S04.E08: Episode 8

[Beldasnoop]

I love the way Shelagh is glowing these days but at the same time the Turners' expressions were horrifying over the rather miraculous way thalidomide helped the sick lady. I knew instantly when Shelagh asked about pharmaceutical reps it would be thalidomide.  

 

That was so difficult to watch. The Turners were smiling so broadly and so happy that they "helped" Maureen, and Maureen was so excited that she's going to tell all her pregnant friends. No, Maureen! Don't do it! It was also frustrating watching the earlier scene when  Shelagh took the drug ad from Patrick and said "it's worth a try".  No it's not!  That's dramatic irony for you. The audience knows, but the characters don't. 

 

There was also a bit of symbolism in the scene at the Turners' home when Timothy is serving the casserole he compares to volcanic lava (impending disaster) and then Patrick tastes it right after telling Shelagh he'll look up the drug info, and he burns his mouth.  I do think this will be revisited next season, because of all the ominous set-up scenes and the conclusion. 

 

These poor people. Maureen and the other mothers who take the drug will be devastated, and so will the Turners when they find out what it does. The drug was apparently banned in the UK in late 1961, which is next season for CtM, so I'm expecting major drama. It's horrifying, and of all the sad stories in this episode, that last scene with the Turners beaming at each other is the one that made me cry (and I rarely cry over TV shows or movies). They're so happy, but little do they know what's going to happen! 

 

I do realize this is just a show, but this was hard to watch!

Edited May 19, 2015 by Beldasnoop

[Clanstarling]

I see from the recap that not one, but two scenes weren't shown on my PBS station. I spent a lot of the episode wondering why in the world Chummy was staying at Nonnantus house, and why she had all that stuff with her. Plus wondering where the heck her husband was.  As much as I love Chummy, I do agree that she was shoe-horned in here, which is too bad. We may have too many characters now to do service to all of them.

 

The minute they diagnosed the lady with hyperemesis (sp?), I knew thalidomide would rear its ugly head. I remember asking my mother if she'd ever taken it when she was pregnant with me (I was born in Europe around the time it was popular). As I recall, the reason I asked was that at the time I asked they had discovered a link to cervical cancer, I believe, in women whose mothers took thalidomide (not every baby was born deformed). Fortunately, my mother did not take anything at all.

 

I was upset that they ended Patsy's relationship that way. It would have been great to show those two navigating a relationship in those times. They were so sweet together.

 

This season has been way darker, and I have not enjoyed it as much as previous seasons. Though I do like the current cast a lot, and do enjoy watching them.

[Beldasnoop]

The PBS website has the unedited version of Episode 8. If you saw the cut version on your local station, you can watch the full version online. They have three unedited episodes now (episodes 4, 7 and 8). I wish they would put the full versions of all of them up now.

 

Well, there's always the DVDs, which are unedited. Season 4 is out now, and my set arrived today! 

Edited May 19, 2015 by Beldasnoop

[Mrs Shibbles]

I also thought "Marlene is so huge what is happening" when she was first at Fred's! Everything about the way they frame and film this show is fantastic.

She really looked gigantic, like something out of a Tim Burton or Hobbit movie. I had to do a double take!

[Badger]

I always think of Chummy as a kind of female Bertie Wooster in terms of her language and affect.  

 

I can still remember when "Life Magazine" did an article about thalidomide along with pictures of the children who were affected.  

[monakane]

I always think of Chummy as a kind of female Bertie Wooster in terms of her language and affect.  

 

I can still remember when "Life Magazine" did an article about thalidomide along with pictures of the children who were affected.  

 

I worked with someone in the 1970's whose wife was given Valium while she was pregnant.  Their son was born with a cleft palate and would have to undergo numerous surgeries.  Even after the thalidomide disaster, they continued to prescribe dangerous medications to pregnant women.

 

On topic, I was surprised by how much I haven't missed Chummy.  

Edited May 20, 2015 by monakane

[stopeslite]

 

Because she spent so much of the first part of her confessional talking about her father, perhaps she saw things in him that she was beginning to see - and fear - in herself.  My father was an alcoholic, and I never had so much as a glass of wine until I was about 60.  I have now learned that one drink a day with dinner does not make one an alcoholic, but I sure understand being afraid of an inherited predisposition to it.

 

That's what I thought, too. It was beginning to interfere with her life - she was turning down invitations to go out, preferring to stay in her room and drink. I thought she was looking ahead and seeing her dad, and didn't want to turn into that. My grandfather was an alcoholic, and that's one reason I refuse to keep alcohol in the house because I know I'm wired for that kind of problem. I'd be really sensitive to developing alcoholism too, and would want to head it off before it got that bad.

[izabella]

Aw, I missed Chummy and was happy to see her, and I enjoyed her scenes with Sister Monica Joan.  Peter and her son were with her when she scattered her mother's ashes in the Thames. 

 

Patsy's scene with the flowers in the apartment was beautiful, but I couldn't help thinking how the next person who rented that apartment would walk in there and be faced with smelly vase water and dead flowers. 

 

Is it too much to hope for a reconciliation between Trixie and the minister?  Why was he still there - wasn't he supposed to move to Liverpool?

[AheadofStraight]

Thalidomide is still in the news...this popped up in my newsfeed today! http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2015/05/18/supreme-court-to-decide-if-defendants-can-pick-off-class-action-plaintiffs-with-cash/

[QuelleC]

What's his name was supposed to be transferred to Newcastle, which I've never thought of as poor the way Trixie seems to.  Maybe the bishop (?) anticipated sending a married couple there and now that's fallen through. 

 

Thalidomide mom looked great after she stopped barfing 20 times a day.  I can see why the doctor was glad to see her being able to continue the pregnancy (she was severely dehydrated) and get custody of her oldest back.  Unfortunately I kept looking at her tummy and she looked maybe like early second trimester?  I wonder if we'll get the results next season.

[TheAnglican]

Continuity error alert! The scene in which Fred was waxing philosophical about the boiler and how his predecessor had told him he'd have to massage it every day wasn't quite right - because Nonnatus House had moved since the time that Fred started there!

[dalek]

As I recall, the reason I asked was that at the time I asked they had discovered a link to cervical cancer, I believe, in women whose mothers took thalidomide (not every baby was born deformed). Fortunately, my mother did not take anything at all.

 

Clanstarling, are you sure that was thalidomide and not DES?

 

Thalidomide is an interesting drug because while absolutely disastrous for its original purpose, it is used quite successfully for the treatment of leprosy.  

[umgoblue]

The editing/script/directing (?) seemed really odd to me when Nurse Crane took the call from the deaf woman's (June) husband regarding her false labor.  It seemed unnecessarily crass for Crane to state June was deaf ...and dumb to her husband on the phone.  There was a pause and subsequent silence from him as Crane rattled off some other words (blah, blah, blah).  Later when Trixie was at the house and June started crying, I thought it was because of what Crane said, but it was never addressed.  Maybe my 2015 sensibilities are ill placed in the 1960s ;), but it seemed like that comment would have some type of follow up.  Perhaps the comment was added to give another example of Crane's vascilating empathy/lack of empathy skills? 

[Badger]

Interesting factoid about the actress who played the deaf mother:  She's deaf but had to learn sign language because she uses speech in real life.

Edited May 21, 2015 by Badger

[Kohola3]

You are correct - you are attaching 2015 sensibilities to that moment in history.  Deaf and dumb (along with deaf-mute) were commonly used to describe someone who could not hear or speak. Today it is considered offensive.

 

Don't forget that while this was in the 60's and things were changing, Nurse Crane was born at a time when those terms were common.  Just like Sr. Evangelina's horror at having a man present in a birthing room - the times, they were a-changin'!

[Badger]

n/m

Edited May 21, 2015 by Badger

[dustylil]

With respect, I am not sure that that is a 2015 sensibility. I was a child in the early sixties (albeit in North America) and "deaf and dumb" was not a term of polite usage even then. One of my favourite movies at the time was Johnny Belinda  starring Jane Wyman and it was made clear to me  then that "dumb" was neither a proper  or kind term to be used. And this was in a neighbourhood just a few levels above Poplar in its socio-economic circumstances. 

Frankly, I was  startled to hear  Nurse Crane  use it.

Edited May 22, 2015 by dustylil

[umgoblue]

 

Frankly, I was  startled to hear  Nurse Crane  use it.

 

Me, too,  It seemed so random to be thrown in while on the phone with him.  I don't recall hearing any of the other midwives  (or Crane for that matter) describe a patient demographically or characteristically (fat, poor, young, abused, Irish, unwed, prostitute, etc.) on the phone when looking someone up.  I was sure that it was included to be addressed at some point, especially when the husband abruptly stopped talking for the rest of the conversation. I actually wondered if a scene had been cut.  Felt very weird and out of place to me.

[SweePea59]

Me, too,  It seemed so random to be thrown in while on the phone with him.  I don't recall hearing any of the other midwives  (or Crane for that matter) describe a patient demographically or characteristically (fat, poor, young, abused, Irish, unwed, prostitute, etc.) on the phone when looking someone up. 

Back in the olden days, dumb meant unable to speak. It was not an insult. I recall always hearing the phrase 'deaf and dumb' when referring to people born deaf, as opposed to people who lost their hearing later in life, and could speak. That's back in the days that gay only meant happy and was used as a girl's first name. Word meanings change with the times. 

Nurse Crane was just stating the medical facts as she knew them pertinent to the case. And considering how this season has been going, I'd guess that it was intended to get a rise out of the younger members of the audience, and point out how we are so PC now we don't use that word that way. I haven't heard the phrase used in awhile, and when I heard Nurse Crane use it I just went, oh yeah, that's right, that's what they used to say. It'd be less realistic to not use the phrase in this period piece.

[umgoblue]

Thank you, Kohola3 and SweePea59, for providing some context!

[Black Knight]

In another sign of how times have changed - that poor deaf mom who was worrying about communicating with her baby? Nowadays she would know that babies actually can communicate in sign language earlier they can communicate verbally.

 

I hated the amnesia plot twist so much (although I don't think it's the end of the story). I notice the comments have focused on the next-of-kin issues, and of course that's very true, but what really struck me more is how alone Patsy is. That was quite glaring in an episode in which both Chummy and Trixie were able to talk with other people about their problems. They have problems they can talk about. Of course everyone was very kind to Patsy about Delia's accident, but still, they don't know that Delia was actually Patsy's girlfriend and that their moving in together was a lifetime commitment kind of thing (Delia said in a previous episode that she wanted to marry Patsy, and of course back then there was no marriage, so this was the next thing to that). Patsy isn't able to talk to them about any of that. Even if any of the others suspect, and I'm not sure they do (for instance, I did think in a previous episode that maybe Sister Julienne knew something, but in this episode her reaction to Patsy moving out made me think otherwise), it still doesn't help Patsy since it's not resulting in a frank conversation.

 

I hope next season we get to learn more about Barbara. I've really liked her from the start, and we still hardly know anything about her. Although, considering the hell the writers have put Patsy and Trixie through, maybe I shouldn't wish for that...god knows what they'll come up with for Barbara.

 

Is there a Christmas special? Do we get the Christmas special in the U.S.?

[Beldasnoop]

There will be a Christmas special. It's currently being filmed. I posted a link to an article about the filming in the "Call the Midwife In the Media" thread.

 

PBS should air the special sometime around Christmas (I think it airs on Christmas Day in the UK), and then it should be on the website. Fortunately, PBS has never edited the Christmas specials.

 

[txhorns79]

Although, considering the hell the writers have put Patsy and Trixie through, maybe I shouldn't wish for that...god knows what they'll come up with for Barbara.

 

She'll obviously be the illegitimate daughter of a lesbian alcoholic who was killed during the war while living in colonial Hong Kong or India. 

 

 

Back in the olden days, dumb meant unable to speak. It was not an insult. I recall always hearing the phrase 'deaf and dumb' when referring to people born deaf, as opposed to people who lost their hearing later in life, and could speak. That's back in the days that gay only meant happy and was used as a girl's first name. Word meanings change with the times.

 

Indeed.  People sometimes forget that language changes, and given that Nurse Crane would have started her career in the 20s or 30s, it isn't surprising she would still be using a term that may have become antiquated by the early 60s.   

[MaryHedwig]

She'll obviously be the illegitimate daughter of a lesbian alcoholic who was killed during the war while living in colonial Hong Kong or India.

Love it!  But don't forget: her first love was a married man, her second got someone else pregnant just when she figured out she wanted him, and her third fell through a scaffolding.

 

I did think in a previous episode that maybe Sister Julienne knew something, but in this episode her reaction to Patsy moving out made me think otherwise), it still doesn't help Patsy since it's not resulting in a frank conversation.

I detected a continuity slip during Patsy's conversation with Sister Julienne.  Patsy said her "dark secret" was that she had never had a chance to face the challenges of independent living, as if to rationalize her need to move out on her own away from the convent.  Wasn't Patsy raised in a POW camp?  Didn't she watch her mother and sister die of starvation?  Don't you learn a few independently living skills when that happens to you?

[txhorns79]

I detected a continuity slip during Patsy's conversation with Sister Julienne.  Patsy said her "dark secret" was that she had never had a chance to face the challenges of independent living, as if to rationalize her need to move out on her own away from the convent.  Wasn't Patsy raised in a POW camp?  Didn't she watch her mother and sister die of starvation?  Don't you learn a few independently living skills when that happens to you?

 

I don't know if that's really a continuity issue, because Patsy was just using that as an excuse.  Though I'd also say being in a POW camp isn't really the same thing as having your own apartment. 

[Badger]

Barbara is a vicar's daughter from Liverpool.  That's the extent of knowledge about her background.

[Clanstarling]

Clanstarling, are you sure that was thalidomide and not DES?

 

Thalidomide is an interesting drug because while absolutely disastrous for its original purpose, it is used quite successfully for the treatment of leprosy.  

You are absolutely right - my memory conflated the two. It was 40+ years ago - so I call "senior moment." :)

[albaniantv]

Great exchange -- only found out by reading here that amnesia is a soap trope. I see the doomed lesbain as a trope too. So, surely this is bad news, the two tropes wound together like a pigtail --the lesbain who cannot remember that she is one! Oh dear...

 

Reading your comments, I feel for Poor Chummy. I go back and forth on her, one week finding her the sore thumb standing out, the next hoping she gets her own show. Maybe it should be when she was a missionary in, was it Africa? Surely she would fit in there, where they were more accustomed to the odd Brit who was all thumbs (except sometimes in the garden) but not really threatening.

[Beldasnoop]

There was never any indication that Delia's amnesia affected her sexual orientation (why would it?)  She simply didn't remember Patsy, or her mother for that matter.

 

I still don't think this is a "tragic lesbians" situation. I'm aware of the trope and some of its history, but this is Call the Midwife. Couples on this show get drama before they can be happy. They all do, whether it's relatively minor like Fred and Violet or more complicated like the Turners with the nun situation/TB/Polio/Infertility/PTSD and so forth (and now there's thalidomide, so more drama ahead for them). There's also Trixie and Tom, whose story isn't resolved yet, either (I don't want them to get back together, but some more closure for their story would be nice). And then there was Jenny and Alec, whose story ended suddenly and tragically. Patsy and Delia's story is not over. I'm sure it will continue into next season, and I don't expect it to be ultimately tragic like Jenny and Alec's story. I think we'll probably see Delia either a) get her memory back or b) fall in love with Patsy all over again, which will allow for some excellent dramatic moments.   

 

I'd be partial to b) because one of my biggest issues with the Patsy/Delia story is that we never got to see their relationship develop. Delia was just kind of dropped into the show as Patsy's girlfriend, and the show didn't tell us much about her beyond that and that she was a nurse. The "falling in love again" angle would allow the show to develop Delia's character more and let the audience get to know her better, while also showing (rather than telling) more of a relationship dynamic between her and Patsy.

 

Also, you can say that the amnesia story is soapy and/or overdone, and normally I would agree. Still, I'm reserving judgment in this particular case because of how Heidi Thomas has handled potentially soapy/overdone plot elements on this show in the past. For instance, the whole "nun or priest leaves holy orders for love" thing has been done before (as has the TB story), but I'd never seen it done the way this show did it, with a minimum of melodrama and keeping it in a much more realistic vein (and where the ex-nun in question ends up almost as closely involved with her former sisters as she was when she was one of them).  I'm expecting a similar element of realism and depth in the Patsy/Delia storyline. 

Edited May 26, 2015 by Beldasnoop

[txhorns79]

There's also Trixie and Tom, whose story isn't resolved yet, either (I don't want them to get back together, but some more closure for their story would be nice)

 

I guess I would ask how has their story not resolved?  They aren't getting married, and it does not appear either has any lingering feelings for the other.  What more closure would they need? 

 

The same with Patsy and Delia.  I saw their story as over.  Delia will be moving back to her parents' home, and has no real memory of Patsy.  Sure, she could suddenly regain her health and her memory, but the way it was written, I saw that chapter closing.   

[Beldasnoop]

Trixie's last shot in the whole season was her staring wistfully at Tom while he danced with Nurse Crane at Fred and Violet's wedding reception. I think it's also been made very clear that Tom still has feelings for Trixie. I'm sure that story isn't over, or they'd write Tom out. He's at least back for the Christmas special as he's been seen in filming photos.

 

As for Patsy and Delia, I'm sure that's not over. Heidi Thomas has said as much on Twitter, but otherwise it would be a very sloppy ending. So Delia doesn't remember (for now),but Patsy does, and I don't see her as giving up that easily.   

Edited May 25, 2015 by Beldasnoop

[dcalley]

Not even that - Delia's mom didn't say anything like "Oh, you're Patsy, she's talked so much about you!" Patsy seemed hurt right then that Delia's mom had no idea who she was, not on the level of "you're her new flatmate" or even "you're a friend of hers, right?" 

Delia's mom did say "Patsy? Of course, you're the lady she helps at Cubs." It is odd that Delia didn't tell her mom about her new roommate. I didn't like that apartment and briefly worried Patsy was going to stay there solo.

[lucindabelle]

I think Tricie is absolutely right to break her engagement. She's not cut out to be a vicars wife.

I also was a little offed by the way they leapt from one drink at night to alcoholic, just because the other girls seem to be Teetotallers and tease her, would it have hurt so much to sh her calling in sick or something because she drank? The only time she ever passed out was when hell lots of people drink, after ending an engagement. Not everybody who gets a little drunk in a heartbreak is an alcoholic.

Clearly the show wants us to think thT but I just wish they'd shown it. It does make sense that she's afraid she'll become one, but latency is not the same as being one.

I read up on thalidomide after the show and was stunned by ye heroism of the female! Fda doctor who forbade it here. Also stunned that deformities happened if a woman took even one tablet. Horrible.

I was born in the mid 60s but mom said even if it had been legal she wouldn't have taken it because she didn't suffer from it much, whew.

[DeathQuaker]

While not everybody who gets a little drunk in a heartbreak is an alcoholic, alcoholics are not all fall-down drunks who drink bottle after bottle either. As I understand it (with the caveat I am not a medical professional, psychologist, or any other sort of expert), an alcoholic is someone who, in some part, feels a NEED for a drink, that they can't get past a moment or a day, or cope with a certain emotion, or sleep or what-have-you, without it. Whether that's one drink a night or several at any time is irrelevant--it's the compulsion to drink, or reliance upon drinking as a coping mechanism. In fact many alcoholics try to fool themselves or their family/friends into believing they are "in control" because it's "just one drink" at a time, even though they are letting "that one drink" compel them.

 

Trixie is shown to be a probable alcoholic because a) she herself says she wants to stop and feels she can't/needs help doing so (and that's the biggest reason right there), and b) even before her "rock bottom" binges, they've shown her several times hesitating and then reaching for a drink, like she knows she shouldn't or doesn't want to but feels compelled. I think the portrayal of Trixie as an alcoholic is actually pretty realistic and the problem is that realism is seldom seen on TV and other pop culture media. Contrary to popular belief, substance abuse is seldom an "obvious" thing and people who suffer from it also often do a very good job for keeping it under wraps and/or convincing themselves and others their behavior is "normal" for a long time. Alcoholism can particularly well-hidden because of this because it IS also a social activity and there indeed ARE people who can have "that one drink" but not be addicted. I'm actually really glad "Call the Midwife" portrayed it the way they have because maybe it'll open some people's eyes that alcoholism and similar issues can develop and reveal itself in that way.

 

New here so hope it's okay to just jump in like this. Love this show and have been reading all of y'alls insightful comments for awhile and really enjoying them.

Edited May 28, 2015 by DeathQuaker

[lucindabelle]

I've heard that definition, but I do not buy it. I feel it waters down what being an alcoholic means to something that is just a really bad habit, like needing a cup of coffee, being "addicted" to television, etc.

 

Of course I realize many people are functional alcoholics, but typically those people are still not drinking one measly shot per day. They may not be falling down drunk, but they drink constantly. My guess is the show believed it was demonstrating that by showing her having her nightcap. To me, it was just a nightcap.

 

Lots of people speculated that Alicia on The Goodwife is an alcoholic because she often has a glass of wine to unwind. It drives me spare. It seems to me to be a kind of judginess. I do buy that Trixie thinks she is an alcoholic, though. I just don't think the show did a very good job of that. One spare comment from the girls that hurt her feeling, one moment of wondering could she stop, and it's off to AA?

 

I don't find this show realistic about many things-- the portrayal of the Jewish family was particularly laughable. I watch it for entertainment and a little education.

[txhorns79]

One spare comment from the girls that hurt her feeling, one moment of wondering could she stop, and it's off to AA?

 

Didn't she also get drunk enough to where she missed her nursing shift because she had passed out? 

[Badger]

Yes, she did.  The ironic thing is, I don't think the other nurses necessarily believed she had a problem.  I think they saw her drinking as kind of one of her quirks

 

I think when Sister Mary Cynthia found her calling a suicide hotline that she knew Trixie had a problem..

[QuelleC]

I hear what you're saying.  To some people any drinking is "alcoholism".  But I always found it odd that it was allowed in their rooms in a religious order at all, knowing they could be called out at any hour.  And Trixie didn't just share an occasional bottle of wine to unwind, she really does have Trixie's Bar and she looks at it a lot.  It seemed to me it was a nightly thing with her, something she couldn't do without even when she tried to.  Given her history and nurse's training I give her credit for knowing what's what.  I don't think everyone who has even a few glasses of wine even every day is always an alcoholic.  The problem is choosing it over what you know you should be doing and Trixie knows she crossed that line and she knew it early.  Contemplating life and marriage with what's his name, breaking it off,  remembering her father - and talking about it - made it escalate from being a party girl.  I think it's stunning television really.  From her chipper facade to that face in the mirror.  Sorry if I'm repeating myself but I can't wait to see what happens with this storyline next season.

Edited June 9, 2015 by QuelleC

[MaryHedwig]

But I always found it odd that it was allowed in their rooms in a religious order at all, knowing they could be called out at any hour.

I agree.  I also find it odd to see health professionals smoke.  But then I remember how much times have changed.  We know so much more now about what is healthy for our bodies and what is not.

[Kohola3]

My mom has some wild stories about when she was in nursing school at a Catholic hospital and living in the residence there.  There may have been rules but there are also lots of ways to get around them. It would appear that the nuns give the nurses their privacy;  we don't often see the nuns in the rooms with them.

[AuntiePam]

My first husband insisted he wasn't an alcoholic because he'd often go weeks without drinking, and he never drank at home, or early in the day.  After his second DUI, he was ordered into treatment, and his therapist said that if your drinking causes problems and you still drink, you're an alcoholic. 

 

The alcoholic label has so much baggage, maybe it needs to be retired, especially if people resist the label and won't seek help.  Unlike other health/medical conditions, it denotes weakness of character (unfairly, of course). 

[DeathQuaker]

Yes, perhaps I needed to be clearer: if there is an uncontrollable compulsion to drink, it's addiction. There is a difference between a casual, "Gee, I guess I'll have my traditional nightcap" (but the person doesn't miss it if they don't have it) and an unshakeable belief of "If I don't have a drink, I can't sleep." There is a difference between, "Well, I'll have a little punch at the Christmas party because that's the thing to do," and "I can't cope with the stress of the holidays without a drink, so I MUST HAVE IT." Or yes, a difference between "I'll have a drink with my friends," and "I'll have a drink with my friends even though it means I'll drive home drunk because I really WANT that drink and surely nothing will go wrong this time..."

 

But to be clear, I am not saying any one who ever has a drink ever might suffer from substance abuse problems. What I am saying is it's not about quantity, it's about control/lack thereof and quality of life. In the show, Trixie's quality of life was suffering and she felt she couldn't stop even though she wanted to. That's indicative of the problem, not how much she was drinking or when or how "traditional" it might have seemed, or even that one of her friends could share a drink with her nearly every not and not have the same issue.

 

Based on personal observation of folks close to me with substance abuse issues, I know it is damaging and hurtful to think that alcoholism must be some grandiose binging--although someone who has an addiction will certainly be prone to binging under certain circumstances even if it's not typical. It tends to get worse and worse over time, but it can start with something that very much looks like "normal" behavior that may appear "under control," and failing to recognize that may result in enabling someone with a damaging disease to continue suffering from the symptoms.

 

Is there going to be more Call the Midwife? It will be interesting to see how they carry this plot forward.

Edited June 9, 2015 by DeathQuaker

[lucindabelle]

Well, I guess I can accept these definitions, if one doesn't become automatically an alcoholic if one has a bourbon during "bourbon hour" in South Carolina every day. Etc. If it's a custom and you partake but don't miss it if you're somewhere else... is that the idea?  If what you all are saying, and I think you are, is that habit is different from compulsion, I'll accept that. i do think "addiction" gets thrown around too easily, and the idea of alcoholism as an illness, which for some it clearly is, is rather problematic in that it manifests so differently. Some people are genetically disposed to overindulge-- they don't get nauseous easily, they don't get sick, they have the highs without much of the lows. My genetic makeup wouldn't allow me to drink to that point-- right around the time some friends who have had problems tell me you get that "click" is when I start to feel nauseated. But that's good luck for me, right?  So that's a matter of genetics.

Similarly they've done studies that show some people get actual endorphin rushes and more from gambling. That doesn't happen to me.

But I can see how anything could become compulsive. Coffee, sudoko, even prayer.

 

I have some trouble with the word "disease," as someone who is in fact living with an auto-immune disease, but if the word means people will seek treatment without stigma it's a good thing.

[DeathQuaker]

Well, I guess I can accept these definitions, if one doesn't become automatically an alcoholic if one has a bourbon during "bourbon hour" in South Carolina every day. Etc. If it's a custom and you partake but don't miss it if you're somewhere else... is that the idea?  If what you all are saying, and I think you are, is that habit is different from compulsion, I'll accept that.

 

Indeed, yes that is what I am trying to say. And yes, I think nearly anything can become a compulsion... the point is when it starts to overrule your life is when it becomes a problem. I.e., coffee a day is fine; beating someone up to get the last cup, perhaps not. :)

 

Her issue is that what may have started as a "habit" became something she relied upon regularly and extensively as a coping mechanism. That's where things can get dangerous.

Edited June 10, 2015 by DeathQuaker

[Beldasnoop]

Is there going to be more Call the Midwife? It will be interesting to see how they carry this plot forward.

 

Yes, there is going to be more. The Christmas special and season 5 have started filming already. If you want updates on the filming, the Call the Midwife official Facebook page is a great place to look. They post photos and reports several times a week.

[mbutterfly]

I always think of Chummy as a kind of female Bertie Wooster in terms of her language and affect.  

 

I can still remember when "Life Magazine" did an article about thalidomide along with pictures of the children who were affected.  

I was just pregnant with my first child when that edition of Life came out. I can remember the moment i looked at the cover. Terrifying.

[kassa]

Aside from the thalidomide shudder, I also felt a pang at seeing Delia and Patsy sitting on the floor having a picnic in their new flat.  That's what my roommate and I did the very first night in our apartment -- a loaf of french bread, cheese, fruit... looking out the window at the skyline.  

 

Not lesbians, and we're both alive and well now.  But that whole scene took me way, way back in time to that moment when everything stretched out ahead of us in the Big City.  Which made it all the more painful when everything was swept away from Patsy in that accident.

Edited June 29, 2015 by kassa

[Archery]

OMG, show. That crunching sound is my heart, going to pieces beneath your boot.

[Grandma Saracen]

As someone w/a non-thalidomide-related congenital limb difference, who occasionally gets asked about that very thing... I went through a range of emotions with this one. I figured out what it was fairly early on... but to be shown it so dramatically and well was emotional.

 

I did feel like Chummy's visit was a bit awkward, but I liked the small moments she had, with MJ especially. 

 

Patsy is just lovely to watch. The storyline made me roll my eyes, though. 

[LilJen]

That was like the SADDEST EPISODE EVER. Poor Patsy. (Although yeah, amnesia was a bit of a soapy way to get the tragedy.)

The psych community now views addictions as a continuum, from "no problem at all" to "you are killing yourself," so, yes, a person's relationship to a substance/alcohol can show itself differently in different people. The American Psychiatric Assoc came out with its latest edition in 2013. Criteria for addiction include things like giving up hobbies & social stuff or isolating yourself, spending lots of time getting/using/recovering from use, failing to meet "major role obligations" (work, family, school), using the substance in physically risky situations or using it in riskier ways than usual, tolerance (needing more of the drug to get the same effect), whether you experience withdrawal symptoms (although not all drugs do this), a desire to stop and/or failure to stop or cut back on use, cravings/strong desires to use. So you can have a few symptoms or lots of symptoms and be anywhere from mild to severe in your addiction.

(Yes, I just took a course on addictions :)

Edited May 11, 2016 by LilJen