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WOW! So COOL and so UNFAKEY!
Hey Jen’s back! Hey Jen!
There was an attempt.
Ocd and adhd
Where everything has to be done, and done perfectly, but only briefly.
Is there a Dexter in this strip I can’t see?
I think he’s getting tagged for the mention.
The head alien reference I assume.
Unless one or both have him on their keychains.
Yes, Dexter = Head Alien.
Yes, he’s taken over Dorothy’s mind.
…in another universe.
(Listen, the degree to which Walky and Joyce and Dorothy love the Head Alien given all the horrific things he did to all three of them back in It’s Walky is REALLY FUNNY, never lose sight of that)
early strips had more tagging, for things in the dialogue. And a few of the tags persist. So significant Dexter mentioning gets tagged.
I prefer a more rational explanation; that the use of the head alien’s name summons his immaterial presence from his lair in the rooms at the end of the hall.
The spirits of Chick-fil-a and Taco Bell dwell in the double across from Dorothy and Becky.
Does Walky officially have ADHD? Has Willis confirmed this?
Other characters have commented on it. IDK about Word of God, but the only reason he hasn’t been confirmed is, he hasn’t gotten diagnosed on-screen. And honestly? He’s like, textbook undiagnosed AMAB case.
Yeah, while I wouldn’t take Mike’s word as gospel and he’s the only one I can recall using the disorder name outright, he’s SUCH a textbook “made it to college with undiagnosed ADHD because they were smart enough to fly under the radar, suddenly hit a wall as soon as there’s material they can’t immediately learn because they never learned to study, studying is not working for them” case that I treat it as basically canon. The fact that he’s NOT diagnosed is an explicit point of drama because getting a name for it gives him access to way more strategies for managing it.
I can see why people think of Walky as having ADHD but I definitely don’t read him that way.
My brother has ADHD.
Wally reminds me a lot more of me than my brother.
I was a gifted kid and never learned to study effectively.
I made it through a high school for gifted kids, and most of college without ever learning how to study properly. Hell, I made it through 9 of 10 graduate courses and never learned to study well.
I am also a nervous wreck.
I have been evaluated for ADHD, and I don’t have it according to the test.
I’m not saying he doesn’t have ADHD; but if he does there is so much more going on than that.
Well, if the test says you don’t…
…then it’s possible the test is wrong? Because “can’t study” and “nervous wreck” don’t shout “everything is fine and normal”, you know? And it *does* run in families, even if it doesn’t manifest with the same symptoms and intensity in everyone.
Just speaking as someone who also got through 80% of my uni courses with zero effort and scraped passes in the other 20%, and then got diagnosed 20 years later…
The main thing is I don’t meet the childhood markers for ADHD or autism.
In my case it’s generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and bipolar disorder.
It’s not “can’t study” it’s “never learned.”
Studying is a skill which requires forethought and discipline.
Which, I never really needed for the longest time and so I never learned.
That experience is not unique to ADHD nor indicative of it.
I had Walky’s experience, as a gifted kid and then underwhelming adult.
My brother has ADHD and did not have Walky’s experience.
ADHD, like autism, is a spectrum, it doesn’t manifest in the exact same way for everyone or with the same intensity.
NT is also a spectrum.
I’m not saying Walk doesn’t have ADHD.
I’m saying this is a trait which exists on both sides of the fence.
Gender dysphoria? Why do you say that? Honestly curious, because its just never occurred to me to think of Walky that way.
I don’t think they’re calling Walky an egg (although I’ve seen people make that case), I think they’re saying that he’s a pretty textbook example of how ADHD manifests in cis guys.
I love the description; “My frontal lobe’s got, like, restless leg syndrome”
Who said gender dysphoria?
No, not dysphoria! It’s a useful marker so I don’t go and say “this is for boys, this is for girls.” Gender influences the way shit develops too, not in a bio-essentialist way but in a “this is how we’re raised so some manifestations and coping mechanisms are statistically likelier.” It’s a socialization thing. I’m non-binary (kind of a genderflowey pangender??) but a good part of my experiences stem from my family raising me as a girl, and my environment treating me like one. Meanwhile the symptoms themselves, like, as they came in the package, were not gendered.
What is AMAB for the uninformed like myself? I know what ADHD is, but not AMAB.
Assigned Male At Birth. The distinction is because when it comes to ASD(autism spectrum disorder) and ADHD, there is a difference in how people present based on sex. Namely, the ADHD we typically think of with being hyperactive and impulsive is more common among those who are AMAB with ADHD, whereas it presents different for those who are AFAB. This leads to lots of girls being missed when it comes to diagnosis, because they don’t present the “typical” way.
The jury is out on why such a thing is so. Whether the difference in presenting is due to society, actual differences in the brain, or a combo. For example, with ASD, one symptom is being nonverbal or not talking much, being quiet, and historically women, especially little girls, have been treated with a “better seen than heard” mentality. Thus, if a little girl is quiet and keeps to herself, she’s just shy. If a boy is quiet and keeps to himself, then SOMETHING must be up because boys are “supposed” to be loud and rambunctious.
See also: Dina
https://www.dumbingofage.com/thatbad/
Yup. Surprise surprise, medical racism is very often an obstacle to getting a formal diagnosis.
Which is exactly why you should have no patience with people who claim that ADHD or autism are getting “over-diagnosed these days” — it’s because of growing awareness of racism and misogynies which have plagued the medical system for decades that doctors are only just starting to play a much-needed game of catch-up.
Just look at the “sudden” population explosion of left-handed people around the mid-1960s.
You know, when teachers stopped forcing them to write with their right hands.
I’m sure there’s no correlation there at all. /s
Note that there are heavy suggestions this is not based on what the doctors assign you as at birth, but how you are treated in infancy – AMAB and AFAB are often used as “boy but without saying boy” and “girl but without saying girl” in a lot of internet discussions where they’re not relevant – if we’re talking about gendered education, it’s about gender and not assigned sex, if we’re talking about body parts, it’s about those one has at the time regardless of assigned sex at birth, etc etc
We also can’t forget the all important “assigned cop at birth”
The cop I was assigned at birth resigned long ago, but never said why.
ACABs can and should work on transing their gender as well. But the kool aid is strong on those ones.
Doopybop gave you a good answer! Though I make the distinction between gender and sex here precisely because I subscribe to the “socialization rather than innate” school of thought. I’m an ADHD/ASD combo who had hyperactivity and talked to everyone at 150 kms/h. But I had also always been an obsessive bookworm with a big vocabulary who daydreamed a lot when left alone. My opposition to authority, questioning of rules that didn’t make logical sense, and zero sense of social cues was blamed on both, & exasperated adults shrugged.
Anyway. AFAB, right? I got traumatized out of the hyperactivity and sociability, I had a phobia of letting adults help me fix my own stuff (since I was also perma-praised for being so grown-up), nobody realized how bad shit got at school until I had done a total 180 in personlity, took the textbook AFAB nosedive instead of the AMAB one. Went undiagnosed on the ADHD until my mid-twenties…. And on the ASD until my mid-thirties.
… I’m not quite a woman.
Similar hat, Dante! I have (as far as I know) ADHD but was never diagnosed as a kid because I was AFAB. I also did really well in school and got great grades. But I mainly got such great grades because I was great at hyperfocusing. I’d finish classwork early and be left bored in my chair, where I’d usually either daydream or doodle in my notes.
I also have had difficulties with sleeping all my life (can’t really fall asleep unless I’ve exhausted myself, otherwise I just have hours of tossing and turning in bed), and I was (and still kinda am) a notorious picky eater. As a kid the adults in my life just thought I was being a brat, even though I was well behaved in every other aspect. I didn’t have the vocabulary to explain that I had issues with how the texture of some food hit my mouth, and would instead default to “it tastes gross”. I also have difficulty with auditory processing, such as an example as recent as two months ago where I went to a restaurant with friends after a very busy day of socializing. The atmosphere inside the place was full of loud music and loud people, and I eventually just had to shut down for a bit from being overstimulated. My friends were thankfully very understanding and gave me the space I needed to work through it.
Fidgeting with a little pop it cube also honestly did wonders to help me through that. I’ve also begun embracing this year that I stim. I was never really aware of it, though I do remember doing odd “things” and “movements” as a kid that I was swiftly bullied for and probably socialized to stop doing. But now as an adult I’ve learned to stim again, and it’s a strange sort of discovery about myself to make. But not unpleasant.
And also, not quite a woman! *fingerguns*
“…finish classwork early and be left bored….” That’s hyperfocus? I just thought it meant the work was too easy. Some of the teachers would have a table of enrichment materials you could go to if you had extra time, like the beloved (by me, anyway) “SRA box” full of story cards with questions, sorted by difficulty. For the other classes, well, like you I had a pencil, paper, and thoughts, and what more does one need to be entertained?
It can be hyperfocus if you’re narrowmindedly focused on completing the task at hand (to the point of not registering what’s going on outside your task) like I would be. And when the neurotypical kids around me were all still working at it because they couldn’t do that. Sometimes the work could definitely be too easy as well.
Perhaps a better example of hyperfocus would be like, for example, when my mom passed away and the funeral home requested we give them a thumbdrive of pictures so they could make a memorial video. I had a whole week to do this. But, instead, I sorted through all available pictures (including multiple photo albums), scanned them in, cropped them as needed, and put everything onto a flashdrive in a matter of hours because I hyperfocused my way through it.
The downside of hyperfocus is that, again, the rest of the world kinda gets… put to the sidelines which isn’t so bad until you come out of a task 6 hours later and you’re like “oh, shit, I’m really hungry. And I need to use the restroom. When’s the last time I drank water?”.
Not that I know of. But I think Walky’s dialogue suggests that he has done some research.
Bojack Horseman vs Mister Peanutbutter, summed up in a single comic.
For real though, Dorothy, I feel tat. I envy how other people seem like they can just have fun without worrying about it, even if they might have other stuff going on that I can’t see.
Lush do a product called Fun. It’s like heavily scented play dough you can play with in the bath and use like soap.
I got my kids some Rainbow Fun when I did an order recently because I am a good parent and told my eldest I don’t think she’s too old for Fun. She was very pleased.
Dorothy would benefit from having a hobby of some kind. She approaches everything as a job, even things like eating and relaxing are regulated and timed like a job. There’s definitely success and benefits in the life style she has, she’d make a killing on Wall Street, but it also leads to burn out.
Dorothy has rigidly mechanized her life, but now that she no longer has that weight that tormented her, she now has the opportunity to finally find what she really needs, yes, it is not now, but it must come.
The problem is she wouldn’t know how to do a hobby without treating it like she has everything else. It wouldn’t be relaxing the way its supposed to be.
She would have a side-hustle. Not helpful.
Yes, that’s her problem. A hobby would just be another job to do.
Asking Walky basically how he does it is typical for her approach to life: find out how to do a job and follow the steps.
Another way to look at it: organizing and regulating everything is her hobby.
she could try arson.
She needs something where she can release all this stress and utterly destroy some shit instead of build something as a discipline. Self-harm is aggression, gotta turn it outwards without resorting to hurting other people (or a fight club.) I’d suggest non-competitive kickboxing.
Just you, the sandbag, and enough technique to kick the hell out of it without breaking yourself.
Well, she does at least have a fandom. She likes Dexter and the Monkey Master! That’s a hobby, kind of.
Dorothy, are you trying to say “hyperfixation”?
Girlie is autistic. Nobody will convince me otherwise. Apart from all the #Signs, imagine the dramatic irony after how she’s hounded Joyce on it.
I hope they get back together. Not necessarily because I think they would make a good couple, but just to see how their children’s’ neurology pans out.
I’ve been known to extoll the virtue of ADHD/ASD couples. Their dynamic reigns supreme. Incidentally, so do their genes.
My partner and I are (respectively) ADHD and autistic/ADHD(/some other stuff) and tbh, yeah, it works fantastically.
One of my friends has three boys with AuDHD diagnoses… Very bright, curious kids with no impulse control, varying difficulties relating to others and with shades of nuance and “sometimes it’s X and sometimes it’s Y”, problems with getting overstimulated… The 5 year old is a runner (and fast). The teenager, she worries might wonder what would happen if he set fire to something because he’d pretty promptly set it on fire to find out… She’s part-homeschooling the middle one because he was masking as much as he could, poor button, and just so miserable and exhausted, and she needed to find him a better way. All three of them are getting extra support in different ways, and she’s an absolute warrior, making sure they get what they need to survive and thrive (the eldest was in a really dark, low state when he was about 13, 14, when this all came to a head and she realised and she got him into a “has a handful of places a year” specialised school because mainstream schooling had labelled him a problem and was treating him like one and refusing to see how hard they were trying… If she hadn’t done that, not sure he’d still be here, honestly (not sure if running away or something more permanent).
She loves them, they’re amazing kids and clearly adore her too, but she’s also on high alert a lot of the time. Things like being terrified of teaching the youngest to ride a trike/balance bike because making a small person with no road sense (or danger perception), who frequently RUNS, far and fast, faster than you are , seems ill-advised…
She’s an amazing mother, and she’s doing everything in her power to make sure they turn out happy, confident adults who know how to function in society and have all of the skills they need to do that – but I think she’s got the dial permanently set to extra-hard mode.
But the combination of traits can be hard to live with, and if you don’t necessarily know what’s the underlying cause, schools can be unsympathetic and shovel steaming piles of manure on top.
Oh, this resonates 🙁 She’s fantastic. Honestly, those boys have the most amazing mother they could have, and yeah, the different mentioned combos can’t be easy to raise (thrice!!) but the fact she understands them, and does her best to counter how shitty the outside world can be to neurodivergent kiddos, counts a lot. Hats off to her!
Not a couple, but my best friend and I are (respectively) AuDhd and ADHD, which leads to us being a pretty good brain team together. We even out each other’s strengths/weaknesses, can commiserate on each other’s texture based issues, and help recognize when the other is overstimulated and needs some help/advice.
I want to do a parody song based off that middle panel, set to the tune of “Wish You Were Here”, by Pink Floyd.
We’re just two lost souls, on a big pile o’snow
Fear after fear
also SLIP SHINE TIME!!!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
literally me rn:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9FFfuqMWnw
So wait Willis is he gonna be called “Dexter” or “Head Alien” in the comic form now on?
(asking for reasons which may or may not involve a possibility of having to change art and/or code)
I feel like “Head Alien” is a nickname, you’re ok :33
Head Alien is a title, not some mere nickname.
Unless referring specifically to pre-cartoon-show comic book version (or Walkyverse version), he’s “Dexter” or “Dexter the Head Alien”. See https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/02-uphill-from-here/throw/ and https://www.dumbingofage.com/2011/comic/book-1/05-media-rumble/smitten-2/
Is Restless Leg Syndrome a Girls with Slingshots reference?
No, it’s when you can’t stop moving your legs. It happened to me when a nurse gave me too much medication in the hospital. Weird shit. Also extremely uncomfortable.
RLS is a real thing.
Personally, it is most common when I’m very tired but can’t sleep. IIRC it’s related to the brain’s self-test for being asleep. The sensation is a fake signal from part of the brain that a body part feels of irritation/antsy. If the body responds by moving, then we’re not asleep yet.
Not to be confused with a hypnagogic jerk. When the brain notices it’s going to sleep and thinks it should be awake, so your muscles involuntarily twitch. Like a kick. It’s thought it kept our ancestors from falling out of trees when they fell asleep.
That snow pile’s way bigger than I thought.
I’ve seen some that are as tall as three-story buildings, if not taller. Makes me want to grab a shovel and start tunneling like I’m 11 years old again.
Not a good idea, that kills a fair number of kids.
It’s incredible, I’m both of them.
Sometimes at the same time, and when that happens, oh boy. Worst flavor of procrastination ever |DDD
I really do love their shared interest in Dexter and Monkey Master, since it grounds Dorothy a little.
Man, though, I do really like this. The two being able to be so real with each other is something I really savor in their encounters.
That is why I appreciate this ship, because despite everything that has happened, the interaction remains real and transparent.
So, next to the slipshine ad I misinterpreted the tags and thought, “Dexter’s gonna be in the slipshine??”
And now I can’t unsee it.
the head alien.
He’s gonna master his monkey!
…I’m honestly not sure if that’s terrible because it doesn’t really work, or because it doesi.
the return of head alien
Wait didn’t the ice hill melt?
hahhahaha that’s Indiana weather for ya XD
It did. Then more snow came and they had to scrape it up again. Welcome to Indiana winters.
My wife, who grew up in northern Michigan, would have liked the weather DOA has been having. The last several winters have had relatively little snow for central Indiana, and she misses it.
When visiting the UP we saw a mailbox on a taaall pole labelled, not the boringly ubiquitous “air mail,” but “winter deliveries.” Yes, we laughed.
He just loves being in high places, he’s a cat.
As long as the figure isn’t like a Funko Pop…
Walky loves high places and snacks, Sal is aloof and only accepts affection on her own terms.
The Walkerton twins are cats confirmed.
I really don’t like the phrasing of Walky’s dialogue in the 3rd panel and it took me a few reads to parse it.
Like “Do you think I got vacant airy places like this to run to” feels like the wrong way to phrase this. It sounds like he’s about to start talking about the convenience that he has a place like this to go. The emphasis should be on his need to seek out places like this, not the place’s existence in itself.
Like the emphasis should be on him running to places like this, rather than HAVING a place to run to.
For a communications major he isn’t very good with words.
A TELEcommunications major.
Probably needs some kind of electronic and/or smart device to better get his point across.
Just because someone knows how to edit doesn’t mean they’re precise when they’re just talking.
I think it should have been “because I’m thriving,” to set up the inverse cause and effect. “If I’m thriving,” sounds like he comes out here when he is doing well.
Yeah! “Because” hits my brain WAY better while reading it.
OK, I got it in one but I see what you mean: it would be more readily understandable to say “Do you think I find vacant airy places” et seq.
Oh man. And it was Garbage Roof before, but he gave that one to Amber on the divorce (and then Amber didn’t want it either TwT)
Oh hey, it’s like my favorite metaphor for ADHD ever: https://youtu.be/Zt3vzOMzQYU
Them: “You seem so chill and with it! So unbothered!”
Internally: MANY WHEELS GO BRRRRRRR SIMULTANEOUSLY
No joke. I’m on a break from weed and whenever I take breaks my ADHD goes into overdrive. It’s like having a brain the spins at 9000 rpm to go 10 miles per hour
Other than being afraid of tripping, the view from atop the snowhill must be nice
And congrats to Sal/Danny on teh sex
OMG DOROTHY ALMOST SMILING PANEL 4
Yeah, figured this would be the direction of the conversation. I give it at least two more strips before Walky says something random that is what’s needed to clear Dorothy’s head.
I really like them together. They balance each other out. I can’t see either of them being this honest with their other partners.
This. I fully agree! They’re really good for each other, even better now that both of them have grown a bit.
I think Walky is really honest with Amber.
I suspect Dorothy would be honest with someone like Jacob, dating or not, because he would get it. Not that they should date, but it’s nice having some friends who understand.
Walky’s honest with Amber, but it kinda bites him in the ass sometimes. Amber doesn’t have the ability to gently push back when he’s crossing a line.
Walky is totally dwelling on the way things ended with Lucy. It just isn’t in a direct, conscious way. “Why am I like this?” is totally a ‘dwelling on it’ frame of mind.
oh ya.
I suspect that he’s trying to dwell on it, but feels like he’s failing, according to some arbitrary standard of what sad introspection is supposed to look like in media he’s watched. It would fit his character.
No, I’m not projecting anything, why do you ask?
It probably doesn’t help that it hasn’t super conclusively ended?
Self-awareness looks good on Walky.
Sometimes garbage roof isn’t what we need; sometimes garbage snow hill is.
thats one way of saying you are riddled with ADHD
There’s an internet rule which states that thinking of “Restless Lobe Syndrome” will make it appear in a few months on some new drug ad played during the network news.
There were a lot of comments about Dorothy’s indoor outfit, but I think panel 4 today may be her most appealing look. Too bad Walky missed it. Or maybe a good thing.
Feels like he noticed !! And went “nope nope not falling for temptation i don’t need to add to my problems”. Hence the fucking off somewhere they would need to ADD as many clothes as possible
I’m glad they’re getting to actually know each other.
damn this comment is too real for 11:30 AM
Dorothy is misbehaving somehow
That’s alright.
I keep getting hints that I might be ADHD (one of them was someone who is currently reading A LOT about ADHD telling me she’s almost sure I have it). I’m not sure I like it. I have an appointment for testing it in a year. Not sure I like that, either.
One way or another, it doesn’t change who you are.
NGL when I first read this strip in the asscrack of morning I misread the flub in the first panel about the Head Alien figurine not being called a Dexter figurine, and so I was like. Very convinced that the alt text had everyone in the comments decoding some kind of subtle long-running metaphor for Walky’s executive dysfunction by way of intentional Dexter/Head Alien analogy. Whoops.
it’s like my two biggest problems are talking it out, atop a representation of some of the other problems
Dotty actually does really well when not around people she thinks she needs to fix.
…what exactly is a “clear chase”?
A “chase” figure is a version of an existing figure that is different in such way and has a much more limited release than the normal version of the figure. So in this case the ‘clear chase’ means it is a figure of Head Alien that is clear/translucent in look/design and they only made, say, 50 of them.
Anyone who has watched Slayers understands that “Heroes of Justice” gravitate to high places because (a) evil is generally lazier than good and (b) if the public is looking up to you, you have to be where they can see you and (c) it’s easier to see evil from above.