Tamaura, wrested into a world 300 years in the future, must find a way to save the magic fading from her country.
Namesake
Isa, Meg
There's ghosts at your heels and fairy tale worlds ahead. What do you do? Jump down the rabbit hole!
Goodbye to Halos
Valerie Halla
Cuddles, gay flirting, weird feelings, and magic-fueled knife fights - it's an adventure across the queer multiverse!
The End
August Brown, Cory Brown
Two aliens crash a sci-fi convention and accidentally take seven nerds on an adventure that spans the galaxy!
Stand Still, Stay Silent
Minna Sundberg
A few generations after the end of the world, a small, poorly financed research crew is sent out to rediscover whatever is left of the forbidden old world in the south.
The Last Diplomat
Cat Farris
Samma and Tark didn't ask to be stuck together, but now they're partners on the adventure of a lifetime.
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.
Kochab
Sarah Webb
A YA F/F fantasy comic about Sonya, a lost skier trying to survive a snowy wilderness and find her way back to her village; and Kyra - a fire spirit trying to fix the home that she let fall apart around her.
Nerf Now!!
Josué Pereira
A cute webcomic about fanservice, video games, and... love. Mostly video games, though.
Ride or Die
Mars Heyward
Ride or Die is an LGBTQ webcomic about two street racers who team up with a demon-possessed muscle car in the search for a missing woman, while being hunted by a deadly religious cult.
Freakshow
Scotty
A festival of broken people, blood flows in the center ring. Come one and come all, to the greatest show in all of Paris.
Sakana
Mad Rupert
Our heroes must navigate a hazardous dating scene, overcome personal anxieties, and wrangle unruly seafood in order to find love, peace of mind, and a paycheck.
The Golden Boar
Magnolia Porter Siddell
A young woman joins a group of summoners who call forth Guardian Beasts to protect their isolated magical island. Unfortunately, her Guardian Beast is nothing like she'd imagined, and he's about to change her life, and everything she thought she knew about herself...
Quick$ilver
Crypto
The flirtatious, directionless, and ever disastrous Luci searches for excitement in a life of crime, and finds himself caught in a web of messy romance and bad blood.
Augustine
Winter Jay Kiakas, Windy
August and her ragtag group are just like everyone else, simply surviving in the treacherous Crater... When they stumble into what may be an artifact of the ancient past, their lives are thrown into a much bigger loop as they trifle with bounty hunters, monsters and gods.
Cyanide & Happiness
Explosm
Satire, dark humor and surreal humor.
Saint for Rent
Ru Xu
Saint Halliday runs an inn for Time Travelers. Unfortunately, he seems to attract other supernatural "guests," too.
Lies Within
Lacey
Lysander's aimless and carefree life is turned upside down when he accidentally discovers that the cute boy next door, Simon, is a literal monster
ARISE, YE SKELETON KING
Brian Clevinger, Escher Cattle, Lee Black
A troupe of wandering "adventurers" down to their last silver "acquire" a map only to find the real treasure was the fiend they dug up along the way.
The Forgotten Order
Christy
A young witch for whom every spell is a misfire finds solace and friendship in her new companion - a cursed doll.
Astral Aves
Moon Cabal
A fantasy coming-of-age following the adventures of Astra The Black and friends, as they navigate the mysterious world around them. It's politics, adventure, and the supernatural; oh, and crazy hair.
Nigh Heaven & Hell
Scotty
Heather Vodihn is on a simple mission: find her father. However she becomes entangled with two strangers with mysterious powers being stalked by a group with bizarre demands. Heather must learn to trust her new traveling companions, even if she is untrustworthy herself.
Within
Verena Loisel
A young hitman meanders between a reality that seems to happen without him, and his dreams where he is lost in an endless house. When he makes an accidental friend, his world is shaken up and he realizes there are things he can't remember about himself.
How to be a Werewolf
Shawn Lenore
Malaya Walters was bitten by a werewolf as a child. After being raised by her human family, she faces the chance to learn what being a werewolf is really like as an adult.
Little Tiny Things
Clover
What are the little things that move us? The simple joys that warm our bodies and hearts? The micro life of insects that influence our world more than we think? The tiny steps we make everyday to have a happier tomorrow?
Alexander, The Servant & The Water of Life
Reimena Yee
The 21st century retelling of the life and legends of Alexander the Great.
Widdershins
Kate Ashwin
A series of light-hearted Victorian-era adventure stories featuring grumpy bounty hunters, accidental thiefkings, and more, in England's magical capital city Widdershins!
This is Not Fiction
Nicole Mannino
What do you do when the person you're in-love with is an anonymous romance novelist? Get your best friend to hire your worst enemy for help!
Darkling Bright
Chris Hazelton
Kieran Bright is a college student home for the summer and roped into an online reunion with his old neighborhood friends in the most recent update of their favorite childhood MMORPG.
At least, he was, and that was the idea...
Join Kieran and his friends as they are pulled into another reality that may or may not be real and are forced to confront their own identities, the nature of simulated universes and reality itself.
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!
Alice and the Nightmare
Misha Krivanek
Alice finally attends University to learn to collect the dreams of humans, meet new friends, and deal with a pesky reflection along the way.
Headless Bliss
Clover
A story about story-telling, and other metaphysical themes such as Nightmares! (Failed) Teamwork! Comedy! And more!
Beeserker
TJ Cordes
This comic is about a robot powered by bees, but it's also about the kind of people who think filling a robot with bees is a good idea, and why they're wrong.
Missing Monday
Elle Skinner
Two girls fall in love through a magic door connecting their worlds. When Monday suddenly goes missing, it's up to Foyle to find her. How she's going to navigate an entirely unfamiliar world is another matter.
Sleepless Domain
Mary Cagle (Cube Watermelon)
In a world where magical girls and their battles are commonplace, loss has become all too common as well.
Cassiopeia Quinn
Gunwild, Psudonym
A cute, pantsless thief is pursued across the stars by a buttoned-up military officer in the spacey, laser-filled future.
Trying Human
IntroducingEmy
Two women separated by over half a century are brought together by an alien-filled conspiracy involving murder, mystery and romance!
Gzhel Guardian
Atla Hrafney, nushanchel
The Railway World is a complex, mysterious network of trains, towns and mechanical monsters. Leo is a Guardian of one of these towns, and although their burn-out and depression has taken hold of them, they have one last job to finish.
Sister Claire
Yamino
In the troubled aftermath of a great war between Witches and her fellow Nuns, novice Sister Claire just wants a purpose.
Monsterkind
Taylor C
Wallace Foster, a young, bright-eyed human social worker, has his entire world view rocked when he's suddenly relocated into a city primarily inhabited by monsters.
Not Drunk Enough
Tess Stone
Logan Ibarra is possibly the unluckiest repairman in the world. A late night job should not have landed him in the middle of a mad scientist's squabble, but he soon finds himself surrounded by monsters and further madness with little tools to get out.
Star Impact
Jack McGee
A young, energetic woman fights her way up in the world of super-powered boxing after discovering the mighty gloves of her missing idol!
Empowered
Adam Warren
A sexy superhero comedy (except when it isn't) about the never-ending struggles of a plucky but very unlucky young superheroine.
The Weave
Rennie Kingsley
A young woman pursued by bad luck is witness to the murder of the Fairy Queen of Summer. Can she get to the bottom of this mystery?
Barbarous
Ananth Hirsh, Yuko Ota
A crummy wizard and an anxious monster have to get over themselves and bring order to an apartment building full of misfits.
Love Not Found
Gina Biggs
Abeille is on a quest to find someone who wants to do it the old-fashioned way in a time when touching has become outdated.
Edison Rex
Chris Roberson
The adventures of the world’s greatest villain who, after defeating his superheroic nemesis, decides that he’s the only one left to defend the world.
The Substitutes
Myisha Haynes
What happens when three roommates accidentally acquire otherworldly and powerful magic weapons destined for someone else?
Scape
Lauren
Sula has always preferred to forge her own path, but before she knows it, she is pulled into the middle of a civil war between man and monster!
Aquapunk
Lo
In an underwater world of unknown coordinates, inhabited by aliens, ghosts, and robots, a young member of a warrior underclass is framed for a crime and goes on the run. Little does he know he is part of a grand design that only gods and ancestors could choreograph.
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:
I had friends that played some kind of game where they shot marbles at fairly closeb range with BBs. Always struck me as dangerous cause you could never tell what the BB would do after hitting the marble. These are the same friends that would toss lit firecrackers at each others feet. I thought they were crazy. On the other hand, I jumped off roofs. If I did that today I’d break every bone in my body.
Eh, Skeet shooting and Archery are both far and away safer than Roller Derby. Both of them used ranged weapons and when practiced properly, you won’t hurt anybody.
Roller derby is full of dangers regardless of level of skill.
which of course means that it’s going to happen and Ruth finds her outlet leading to the three ladies forming their own team to battle for Marcie’s affection
It’s a world of snark and a world of bile,
And all that we say is spiteful and vile.
Once it’s said, we abhor; yet we still pile on more,
It’s a snark world after all.
I can’t tell if you’re joking, but I used to know a guy whose hands were legitimately attached at the elbow. He had to wear a helmet during recess, in case a stray ball or kid got launched in his direction, because he couldn’t flinch very well.
Won’t they end up on the same team though (so they won’t normally be playing against each other). Much of the derby i have seen involves one city against another.
Ruth and Billie? Ruth is a recovering alcoholic, and trying to get out of a depression. Billie is a practicing alcoholic. Ruth shouldn’t keep her company right now, she’s not stable herself. She needs distance to everything that contains alcohol until she has gained a bit of stability. It literally is a matter of life and death for her, since every relapse can be the one after which you never try to stop drinking again and alcoholism is deadly. I’m not sure sal knows about Ruth’s drinking problem though.
Also, sal knows that they both are codependent. Billie effectively told her. As soon as codependency comes into play, relationships get extremely unhealthy. sal recognised codependency so she probably knows that.
She also knows that Billie is an alcoholic. Free life lesson for you: if you ever discover that you partner is an alcoholic, run. Run as fast as you can. Living in close relationship with an alcoholic will make your life hell. Always. And the longer you stay, the more difficult it gets to escape from that. There are cases where partners saw no other way out than suicide.
So yeah, Sal is right about this. The relationship is extremely unhealthy.
Which definitely went super well, yeah. Wouldn’t shock me if that is part of why she’s rejected therapy entirely (as well as pretty strong implications her therapists were unhelpful at best and shitty to her at worst).
Actually, codependent people usually turn hostile towards everyone who criticises their relationship. So if they have tried to get a bit of distance between her and marcie, that might be enough to turn sal against them.
Although we also don’t know where therapy took place. If it were in Tennessee (and at least some of it probably was) then they were already forced to get distance.
Goddamn, I really just want to know what happened in Sal’s therapy sessions.
There is scientific evidence that the danger you describe, the sharp cliff of relapse, is literally caused , created and maintained by total abstinence.
Despite Ideology advocating total abstinence for all person s is as effective a strategy as total abstinence is to horny teenagers as sex education. Meaning its 100% until its not at all, and consequences will be far more severe. ( with teenagers grwater likelihood of stds and pregnancy ).
What has proven effective is a strategy of radical reduced usage with no guilt and shame, plus a regime of Antiopiates to prevent a post alcohol high. This helps retrain the brain that alcohol isn’t a trigger for getting high, and prevents the severe crssh and burn from a mere sip of alcohol. It remove s the power of temptation and shame cycle.
There is a lot of evidence d based science behind this in human s and with mice. The AA approach of total abstinence is effective less than 7%.
It can also cause the dry drunk effect. Long term alcohol use also causes gaba deficiency which weaning off can help mediate.
It’s probably not a bad idea for a recovering alcoholic to try for a period of sobriety before retraining the brain, but it is definitely true that it’s proven very ineffective as a long term solution.
Also – it is possible to support someone recovering from alcoholism after you find out they’re an alcoholic. Alcoholic doesn’t automatically translate into a soul sucking pit of toxicity. Yes, it’s important to get out when you recognize a situation is toxic or turning toxic, but it’s hardly impossible to stay with someone who is an alcoholic and have it not turn toxic (especially if they’re trying to recover – that said, yes Billie isn’t trying to recover, but Ruth knows that and thus far is handling it okay).
It is possible if said person wants help. Billie doesn’t. If they don’t want help, they either are a soul sucking pit of toxicity or they will soon become one. Period.
An addict that doesn’t want to stop consuming will rather give up his parents, friends, job, partner and kids than his drug. There’s a reason that addicts tend to end up alone. Eventually the people around them say “I can’t do this anymore, me or the drug”. And they choose the drug.
I’m speaking more generally than about Billie and Ruth. I suspect you’re right that Billie will have to eventually decide to get help if she and Ruth are going to last, though for now both Billie and Ruth are remaining functional (which doesn’t mean Billie doesn’t need help, but it’s better than not).
Controlled drinking doesn’t work. An alcoholic has lost control over his drinking patterns. That literally is one of the characteristics of an alcoholic.
Trying to reduce the alcohol input is done by more or less every alcoholic at some point. Success rate is near zero. They can’t even follow simple rules like “don’t drink in my presence”. You can’t return to a normal, healthy drinking pattern. Addiction means you want more. Always and always more. And the addiction will win.
There is a difference between an alcoholic trying without professional help and one working with a professional along with meds that reduce if not eliminate whatever high they get from it. I’m not going to say Adam’s suggested regime works because I’ve not read the studies he mentions, but there is a difference. And it’s important to note it’s been proven completely cutting drinking out doesn’t work either (a method with a 93% failure rate can hardly be said to work, even if it is the highest rate around – again, I’m not familiar with addictions studies so I can’t comment on that).
Actually, it currently is the method with the best prospect of working. There currently is no reliable way to undo addiction. It effectively is a subconscious connection between alcohol and feeling good the brain has learnt. To cure addiction, you have to undo that. We don’t know how to do that. There are rare cases where it worked. To my knowledge, it’s currently not known why it worked. As long as you have that connection, consuming will always lead to the overwhelming wish to drink more.
My grandparents were not good people. The abuse they put in their children makes everything in this comic look pale. As a result, I have a bunch of addicted aunts and uncles. And I once had a relationship with a dry alcoholic. So I read a lot about it. Once I’ve read the thread of a guy who practiced controlled drinking for years. He knew a lot of studies and arguments and could discuss for hours. Explain why this is the best way to death with addiction. And it all sounded really convincing. And two posts further down he told us that he got really drunk the last evening. He had turned verbally aggressive against his children and beaten up his wife in front of said children. It was Christmas. Yeah. The wonders of controlled drinking. You’ll get beaten up less often if you stay.
I mean, he found all kinds of reasons and excuses for this. All except this one: he’s an alcoholic who drunkenly abuses his family and instead of being horrified, he tries to rationalise it.
fwiw, the wikipedia article is on the side of abstinence, but I don’t have the energy to dig into the studies and see whether they were for counselling+medication or counselling alone.
it does mention medications, but in a separate section, with no mention of long-term anything (besides a warning about the dangers of benzos).
Also, while I definitely believe Alanari about the person whose arguments they read, the same thing can happen to someone abstaining from alcohol. People go off the wagon, get really drunk and abuse the people around them all the time. That doesn’t necessarily mean abstinence isn’t the best choice.
Ruth is still Sal’s RA. So criticizing her relationship with Billie is something not wise given the power imbalance.
If someone could point me to reliable studies about what works against addiction? The only people I know who reliably stopped drinking or smoking avoid alcohol and tobacco at all times. Everyone I know who tries the approach of controlled usage has phases of intensive usage. But this is anecdotal evidence and some of you here (and Cerberus, too) always insist that there are more effective ways to stop addictive behavior.
Though I’m sure you need to change gene expression to change the receptiveness to the drug – just like you need to change gene expression to end PTSD – no one is really sure how that works. There are some experience-based concepts for PTSD where the change is brain activity and hormone levels and stuff are shown for relatively small populations, but why these methods convince your body to regulate hormon production differently is still unclear.
I think the incredible power is that Ruth now knows that Sal was working with Amazi Girl, which would be of interest to the police. Ruth has blackmail power.
Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here to the parking lot beyond the dorms to take back the femurs you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours and my campus as great. You have no power over me!
One one hand we have former vigilantes trying to focus their rage on sports, and on the other we have a codependent relationship that broke many rules. Morality is confusing when no one is actively doing something evil.
I’m pretty sure that most sports’ rule-books are just to make the administrators feel better about themselves and let them fool themselves that they’re not enabling anarchy!
In fact, as far as I can tell, Ice Hockey was first invented in Iceland as described in Njal’s Saga
“Skarphedinn takes a spring into the air, and leaps over the stream between the icebanks, and does not check his course, but rushes still onwards with a slide. The sheet of ice was very slippery, and so he went as fast as a bird flies. Thrain was just about to put his helm on his head; and now Skarphedinn bore down on them, and hews at Thrain with his axe, “the ogress of war,” and smote him on the head, and clove him down to the teeth, so that his jaw-teeth fell out on the ice. This feat was done with such a quick sleight that no one could get a blow at him; he glided away from them at once at full speed. Tjorvi, indeed, threw his shield before him on the ice, but he leapt over it, and still kept his feet, and slid quite to the end of the sheet of ice.”
I think that Ruth may be worrying a bit too much here. Yes, Sal and Amber have extensive opportunities to be rough with each other but they also have fewer opportunities to think of reasons to be rough with each other except: “Get out of my way, girl!”
Ruth is Sal’s RA. As demonstrated by Ruth and Billie’s early interactions, it is fairly easy for an unethical RA to make one of their dorm resident’s life very unpleasant if they so choose.
Being non confrontational is swell, but you know, at a point you just can’t keep avoiding to address issues just because you can’t jab them. I mean, this is a mean parking lot and it deserves a rough treatment at least.
At least I’m not the only one who thinks derby is one of the dumbest possible options for a sport for someone trying to deal with violent anger issues.
Also, a nod for drawing these cars. They look sorta generic, but all the proportions are all real-seeming and don’t distract from the foreground action. Plus it’s not.like they’re gonna be used much.
Loading ...
Just take up a safer hobby
like archery
or skeet shooting
or demolition
I was going to say pick-up sticks but you can prick yourself or lose an eye.
I’d add tiddlywinks but then I remembered the great brawl of 1995…I think it’s still banned in my middle school
Lawn Darts
Real ones, not those imposters with blunt plastic tips or beanbags.
I had friends that played some kind of game where they shot marbles at fairly closeb range with BBs. Always struck me as dangerous cause you could never tell what the BB would do after hitting the marble. These are the same friends that would toss lit firecrackers at each others feet. I thought they were crazy. On the other hand, I jumped off roofs. If I did that today I’d break every bone in my body.
had an ex who tried drinking gasoline on a dare
health problems later in life? NAWWWWW… 9_9
Ana did say demolition, anyway…
Eh, Skeet shooting and Archery are both far and away safer than Roller Derby. Both of them used ranged weapons and when practiced properly, you won’t hurt anybody.
Roller derby is full of dangers regardless of level of skill.
Ruth vs. Sal is the battle this campus, or maybe even this reality, could never contain
which of course means that it’s going to happen and Ruth finds her outlet leading to the three ladies forming their own team to battle for Marcie’s affection
I think I saw too many 80s team movies
Yeah, careful Sal. Last girl to antagonize Ruth ended up falling in love with her. It’s only a matter of time before Mary succumbs.
Heh. You said antagonize.
…is that what kids are calling it these days?
It’s nice that Ruth is here to supervise. And that Amber and Sal are making such an effort to get along. I also find Sal’s comment to be hilarious.
. . . I honestly never even considered that all of these snarkers could play off of eachother so well.
It’s a world made of snark, and I think that’s beautiful.
It’s a snark world after all.
It’s a snark eat snark world
It’s a world of snark and a world of bile,
And all that we say is spiteful and vile.
Once it’s said, we abhor; yet we still pile on more,
It’s a snark world after all.
it’s Snarknado Week on the Blowjob Cat Channel
Why is Ruth watching? Is it because this resemble hockey, sorta?
It’s a sport where the team she supports has a chance of winning.
Hey, it’s barely mid-late October. The Leafs haven’t been eliminated…yet.
What’ll happen first: the Leafs winning a Stanley Cup or DoA getting to the end of freshman year?
My money’s on the end of freshman year
Hate to tell Ruth, but the Quebec Nordiques will win the Stanley Cup before the Leafs.
(I am aware of what I said.)
Yea, Colorado has a slightly better chance of winning than Toronto, sure.
It’s a public parking lot. Maybe she just saw them at it and stayed to see what’s going on?
Billie is still next to her, so their relationship hasn’t run into Billie’s lies yet.
shes here for the slipshine
Elbows are clearly not hands.
Mine are.
I can’t tell if you’re joking, but I used to know a guy whose hands were legitimately attached at the elbow. He had to wear a helmet during recess, in case a stray ball or kid got launched in his direction, because he couldn’t flinch very well.
I have approximately 50 hands.
That’s pretty handsy.
Those girls gotta be careful. Too much elbowing, and they may wind up touching weenuses.
Yeah, amber, you’re practicing skating now. Elbowing comes later.
And yeah, sure, no elbowing, just like hockey has no fighting.
The fun part here is neither Ruth nor Sal are exactly wrong.
Won’t they end up on the same team though (so they won’t normally be playing against each other). Much of the derby i have seen involves one city against another.
I guess drawing parking lots is a pain in the asphalt after a while.
*switches the hacked P.A. to the channel for the hockey arena organ player*
sooo, do roller derby teams have cheerleaders for when Ruth decides to join too?
It’s a pretty independent sport, so any derby team could probably decide to have cheerleaders
Now I REALLY want to see a cheerleader troupe on skates
Sure, but the blades would get pretty chewed up by the wood and concrete floors.
So…Amber is saying sorry to Sal? Not the context I wanted but I’ll take it!
What about it? They’re like the same age and Ruth is no longer her RA.
Ruth and Billie? Ruth is a recovering alcoholic, and trying to get out of a depression. Billie is a practicing alcoholic. Ruth shouldn’t keep her company right now, she’s not stable herself. She needs distance to everything that contains alcohol until she has gained a bit of stability. It literally is a matter of life and death for her, since every relapse can be the one after which you never try to stop drinking again and alcoholism is deadly. I’m not sure sal knows about Ruth’s drinking problem though.
Also, sal knows that they both are codependent. Billie effectively told her. As soon as codependency comes into play, relationships get extremely unhealthy. sal recognised codependency so she probably knows that.
She also knows that Billie is an alcoholic. Free life lesson for you: if you ever discover that you partner is an alcoholic, run. Run as fast as you can. Living in close relationship with an alcoholic will make your life hell. Always. And the longer you stay, the more difficult it gets to escape from that. There are cases where partners saw no other way out than suicide.
So yeah, Sal is right about this. The relationship is extremely unhealthy.
Also, y’know, all the violence these two got into.
That said, considering her own relationship with Marcie, it’d be awful rich for Sal to have a go at Ruth for codependency.
True. I’m actually guessing that this is why she knows so much about it. It probably was part of her own therapy sessions.
Which definitely went super well, yeah. Wouldn’t shock me if that is part of why she’s rejected therapy entirely (as well as pretty strong implications her therapists were unhelpful at best and shitty to her at worst).
Actually, codependent people usually turn hostile towards everyone who criticises their relationship. So if they have tried to get a bit of distance between her and marcie, that might be enough to turn sal against them.
Although we also don’t know where therapy took place. If it were in Tennessee (and at least some of it probably was) then they were already forced to get distance.
Goddamn, I really just want to know what happened in Sal’s therapy sessions.
Yeah, the therapy she got was undoubtedly more “make Sal the way her mother wants her to be” than “help Sal deal with her situation on her own terms”…
There is scientific evidence that the danger you describe, the sharp cliff of relapse, is literally caused , created and maintained by total abstinence.
Despite Ideology advocating total abstinence for all person s is as effective a strategy as total abstinence is to horny teenagers as sex education. Meaning its 100% until its not at all, and consequences will be far more severe. ( with teenagers grwater likelihood of stds and pregnancy ).
What has proven effective is a strategy of radical reduced usage with no guilt and shame, plus a regime of Antiopiates to prevent a post alcohol high. This helps retrain the brain that alcohol isn’t a trigger for getting high, and prevents the severe crssh and burn from a mere sip of alcohol. It remove s the power of temptation and shame cycle.
There is a lot of evidence d based science behind this in human s and with mice. The AA approach of total abstinence is effective less than 7%.
It can also cause the dry drunk effect. Long term alcohol use also causes gaba deficiency which weaning off can help mediate.
It’s probably not a bad idea for a recovering alcoholic to try for a period of sobriety before retraining the brain, but it is definitely true that it’s proven very ineffective as a long term solution.
Also – it is possible to support someone recovering from alcoholism after you find out they’re an alcoholic. Alcoholic doesn’t automatically translate into a soul sucking pit of toxicity. Yes, it’s important to get out when you recognize a situation is toxic or turning toxic, but it’s hardly impossible to stay with someone who is an alcoholic and have it not turn toxic (especially if they’re trying to recover – that said, yes Billie isn’t trying to recover, but Ruth knows that and thus far is handling it okay).
It is possible if said person wants help. Billie doesn’t. If they don’t want help, they either are a soul sucking pit of toxicity or they will soon become one. Period.
An addict that doesn’t want to stop consuming will rather give up his parents, friends, job, partner and kids than his drug. There’s a reason that addicts tend to end up alone. Eventually the people around them say “I can’t do this anymore, me or the drug”. And they choose the drug.
I’m speaking more generally than about Billie and Ruth. I suspect you’re right that Billie will have to eventually decide to get help if she and Ruth are going to last, though for now both Billie and Ruth are remaining functional (which doesn’t mean Billie doesn’t need help, but it’s better than not).
Disciprine come from within
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLPUnTw4-1Q
Controlled drinking doesn’t work. An alcoholic has lost control over his drinking patterns. That literally is one of the characteristics of an alcoholic.
Trying to reduce the alcohol input is done by more or less every alcoholic at some point. Success rate is near zero. They can’t even follow simple rules like “don’t drink in my presence”. You can’t return to a normal, healthy drinking pattern. Addiction means you want more. Always and always more. And the addiction will win.
There is a difference between an alcoholic trying without professional help and one working with a professional along with meds that reduce if not eliminate whatever high they get from it. I’m not going to say Adam’s suggested regime works because I’ve not read the studies he mentions, but there is a difference. And it’s important to note it’s been proven completely cutting drinking out doesn’t work either (a method with a 93% failure rate can hardly be said to work, even if it is the highest rate around – again, I’m not familiar with addictions studies so I can’t comment on that).
Actually, it currently is the method with the best prospect of working. There currently is no reliable way to undo addiction. It effectively is a subconscious connection between alcohol and feeling good the brain has learnt. To cure addiction, you have to undo that. We don’t know how to do that. There are rare cases where it worked. To my knowledge, it’s currently not known why it worked. As long as you have that connection, consuming will always lead to the overwhelming wish to drink more.
My grandparents were not good people. The abuse they put in their children makes everything in this comic look pale. As a result, I have a bunch of addicted aunts and uncles. And I once had a relationship with a dry alcoholic. So I read a lot about it. Once I’ve read the thread of a guy who practiced controlled drinking for years. He knew a lot of studies and arguments and could discuss for hours. Explain why this is the best way to death with addiction. And it all sounded really convincing. And two posts further down he told us that he got really drunk the last evening. He had turned verbally aggressive against his children and beaten up his wife in front of said children. It was Christmas. Yeah. The wonders of controlled drinking. You’ll get beaten up less often if you stay.
I mean, he found all kinds of reasons and excuses for this. All except this one: he’s an alcoholic who drunkenly abuses his family and instead of being horrified, he tries to rationalise it.
“Actually, it currently is the method with the best prospect of working.”
[citation needed]
…actually I’d love some citations from Adam Black too. it’s not as easy as it used to be to find good information from a quick google.
fwiw, the wikipedia article is on the side of abstinence, but I don’t have the energy to dig into the studies and see whether they were for counselling+medication or counselling alone.
it does mention medications, but in a separate section, with no mention of long-term anything (besides a warning about the dangers of benzos).
Also, while I definitely believe Alanari about the person whose arguments they read, the same thing can happen to someone abstaining from alcohol. People go off the wagon, get really drunk and abuse the people around them all the time. That doesn’t necessarily mean abstinence isn’t the best choice.
I wouldn’t call Billy practicing, she pretty much has it down, she could probably go professional by now if she wanted to.
Ruth is still Sal’s RA. So criticizing her relationship with Billie is something not wise given the power imbalance.
If someone could point me to reliable studies about what works against addiction? The only people I know who reliably stopped drinking or smoking avoid alcohol and tobacco at all times. Everyone I know who tries the approach of controlled usage has phases of intensive usage. But this is anecdotal evidence and some of you here (and Cerberus, too) always insist that there are more effective ways to stop addictive behavior.
Though I’m sure you need to change gene expression to change the receptiveness to the drug – just like you need to change gene expression to end PTSD – no one is really sure how that works. There are some experience-based concepts for PTSD where the change is brain activity and hormone levels and stuff are shown for relatively small populations, but why these methods convince your body to regulate hormon production differently is still unclear.
I think the incredible power is that Ruth now knows that Sal was working with Amazi Girl, which would be of interest to the police. Ruth has blackmail power.
Pretty sure low blows are also not allowed in roller derby.
Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here to the parking lot beyond the dorms to take back the femurs you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours and my campus as great. You have no power over me!
[Ruth vanishes in a puff of David Bowie]
Damn, I can never remember that line.
I was about to ask when Sal got some freckles, but then realized, oh, my monitor is dirty.
Cleaned now.
Nothing like that has ever happened to me. As far as you know.
One one hand we have former vigilantes trying to focus their rage on sports, and on the other we have a codependent relationship that broke many rules. Morality is confusing when no one is actively doing something evil.
Now I’m wondering what Sal wanted to say in the last panel.
hello pot, meet kettle
No elbowing in Derby? Sure. Just like there’s no traveling in basketball or holding in American football.
Or fighting in hockey.
After all that is against the rules.
I’m pretty sure that most sports’ rule-books are just to make the administrators feel better about themselves and let them fool themselves that they’re not enabling anarchy!
I know right? I can practically hear one saying “Look, we SAID it’s against the rules, what else do you want us to do? Hands are tied!”
You want us to tie ELBOWS as well? That’s just crazy
“Our weenuses are tied!”
(Yes, I love the word ‘weenus’. So help me, I will die on this hill.)
A friend of mine once went to a fight where a hockey game broke out.
That seems like a natural progression.
In fact, as far as I can tell, Ice Hockey was first invented in Iceland as described in Njal’s Saga
“Skarphedinn takes a spring into the air, and leaps over the stream between the icebanks, and does not check his course, but rushes still onwards with a slide. The sheet of ice was very slippery, and so he went as fast as a bird flies. Thrain was just about to put his helm on his head; and now Skarphedinn bore down on them, and hews at Thrain with his axe, “the ogress of war,” and smote him on the head, and clove him down to the teeth, so that his jaw-teeth fell out on the ice. This feat was done with such a quick sleight that no one could get a blow at him; he glided away from them at once at full speed. Tjorvi, indeed, threw his shield before him on the ice, but he leapt over it, and still kept his feet, and slid quite to the end of the sheet of ice.”
No forward passes in Rugby.
Everyone should play football – no it’s not called soccer you heathens – which is clearly the cleanest sport of all!
*dives for the dressing room*
Two characters in a snark-off… with Billie silent in the background. That’s just bizzar.
Billie is too smart to get involved in a snark-off between Ruth and Amazigirl.
Oh god, can Billie please call Sal AG in front of Amber? Please?
Billie has winner.
A snark-off has a winner?
You’re doing it wrong.
Of course it does if it’s a good one!
The audience.
Point.
Billie has the audience.
“now THATS how you do movie night!”
Lucy better take notes
holy shit that’s a burn of a thousand suns
Where’s Carla? Shouldn’t she be practicing too? I want more Carla
Carla’s not on the team.
But… she came to enlist
If you actually read the strip, she only came to be next to Sal in her jacket.
I think that Ruth may be worrying a bit too much here. Yes, Sal and Amber have extensive opportunities to be rough with each other but they also have fewer opportunities to think of reasons to be rough with each other except: “Get out of my way, girl!”
Kettle, meet pot
I don’t understand. What power does Ruth have over Sal? Or was it supposed to be sarcastic?
Ruth is Sal’s RA. As demonstrated by Ruth and Billie’s early interactions, it is fairly easy for an unethical RA to make one of their dorm resident’s life very unpleasant if they so choose.
Blackmail power. She knows about Sal & Amazi-girl.
Being non confrontational is swell, but you know, at a point you just can’t keep avoiding to address issues just because you can’t jab them. I mean, this is a mean parking lot and it deserves a rough treatment at least.
At least I’m not the only one who thinks derby is one of the dumbest possible options for a sport for someone trying to deal with violent anger issues.
NOOOOOooooo! We were supposed to get Leslie putting Joe in his place! This wasn’t the deal, Willis! THIS WASN’T THE DEAL!
This is a New Deal… partly starring the Great Depressed. How fitting.
Damn you Willis
“I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”
Damn! Why don’t we have a thumbs up button?
Itd be better for leslie to sort her personal/teaching life out first
Oh boy, time for another round of Guess That Car!
I think Marcie’s in front of either a Pontiac G6 or a Dodge Intrepid.
I would guess Intrepid.
Also, a nod for drawing these cars. They look sorta generic, but all the proportions are all real-seeming and don’t distract from the foreground action. Plus it’s not.like they’re gonna be used much.
ruth: still a better matchmaker than joyce
“…an’ yet somehow ah still sort of managed.”
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-4/01-the-only-dope-for-me-is-you/phrasing/
Ruth: Are you suggesting that your relationship with Amber is similar to ours?
Sal: Wha? No, that’s-
Amber: Well, I mean, Walky and I were together for a while, and you do look a little like him, especially if I don’t wear glasses…
Sal: I hate you all.