Ironically, a realistic portrayal would be a lot more dramatic and engaging than this trash.

That's true, there are some shocking, disgusting attitudes to it. Like you're being lazy and self indulgent or something. "Just snap out of it" etc. I don't get how anyone could be so vile about it, and I don't think it can be just down to lack of experience. I've no experience of strokes but I wouldn't go about making nasty comments to/about stroke victims, for example. Some people seem to react with such anger to someone else being depressed.

They absolutely do. And call me a conspiracy theorist but I really wouldn't be surprised if employers did/could get access to employees' medical records without the employee's knowledge. I've seen corners being cut and things not being done by the book enough in a certain industry to have no trouble believing that that could go on, whatever the law says. If that is the case, obviously non disclosure will solve nothing.

I know what you mean. So many people don't seem to give a flying **** on any level about anyone but themselves and their immediate families. How any supposedly reasonable human being could lack basic decency towards and empathy for other people is beyond me.
Oh my god that is disgusting, what the hell? Oh someone's suicidal, how hilarious… I'm sure a person contemplating jumping needs to feel humiliated by vile onlookers on top of everything. What on earth would motivate someone to be so cruel.

They're certainly not, and the general handling of everything mental health based recently has been infantile and pathetic. Arguably the same sort of mindset as the kind of cretins who would tell someone to jump.
That's a thing that baffles me, surely there's no way on earth a mental health charity would remotely approve of anything to do with Cindy or Sienna, just as the rape charities supposedly involved in the JP/Finn story must have been up in arms over that. Maybe the HO people make all the right noises while initially dealing with the charity, then go away and write this utter crap and the charity know nothing of it until it's aired? By which point it'll obviously be too late to do anything about it. You'd think the charity would then come out and condemn the show for its disgraceful handling, though.