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Dorothy, there’s a magical place you can go where you are allowed to play video games on a dinosaur with no pants on. The price of admission is just some Nachitos.
Also, I’m dead set on someone walking into that room and misreading the situation. If it’s going to be Lucy then it would be even funnier if Dorothy were there because Walky would be having a No Pants Party with TWO of his exes. But Dorothy’s presence also unlocks the equally funny Becky option, because then Becky gets to find her girlfriend pantsless with both her rival and a boy. And that’s not even counting the hilarious possibilities if Joyce joins in.
You know what? The more the merrier. No Pants Party at Amber and Dina’s, entire cast!
They just get joined by every cast member, on at a time, and there’s just a pile of pants at the foot of the dinosaur. Walky is the only one not in his undies.
Oofff yeah I’m second-hand embarrassed that you would confuse my poorly executed immature DOA fansmut with Yoto’s way better made immature DOA fansmut. However as it turns out i have drawn something along those lines a few days ago
Listen, i want be polite and say thank you but also i saw your reply in the rss feed and somehow forgot about this post and thought you’d just warmly validated my ridiculous puns thread downpage and i have to admit
Funny if it’s not the regular cast. Joice walks and finds Arnold, Ryu (or Guile or Bison, whatever, something from Street Fighter) Asma, Other Rachel and Beef without pants.
Jeez, what would you do with all that time? I suppose you could blast it all away doomscrolling or watching videos, maybe reading books or playing video games, but in the absence of all that? I get bored in at most an hour, and that’s *after* deliberate training.
Year 6 here. Not really feeling like I’ve made any headway. On the other hand, between covid and rising fascism, the world is crashing down around me, so I don’t have as far to go, to stand back up as a decent person again.
I took a Mental Health Year (minus about two months) in the middle of college. I was feeling really refreshed and ready for a new start after it was over.
Unfortunately for my sorry ass, the semester immediately following my Mental Health Year was Spring 2020.
Mine was 2003-. I noticed things were not working right after the wreck and my normal outlet of writing poetry about the situation wasn’t working either, that’s when I discovered I had a TBI from when I got killed, which was a fact that I also didn’t find out at the time, both the getting killed and the TBI. I didn’t get my blog up and running until 2008, so no outlets for like 7 years from the wreck until I started doing the blog.
that was 2016 for me. had a minor breakdown at the end of 2015 and had major panic attacks forcing me to drop out of my studies cue depression and insomnia leading to most of 2016 involving doing very little apart from therapy working on myself and building new friendships through my local board game store, this did eventually lead me to the job i am in now though which i love, so everything works out i guess?
best to take naps while you can. too bad ppl can’t nap during work. well, maybe if you have a ‘cushy’ job where you get an hour break but unless you can fall asleep instantly and wake up ten mins before it ends idk how much it’d help
(I hear japan and other places have a break room with beds but that’s technically a negative thing if you’re literally sleeping at work and not abl e to go hoem lol)
Yeah, I’ve tried this experiment, repeatedly and at length, where I sleep a ton, with practically zero responsibilities, for weeks.
Because, I always feel overwhelmed, so I imagine that a few open-ended weeks of nothingness ought to address that problem / help relieve the overwhelm, right?
Unfortunately, though, it’s a situation where depression totally *thrives*. Depression is never sated, it’ll only get more intense if I give it 24/7 nothingness to eat.
The experiment has been conclusive for me. I always think it’ll help, it seems like it’ll be such a relief… but it’s a trap.
I had to keep setting my alarm, had to keep having some responsibilities that keep me in the world.
If I’ve got those, though, naps are indeed very very nice.
I have sleep apnea, which I’m glad to have diagnosed now and therefore be able to use a CPAP for higher quality sleep, but it does make the act of sleeping feel like more of a hassle, even though I enjoy it. Can’t just get comfortable and doze. But then if I do fall asleep without my CPAP, like if I end up napping while reading or something, it doesn’t feel very refreshing (probably because of all the not-breathing).
Oh no. This is really bad. This is how you get behind, followed by sudden overwhelming paralyzing panic, and then you end up doing nothing forever and have to take a semester off and it haunts you for years and years and then we don’t get to see Dorothy anymore and like her even though she reminds me of my most dire flaws.
Well since everyone else is getting deja vu of their college years from this, I might as well share my story for comfort.
I was a physics major at my University for two years until I had to recently quit because of mental health, disability and pandemic circumstances.
Awe well, at least coding games ain’t too bad. It ain’t a rocket, but at least I can eventually build Dorothy a sapphic dream world with what’s essentially Legos for grown-ups.
I am really sorry you went through that – it sounds utterly soul crushing. However, I am glad you where able to find hope and joy in your current path. You know a lot of wise (or at least old and seemingly pretty successful and happy) people I’ve talked to lately keep telling me that the universe is far far to complicated to see how every path pans out in 20 minutes much less in a decade or more, its about taking the path that feels right for you at the moment and being there. My mom says the universe sometimes closes doors so you can find a better one later (that sounds a little mumbo jumbo for me, but it brings her peace to her and myself when I can believe it).
Besides, have you ever heard of Brian May? Dude was on the path of the physicist, but then while prepping for his doctorate turned down what seems to have been a prestigious gap job so he could be keep being in a band only for that band to break up shortly after. He then formed Queen, dropped out of his doctorate half way through to go be a rock star. In 2007 in finished his degree and just recently helped NASA pull off the mission that brought back samples from an asteroid. Point is life leads you all sorts of weird places and strange curve balls doesn’t mean you won’t eventually get where you want and you frankly might be a lot more interesting when you get there. I don’t know if any of this helps, but I hope you have a good day/night/morning?
I realize much akin to Dotty, my original goal was based on over-idealized conceptions of a profession over-simplified for grade-schoolers. Not to say that, akin to Dina, I wanna make science my way of life, I just think there’s a better path to it.
I always wanted to make hover-boards, light-sabers, video games, candy machines, sugar, tea and rum. Cool things that make people happy. PHD or not, that what my life about. 🥲
On that note, I find my 2 years of physics classes come in real handy for a lot of game coding :3
What you’re describing is an engineer, not a scientist. An engineer designs and makes things. A scientist wants to understand the way the way the world works.
Yeah I know, I chose physics with the intention of eventually getting an engineering degree, and because physicists often work alongside engineers in large projects.
But yeah, I ain’t cut out to seriously compete in that field, it turns out. Making games and learning science on my own is a lot less stressful.
re: Brian May’s story (which is pretty cool and thank you) i think it was the self-help writer Mark Manson who takes kind of the reverse of your example and talks about the first drummer for the Beatles who quit after 6 months before they rose to stardom and never became part of the phenomenon and stayed in the shadows playing small bands all his life and how when asked about it, would be like “yeah, that’s wild, but i mean… my life is good. i’m really happy with it.”
disclaimer i don’t remember the details and for all i know the story is apocryphal or simplified beyond the point of being a lie, so i’m not definitely endorsing it. i think the experience it describes is probably true of someone somewhere though and that’s good enough for me =)
I mean she is aware that she needed to take a mental health day yes that’s on Saturday and also on Sunday but that’s alot more progress many folks would take
I watch horror whenever I’m feeling lousy. Great for sick days and mental health days.
I think it’s just nice to see that someone in some universe is having a worse day than me. I may be 40% conscious on the couch with mucous coming out of the majority of my face holes, but at least Jason Voorhees hasn’t killed me with a speargun.
I love watching “Community” and drinking hot cocoa when I am stressed out. Problem is I also use that to procrastinate.
Back when I had my first super stressful job that I could actually deal with (for a while) creating ritual routines to follow every day really helped me. Like getting a steamed milk with mint at the market, or spending an hour every day doing the crossword and the sudoku in pen on a print newspaper from the corner sandwich shop.
Little things like that to ground me and help me focus on the day. Keep from getting derailed.
…For a while.
Nowadays I love listening to white noise soft ASMR sounds on YouTube. Like the sound of turning pages, or a crackling fire, or the hiss and crackle of an old vinyl record with no tune.
What about you folks? What is your favorite way to unwind your mind and unthread your head?
Well edibles are great to simultaneously help me relax and also heal swollen limbs, useful when those happen to be my fingers i need for coding, such as a day ago.
Also I love watching longplays of 90s and early 2000s PC games and viewing weekly uploads on Spriters Resource (both essential for me as a game-dev, thankfully enough)
Yard work. It’s my prime think-time. If I’m angry I can break sticks or attack a mound of dirt with a hoe. When I’m done, I always reward myself with a moment just surveying the results, so I can see that, not only do I feel better, I made something else better.
Walking through a nearby nature park helps too. ‘s better for sadness.
Skimming Discworld novels. Not reading them, that requires concentration, just flicking through them and remembering the best bits. Inevitably, I do start actually reading them, but I take that as a sign my brain is back on course.
Weirdly, at work, I find the actual work is my destress option. Like, everything else about the job is a nightmare of baffling and contradictory official policies and requirements, but the actual thing I’m being paid to do is straightforward, involves just enough mental effort to keep me occupied, and has a visual indication of completion that I find it satisfying to look at and think “Yes. Yes, that’s done“. (Except, of course, when there’s one item that’s not straightforward, and I spend half an hour quietly freaking out over it.)
No, no, that is a lovely example. I love that feeling, too, of crossing things off a list. Trouble for me is screwing up the courage to start!
But actually feeling like I have enough time (and gumption) to complete a straightforward task, especially if I can do it without interruption? Luxurious! Thanks for reminding me of that.
well, that’s not wrong, but in dorothy’s case this is prolly the first proper ‘sleeping in all day’ she’s had in months (she did have a freakout when she and walky slept in [meanwhile he was like ‘i am a god!’ or so lol]), as long as it doesn’t spiral to her ending up like a shut in or coping the same way ethan does
Dorothy is braver than me, I could not sleep with my phone plugged in across me. I flail too much, something would get unplugged. And possibly knocked over.
Good point, and I don’t think Dorothy is far enough gone to start skipping class. However if she does, she will invoke “Concern of Joyce” which will hopefully help. Unless Joyce is too busy spending time with, and defending Joe which seems likely now that I think about it.
It will sound whimsical on my part, but it would be great if it wasn’t Joyce who “saved” Dorothy, but rather someone completely outside the group of known friends and that would awaken that “jealous” side in Joyce.
Time to ruin the circadian rhythm, then it’s a mental health (???) and you find a 24 hour diner because the food court is closed at 4 am for some reason.
given how ‘active’ she is compared to the other cast i’m surprised she wouldn’t wanna go on a quick run as opposed to like getting snacks and go into a food coma or so
That’s fantasy future Dorothy, whom she’s letting control her life. Current Dorothy needs someone to knock on her door at mysterious times of day and say, “you up? want to go get seasoned curly fries?” (It’s Arnold)
This is looking very similar to what I went through when my mental health problems started to get bad. Hopefully hers don’t get as bad as mine did. Though that’s a low bar to clear, my break from uni lasted for a literal decade and only ended 3 weeks ago after I finally got sick of my retail job and walked out mid shift.
Both, I think? Internalized ableism comes from somewhere. Recognizing it in society might just make it easier or harder to recognize it in yourself, depending on where you are in your journey
Certainly doesn’t prove she doesn’t have some level of internalized ableism, but I don’t think recognizing that a diagnosis would make it harder to reach her goals is ableism in and of itself.
Very true. I mean, I’ve been diagnosed for decades now, and only in recent have I really been able to really embrace being autistic thanks to this comic and its community. Confronting internalized ableism can be tough!
well, the comments did say her therapist was bad, considering the one piece of advice we see her repeat might not have been the best in the moment/for her, although i guess with money /budgetary reasons and/or college scheduling, she can’t exactly ‘shop around’ til she finds one that’s the best for her
Funny thing about that, sometimes a therapist will suggest something that doesn’t work so good, even if they’re otherwise excellent. We call that a swing and a miss in the real world, but in the realm of fiction it’s somehow a crushing indictment of the therapist’s entire being. Perfect or worthless.
Well, yes, because stories operate on narratives & themes, unlike the real world. I mean, this isn’t The Bright Sessions, this isn’t a story about therapy/the therapy process, so it’s going to be flattened down for thematic cohesion. To not do so would make this a worse story…
very much agree on principle, but disagree in the specific: though therapy hasn’t been a central theme thus far, it’s not like it would be outlandish of DOA to come to discuss it in more detail? so, i think Taffy’s right, people speculating wildly on scant evidence that the therapist must succc are perhaps jumping to conclusions about an undergoing arc
Also it’s easy to give bad advice when your patient is lying to you. Why are criticizing a therapist we’ve never seen when we know Dorothy is hiding her trauma? Maybe a truly insightful therapist could figure that out, but that’s still a lot to expect from anyone.
She’s in therapy though. She told Walky and Ruth about it. She’s not being totally honest with her therapist, per her conversation with Ruth, but she is going. I hope she opens up about what she’s going through now, though, so she can maybe get more assistance.
i mean, sleeping in once in a while is fine but throwing off your sleeping schedule/rhythm aside, she prolly needs more healthy coping mechanisms
Or she could quit/drop out of college, travel and discover herself to get over her issues (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3730 tho for even if her neurosis weren’t as extreme as hanners’ i don’t think that’d be very realistic/common)
Well there’s the general case, and then there’s what Dorothy been through since her encounter with Raidah, and the fact that it hasn’t even been a year since she witnessed her friend’s dad getting murdered.
I think of ALF as being a trailblazer in bringing discussion of mental health and sensory/perception/information-processing differences into mainstream public discourse. Kind of a national puppet therapy through humor.
oh well, allow me to make amends (counter-intuitively, by making even worse puns)
her netflix account is my better-call-saul-mate
when she moons me her luna is my sol-mate
her anti-ghostbusters stance is my zuul-mate
her pet hamster is my vole’s mate
if we had sleepy sluggish sex together, we’d slow-mate
that time she threw some piece of food (or was it a booger?) into a pond, she had an entire shole-mate
It is until she fails out of classes she could have easily passed because of non attendance when this becomes a mental health month. At my uni it was every absence after two drops your letter grade.
I have a lot of experience in burning out at uni, I did it twice before deciding that despite stellar academic grades in all 12 years of school, perfect averages for both associate’s degrees, and everything saying that I should be a smart person, University is Not For Me.
Granted, my mental health issues stemmed from a lifetime of abuse and absent coping (fun fact, I recently discovered that I have mild homework trauma) and Dorothy’s are from watching a man get bludgeoned to death, being kidnapped, watching a different man get stabbed almost to death, and just generally having a traumatic college career itself. Tbh, the Raidah thing might have just been an excuse because now that I’ve typed it all out, Dorothy has more than enough reason to be done with traditional university and good enough stories to make people feel terrible for giving her side eye about it.
Yeah the thing about burnout and identity crises is they don’t just away after one day of taking a break. You need a much longer rest to restore those spell slots.
So … Dorothy’s “mental health day” consisted of lying in bed in a light doze reliving her trauma, right? And it turns out that didn’t help, for some weird reason?
finding myself reminded of these comics (https://twitter.com/_pocketss/status/1074451341366493189) from a few years back. “so it turns out staying in bed for days wasnt actually self care. turns out i was super depressed. like, clinically.”
same kind of “nothings wrong see im using psychology language that means its ok and im completely in control here” idea yanno?
It’s a Pants Off Party, on the dinosaur, it’s a pants off party, leave your trousers at the door! Leave your trousers there down at the door! Don’t run away, it’s all for free! Don’t be afraid, of what you constantly see…
OH! Do NOT leave a charging phone in the bed with you! If it ends up under a pillow (as this one half-is) or covers, the extra heat generated by the charging process can’t escape, so it builds, higher and higher, until your bed is on fire with you in it.
Phone charging on a hard surface in the open air is fine. That’s a nighttable for most of us, but I’m sure even top bunk of a bunkbed can figure out a good spot.
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Dorothy, there’s a magical place you can go where you are allowed to play video games on a dinosaur with no pants on. The price of admission is just some Nachitos.
Also, I’m dead set on someone walking into that room and misreading the situation. If it’s going to be Lucy then it would be even funnier if Dorothy were there because Walky would be having a No Pants Party with TWO of his exes. But Dorothy’s presence also unlocks the equally funny Becky option, because then Becky gets to find her girlfriend pantsless with both her rival and a boy. And that’s not even counting the hilarious possibilities if Joyce joins in.
You know what? The more the merrier. No Pants Party at Amber and Dina’s, entire cast!
They just get joined by every cast member, on at a time, and there’s just a pile of pants at the foot of the dinosaur. Walky is the only one not in his undies.
And then Margaret Dumont comes and opens the door and a tidal wave of people pours out.
https://tenor.com/view/marx-brothers-a-night-at-the-opera-margaret-dumont-opens-the-door-stateroom-scene-gif-26348200
An absolute classic.
Open the door
Pants on the floor
Party on the beanbag dinosaur
There’s a party on dinosaur and everyone is invited
Who’s to blame when a party gets out of control?
Had to double check if this was milu’s comment.
Hopefully they’re already busy drawing. 
Oh that’s embarrasing. I meant Yotomoe.
Damnit brain, it’s time for a q-tip.
Oofff yeah I’m second-hand embarrassed that you would confuse my poorly executed immature DOA fansmut with Yoto’s way better made immature DOA fansmut. However as it turns out i have drawn something along those lines a few days ago
part 1
part 2
These are excellent. Keep it up milu. Ya got skills.
Listen, i want be polite and say thank you but also i saw your reply in the rss feed and somehow forgot about this post and thought you’d just warmly validated my ridiculous puns thread downpage and i have to admit
i’m so disappointed
Funny if it’s not the regular cast. Joice walks and finds Arnold, Ryu (or Guile or Bison, whatever, something from Street Fighter) Asma, Other Rachel and Beef without pants.
Por que no Los todos?
Damn. You read the situation SO well.
speaking for myself, need a Mental Health Year or five
SAME BRUH
🫂
Oh no. I’m really sorry.
I’ve found an easy solution to that situation: retirement.
Is that still allowed in this economy?
Only for boomers like me.
Retirement is like being kid again, except without parents to tell you what you can’t do.
But typically with a slowly (or quickly) failing body telling you what you can’t do.
Well, yes, but that takes a while if you’re lucky.
Age is wasted on the old.
Youth: Lots of time, lots of energy, no money
Adult: Some energy, some money, no time
Elder: Lots of time, some money, no energy
Feels
Jeez, what would you do with all that time? I suppose you could blast it all away doomscrolling or watching videos, maybe reading books or playing video games, but in the absence of all that? I get bored in at most an hour, and that’s *after* deliberate training.
Year 6 here. Not really feeling like I’ve made any headway. On the other hand, between covid and rising fascism, the world is crashing down around me, so I don’t have as far to go, to stand back up as a decent person again.
I suppose it doesn’t help that police are *still* getting called when I lawfully show up to pick up our kid for access.
That’s just awful bruh, so sorry you have to deal with that
I’m sorry that is happening.
I’m just starting my twenty-first consecutive mental health year. In five years I get a gold watch.
Sorry, brain fart. I’m halfway through my 22nd year.
So only four years to a gold watch?
I never got my gold watch, but then I never got my flying car either.
You don’t want flying cars. You’ve seen how people drive in two dimensions – let’s not add a third.
Eugh, who doesn’t?
I’m good, thanks. Frankly, it sounds exhausting.
I took a Mental Health Year (minus about two months) in the middle of college. I was feeling really refreshed and ready for a new start after it was over.
Unfortunately for my sorry ass, the semester immediately following my Mental Health Year was Spring 2020.
Mine was 2003-. I noticed things were not working right after the wreck and my normal outlet of writing poetry about the situation wasn’t working either, that’s when I discovered I had a TBI from when I got killed, which was a fact that I also didn’t find out at the time, both the getting killed and the TBI. I didn’t get my blog up and running until 2008, so no outlets for like 7 years from the wreck until I started doing the blog.
that was 2016 for me. had a minor breakdown at the end of 2015 and had major panic attacks forcing me to drop out of my studies cue depression and insomnia leading to most of 2016 involving doing very little apart from therapy working on myself and building new friendships through my local board game store, this did eventually lead me to the job i am in now though which i love, so everything works out i guess?
Never neglect your mental health!
o3o I often wish I could sleep all day every day but I guess that’d be akin to death. But I do love sleepin’.
As someone with narcolepsy, sleeping is both what I do way too much, and yet is something I constantly want.
best to take naps while you can. too bad ppl can’t nap during work. well, maybe if you have a ‘cushy’ job where you get an hour break but unless you can fall asleep instantly and wake up ten mins before it ends idk how much it’d help
(I hear japan and other places have a break room with beds but that’s technically a negative thing if you’re literally sleeping at work and not abl e to go hoem lol)
At the factory I work at the lunch area has a raised tatami area in the lunch hall for people to sleep on in their breaks
yeah, i frequently take midtime naps when i do seasonal picking jobs, like i’ll rush my lunch just to get that sweet extra couple minutes in
I skip lunch and just nap in my car
(granted, even when we have work, which isn’t often these days, I just eat at my desk whenever)
I feel this so hard. Even after a 12 hour sleep, I wish I could sleep more. The ultimate activity for not having to think about your problems/reality.
Yeah, I’ve tried this experiment, repeatedly and at length, where I sleep a ton, with practically zero responsibilities, for weeks.
Because, I always feel overwhelmed, so I imagine that a few open-ended weeks of nothingness ought to address that problem / help relieve the overwhelm, right?
Unfortunately, though, it’s a situation where depression totally *thrives*. Depression is never sated, it’ll only get more intense if I give it 24/7 nothingness to eat.
The experiment has been conclusive for me. I always think it’ll help, it seems like it’ll be such a relief… but it’s a trap.
I had to keep setting my alarm, had to keep having some responsibilities that keep me in the world.
If I’ve got those, though, naps are indeed very very nice.
I have sleep apnea, which I’m glad to have diagnosed now and therefore be able to use a CPAP for higher quality sleep, but it does make the act of sleeping feel like more of a hassle, even though I enjoy it. Can’t just get comfortable and doze. But then if I do fall asleep without my CPAP, like if I end up napping while reading or something, it doesn’t feel very refreshing (probably because of all the not-breathing).
Oh no. This is really bad. This is how you get behind, followed by sudden overwhelming paralyzing panic, and then you end up doing nothing forever and have to take a semester off and it haunts you for years and years and then we don’t get to see Dorothy anymore and like her even though she reminds me of my most dire flaws.
Well since everyone else is getting deja vu of their college years from this, I might as well share my story for comfort.
I was a physics major at my University for two years until I had to recently quit because of mental health, disability and pandemic circumstances.
Awe well, at least coding games ain’t too bad. It ain’t a rocket, but at least I can eventually build Dorothy a sapphic dream world with what’s essentially Legos for grown-ups.
I am really sorry you went through that – it sounds utterly soul crushing. However, I am glad you where able to find hope and joy in your current path. You know a lot of wise (or at least old and seemingly pretty successful and happy) people I’ve talked to lately keep telling me that the universe is far far to complicated to see how every path pans out in 20 minutes much less in a decade or more, its about taking the path that feels right for you at the moment and being there. My mom says the universe sometimes closes doors so you can find a better one later (that sounds a little mumbo jumbo for me, but it brings her peace to her and myself when I can believe it).
Besides, have you ever heard of Brian May? Dude was on the path of the physicist, but then while prepping for his doctorate turned down what seems to have been a prestigious gap job so he could be keep being in a band only for that band to break up shortly after. He then formed Queen, dropped out of his doctorate half way through to go be a rock star. In 2007 in finished his degree and just recently helped NASA pull off the mission that brought back samples from an asteroid. Point is life leads you all sorts of weird places and strange curve balls doesn’t mean you won’t eventually get where you want and you frankly might be a lot more interesting when you get there. I don’t know if any of this helps, but I hope you have a good day/night/morning?
Awe thanks bruh, Brian sounds awesome. 🤩
I realize much akin to Dotty, my original goal was based on over-idealized conceptions of a profession over-simplified for grade-schoolers. Not to say that, akin to Dina, I wanna make science my way of life, I just think there’s a better path to it.
I always wanted to make hover-boards, light-sabers, video games, candy machines, sugar, tea and rum. Cool things that make people happy. PHD or not, that what my life about. 🥲
On that note, I find my 2 years of physics classes come in real handy for a lot of game coding :3
What you’re describing is an engineer, not a scientist. An engineer designs and makes things. A scientist wants to understand the way the way the world works.
Yeah I know, I chose physics with the intention of eventually getting an engineering degree, and because physicists often work alongside engineers in large projects.
But yeah, I ain’t cut out to seriously compete in that field, it turns out. Making games and learning science on my own is a lot less stressful.
re: Brian May’s story (which is pretty cool and thank you) i think it was the self-help writer Mark Manson who takes kind of the reverse of your example and talks about the first drummer for the Beatles who quit after 6 months before they rose to stardom and never became part of the phenomenon and stayed in the shadows playing small bands all his life and how when asked about it, would be like “yeah, that’s wild, but i mean… my life is good. i’m really happy with it.”
disclaimer i don’t remember the details and for all i know the story is apocryphal or simplified beyond the point of being a lie, so i’m not definitely endorsing it. i think the experience it describes is probably true of someone somewhere though and that’s good enough for me =)
crippling depression/executive dysfunction is a hell of a drug XP
Downward spiral in progress. I’m worried.
To dissolve a whirl pool or black hole, aim for the center, release a huge burst of energy.
Honestly I think that could work metaphorically for a LOT of stuff. I’m adding this to my list of words to live by.
What day of the week is it? I’m pretty sure it’s Saturday, which should by all rights default to being a mental health day unless you decide otherwise
On one hand, this isn’t a great sign. On the other, yeah, she probably DID need to take at least one day off.
I mean she is aware that she needed to take a mental health day yes that’s on Saturday and also on Sunday but that’s alot more progress many folks would take
i’m sure something will kick her butt back into gear for better or worse.
I once read a comic by pockets that said taking a “mental health day” as just staying in bed just means you’re depressed. Seems that checks out.
Exactly.
The correct procedure for mental health days is video games, horror movies, and the most decadent pizza you can envision.
Anything less is folly.
Horror movies? Not everyone’s cup of tea.
Takin an edible and watching my favorite YouTubers scream their pants off from playing a horror game? Now that’s a great possibility for me.
I watch horror whenever I’m feeling lousy. Great for sick days and mental health days.
I think it’s just nice to see that someone in some universe is having a worse day than me. I may be 40% conscious on the couch with mucous coming out of the majority of my face holes, but at least Jason Voorhees hasn’t killed me with a speargun.
I love watching “Community” and drinking hot cocoa when I am stressed out. Problem is I also use that to procrastinate.
Back when I had my first super stressful job that I could actually deal with (for a while) creating ritual routines to follow every day really helped me. Like getting a steamed milk with mint at the market, or spending an hour every day doing the crossword and the sudoku in pen on a print newspaper from the corner sandwich shop.
Little things like that to ground me and help me focus on the day. Keep from getting derailed.
…For a while.
Nowadays I love listening to white noise soft ASMR sounds on YouTube. Like the sound of turning pages, or a crackling fire, or the hiss and crackle of an old vinyl record with no tune.
What about you folks? What is your favorite way to unwind your mind and unthread your head?
Well edibles are great to simultaneously help me relax and also heal swollen limbs, useful when those happen to be my fingers i need for coding, such as a day ago.
Also I love watching longplays of 90s and early 2000s PC games and viewing weekly uploads on Spriters Resource (both essential for me as a game-dev, thankfully enough)
Absorbing AND educational! The perfect combo!
Yard work. It’s my prime think-time. If I’m angry I can break sticks or attack a mound of dirt with a hoe. When I’m done, I always reward myself with a moment just surveying the results, so I can see that, not only do I feel better, I made something else better.
Walking through a nearby nature park helps too. ‘s better for sadness.
Oh, that sounds just perfect. My S.O. loves gardening, too, for the same reason. Goals!
Skimming Discworld novels. Not reading them, that requires concentration, just flicking through them and remembering the best bits. Inevitably, I do start actually reading them, but I take that as a sign my brain is back on course.
Weirdly, at work, I find the actual work is my destress option. Like, everything else about the job is a nightmare of baffling and contradictory official policies and requirements, but the actual thing I’m being paid to do is straightforward, involves just enough mental effort to keep me occupied, and has a visual indication of completion that I find it satisfying to look at and think “Yes. Yes, that’s done“. (Except, of course, when there’s one item that’s not straightforward, and I spend half an hour quietly freaking out over it.)
Maybe that wasn’t a good example after all…
No, no, that is a lovely example. I love that feeling, too, of crossing things off a list. Trouble for me is screwing up the courage to start!
But actually feeling like I have enough time (and gumption) to complete a straightforward task, especially if I can do it without interruption? Luxurious! Thanks for reminding me of that.
The comic in question. Seems pretty fitting for what Dorothy’s going through right now.
https://www.tumblr.com/pocketss/180699498971/pocketss-its-just-one-of-those-croissant-days
Oh, I identify! Yep, that’s me. It takes a chocolate croissant or two to get me out of bed.
Reminds me of that classic old block print / stencil:
https://i.redd.it/8x94s9x6cu681.jpg
“I didn’t go to work today.
I don’t think I’ll go tomorrow.”
well, that’s not wrong, but in dorothy’s case this is prolly the first proper ‘sleeping in all day’ she’s had in months (she did have a freakout when she and walky slept in [meanwhile he was like ‘i am a god!’ or so lol]), as long as it doesn’t spiral to her ending up like a shut in or coping the same way ethan does
Well this is certainly bringing back memories of college.
Aw, jeez, Dotty.
Your hair looks fantastic, though, maybe consult Amber on the “ruffled but somehow gorgeous” ‘do.
When we need a mentally healthy day, because Saturday or Sunday isn’t a one healthy day anymore.
if only we could be magically rich overnight and spend a week at a luxury spa/hotel and such
Dorothy is braver than me, I could not sleep with my phone plugged in across me. I flail too much, something would get unplugged. And possibly knocked over.
Let’s calm down at least – it’s still the weekend. She hasn’t start skipping classes yet.
Good point, and I don’t think Dorothy is far enough gone to start skipping class. However if she does, she will invoke “Concern of Joyce” which will hopefully help. Unless Joyce is too busy spending time with, and defending Joe which seems likely now that I think about it.
It will sound whimsical on my part, but it would be great if it wasn’t Joyce who “saved” Dorothy, but rather someone completely outside the group of known friends and that would awaken that “jealous” side in Joyce.
Time to ruin the circadian rhythm, then it’s a mental health (???) and you find a 24 hour diner because the food court is closed at 4 am for some reason.
given how ‘active’ she is compared to the other cast i’m surprised she wouldn’t wanna go on a quick run as opposed to like getting snacks and go into a food coma or so
That’s fantasy future Dorothy, whom she’s letting control her life. Current Dorothy needs someone to knock on her door at mysterious times of day and say, “you up? want to go get seasoned curly fries?” (It’s Arnold)
This is looking very similar to what I went through when my mental health problems started to get bad. Hopefully hers don’t get as bad as mine did. Though that’s a low bar to clear, my break from uni lasted for a literal decade and only ended 3 weeks ago after I finally got sick of my retail job and walked out mid shift.
or
and hear me out
or you could seek professional help
But that would mean confronting your incredible ableism.
I mean besides the fact that the professionals available to her at IU aren’t that good,
confronting internalized ableism can be really cumbersome. Believe me, I know.
It’s been mentioned that she lies to her therapist because getting anything even remotely “wrong” in writing will tank her chances at the presidency.
So she’s just never had a healthy… anything…
Yup, hence the incredible ableism.
Is that really ableism or a recognition of ableism in society?
Both, I think? Internalized ableism comes from somewhere. Recognizing it in society might just make it easier or harder to recognize it in yourself, depending on where you are in your journey
Yeah I mean, same goes for bigotry in general?
See @Jason‘s comment on how bigotry isn’t just hatred.
Certainly doesn’t prove she doesn’t have some level of internalized ableism, but I don’t think recognizing that a diagnosis would make it harder to reach her goals is ableism in and of itself.
Very true. I mean, I’ve been diagnosed for decades now, and only in recent have I really been able to really embrace being autistic thanks to this comic and its community. Confronting internalized ableism can be tough!
well, the comments did say her therapist was bad, considering the one piece of advice we see her repeat might not have been the best in the moment/for her, although i guess with money /budgetary reasons and/or college scheduling, she can’t exactly ‘shop around’ til she finds one that’s the best for her
Funny thing about that, sometimes a therapist will suggest something that doesn’t work so good, even if they’re otherwise excellent. We call that a swing and a miss in the real world, but in the realm of fiction it’s somehow a crushing indictment of the therapist’s entire being. Perfect or worthless.
Well, yes, because stories operate on narratives & themes, unlike the real world. I mean, this isn’t The Bright Sessions, this isn’t a story about therapy/the therapy process, so it’s going to be flattened down for thematic cohesion. To not do so would make this a worse story…
very much agree on principle, but disagree in the specific: though therapy hasn’t been a central theme thus far, it’s not like it would be outlandish of DOA to come to discuss it in more detail? so, i think Taffy’s right, people speculating wildly on scant evidence that the therapist must succc are perhaps jumping to conclusions about an undergoing arc
Jesus fucking Christ, I understand what fiction is.
Also it’s easy to give bad advice when your patient is lying to you. Why are criticizing a therapist we’ve never seen when we know Dorothy is hiding her trauma? Maybe a truly insightful therapist could figure that out, but that’s still a lot to expect from anyone.
by seeking professional help, she might also run into ‘incredible ableism’
it’s ableism all the way down
She’s in therapy though. She told Walky and Ruth about it. She’s not being totally honest with her therapist, per her conversation with Ruth, but she is going. I hope she opens up about what she’s going through now, though, so she can maybe get more assistance.
Nesting fail, this was meant to be a reply to the comment above about trying therapy.
Uh-oh, you stopped moving and the trauma caught up with you?
Ah yes, the Chris Traeger method
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbN8YHOEebs
Welp. I feel that.
Well the good news is that it’s Saturday and that’s what those are for.
i’m sure she’ll be interrupted by one thing/person or another before the week starts up again
Definitely saving that last panel for future reference.
…. I can’t tell if this is extremely foolish or extremely wise.
i mean, sleeping in once in a while is fine but throwing off your sleeping schedule/rhythm aside, she prolly needs more healthy coping mechanisms
Or she could quit/drop out of college, travel and discover herself to get over her issues (https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3730 tho for even if her neurosis weren’t as extreme as hanners’ i don’t think that’d be very realistic/common)
The words of the foolish
And those of the wise
Are not far apart
In Discordian eyes
*one mental year later*
Definitely part of the “I am in this webcomic and I don’t like it” club.
Feels like it might be a big club today. I hope everyone is doing well, and being as kind to themselves as they are able to be.
*Dorothy takes an edible*
*wakes up surrounded by dead bodies*
(This is how Joyce thinks pot works)
“That’s one funky looking cigarette…” XD
Nah, that’s how spinach works.
Some of the comments are weird. Sleeping until lunch on a college weekend is not exactly imminent depression.
(Why do I say lunch? Sal was just meeting her parents for lunch.)
Well there’s the general case, and then there’s what Dorothy been through since her encounter with Raidah, and the fact that it hasn’t even been a year since she witnessed her friend’s dad getting murdered.
For reals someone inject this girl McNuggets and kitty pictures PRONTO
what else is happy, what else she need? we gotta build her a happy place…
ALF!
I think of ALF as being a trailblazer in bringing discussion of mental health and sensory/perception/information-processing differences into mainstream public discourse. Kind of a national puppet therapy through humor.
Weird comments are part of the charm. If we can’t unwarranted assumptions and run with them, we’d never have the joy of bragging “CALLED IT!”
I’m in love with Dorothy’s hot pink shirt.
Well, okay, but what’s inside it is cuter.
Dorothy’s cute, but her shirt is my soulmate.
Personally, I think her shoes are my solemate
well as for me, her scarf is my shawlmate
should’ve written, her shcarf is my shawlmate
oh well, allow me to make amends (counter-intuitively, by making even worse puns)
her netflix account is my better-call-saul-mate
when she moons me her luna is my sol-mate
her anti-ghostbusters stance is my zuul-mate
her pet hamster is my vole’s mate
if we had sleepy sluggish sex together, we’d slow-mate
that time she threw some piece of food (or was it a booger?) into a pond, she had an entire shole-mate
shoal* dammit
allow me to make amends,
j/k
(her coffee cup is my bowlmate)
her myopia is my molemate
i’m shipping her with Joyce, so that makes them each other’s sailmate (pronounced wonkily close to “soul” cuz oldtimey pirate accent)
I hope this isn’t the start of a big ol’ Crash and Burn.
But just in case, my seat back and tray table are in the original upright-and-locked positions.
Absolutely not!
It started some time ago.
It started in high school.
“Mental Health Week is Mental Health Week!!!”
Instead of the possibility of having it fall to the ground, the phone and the cable being wrapped around her waist is quite a move
It’s not wrapped, it’s just lying on top of her… which is still massively weird.
She probably fell asleep doing the Dorothy equivalent of doomscrolling.
InfrastructureMental Health Week!When it hasnt been your day your week your month or even your year
I still think this is better than manically overworking herself.
It is until she fails out of classes she could have easily passed because of non attendance when this becomes a mental health month. At my uni it was every absence after two drops your letter grade.
I have a lot of experience in burning out at uni, I did it twice before deciding that despite stellar academic grades in all 12 years of school, perfect averages for both associate’s degrees, and everything saying that I should be a smart person, University is Not For Me.
Granted, my mental health issues stemmed from a lifetime of abuse and absent coping (fun fact, I recently discovered that I have mild homework trauma) and Dorothy’s are from watching a man get bludgeoned to death, being kidnapped, watching a different man get stabbed almost to death, and just generally having a traumatic college career itself. Tbh, the Raidah thing might have just been an excuse because now that I’ve typed it all out, Dorothy has more than enough reason to be done with traditional university and good enough stories to make people feel terrible for giving her side eye about it.
but then they wouldn’t let her be
war criminalPresident.I wonder if she is anxious and hangovered from suddenly abandoning her super regimented life.
Putting aside the obvious mental health crisis that is slowly looming for Dotty — mood. Big Mood.
Ya poor girl, really been skimming on sleep lately eh ?
Ah yes, that feeling when you do everything right, but you don’t feel better.
Poor baby.
Guess what? You’re in college. Meaning that you have access to mental health professionals! Use the resources. Get the therapy. Huzzah!
Oh so relatable. I just want to take a week’s worth of mental health days and see if that sticks.
Oh no. I see myself here pretty directly.
Sounds good Dotty.
Man, that sleeping pose. I’m actually almost jealous! Looks like a mix between super comfy and super stiff.
Yeah the thing about burnout and identity crises is they don’t just away after one day of taking a break. You need a much longer rest to restore those spell slots.
relaxing to normal person levels of work and expectations would make every day a mental health day for you dorothy
Who was the psychic who predicted this strip exactly?
nicole?? maggie??? :shrug:
Contact your doctor if you experience a Mental Health Day lasting longer than 72 hours
So … Dorothy’s “mental health day” consisted of lying in bed in a light doze reliving her trauma, right? And it turns out that didn’t help, for some weird reason?
I am in this strip, etc.
I feel seen.
Correct
Wait, it isn’t an alarm. It’s like a calling?
Are Dorothy’s number on spam list, too?
Those spammers just dial 111-1111, 111-1112, 111-1113…
finding myself reminded of these comics (https://twitter.com/_pocketss/status/1074451341366493189) from a few years back. “so it turns out staying in bed for days wasnt actually self care. turns out i was super depressed. like, clinically.”
same kind of “nothings wrong see im using psychology language that means its ok and im completely in control here” idea yanno?
I feel you Dotty.
Burn out is a hell of a thing.
It’s a Pants Off Party, on the dinosaur, it’s a pants off party, leave your trousers at the door! Leave your trousers there down at the door! Don’t run away, it’s all for free! Don’t be afraid, of what you constantly see…
With regrets to Oingo Boingo
Oh fuuu that’s a good one (also a random song reference I actually get, finally!)
I love the dinosaur no pants party thread in the comments so much. This is what we all really need in life.
In other words, welp I guess new Dotty gravatars just dropped. XD Dorothy at her most relatable
OH! Do NOT leave a charging phone in the bed with you! If it ends up under a pillow (as this one half-is) or covers, the extra heat generated by the charging process can’t escape, so it builds, higher and higher, until your bed is on fire with you in it.
Phone charging on a hard surface in the open air is fine. That’s a nighttable for most of us, but I’m sure even top bunk of a bunkbed can figure out a good spot.