Paddy's friends in Emmerdale vow to stop him from trying to end his life again

As the credits rolled after tonight’s emotional episode of Emmerdale, there was one thing Paddy Kirk’s (Dominic Brunt) friends and family all secretly knew – there was every chance he may try and end his life again.

Struggling with depression and isolation, Paddy went missing during yesterday’s episode of the ITV soap, which left the likes of Bear (Joshua Richards), Marlon (Mark Charnock) and Chas (Lucy Pargeter) to conclude that he didn’t want to be alive.

Eventually found and saved by Marlon, Paddy was in his bedroom having a chat with Liam (Jonny McPherson).

Liam asked Paddy brutally honest questions, wondering if he would reach a crisis point again if he wasn’t there and left alone.

Paddy said that things feel different now, and this was largely down to the fact he had already made a massive step without even realising – he had started talking.

Of course, Liam knew that there was every chance Paddy could feel the same emotions again, and wanted to know the thing would stop him from going through with his plan.

But Paddy didn’t know the answer.

Liam left the family after telling them that Paddy had been put on anti-depressants and a very long waiting list for therapy and, as morning broke, we saw the beloved character on top of his bed fully clothed, unaware of whether he had actually slept at all during the night.

Downstairs, as Chas chatted about how she checked on Paddy every hour, Bear was still clutching the car keys in his hand.

And then there was Marlon, possibly the only person who could somewhat relate to Paddy’s pain as, of course, he had come close to death after suffering from a stroke, something he never thought he would recover from.

Marlon begged Paddy, he wanted some sort of reassurance that his best mate wasn’t going to try and end his life again.

‘All I know is, I don’t want to do it today’, Paddy said.

‘Right now, that works’, Marlon responded.

And it’ll have to.

The journey ahead for Paddy will be long and there will be bumps in the road but ultimately, he will ‘find himself’ again, as producer Jane Hudson recently explained.

‘I think it’s really important that we play this story to its fullest and we show that journey, and it’s not an easy journey.’

‘As soon as we started discussing this story, we knew that it was vital for us to get it right and that we needed to open up the conversation about male depression and suicide’, she told us.

‘Paddy is usually very happy-go-lucky in life, always joking and having a laugh, but what we see is that recent events have really taken their toll.

‘Despite him being popular and having lots of friends and family around him, Paddy starts to feel increasingly lonely, isolated and overwhelmed by his feelings and this leads to him having some very dark thoughts.

‘We’ve worked really closely with Samaritans and Andy’s Man Club every step of the way through this story and their incredible support and insight has helped us to shape Paddy’s journey into a true reflection of what thousands of men sadly go through every year.’

Source: Read Full Article