There are many people trying to support Bear Wolf (Joshua Richards) in Emmerdale as he struggles to come to terms with his experiences at the hands of Ray Walters (Joe Absolom) and Celia Daniels (Jaye Griffiths) – and his guilt about killing Ray – but so far nothing has really helped.

Bear’s mental state has been left shattered after months of Ray preying on his vulnerability and gaslighting him and drugging him into believing that Ray had his best interests at heart. Bear was unable to see the reality of his situation – that he and others were being kept as modern day slaves to provide cheap labour on Celia’s farm.

Even after his friend Anya (Alia Al-Shabibi) died of wounds that were left untreated and he had to dig a grave for her himself, Bear still held on to the belief that Ray was looking out for him.

This meant that when Bear killed Ray, in a charged moment when he saw Ray threatening Paddy (Dominic Brunt), he was unable to deal with what he’d done. He couldn’t suddenly switch to believing that Ray was a bad man who deserved to die and he couldn’t live with the guilt that he’d killed a man he’d almost seen as a son.

Paddy and others have tried to help Bear, and in upcoming episodes in the aftermath of Ray’s funeral Laurel (Charlotte Bellamy) tries to get Bear to open up about his trauma and promises to be there for him.

None of this is enough. The funeral has sent Bear spiralling again and he’s desperately craving the painkillers that Ray used to feed him, believing this is the only way he can quieten his mental turmoil and get through the day.

Help finally arrives from someone in the village who has been through incredible trauma in his own life. Aaron Dingle (Danny Miller) finds Bear and brings him home, and begins to talk about his own experience of abuse.

When Aaron was a child he was sexually abused by his father, Gordon Livesy (Gary Mavers). Back in 2016, Aaron revealed this abuse to Robert (Ryan Hawley) and Chas (Lucy Pargeter) in incredibly moving scenes. Bravely he chose to make a stand against Livesy, which eventually saw the evil rapist go on trial for his crimes and be found guilty.

The storyline wasn’t just powerful in itself, but it has shaped Aaron as a character. This time last year we saw him revisit the trauma when he recognised that Ruby Miligan (Beth Cordingly) had been through a similar thing with her own father. When Aaron confronted Ruby’s abuser and left him for dead, his fury stemmed from his own history of abuse.

Talking to Bear about his experiences gets through to Bear in a way that nobody else’s words have really done and Bear starts to open up. Aaron listens and tries to show him that he’s a survivor of abuse too and he shouldn’t reproach himself for what happened.

Although Bear tells Aaron he doesn’t know the full story and so can’t make that judgement, at least he’s starting to allow different viewpoints in and is taking Aaron’s words seriously.