Akane has only one way to get back home: collect the 42 keys to parallel worlds. Eri and Ben are just trying to get through the summer before university. When a magical key turns up in an old spare set, all three are forced to change their plans and fast.
No End
Erli, Kromi
A queer romance about people attempting to build lives in a cold, post-apocalyptic world ravaged by hordes of undead.
Paint the Town Red
Windy, Winter Jay Kiakas
Winona runs a werewolf shelter with partner in crime, Odile in the Gothic city of Merlot. One day they take in an injured vampire, and soon unravels many of the dark secrets of Merlot.
Guilded Age
T Campbell, John Waltrip, Florence Machina
Welcome to the saga of the working-class adventurer! Enjoy the complete story with new annotations daily!
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Shaderunners
Alex Assan, Lin Darrow
A ragtag band of bootleggers open a speakeasy for bottled colour in the greyscale city of Ironwell.
Hemlock
Josceline Fenton
A witch accidentally marries a monster, and now she and her familiar has to navigate life around her monstrous husband and her even more terrifying in-laws.
Dumbing of Age
David M Willis
Joyce has been homeschooled her entire life until now, when she's suddenly a freshman in college! Things don't go well.
BOOKMARK Click "Tag Page" to bookmark a page. When you return to the site, click "Goto Tag" to continue where you left off.
BUFFER WATCH
Comics are currently drawn and uploaded through:
Would have have successfully taken Ba Sing Se without losing his son, and subsequently going through the change of heart that turned him into the wise old man we know and love today?
When did Ruth explicitly state that she was bisexual? I clearly remember Billie denying that she was a lesbian, but I don’t remember Ruth spelling it out. Of course, over the course of 3600+ strips, I might have missed it…
I don’t think the school would allow an OFFICIAL move of three students into a room meant for two. Staying a night there… or all the nights there… that’s fine, but the bureacracy insists you be LISTED as living two-per-dorm, dammit!
You miss the beauty my friend. If Sierra is officially rooming with Roz, then *no one* is subjected to Roz, because Sierra unofficially lives with her girlfriends.
Roz isn’t that bad to people who are socially liberal, which includes Sierra. It would also free Roz from Mary, which… really, why would I subject Roz to Mary? (Save, perhaps, for the delight in subjecting Mary to Roz.)
My college had a number of freshmen and sophomores is rooms they called “forced triples” which were doubles that they bunked an extra student in. Most people lived in fear of having to live in a forced triple, but if you volunteered for it, the school wasn’t going to say no.
I’m dissuaded from going back to the ding-dong bandit sequence to figure out the room layout by the simple fact that “across the hall” doesn’t necessarily mean “directly across.the hall.”
Billie’s been moved to another hall to get her away from Ruth.
That leaves Sal short a roommate (since Becky wasn’t an official one).
Now, why they moved Sierra instead of just sticking Becky in the empty bed is another matter entirely. (I wouldn’t put it past Puddinghead to think “Oh, wait, two black girls! They should totally room together!”)
I’m now wondering if Zaph got moved to the proper dorm and opened up a spot in that other hall for someone to move to. That should allow everyone to stick around in the strip.
I feel you on the antidepressants Ruth, I had to go through like 5 different types before I got the one I’m on now. It does the job and isn’t as anxiety inducing as the others were.
Also, I find it adorable and sweet that Becky cares about Ruth and her mental health.
Apart from her “enemy” status with Dorothy, isn’t Becky great?
And sometimes your new antidepressant works fine as an antidepressant, but it interferes with your antiarrhythmic and you get to spend a week in the cardiac ward.
Or your new antidepressant is a really shitty antidepressant, but by the time you assemble the spoons to defy your psychiatrist you’re hooked and it has an arse-kicking bongo of a withdrawal syndrome, and even when that’s done the post-SSRI syndrome leaves you anorgasmic for eight years.
Honestly, even the enemy thing isn’t too bad so long as Becky keeps it on the “shenanigans” level and away from “mayhem”.
Dorothy is liked and respected by basically everyone. Basically her only flaws are working too hard and being a little over-serious. She could use some shenanigans in her life, and while Joyce can also provide that, she’s also a rule-following goody two shoes just like Dorothy, and looks up to her.
Dotty needs someone a little more wild and challenging.
Sierra was wild and challenging! She refused to wear shoes! She has regular threesomes! She even invited Dorothy to some vegan food thing, which I’d clearly anarchy!
If she was any wilder or more challenging we’d be calling her Hamilton!
And was pretty damn traumatized, because the way she found out also included hearing Billie was lowkey suicidal as well. (And THAT, with ‘I swore I’d never miss the signs again’ about Billie giving away her room, I would definitely call triggering.)
On a more cheerful note, Prozac: for guys, it’s always winter but never Christmas. Or you can have Wellbutrin: you can have a Christmas present, … but it’s limp as an ugly sweater.
Somehow I’d forgotten about that roomies storyline, and now I’m wondering if the guy she was dating earlier in DoA is the same guy she married in IW. Anybody know who can save me from the dreaded double archive trawl for everybody’s least favorite character?
The first person Mary got pregnant by in Roomies! (Eric) is apparently the guy Mike had sex with here. He’s also the guy Ethan brought to the party at Becky’s here.
Peter Paul who Mary married after getting pregnant again is, per the wiki, her current boyfriend in this continuity. You can see them being obnoxious here.
My guess is that Roz’s room transfer finally went through so she’s somewhere else, and Sierra being a giant sweetheart (and also never needing to actually stay there since she can unofficially just live with her girlfriends) jumped on the granade and asked to be assigned as Mary’s roommate so Becky doesn’t get stuck with her.
I could buy it. Sierra is too good for this world, and also has a guaranteed out and is thus the best option to suffer through Technically Rooming With Mary.
Having friends go through multiple drugs, sometimes you get one that seems perfect… at first. And then turns out it’s not, and you have to try something else instead.
Side effects can also be brutal – I’ve switched through several combinations that were good for my mood but did things like spike my blood pressure. Or blood sugar. A couple also caused really extreme temperature sensitivity. And once you have semi-functioning emotions again that alone seems massive, but sometimes even the highest dose isn’t enough for breakthrough depression. Some of them have also spiked my anxiety beyond the normal levels once the depression’s not all-consuming anymore, that’s a nasty one.
Since I just found I my depression keeps me from noticing (and creating situations where I could notice it) that I get axiety attacks about finding a new job (like you know, short of breath, loosing all focus, staring at the screen and not remembering words, and needing to distract myself with technical issues like doing the resume in XML to distract myself from the content of what I’m doing), if suspect than some depressions are a reaction to anxiety.
Ohh yes, the depression anxiety hook. Been there. You can do it, you are a worthy human being and the next person to tell you otherwise (you included) gets a psychic love tap.
You find a setback and the spiral is painful to even watch, I’m told. They just go hand-in-hand for me, I can get behind some depressions being an effect of prolonged periods of anxiety. However, the some is important there. When my gf had to fly back home… wowza, could barely function.
Mine’s a tandem routine. Sometimes one prompts the other, sometimes it’s the other way around. (I do tend to get breakthrough anxiety as one of my earlier symptoms, but it’s not always clear which actually came first.)
omg this strip had me rofl!! her “bathe in your gore” is pure ruth! and then the juxtaposition of becky’s ? and ruth’s starttlement into an honest answer, and to top it off, the almost nobody!! lolololol priceless!!!!! ty so v much- i really need a laugh like that right now!!
It very much is a process! Thank you for acknowledging that it takes time to find the meds and dosage that works best for you! I hope Ruth eventually finds that combination!
Sorry for all the exclamation points. Just imagine it’s all in a happy and excited voice from someone who’s been through the process.
“footage”, “Sierra”. I see what you did there…
And the side effects weren’t that bad. The homicidal tendencies were at least manageable. The overenthusiasm for lost causes, such as certain hopeless hockey teams, probably got it pulled from the market, and now Ruth is part of a class action suit.
I mean jokes aside, I wouldn’t be shocked if that whole semi-manic painting her dorm room thing was actually a side effect and happened another time in the skip, so readjustments occurred.
Or it just wasn’t up for dealing with the chaos that is Ruth’s life on its own, always a possibility. Especially with winter arriving.
Oh, yeah, seasonal affective depression can make a huge difference. Summer can be fine with one medication but then the snow starts to fall and you get Bonus Depression: Cinnamon Flavor.
This entire strip is so goddamn hilarious. The trepidation from Dorothy. The intimidation from Ruth. then Becky just Absolutely no selling it into a wholesome chat that starts veering back to the intimidation. Perfect.
Willis I think this is the first time you’ve acknowledged that seeking professional help doesn’t directly and straightforwardly solve all psychological problems. Seriously, the friendliness and professionalism of the behavioral healthcare providers in your comic has been more unrealistic than the superhero car chases. Now have Ruth gain forty pounds and start spontaneously shitting herself from her meds, go to her psychiatrist to complain about it, have them laugh at her misfortune and then criticize her for not having a more positive attitude about “the process”, and maybe you’ll start approaching actual realism.
That…. has not been my personal experience; so, his depiction hasn’t seemed unrealistic to me. Im really sorry you’ve had such horrible experiences but even the health professionals who weren’t particularly helpful to me still acted like decent human beings which leaves me inclined to encourage people to reach out for help. I guess I can only hope people seeking help are lucky to find good people like I did.
I’m not describing any specific personal experience of mine, I’m pithily generalizing based on a lifetime of first and second and third hand exposure to the behavioral health industry. Some form of abuse by professionals is typical, whether as a matter of personal conduct or policy in practice. Genuine empathy is vanishingly rare.
Let me put it this way: the psychiatric system is an extension of the same emergency services complex that sends out cops to shoot autistic kids having a meltdown when their parents call asking for help. Why would you expect the quality of care to suddenly become significantly better once those cops hand off the people they pick up to a psychiatric facility?
As for side effects, the general rule of thumb in psychiatric pharmacological prescriptivism is that the less conscious a patient is the fewer symptoms of mental illness they display. Medications are meant to make patients easier for their handlers to manage, not improve their mental health. This philosophy goes all the way back to the lobotomy and has never changed. A patient too dizzy to walk stops acting out; a patient too drowsy to talk stops expressing incorrect thinking.
And this certainly isn’t limited to psychiatry- psychology has its own separate sins and abuses. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, for example, is built around a theory that negative emotions stem from inappropriate mental associations, and in practice mostly consists of gaslighting and browbeating patients for expressing their stream of consciousness. If a certain date on the calendar reminds a patient of an upsetting past event which causes them distress to remember, the Cognitive Behavior Therapist might explain to the patient that they are being irrational by having these negative thoughts about what is just a number and a square on a grid, with a general aim of framing their distress as self-inflicted and guilting them into repression. Generally behavioral health practitioners try to inflict some kind of pain on patients whenever they display symptoms, nominally to discourage malingering, but more realistically because a patient who is conditioned to hide their symptoms will present as being in better mental health than before they were conditioned, which in the short term is often outwardly indistinguishable from treatment being effectively therapeutic.
The bottom line is that insurance doesn’t pay fees based on achieving results, it pays fees based on billable time, so the entire thrust of the industry is on running out the clock in the way which is least costly to the provider while creating at least the illusion of performing helpful treatment, and this is usually most easily achieved through some kind of patient abuse.
Uh, I don’t think your experiences with medicine and mental health professionals are the norm. My condolences, pooping yourself is a damn bummer side effect for sure.
DoA has never shown that seeking professional help directly and straightforwardly solves all psychological problems. Sal has mentioned having bad/unhelpful therapy, Ruth was told from the get go that medicine takes time to kick in, etc.
Yeah, very much this. I’ve had some bad mental health experiences (my stint in outpatient wasn’t terrible on the whole but I still wouldn’t recommend it if it can be avoided, and I will never take Adderall again after how completely I was zombified that year,) but most of my providers were competent, compassionate, and willing to treat me like a mentally-competent human being. Now, I’m lucky – depression and anxiety are pretty common, autism is infantilized more than it’s stigmatized, I’m white as fucking chalk, and I have access to REALLY GOOD health insurance – but there’s a reason why a lot of people who are in therapy themselves are willing to recommend it to others. Side effects can be terrible, but sometimes you really do need the one that makes you gain thirty pounds in the span of a month because yeah, you can live with that one more than being depressed enough not to leave bed. Bad therapists can do a ton of damage, but a good one’s a literal lifesaver.
Also, on the subject of realism… based off Willis’s commentary during some sections of Roomies and It’s Walky over in the reruns, it seems pretty likely there’s a ‘this depression is autobiographical’ aspect there as well, at least to some extent. Bad mental health care exists, but it’s not unrealistic for someone who’s had a bad brush with mental illness and care that helped them to depict that in their stories. Especially not when it’s balanced by some very realistic pieces – Sal has in fact found it unhelpful, Dorothy’s is nondescript, Ruth takes weeks for her first meds to even start kicking in, got the crying back first, and ultimately had to try another one within a couple months. All that is in keeping with mental health care. It has issues, but there are enough competent people around to keep it going.
+1 “Adderal didn’t work for me”. That stuff made me feel lethargic, like my brain was stuck in slow motion. I’m old enough that the strategy at the time was “drug the kid to ‘make him normal’”, so you can imagine how well it went over with the teachers when that didn’t pan out.
Pro tip: don’t punish a kid with ADD for “goofing off” and “not paying attention” when their grades are fine, then drug them up and punish them for “not listening” and letting their grades slip when you make them a zombie, then punish them again when they have a fucking meltdown because you waited until they were lucid to act on it.
I flushed those goddamn pills after that day, and refused to try anything else. (Mostly out of spite, I admit…) Surprise surprise, my grades came back up out of the gutter. All they had to do was fucking listen to me, instead of deciding they knew better because they were the adults and I was ‘just a kid with mental issues’. It turns out explaining something a different way is more effective than sternly repeating yourself when asked for clarification…
I was fortunate enough to have supportive parents. Especially since I’m not sure I was aware enough something was wrong to take any action. (I have functionally no memory of that year.)
I was unfortunate enough to have not just the zombie aspect but not eating enough to the point of malnutrition. Which did make a compelling argument for anyone who might push to keep me on it, and also traumatized my parents enough that the only times I’ve tried ADHD-related meds since, it was Focalin, at my suggestion because I do have executive function issues. The effect’s not really noticeable enough to be worth it, though, at least not when I’ve got depression flaring up. (Which is… frequent.)
My parents were supportive, but the teachers thought they could “snap [me] out of it” and thought doubling down would somehow solve the problem. My parents knew that couldn’t happen, but I still got “just stop it” (stimming, I guess?) and “I’m taking away the TV because you acted out” until getting diagnosed and for a while after. Then the pendulum swung entirely the other way and I got infantilized like I was five for a while… I mean geez just because we can put a label on it, that doesn’t mean I’m not the same person as before.
Still flushed the pills anyway though. I hated how they made me feel like a zombie, and “just stick with them for a while longer” wasn’t an acceptable option.
Roz was my first guess too, but after thinking about it more I think it’s more likely Lucy (unless Roz is going to start having a larger role moving forward)
(Was it Chantix or Wellbutrin? I’ve heard of both of those being used for smoking cessation. Maybe you could try the other if you already tried one of those? I’m not a doctor, but it might be worth asking one.)
The numerous comments about the anti-depressant merry-go-round that have been posted here explain why I am living with lifelong depression and no medication for it. I have weird reactions to 9 out of 10 drugs that affect the central nervous system. Do I want to find out just how weird my reaction would be to something that is already known to have occasional drastic side effects? No, no I do not.
So I know my life could be a lot better if I were better able to experience positive emotions, or more precisely, if they stuck longer. (At least, that’s how I experience it.) But luckily I don’t ever find myself bedridden or actively suicidal. For anybody else in my situation, here’s a nutshell: Learn how depression works, and how to self-check; establish a self-care routine (sleep, hygiene, food and drink, etc.) as best you can, and stick to it as often as you are able; stock your living space with as many different things you like as you can, so that you can rotate through them in search of a serotonin hit; the Internet is wonderful IF you remember not to use it for self-injury; read the words of people who have been depressed (everybody from Biblical prophets and poets to current autobiographies) to remind yourself that you are part of humanity; and communicate with at least one (1) human being each and every day, even if it’s just being the politest customer at the coffee counter or talking nerdy with a stranger in a forum about a show you watch. These will not “fix” your depression, but they can keep you going. And keep a crisis line number on your phone, and use it if you are headed into the pit.
All y’all out there still looking for the one that works: I salute you, and here’s a solidarity site that sometimes helps:
Good post! I endorse everything you said. And I add: try to include some sort of physical activity into your routine. (I bought a puppy, and raised him to expect a couple of walks a day.) Even a little bit helps, and routine will help you to do it even when you’re a bit poorly.
Yes! And I forgot something else: Keep a diary. I don’t mean “One Thing That Makes Me Grateful Every Day;” that kind of happy-clappy crap is irritating even on my best days. I mean “Wed. 10/3/20–ran into Tim G. @ store–we talked about his sister–she got her nursing degree.” Or notes about the weather, because people like to talk about how long it’s been raining or whatever. And make checking it part of your daily routine. Because asyouknowbob depression eats memory.
(Things I do every day, I forget that I’ve done them as soon as I complete them. Ain’t brains great? /sarcasm)
Sadly, Willis is not so merciful as to rid us of her presence.
I like to think that Ruth killed a certain percentage of someone… we should keep an eye out for any missing legs and femurs.
Based on the silouhettes the remaining males are Joe (scruffy guy by what looks to be Billie), either Mike or Howard (Or Ethan got shorter and wears his hair like Mike?), and it looks like Faz and Danny behind what I assume to be Amber.
I guess Ethan and Jacob didn’t make the silhouette cut.
From left to right I suppose we have:
– Dina
– Carla (I also though Billy at first but see roller skates)
– Joe – but maybe Ethan?
– Mike
– Amber
– Billy (hairstyle seems to have changed but clothing is very Billy-like)
– Danny
– IDK, I was thinking maybe Roz.
– Malaya
I agree about the stance. Not sure about the height.
It’s mostly the hairstyle – though as I said that could have changed. They’ve both got bits sticking out on the side, but Lucy has a flatter top like the silhouette, while Roz is rounder.
Loading ...
D-did Becky just disarm Ruth?
She certainly caught her off guard with that question, disarmed might be too hopeful though. It’s still Ruth after all.
Ruth may be disarmed, but you’re still this close to getting disfemured.
Now that’s the quality of jokes I came here for. Thank you!
And somehow, your Avatar of Iroh just fits what you said perfectly.
(whoops capitalisation, Iroh was never Avatar! ;D)
Geez, imagine if Iroh HAD been an Avatar…
Would have have successfully taken Ba Sing Se without losing his son, and subsequently going through the change of heart that turned him into the wise old man we know and love today?
It’s the secret connection they have as fellow Redhead Lesbians!
Redhead lesbian orphans!
Hey, that’s a good point! What a weird coinkydink.
Why don’t people switch the first C as well to make it soindinkydink?
I mean, it’s right there, first c of three!
This is important to me.
Except one of them’s bisexual.
Fellow queer redhead orphans!
When did Ruth explicitly state that she was bisexual? I clearly remember Billie denying that she was a lesbian, but I don’t remember Ruth spelling it out. Of course, over the course of 3600+ strips, I might have missed it…
He was Nobody‘s half-brother
Alt-text: Ask your doctor if Norigretz is right for you
“Intagritty” also sounds like one.
“Act with Intagritty now, ask your Doctor.”
oof
Entegreté
Was that like when your ink says “No Regerts”? Or was it Nori Gertz?
I’m a personal fan of Dammitol.
Oh no she’s the lady in the footage while the voiceover lists the side effects
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/03-sometimes-the-sky-was-so-far-away/voiceover/
I named a character that once (the Greek form, I mean). I was quite pleased with myself.
Nobody’s half brother, Almost.
Here’s hoping “almost” isn’t why Billie’s been “elusive”.
Nah, if anyone goes down it’ll be Mary, and I don’t see any streamers or hear parade music, so that probably hasn’t happened.
So Sierra is “across the hall”. Any idea who that would put her with?
Mandy, Grace, and a kiddie pool full of Jello.
Daisy isn’t officially a resident, but she’s been allowed to lease a tree stand outside the window.
There’s no upvote, but take mine anyway.
Did we ever find out about Daisy: Is she an undergrad, grad student, or what? And is she Editor of the IDS?
It’s really a question of who has moved out, which we’ve no idea of yet.
Pretty sure she’s living with her girlfriends now.
I don’t think the school would allow an OFFICIAL move of three students into a room meant for two. Staying a night there… or all the nights there… that’s fine, but the bureacracy insists you be LISTED as living two-per-dorm, dammit!
Hopefully she’s rooming with Roz now.
Why would you subject Sierra to Roz?
You miss the beauty my friend. If Sierra is officially rooming with Roz, then *no one* is subjected to Roz, because Sierra unofficially lives with her girlfriends.
Roz isn’t that bad to people who are socially liberal, which includes Sierra. It would also free Roz from Mary, which… really, why would I subject Roz to Mary? (Save, perhaps, for the delight in subjecting Mary to Roz.)
My college had a number of freshmen and sophomores is rooms they called “forced triples” which were doubles that they bunked an extra student in. Most people lived in fear of having to live in a forced triple, but if you volunteered for it, the school wasn’t going to say no.
And I’m sure they charged all three residents the usual price, too. 50% extra revenue for free!
I’m dissuaded from going back to the ding-dong bandit sequence to figure out the room layout by the simple fact that “across the hall” doesn’t necessarily mean “directly across.the hall.”
Could be anyone aside from Joyce/Sarah and Amber/Dina, I think.
I think the answer is fairly obvious:
Batman.
He’d be over in Beck wing though, right?
Superman is in Clark wing of course.
No, it’s Lois in Clark.
I dunno, but can we go with her?
Sal, presumably.
Billie’s been moved to another hall to get her away from Ruth.
That leaves Sal short a roommate (since Becky wasn’t an official one).
Now, why they moved Sierra instead of just sticking Becky in the empty bed is another matter entirely. (I wouldn’t put it past Puddinghead to think “Oh, wait, two black girls! They should totally room together!”)
Malaya moved in with Sal.
It is possible that Malaya or Sal decided to move out because of their strained relationship.
That was a direct swap if you recall, Malaya and Billie.
I’m now wondering if Zaph got moved to the proper dorm and opened up a spot in that other hall for someone to move to. That should allow everyone to stick around in the strip.
With Raidah, duh.
Ruth does have a skeleton in her closet though and we all hope it’s not authentic.
I have two in mine, but I bought them at the halloween store and their names are alex and Chris
Billie was a cheerleader, but she’s not that thin.
She has a skeleton underneath her meat, and she’s still in the closet about being bi, so it totally counts.
I feel you on the antidepressants Ruth, I had to go through like 5 different types before I got the one I’m on now. It does the job and isn’t as anxiety inducing as the others were.
Also, I find it adorable and sweet that Becky cares about Ruth and her mental health.
Apart from her “enemy” status with Dorothy, isn’t Becky great?
Also, sometimes the one you are on is the right one, but when you take it for the first time your body goes through a dozen moodswings as it adjusts
And sometimes your new antidepressant works fine as an antidepressant, but it interferes with your antiarrhythmic and you get to spend a week in the cardiac ward.
Or your new antidepressant is a really shitty antidepressant, but by the time you assemble the spoons to defy your psychiatrist you’re hooked and it has an arse-kicking bongo of a withdrawal syndrome, and even when that’s done the post-SSRI syndrome leaves you anorgasmic for eight years.
Honestly, even the enemy thing isn’t too bad so long as Becky keeps it on the “shenanigans” level and away from “mayhem”.
Dorothy is liked and respected by basically everyone. Basically her only flaws are working too hard and being a little over-serious. She could use some shenanigans in her life, and while Joyce can also provide that, she’s also a rule-following goody two shoes just like Dorothy, and looks up to her.
Dotty needs someone a little more wild and challenging.
Sierra was wild and challenging! She refused to wear shoes! She has regular threesomes! She even invited Dorothy to some vegan food thing, which I’d clearly anarchy!
If she was any wilder or more challenging we’d be calling her Hamilton!
Becky was triggered by Ruth being suicidal, due to Becky’s mother committing suicide.
I’m not sure “triggered” is the right word here.
But Becky definitely keeps an eye out for her. Was she around when Ruth was found in her room in a very suicidal mood?
No, she was at Joyce’s.She found out when she got back.
And was pretty damn traumatized, because the way she found out also included hearing Billie was lowkey suicidal as well. (And THAT, with ‘I swore I’d never miss the signs again’ about Billie giving away her room, I would definitely call triggering.)
For reference:
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/04-it-all-returns/deserves/
On a more cheerful note, Prozac: for guys, it’s always winter but never Christmas. Or you can have Wellbutrin: you can have a Christmas present, … but it’s limp as an ugly sweater.
I love that smile on Ruth’s face. the face of recognized progress.
same
Ruth is looking good.
Really good.
….
…I’ll be in my bunk.
the fangs work for her. Lots
Just close the door, okay?
She has no right being that adorable in the last panel.
Protect that smile, its precious.
Hooray! Ruth murdered Joyce’s mom after all!
Who’s next? Ms Walkerton?
We lost two terrible dads, it only seems fair that we lose two terrible moms to keep things balanced.
perfectly balanced as everything should be.
Now I am thinking of Sal and Amazi-Girl as Gamora and Nebula.
As long as it doesn’t mean we lose a nice dad to balance out Becky’s mom dying.
Someone protect Dorothy’s parents!
“The day ain’t over yet!”–Curly in City Slickers
So we still don’t know who Sierra’s new roommate is!
I’ve gone through many antidepressants in my life. Some of them work better than others.
My current guess is, like in Roomies, Mary got pregnant, and has now dropped out. I think Sierra and Roz could keep from killing each other.
She may also have failed art, if that one strip, about her being stuck on the Anime style, is any indication.
Somehow I’d forgotten about that roomies storyline, and now I’m wondering if the guy she was dating earlier in DoA is the same guy she married in IW. Anybody know who can save me from the dreaded double archive trawl for everybody’s least favorite character?
The first person Mary got pregnant by in Roomies! (Eric) is apparently the guy Mike had sex with here. He’s also the guy Ethan brought to the party at Becky’s here.
Peter Paul who Mary married after getting pregnant again is, per the wiki, her current boyfriend in this continuity. You can see them being obnoxious here.
Maybe she was already preggers in that strip…
I somehow forgot how awful Mary is until that last linked strip.
If she got struck by an oddly targeted bolt of lightning over the timeskip, I’m just saying, I would not say no.
(Also ooooh, how does one manage the Multi-Link Magic?)
My guess is that Roz’s room transfer finally went through so she’s somewhere else, and Sierra being a giant sweetheart (and also never needing to actually stay there since she can unofficially just live with her girlfriends) jumped on the granade and asked to be assigned as Mary’s roommate so Becky doesn’t get stuck with her.
I could buy it. Sierra is too good for this world, and also has a guaranteed out and is thus the best option to suffer through Technically Rooming With Mary.
Sierra likes to live barefoot, and Mary likes to exercise without clothes on, so that’s sort of a match.
Aw, that proud little grin!
And she has felt genuine joy at murdering those she did! progress!
Isn’t it great when you can find the joy in murder again instead of it just being another way to get through the day?
I’ve always found it to be true.
Good job, Ruth! Almost nobody is good!
If we’re lucky, the person that made it “almost” is Carol!
As Mike sayeth: There is no one righteous, not even one.”
Huh, the first drug had seemed really effective.
Having friends go through multiple drugs, sometimes you get one that seems perfect… at first. And then turns out it’s not, and you have to try something else instead.
Ruth’s “It’s a process” is spot on, really.
Side effects can also be brutal – I’ve switched through several combinations that were good for my mood but did things like spike my blood pressure. Or blood sugar. A couple also caused really extreme temperature sensitivity. And once you have semi-functioning emotions again that alone seems massive, but sometimes even the highest dose isn’t enough for breakthrough depression. Some of them have also spiked my anxiety beyond the normal levels once the depression’s not all-consuming anymore, that’s a nasty one.
Since I just found I my depression keeps me from noticing (and creating situations where I could notice it) that I get axiety attacks about finding a new job (like you know, short of breath, loosing all focus, staring at the screen and not remembering words, and needing to distract myself with technical issues like doing the resume in XML to distract myself from the content of what I’m doing), if suspect than some depressions are a reaction to anxiety.
Ohh yes, the depression anxiety hook. Been there. You can do it, you are a worthy human being and the next person to tell you otherwise (you included) gets a psychic love tap.
You find a setback and the spiral is painful to even watch, I’m told. They just go hand-in-hand for me, I can get behind some depressions being an effect of prolonged periods of anxiety. However, the some is important there. When my gf had to fly back home… wowza, could barely function.
Yep, cosigning all of this.
Mine’s a tandem routine. Sometimes one prompts the other, sometimes it’s the other way around. (I do tend to get breakthrough anxiety as one of my earlier symptoms, but it’s not always clear which actually came first.)
Sometimes it’s not is the drug effective, it’s can you live with the side effects, frequently for me the answer was “no”.
omg this strip had me rofl!! her “bathe in your gore” is pure ruth! and then the juxtaposition of becky’s ? and ruth’s starttlement into an honest answer, and to top it off, the almost nobody!! lolololol priceless!!!!! ty so v much- i really need a laugh like that right now!!
Way to ruin the mood, Becky.
Way to reach out to Ruth, Becky!
It very much is a process! Thank you for acknowledging that it takes time to find the meds and dosage that works best for you! I hope Ruth eventually finds that combination!
Sorry for all the exclamation points. Just imagine it’s all in a happy and excited voice from someone who’s been through the process.
Agreed. I’m mid-medication tweaking again and it’s nice to see some acknowledgement that, you know, this is a thing that happens.
Integrivact had many horrible side effects that were listed in that horrible commercial after the footage of a Sierra in her natural habitat.
“footage”, “Sierra”. I see what you did there…
And the side effects weren’t that bad. The homicidal tendencies were at least manageable. The overenthusiasm for lost causes, such as certain hopeless hockey teams, probably got it pulled from the market, and now Ruth is part of a class action suit.
That pun wasn’t intended, but it is nice the coincidence.
I mean jokes aside, I wouldn’t be shocked if that whole semi-manic painting her dorm room thing was actually a side effect and happened another time in the skip, so readjustments occurred.
Or it just wasn’t up for dealing with the chaos that is Ruth’s life on its own, always a possibility. Especially with winter arriving.
Oh, yeah, seasonal affective depression can make a huge difference. Summer can be fine with one medication but then the snow starts to fall and you get Bonus Depression: Cinnamon Flavor.
Damn, you get cinnamon? I’m stuck with the licorice flavor, I’ve been trying to exchange it for ages.
This entire strip is so goddamn hilarious. The trepidation from Dorothy. The intimidation from Ruth. then Becky just Absolutely no selling it into a wholesome chat that starts veering back to the intimidation. Perfect.
Willis I think this is the first time you’ve acknowledged that seeking professional help doesn’t directly and straightforwardly solve all psychological problems. Seriously, the friendliness and professionalism of the behavioral healthcare providers in your comic has been more unrealistic than the superhero car chases. Now have Ruth gain forty pounds and start spontaneously shitting herself from her meds, go to her psychiatrist to complain about it, have them laugh at her misfortune and then criticize her for not having a more positive attitude about “the process”, and maybe you’ll start approaching actual realism.
That…. has not been my personal experience; so, his depiction hasn’t seemed unrealistic to me. Im really sorry you’ve had such horrible experiences but even the health professionals who weren’t particularly helpful to me still acted like decent human beings which leaves me inclined to encourage people to reach out for help. I guess I can only hope people seeking help are lucky to find good people like I did.
Ditto, what you said.
Upvoting with imaginary plus one.
I’m not describing any specific personal experience of mine, I’m pithily generalizing based on a lifetime of first and second and third hand exposure to the behavioral health industry. Some form of abuse by professionals is typical, whether as a matter of personal conduct or policy in practice. Genuine empathy is vanishingly rare.
Let me put it this way: the psychiatric system is an extension of the same emergency services complex that sends out cops to shoot autistic kids having a meltdown when their parents call asking for help. Why would you expect the quality of care to suddenly become significantly better once those cops hand off the people they pick up to a psychiatric facility?
As for side effects, the general rule of thumb in psychiatric pharmacological prescriptivism is that the less conscious a patient is the fewer symptoms of mental illness they display. Medications are meant to make patients easier for their handlers to manage, not improve their mental health. This philosophy goes all the way back to the lobotomy and has never changed. A patient too dizzy to walk stops acting out; a patient too drowsy to talk stops expressing incorrect thinking.
And this certainly isn’t limited to psychiatry- psychology has its own separate sins and abuses. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, for example, is built around a theory that negative emotions stem from inappropriate mental associations, and in practice mostly consists of gaslighting and browbeating patients for expressing their stream of consciousness. If a certain date on the calendar reminds a patient of an upsetting past event which causes them distress to remember, the Cognitive Behavior Therapist might explain to the patient that they are being irrational by having these negative thoughts about what is just a number and a square on a grid, with a general aim of framing their distress as self-inflicted and guilting them into repression. Generally behavioral health practitioners try to inflict some kind of pain on patients whenever they display symptoms, nominally to discourage malingering, but more realistically because a patient who is conditioned to hide their symptoms will present as being in better mental health than before they were conditioned, which in the short term is often outwardly indistinguishable from treatment being effectively therapeutic.
The bottom line is that insurance doesn’t pay fees based on achieving results, it pays fees based on billable time, so the entire thrust of the industry is on running out the clock in the way which is least costly to the provider while creating at least the illusion of performing helpful treatment, and this is usually most easily achieved through some kind of patient abuse.
Uh, I don’t think your experiences with medicine and mental health professionals are the norm. My condolences, pooping yourself is a damn bummer side effect for sure.
DoA has never shown that seeking professional help directly and straightforwardly solves all psychological problems. Sal has mentioned having bad/unhelpful therapy, Ruth was told from the get go that medicine takes time to kick in, etc.
Ditto, what you said, also.
Upvoting with imaginary plus one, also.
Yeah, very much this. I’ve had some bad mental health experiences (my stint in outpatient wasn’t terrible on the whole but I still wouldn’t recommend it if it can be avoided, and I will never take Adderall again after how completely I was zombified that year,) but most of my providers were competent, compassionate, and willing to treat me like a mentally-competent human being. Now, I’m lucky – depression and anxiety are pretty common, autism is infantilized more than it’s stigmatized, I’m white as fucking chalk, and I have access to REALLY GOOD health insurance – but there’s a reason why a lot of people who are in therapy themselves are willing to recommend it to others. Side effects can be terrible, but sometimes you really do need the one that makes you gain thirty pounds in the span of a month because yeah, you can live with that one more than being depressed enough not to leave bed. Bad therapists can do a ton of damage, but a good one’s a literal lifesaver.
Also, on the subject of realism… based off Willis’s commentary during some sections of Roomies and It’s Walky over in the reruns, it seems pretty likely there’s a ‘this depression is autobiographical’ aspect there as well, at least to some extent. Bad mental health care exists, but it’s not unrealistic for someone who’s had a bad brush with mental illness and care that helped them to depict that in their stories. Especially not when it’s balanced by some very realistic pieces – Sal has in fact found it unhelpful, Dorothy’s is nondescript, Ruth takes weeks for her first meds to even start kicking in, got the crying back first, and ultimately had to try another one within a couple months. All that is in keeping with mental health care. It has issues, but there are enough competent people around to keep it going.
+1 “Adderal didn’t work for me”. That stuff made me feel lethargic, like my brain was stuck in slow motion. I’m old enough that the strategy at the time was “drug the kid to ‘make him normal’”, so you can imagine how well it went over with the teachers when that didn’t pan out.
Pro tip: don’t punish a kid with ADD for “goofing off” and “not paying attention” when their grades are fine, then drug them up and punish them for “not listening” and letting their grades slip when you make them a zombie, then punish them again when they have a fucking meltdown because you waited until they were lucid to act on it.
I flushed those goddamn pills after that day, and refused to try anything else. (Mostly out of spite, I admit…) Surprise surprise, my grades came back up out of the gutter. All they had to do was fucking listen to me, instead of deciding they knew better because they were the adults and I was ‘just a kid with mental issues’. It turns out explaining something a different way is more effective than sternly repeating yourself when asked for clarification…
I was fortunate enough to have supportive parents. Especially since I’m not sure I was aware enough something was wrong to take any action. (I have functionally no memory of that year.)
I was unfortunate enough to have not just the zombie aspect but not eating enough to the point of malnutrition. Which did make a compelling argument for anyone who might push to keep me on it, and also traumatized my parents enough that the only times I’ve tried ADHD-related meds since, it was Focalin, at my suggestion because I do have executive function issues. The effect’s not really noticeable enough to be worth it, though, at least not when I’ve got depression flaring up. (Which is… frequent.)
My parents were supportive, but the teachers thought they could “snap [me] out of it” and thought doubling down would somehow solve the problem. My parents knew that couldn’t happen, but I still got “just stop it” (stimming, I guess?) and “I’m taking away the TV because you acted out” until getting diagnosed and for a while after. Then the pendulum swung entirely the other way and I got infantilized like I was five for a while… I mean geez just because we can put a label on it, that doesn’t mean I’m not the same person as before.
Still flushed the pills anyway though. I hated how they made me feel like a zombie, and “just stick with them for a while longer” wasn’t an acceptable option.
“Hi, Ruth. Killed anyone today?”
“Day ain’t over yet.”
Lotta things you can hit with a bat
….or just remove the femurs
I love Ruth.
I’m really glad she’s getting long lasting life in this universe.
Dina, Carla, Joe, Mike, Amber, Billie, Danny, Marcie, and Malaya?
Same but I think the second character from the right is Roz – no Malaya to be found.
*Marcie, not Malaya.
Roz was my first guess too, but after thinking about it more I think it’s more likely Lucy (unless Roz is going to start having a larger role moving forward)
Oh, good point! I forgot Lucy had that same hairstyle.
Oh right, I forgot about Lucy. And yeah I’d prefer her now over Roz.
Nah, I’m pretty sure that the rightmost is Malaya, unless one of the other characters is imitating her hairstyle…
Oh, we are talking about the second character from the right.
From Dorothy’s pov it’s a bummer to lose Sierra as a roommate. She was so easy-going!
Yay for the supportive conversation they’re having!
Happiness is contagious.
And it’s advantageous.
Uh I think there’s a glitch here where posting a new comment as a reply to someone is considered a duplicate comment.
Whoops, disregard the above comment.
As a person who reacted badly to the stop-smoking antidepressant, the only person she almost murdered was herself. Funny how that works, innit?
I’m glad you made it through that.
(Was it Chantix or Wellbutrin? I’ve heard of both of those being used for smoking cessation. Maybe you could try the other if you already tried one of those? I’m not a doctor, but it might be worth asking one.)
Well almost murdered nobody is certainly progress for my fellow Leafs supporting canuck. Keep fighting the good fight Ruth!!
Hey! Progress is progress!
The numerous comments about the anti-depressant merry-go-round that have been posted here explain why I am living with lifelong depression and no medication for it. I have weird reactions to 9 out of 10 drugs that affect the central nervous system. Do I want to find out just how weird my reaction would be to something that is already known to have occasional drastic side effects? No, no I do not.
So I know my life could be a lot better if I were better able to experience positive emotions, or more precisely, if they stuck longer. (At least, that’s how I experience it.) But luckily I don’t ever find myself bedridden or actively suicidal. For anybody else in my situation, here’s a nutshell: Learn how depression works, and how to self-check; establish a self-care routine (sleep, hygiene, food and drink, etc.) as best you can, and stick to it as often as you are able; stock your living space with as many different things you like as you can, so that you can rotate through them in search of a serotonin hit; the Internet is wonderful IF you remember not to use it for self-injury; read the words of people who have been depressed (everybody from Biblical prophets and poets to current autobiographies) to remind yourself that you are part of humanity; and communicate with at least one (1) human being each and every day, even if it’s just being the politest customer at the coffee counter or talking nerdy with a stranger in a forum about a show you watch. These will not “fix” your depression, but they can keep you going. And keep a crisis line number on your phone, and use it if you are headed into the pit.
All y’all out there still looking for the one that works: I salute you, and here’s a solidarity site that sometimes helps:
https://www.depressioncomix.com/
Good post! I endorse everything you said. And I add: try to include some sort of physical activity into your routine. (I bought a puppy, and raised him to expect a couple of walks a day.) Even a little bit helps, and routine will help you to do it even when you’re a bit poorly.
Yes! And I forgot something else: Keep a diary. I don’t mean “One Thing That Makes Me Grateful Every Day;” that kind of happy-clappy crap is irritating even on my best days. I mean “Wed. 10/3/20–ran into Tim G. @ store–we talked about his sister–she got her nursing degree.” Or notes about the weather, because people like to talk about how long it’s been raining or whatever. And make checking it part of your daily routine. Because asyouknowbob depression eats memory.
(Things I do every day, I forget that I’ve done them as soon as I complete them. Ain’t brains great? /sarcasm)
Excellent advice, thank you.
Kinda worried about “almost nobody.”
We done a head count recently? We still have two Rachels?
I mean, Mary could’ve kicked it, and that’d probably count as ‘almost nobody.’
Sadly, Willis is not so merciful as to rid us of her presence.
I like to think that Ruth killed a certain percentage of someone… we should keep an eye out for any missing legs and femurs.
Keeping two Rachels around is unnecessarily redundant.
She killed Bloodrose. Nobody noticed, not even Agatha.
Pretty sure Bloodrose wouldn’t even notice, to be honest.
Nice way to derail a conversation there, Becky.
I’m just glad Ruth disarmed Becky tbh
DoA Book 11: I’ve Murdered Almost Nobody!
Perfect!
That last panel, i ded
So cute, progress, must have more smiling ruth this is great
New Ruth! Now with 80% less murder!
Sorry about the remaining 20%
She’s not!
Besides, they’ll never find the bodies.
Wild dogs don’t feed themselves.
Pigs are far more effective.
. . . or so I’ve heard.
Can confirm.
So THAT’S the use of antidepressants! Allowing you to control the bloodlust!
Many have an “off label” effect of helping kick habits; smoking, over eating, cutting, etc. yay!
Yesss, funnel your self-destructiveness away from yourself and into others! They deserve it anyway…
Ruth’s got an image to keep up.
I’ve been on the same medication for seven years. I don’t know if they work anymore and I get the feeling they make me way too complacent.
“I’ve Murdered Almost Nobody” is a decent book title
Becky’s oratory ability har really increased during the months.
Based on the silouhettes the remaining males are Joe (scruffy guy by what looks to be Billie), either Mike or Howard (Or Ethan got shorter and wears his hair like Mike?), and it looks like Faz and Danny behind what I assume to be Amber.
I guess Ethan and Jacob didn’t make the silhouette cut.
From left to right I suppose we have:
– Dina
– Carla (I also though Billy at first but see roller skates)
– Joe – but maybe Ethan?
– Mike
– Amber
– Billy (hairstyle seems to have changed but clothing is very Billy-like)
– Danny
– IDK, I was thinking maybe Roz.
– Malaya
I could see Roz, but it’s more likely Lucy. Of course, that’s going mostly by hair and that could have changed.
oh golly i hope that is Lucy because I had assumed Roz and it wasn’t a fun assumption
Lucy absolutely should be in the main cast.
Yeah, Lucy is possible but I had the impression she’s taller somehow? Also the stance seems more Roz-like if that makes sense.
I agree about the stance. Not sure about the height.
It’s mostly the hairstyle – though as I said that could have changed. They’ve both got bits sticking out on the side, but Lucy has a flatter top like the silhouette, while Roz is rounder.
ruthless has killed no one lately but becky better be careful for that could change
In the Hall Director’s Office, is a sign that says, “it has been __ days since Ruth killed anyone”.
“What do we do today? We’ve never gone above 3.”
“We didn’t budget for any higher digits. I warned them we should get a whiteboard!”
The assistant general manager at the store I work at recently had his birthday.
I made him a sign that said “It has been _ days since [Emperor Norton II] last gave [AGM] a heart attack”.
The only two options for days are 0 and 1.
I’m going to work “Or I will bathe in your gore” into a conversation today.
almost
There’s the RA we know and fear!
Secretly hoping “almost nobody” is her nickname for Carol, because she’s almost nobody to her own family now :))))))).
AWW I LOVE HER
“I’ve murdered almost nobody”. And thus ended Guns (non-)appearance in DoA Season 2.
Good to her girl