am disgusted and angry by the way hollyoaks has portrayed mental illness.the storyline with jake is so awful.this could have been an ideal oppurnity to highlight mental ilness in a realistic manner.the stigma that goes with having a mental illness has not been helped at all by this storyline.i thought hollyoaks would be different from other tv programs on mental illness.it could have helped educate young people about mental illness.all its done is portay people with mental illness as crazy.the truth is the vast majorty of people with mental illnesses are no more violent than people without mental lilnesses.in fact there more likly to be victims of violence.am sick to death of tv programs portraying mental lilnesses in a bad way.i myself have bipolar disorder and i have neve been violent.so thanks hollyoaks for reinforcing the message that all people with mental illness are crazy.

Tbh apart from before anyone really knew he was a but mental, we havnt really seen anything to get anything from

Where as Hannah and Cameron back in the day, they were done excellent and realistic
So they definatly arnt saying that all people with a mental illness are crazy

I dont think it is saying everyone with a mental illness is crazy, just in Jake Deans case , and its not as though he all of a sudden changed , his characteristics gradually changed over a space of time in a realistic way.

there not saying hes crazy not like he jumped out of his bed one morning and went what can i do today and decide oh il try and kill myself and my son the storyline has showed things people are capable of when suffering from a mental illness and also has higlighted how they dont realise there is anything wrong with them
hollyoaks doen a great job with camerons ocd i didnt even know it existed until it was shown on ho and i think there doing agood job with jakes storyline

newt's starting to see things, but he's not crazy. just disturbed... a little disturbed.

what is newt starting to see?

seems to me people are missing the point.fact is young people watch this program.this was an ideal oppurting to highlight mental illmness in a postiive light.there have not done that.most young people understand nothing about mental illnes.what have there learnt from this storyline nothing.other than people who are mentaly ill do crazy things.holoya has reiforcred that mesage by kakkes storyliine.why coud there not have shown jake been diagnosed with for example bipolar. then educate the viewers on what it is. show jakes coming to terms with his diagnosis.see him dealing with it and how his family cope.how mental ilness really is.peole say its been done realisticly no it hasnt. its a myth people with mental illlness are no more violent than people without mental illness.but no he has to try and kill himself and his baby total rubbish.i myself suffer from bipolar and help with mind a mental health charity.all hollyoaks is doing is adding to the stigma and continiung the myth that people with mental illnesses are viollent.there was also kkathy barnes who went a bit crazy and laura burns a few years ago who also went a bit crazy.i bet hollyoaks dosnt even tell us what hes been diagnosed with if there do my bets on schizophreinie.

I see your point but im inclined not to agree, my brother is schzophrenic and I know full well about the stigma attached to mental illness, while it's true that violence is very rare, it's also true that often people (mentally ill or not) are violent within their own famillies when they are suffering, what Hollyoaks should point out is that when this violence does occur it is not the person's fault, that they have lost control and rational thought. Personally I found HO portrayal very close to what happened to my family, (thank god my brother never tried to rape or murder anyone) but he was very angry and abusive towards his family - now he never ever would have been outside our house, it's true when you say the mentally ill are much more likely to be them victims, I can verify that one, what's also true is how often people with these illnesses become frightened of the rest of the world so maybe HO could tackle that, it hasnt been given the chance yet to show of the aftermath of Jake's diagnosis.

I think you are wrong, I think soaps are the perfect medium for showing the reality of mental illness, look at the fantastic job HO did with anorexia. It's a continuious drama, it's once weekly shows that often have some 'nutter' in them just to do something violent and then leave again.