The winter preview video seriously pissed me off.
Days of Our Lives has a fantastic story when it comes to Rachel Black, a kid who has become dangerous because of the trauma she’s witnessed and experienced and the poor role models she’s had for most of her life.
But as usual, the soap has charged full steam ahead without any understanding of what the best practices are for treating a kid like this, and instead of a real story, we get Rachel being shoved into Bayview in the worst way possible.
Rachel Needs Help, But Not Like This
Her decision to put pistachio ice cream in Sarah’s dish was the end result of a serious mental health issue that stemmed from her not remembering that she was the one who shot EJ.
Rachel suffered stomachaches for months, and after Kristen decided to confess to the crime herself, Rachel’s behavior spiraled out of control.
It would be irresponsible to blame only the people who decided to keep quiet about what really happened the night of the shooting.
Still, Marlena should have known better as a psychiatrist and should have informed Brady of what happened and what the plan for helping Rachel now was — Rachel absolutely made choices here as well.
The shooting was an accident, but it caused real harm, and some of that was to Rachel herself.
EJ survived, but Johnny almost went to jail, and Rachel’s trauma was compounded both by having to testify against him at trial and Kristen going to jail.
So yes, Rachel needs help for her own sake and to protect others from pumpkins being thrown at them, their allergies being used against them, or whatever else she impulsively does that could be dangerous to others.
But what she doesn’t need is to be treated like someone who deliberately hurts others for fun, nor like an adult, and the way the preview depicts her stint in Bayview borders on child abuse.
Mental Health Treatment Shouldn’t Be Punishment
About the only thing that Days of Our Lives gets right in this story so far is that mental hospitals are often awful places that leave people in worse condition than when they were admitted.
Days of Our Lives tends to use Bayview as an alternative to jail where the person gets no real therapy and one day is magically determined to be non-dangerous enough to be released.
And in Rachel’s case, there are other problems stemming from her young age.
A fifth-grader should not be in the same mental health ward as adolescents, especially a place like Bayview where there appears to be little oversight.
There’s too much opportunity for an older patient to manipulate a younger one — and yes, Rachel can be manipulative too, but that doesn’t mean she deserves to be treated that way or that it’s her fault if someone else uses her fears and relative inexperience against her to get her to do what they want.
And that’s exactly what will happen here.
A scene in the trailer shows Sophia sneaking into Rachel’s room and revealing that she is far from catatonic, but Sophia puts her finger to her lips when Rachel is surprised that Sophia can talk to her.
Fan sites are flooded with comments about how Rachel and Sophia will be a deadly team, but that’s not really what’s happening.
Rachel is a mixed-up kid who acts impulsively, feels terrible when people get hurt because she didn’t think about the consequences of her actions, and deeply fears abandonment, all of which makes her vulnerable to manipulation.
This story will be closer to Jan Spears pushing Claire back onto the wrong path than to a story about two bad kids wreaking havoc for the hell of it — will DAYS acknowledge it, or will Rachel’s further misbehavior be used as proof that she’s just “mini-Kristen” who can’t help being bad?
Don’t Get Me Started On That Brady/Rachel Scene…
The other Rachel scene in the preview was deeply disturbing to me as someone who advocates for traumatized kids and has studied clinical social work.
Rachel screams and cries not to be left in Bayview, and Brady slams her door shut and walks away.
I understand the intention of this scene. It’s supposed to show that Rachel is out of control and that Brady is forced to respond to a tantrum in this manner.
But what’s really happening is that a troubled kid who is terrified of being abandoned experiences her father, who has been one of the more stable adults in her life (I know, that says a lot considering Brady’s history!), walking away from her when she is in distress.
That is going to cause more harm, and is exactly why this type of facility is not right for Rachel.
I’m not convinced that inpatient treatment is the solution here.
It would be nice if there had been some actual evaluation scenes instead of it happening off-screen, so we could understand why Dr. Fuller chose this placement.
In my opinion, Rachel would do well with a more intensive outpatient therapy that focuses on teaching her skills such as better identification and expression of emotions, impulse control, and better anticipation of the consequences of her actions.
Some trauma-informed techniques like EMDR would also help stabilize her.
However, there is the issue of whether the adults in her life can supervise her adequately to stop her from doing harmful things while she’s working on these skills.
Then there is also the issue that Kristen (when not in jail or kidnapped) would likely not follow the therapeutic plan and undermine what others were trying to do for her daughter.
So in that sense, I can understand why a psychiatrist might recommend inpatient treatment. However, it should not be at Bayview. Rachel would likely do better in a group home setting with girls her age, firm boundaries she needs to respect to earn and keep privileges, and group and individual therapy.
And regardless of setting, she needs a trauma-informed approach that does not involve triggering her fear of abandonment.
Maybe that’s too nuanced for a soap opera, but I wish that the story were closer to it.
Days of Our Lives has a bad habit of misrepresenting mental illness, especially in girls and women, and stories like this reinforce stereotypes and cause fan hatred of characters who are really more grey than totally evil.
Do you think that Rachel’s story should be told differently?
Hit the comments with your thoughts, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so they can join in the conversation.
Days of Our Lives streams on Peacock. New episodes drop on weekday mornings at 6/5c.
