AG does roller derby, it is her night. Brain Mike is either a third alter born out of survivor’s guilt or a hallucination from sleep deprivation – I believe some plural commenters have discussed how alters based off real people you knew work when he first started appearing but I don’t remember the specifics offhand.
We’ve seen amazi girl since the skip, sal talked to her about how she’s totally not jealous of Billie and Asher and how she thinks Billie’s going through a phase after roller derby
Of first off well done, talented 8-bit artists always impresses me. But in the future you haft to considerate doing a NSFW warning if you wish to bestow the sight with the smallest of lewd stuff. I don’t know if we remember to do that enough around here.
Not all auditory hallucinations are schizophrenia.
Pretty sure Amber’s undiagnosed deal has been established as dissociative identity disorder, among the commenters who have it. She can definitely have multiple things, but signs don’t particularly point to schizophrenia right now.
Possibly some sort of psychosis, not sure if she fits schizophrenia entirely (Trying to remember all the things involved with that but it’s been a few years) but she’s honestly been through enough trauma that I’d argue it could be a manifestation of PTSD.
But, the only person I know with DID also got a schizo-affective diagnosis, and I believe they might be comorbidities. And to be honest watching Amber go through this brings up bad memories. I watched a really close friend have a really bad time the months leading up to her diagnosis. I had to drive her to the hospital twice. Had to comfort her through hallucinations. Was a target of her paranoia more than once. I wish Willis could just say “Amber will get help with her mental issues by 2024” so I could just skip any strip I see with her in it, it just brings up that hopeless “I don’t know whats going on please be okay” panic.
PTSD can cause psychosis, though generally not in this particular way. I’m not really sure what’s causing her to *see* Mike as talking to him is an entirely normal DID thing but the visual part is not.
Seeing him may be more for our benefit, as a visual effect to communicate what Amber is experiencing, have they had any interactions where it was clear that she was visually observing him and not just kind of, aware of his presence in that hallucination kind of way?
The usual progression of untreated PTSD is depression first, then psychosis, then schizoid behavior, but if DID comes first I got nothing because when I was looking this stuff up I had been dealing with PTSD untreated for about 25 years. They were just getting a handle on PTSD without dealing with what comes from untreated PTSD with combat vets, traumatized as teens were just coming over the horizon of the book.
Internet hugs. I have a completely different set of issues but seeing the degree to which she hates herself to self-destructive extents… occasionally hits a nerve, let’s say.
So far we’ve never seen Brain Mike without sleep deprivation, which makes it pretty ambiguous whether he’s a full-time resident or just an occasional guest.
Hugs right back to you. I do wish a character would get more concerned. You figure out your friend is multiple and having visual or audible hallucinations…. I get its comic land and all, but most character in here go “Well that’s old Amber, having a mental breakdown like always” and not one of them is going “Uh, this is beyond not okay” – I guess I am wishing for some portrayal of the fear that’s more prevalent. Its terrifying to realize your friend is hallucinating. It’s hard to be the thing that tries to clarify what’s reality and what’s not. And i feel like every character has the same response of “meh, that’s fine.” And it just breaks me out of the world a little. Hopefully we are approaching the “oh wait this is bad and scary not some Amber quirk” that but idk. It hits too close to home sometimes.
My best guess is he is her self deprecation and survivor’s guilt manifested, but the visual and separation is new and might push this out of DID territory and into some sort of psychosis or schizo- disorder.
I guess the main problem is that Amber doesn’t really communivate with people so most of the cast don’t know how bad Amber is? The closest we’ve come to “oh god, my friend is really sick” is Ethan but I get the feeling their relationship broke down in the wake of Mike’s death? I can’t exactly blame him if that is the case though as it’s difficult being an anchor for someone when you’re depressed yourself…
Sal reacted with concern about AG jumping around on cars and being extremely risky with her life. Sal tried to dissuade Amber/AG herself, plus she pulled Danny up short to convince him that this was a dangerous problem for Amber, and that he should stop her.
Sal’s distrust of authority — including therapists — means that she won’t try to move Amber towards professional help, but barring that, she treats this as serious business and does as much as she can think to do.
I don’t think so. Multiplicity/DID =/= schizophrenia, and honestly some people get hallucinations when they’re severely sleep-deprived without it being a neurodivergent thing.
But, at the same time, who knows. I’m not sure if Amber’s ‘seeing’ Mike because she’s sleep-deprived or it’s a comic thing to help us as the audience.
Not likely. This is a pretty accurate representation of what it’s like talking to other alters you’re in communication with (DID system here). The talking can be done internally or externally, sometimes it’s a choice, sometimes it’s involuntary and you say it out loud without meaning to. The Mike “hallucination” might be something she’s seeing in the external world, or it could be a visual representation of seeing Mike in her head. We “see” each other in the inner world when we have extended conversations, rather than just hearing each other’s voices.
Also, important to emphasize, alters, and communication with alters, are not hallucinations. Most people have an inner voice that narrates their thoughts. Communication with alters is essentially this inner voice dissociated into multiple parts that each have their own priorities, mannerisms, and perspectives. This communication is not invasive or disordered (unless you’re dealing with a persecutor who is saying terrible things to you to try to shift your behavior). It’s the naturally occurring inner voice just organized in a different way.
American types can totally celebrate both, but it’s not Thanksgiving where I am (it’s in October) so it’s solely “George Jetson’s Parents Fuck Day” for me.
Yep. Honestly I think the talking to herself, while offputting for us to see from an outside perspective and worrisome because it’s Brain Mike, probably qualifies as less concerning than the fact that she refers to herself as The Monster. Like, HOLY FUCK, she needs that DID support group to tell them that the golden alter/bad alter dichotomy is a crock of shit and AG did a lot of questionable shit she tried to attribute to Amber and Amber is not her own supervillain. (That is, obviously, Blaine, who is fortunately dead.)
No more concerned than usual. Amber has a heap of psychological problems and trauma sure, but she seems to function everyday without becoming a threat to herself and others. Now if Amber starts passing out from sleep deprivation or forgetting/not sharing AG’s actions, or any of the other really troubling signs she’s shown before I would be really worried. But I think at this point we’ve seen enough of Amber at her worst. I don’t think anyone would enjoy her having a mental breakdown.
Some people find ignoring them to be the best thing. Some talk to them and make boundaries, kind of like dealing with a difficult roommate. (It’s probably not best to do this in front of a person you’ve stabbed, while talking about stabbing them again, but whatchagonnado.)
I really hope Amber doesn’t try to stab or assault Sal in anyway, especially as of now unprovoked. That would make her mental issues far more serious than has been depicted. “Amber doesn’t sleep for a day and hallucinates Mike to make sarcastic comments and fucked your mom jokes in her head” is far different from “Amber doesn’t sleep for a day and tries to stab Sal”
Odds are while your approach may be healthier, it doesn’t make for as good of a comic strip punchline, so I wouldn’t worry about the difference in approach too much. At least, not just from this strip alone.
If Amber has DID, then Mike isn’t a hallucination but an alter. Ignoring alters is like ignoring your own needs. You can squash and suppress them but eventually they’ll pop back out, much more toxic and out of control than before.
She’s definitely not faking it. We’ve literally seen her hallucination version of Mike. In addition we already know there is a break between Amber and Amazi-Girl in terms of communicating and memories.
That being said I don’t know enough about the brain to say what is going on with her.
Seregiel up there mentioned it, hallucinations are a very common sleep deprivation symptom and Amber has explicitly been called out as having not slept in ages. I don’t think they’re normally audible as well as visual but I’ve never experienced it myself so who knows.
Alternatively (and where my mind immediately jumped) she’s having her first schizophrenic episode, which let me tell you is fun for the whole family :/
I, on the other hand, DO recommend. Aside from the one time I wandered all around my dorm apartment looking for the radio that was playing, I found listening to them very amusing, since I could usually make them say whatever I wanted
Making them say what you want isn’t nearly as interesting as not. Voices only you hear can be a very creative source of ideas, although their truthfulness can be a bit lacking. But…
Well, the thing is, there’s no off switch. Prolonged ignoring is somewhat effective, but to this day I have to have visual conformation to be absolutely positively sure that what I’m hearing isn’t something my mind is making up.
And waking up at 3AM to the sound of your dead mother calling for you, using your family nickname, can make it a bit difficult to go back to sleep. Just saying.
In addition to what’s been said above, DID alters certainly can and often do communicate with each other (as has been mentioned by several people in this section who have DID).
That isn’t *exactly* true. Alters can be co-conscious (for some systems this will be extremely common and for some systems it will be extremely rare, how often or if it occurs at all is unique to each system) with each other at the same time so it is possible for them to talk to each other but usually it occurs inside the head instead of being out loud. It is entirely possible for one to be speaking out loud and the other to be responding in their head similarly to the last panel though. Sometimes this will even be done on purpose so people around them know that a conversation is going on.
Brain Mike however so far has been presented somewhat more as an outside hallucination as if he was a physically present second person by being visible to her when he is around which wouldn’t follow the same rules as alters regardless. You could easily talk back and forth with a hallucination of a person.
I doubt she’s randomly decided to just fake symptoms as well. What would Amber of all people gain from pretending to be worse than she is when she loathes herself and generally avoids human contact? The latter of which greatly diminishes any kind of sympathy or gain she could get by faking symptoms.
“Funny thing” is probably the last expression I’d say to describe mental illness. Curiously or interestingly, other things maybe, but not “funny” thing.
This is untrue. While typically, only one person is “fronting” at a time (though there are many variations of co-fronting, blending, passive influence etc), if you have communication with other members of your system, you can communicate in real-time with other alters while you are fronting. You can do so in your head or say things out loud. Some people find it’s *easier* to communicate with other alters by saying them out loud, other people find the opposite.
The thing I want to know is whether she means “the monster” as a descriptive term because the way it’s phrased almost sounds like she’s decided “The Monster” is the name of that alter, the one we tend to assume is the “original flavor Amber”, and uh
Self-persecution resulting in tying someone’s identity to how horrible they are is very bad and very much not going to make things easy to fix.
I’m kind of wondering where Willis is going with Amber. The level of issues she’s displayed over the run of the comic strolled past “zany superhero,” jogged past “concerning trauma,” and then hotwired a car and are now careening towards a cliff. This is the kind of thing that gets people involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility. That’d be a hell of an end to the character arc.
Speaking as someone who has bipolar and had multiple friends hospitalized for psychosis for symptoms less manic than Amber’s rn. Whilst suffering actual manic episodes.
When the likelihood that she actually stabs someone unprovoked goes over some threshold.
With a reader’s perspective on her issues and knowledge of what she’s actually done, I don’t think she has to be hospitalized, but I agree that she’s basically teetering across the line.
Until that threshold, the main purpose of hospitalization would be to get her some much-needed care, not to keep people safe, and it’s not super-likely she’d get that care if hospitalized.
With a reader’s perspective we know that she’s not a danger to others and isn’t likely to become one, but these are some extremely severe issues that seem to be getting worse.
It would be irresponsible not to if she had an active plan to kill herself or to hurt someone else or is in a non-functional state e.g. if she is catatonic.
Otherwise, you can’t really take away someone’s free will about their own care and expect them to be grateful about it. Like yes, she probably needs care. But you can’t force people to take good care of themselves in healthy ways or to go to treatment, and if you try to force them, they will often resent you for taking away what little control they felt they had and they will resist treatment.
I don’t think so? I think T. rex was confirmed for Ethan and Walky, Therizinosaurus for Becky, Parasaurolophus for Joyce (at least formerly) and of course Pachycephalosaurus for Sal
Funny thing, the light makes Amber’s hair look like chocolate is melting over the top, and the cloche that Sal is wearing doesn’t, it makes her look like an old ikon’s halo that’s aged poorly. And now can’t unsee that.
I think Amber’s in deep shit, and her friends need to turn out and do something. If it were Florida, I’d suggest invoking the Baker Act. Take her to the mental hospital without consent for three days. Seriously, talking about being OK so far because you’re not stabbing is scary.
nope. Nope. Please do not participate in forcing someone into involuntary care. Not only is it a poor indicator of treatment response it can cause them to avoid ever speaking out about their problems again. As someone who has both been forcibly committed and has been the support person of someone involuntarily committed, this is not the route to take.
This. Three day holds are for people who are actually going to hurt themselves or others. (although I agree she should be in treatment and ideally would go into voluntary care, inpatient or outpatient, not that I think that’ll happen)
As somebody who knows Amber, I completely agree with you. The trouble is, do others know that? From someone on the outside looking in, all they would know is that Amber HAS stabbed someone in the past, routinely used to beat up (admittedly bad) people, and cut somebody up so bad they got sent to hospital. In reality, somebody looking at Amber’s case basically would see red flags EVERYWHERE, that this person could snap at any moment and cause incredible violence. I’m reminded of the case of the Lindt Cafe Siege in Sydney 2014, where the culprit, Man Haron Monis, basically had a lot of past interactions with police and govt officials that suggested he was a high threat to public safety, yet fell through the cracks and he wound up taking a bunch of people hostage and killing two of them.
Would Amber ever go on such a rampage? I highly doubt it. But given her past history, it would almost impossible to defend such a case when there are so many warning signs that demand action be taken.
Uh, remember Amber is a fictional character written by one D. Willis. She’ll only go on a rampage if that is the story arc. Which then only raises questions about questions about Willis’s narrative choices. Or about Willis if he happens to identify with his characters too much…
But she’s such a nice person, quiet, keeps to herself, is kind to others. Who could have guessed that one day she would snap and take out the entire Korean mob.
Except that the only people who know most of that also know that she’s rescued them from kidnappers and fought off a rapist and wannabe murderer. That all the worst things she’s done that you’re treating as horrible red flags were done in direct defense of others (except the attack when she was 13).
That doesn’t change things at all? Context, circumstances and self-defense? None of it matters. She’s done violence, so she’s likely to snap and murder people for no reason at any moment.
It doesn’t really matter that Amber had reasons for a lot of the violence, just that she has a VERY strong history of violence and is now, quite literally, hallucinating. What exactly do you think is going to happen if she starts forming delusions? Schizophrenia doesn’t usually make a person violent, but I’d be terrified about what would happen if somebody like Amber formed a paranoid delusion. And from the story perspective nobody knows what’s going on with her. Schizophrenic, tired, DID? Anything’s possible.
Seriously, hospitalization for psychiatric issues gets TRAUMATIC. There’s a very real chance she’d get a psychiatrist who doesn’t think DID exists, or wants to ‘cure’ it by trying to shut out one alter. That doesn’t work. As ADAMANTLY established when Amber tried, and supported by a lot of commenters during that series of arcs. She would not be allowed to leave if the psychiatrist didn’t think she was Better. And one of the things about inpatient stays is that you’re not allowed ANYTHING that could conceivably be used by you or another resident to hurt yourselves – this includes charging cables in case they can be used as a noose, which would mean Amber wouldn’t have access to electronics, which would take one of her biggest and safest coping mechanisms out of play. (Incidentally, this is one of the big reasons why we opted for outpatient when I needed a stay at a psychiatric hospital, since I was an edge case.) And that’s setting aside all the OTHER issues with inpatient, which I can’t speak to specifically but are well-documented. It would take Amber out of the cast indefinitely, which is why I think it’s seriously unlikely, but it’s also one of those things that even as an absolute last resort is going to run the serious risk of making things worse and guaranteeing the person you had committed doesn’t trust you ever again.
All humor aside, this shit right here is severely concerning. She’s referring to herself as a monster, while speaking about a second personality/alter ego (not sure what Amazi-girl falls under), while at the same time “speaking” to a hallucination of her dead friend.
Honestly, I just want her to get ALL the help. Amber deserves a break for once. I hope nothing tragic happens before she gets the help she needs.
It’s also probably a sleep deprivation thing. Last time she was hallucinating, she hadn’t been sleeping. She was just recently noted as not being sleeping again.
Talking to your hallucination in front of someone else just seems like a good way to make them think you’re insane. I really hope Amber can get therapy for her issues eventually.
I am afraid Amber is having a trauma-induced psychotic break with reality.
Her abusive criminal dad set her up for it; and having two identities was already a disturbing symptom. But I think the kidnapping and violence took her into psychosis territory.
If I’m right, talk-therapy could bring her out of this.
But I’m no expert. I could be wrong.
I just kinda read a lot of what Amber goes through as similar to the visual language of comics.
Part of that is that I don’t understand DID as easily as I do other complex mental disorders, I don’t know what would create a hallucination that appears due to sleep deprivation that can be actively spoken to. In a real world context I, and specifically myself here, this isn’t meant as a judgment of the series, don’t really have that context to latch onto.
But I do read a lot of comics, much to my growing regret, so a superhero who has two distinct identities that previously vied for control before coming to accept each other and a metaphorical conversation with the ghost of a dead friend in the name of providing an expression of inner turmoil is something I am familiar with.
Mostly at this point I’m curious about Amazi-Girl as a character herself, if that’s what we’re going for. Previously Amazi-Girl came off as Amber’s idealized self, an Amber who could speak confidently and engage in violence without it being another permanent stain on her person because Amazi-Girl punches for Justice and Amber only knows how to express anger in explosive, water boiling over the top anger that, once she comes down from it, instilled her with even further self-loathing. But then that rigid confidence Amber would assume when Amazi-Girl took the wheel led her to briefly do stupid things like the specific browbeating she put Danny through when dumping him and proceeding to stalk Sal, which Amber then internalized as her own fault while the Amazi-Girl identity remained pure.
But the last we saw Amazi-Girl, and the first time since the timeskip where previously she was starting to get downplayed as her own person, she was pretty mellowed out. She’s the one at roller derby and she’s actually having a great time engaging in smashing people around in a context where it’s just a fun game, she can sit and let Sal drink a beer despite being underaged so she doesn’t have the rigid need for absolute thinking other than not engaging in it for herself, she still speaks more confidently and assertive than Amber did, when talking to Sal she’s direct and then susses out Sal’s jealousy towards Jennifer for being with Asher and how she wants him for herself in a way that indicates she’s fine ribbing on Sal. She still fulfills the role of doing things Amber can’t, I just wonder how that’ll play out for herself going forward, if it will.
I think Spencer hit the nail on the head. For whatever reason, Amber is an example of how profoundly screwed up comic-book psychology is.
Which implies Amber (or her body) is heading to a bittersweet ending at Best.
Side note: Are Amber and Amazi-Girl’s memories still separate? Can that degree of seperation even be reversed?
…How little sleep is Amber running on between the insombia and body-timeshare?
Cause at this rate, I’m suddenly worried Amazi-Girl is going to collapse at Roller Derby and get hospitalized.
Amber and AG reintegrated while chasing down Blaine, whereupon Amber learned about AG driving Mike to the hospital. AG also knows about Sal’s history with Asher through Amber.
Separation between parts can be reversed, that is called integration. But a lot of systems don’t have that as a goal because full integration can be very difficult to do for a variety of reasons and further traumatic/stressful events can always cause them to split apart again. Some people also just like having their alters around so as long as they are working together well, they’re content.
Though re-integrating to the point of sharing memories while still remaining separate alters is more common, I believe. It’s closer to getting the alters to cooperate than full integration.
Yeah, Cerberus called them two different types of integration. The one where the alters all ‘become one’ she called the fusion model after Steven Universe, and the other where they remain separate alters but still shared memories, communicated and more or less worked together the ‘committee model’ after Inside Out.
I am starting to seriously worry about Amber’s mental state. It’s starting to feel like we are watching her decline into being institutionalized. But I feel like it could be avoided if she would just seek the necessary help.
This much mental decline should be happening until she starts her PhD.
that’s a given and easy, but also he said she’s backsliding and to just admit she’s lonely and you know… talk to Sal. but also that he stabbed her mom for a nickel ~<3
I really appreciate how Amber’s hair is doing that exact awkward growing-out thing that thick hair does when it used to be short and one is too lazy/depressed to go get it cut again.
Perhaps it’s because I actually have DID but I’m not nearly concerned about Amber’s well-being based on this comic as many folks are.
The mike “hallucination” is likely another alter. It’s unclear whether she is actually seeing him in the external world or if it’s a visual representation of what she see’s in her head. The internal world is highly visual and specific. I kind of think it’s somewhere in between– internal visuals that are being somewhat externalized due to heightened stress and sleep deprivation. With dissociative disorders, what is internal and what is external can get very muddy.
The “I haven’t stabbed her, have I?” comment sounds like Amber’s dark humor, not an actual assessment of whether she’s okay.
The fact that Amber is talking out loud to other alters is also not concerning. It’s slightly worrisome if she’s totally unaware of doing that but it’s not that weird to talk out loud in order to have conversations with other alters, or to go back and forth between talking out loud and talking internally. If she’s at least somewhat aware of what she’s doing, this sounds like a pretty typical conversation between alters, honestly.
What’s frustrating to us, as members of a DID system, is the concern for Amber’s well-being and stability and the suggestions of involuntary hospitalization seem much higher now that she’s being openly plural than they were when she was dealing with her trauma by enacting violence on other people. Yes, the people who were the victims of that violence were terrible people, and that makes the ethics more nuanced. But someone who is an active danger to other people and/or to themselves is MUCH more likely to require hospitalization than someone who is has open communication with their alters and isn’t hiding that.
The communication is *less* disordered than when she had no memory of what Amazigirl was doing. Amber honestly seems relatively stable right now. No violent outbreaks, no anger outbursts, she’s talking to people who talk to her, she’s in communication with at least two members of her system. She appears to still be eating, drinking, and practicing basic hygiene. The sleep deprivation is a problem and it looks like she’s dealing with some denial but doesn’t look like a breaking point to me. So, what would hospitalizing her protect her from exactly?
I also have little to no faith that hospitalizing her would help at this point. Most therapists have little to no training in how to treat DID, a number of them full-on deny its existence, and treatment from therapists who don’t know what they’re doing can most definitely do more harm than not getting treatment. The likelihood that their local mental hospital just happens to have a DID specialist is low. Our DId therapist lives 2 hours away and without the pandemic standardizing remote care, we wouldn’t have had access to that treatment at all.
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So wait, did Mike displace Amazi-Girl?
Who hasn’t shown up since the time skip?
…is Mike secretly Amazi-Girl?
alt-text: YOUR MOM could tag Mike again
Your mom could tag Mike for a nickle.
in SOVIET RUSSIA, that is
I think Amazi-Girlk’s still in the cockpit during roller derby.
Isn’t Amazi-Girl on the roller derby team?
How is this not answered yet? Yes, Amazi-girl is on the team, with Sal.
Amazi-Mike
AG does roller derby, it is her night. Brain Mike is either a third alter born out of survivor’s guilt or a hallucination from sleep deprivation – I believe some plural commenters have discussed how alters based off real people you knew work when he first started appearing but I don’t remember the specifics offhand.
Ah, I remember now!
Here’s the SAUCE, courtesy of our good friend Sam!
We’ve seen amazi girl since the skip, sal talked to her about how she’s totally not jealous of Billie and Asher and how she thinks Billie’s going through a phase after roller derby
Shame this Amber-Mike interaction is not a seance…
Or at least the human version of a Hormone Monster
Hey, I just love the fact that we don’t even need to hear the other half of the conversation.
Just in time!
I finished some Amber x Mike x Super Mario 64 fan art!
After breaking the SMB speedrun world record, Amber really experiences Neuron Activation in this one!!!
😂😂😂
https://imgur.com/a/1wWVpWy
Of first off well done, talented 8-bit artists always impresses me. But in the future you haft to considerate doing a NSFW warning if you wish to bestow the sight with the smallest of lewd stuff. I don’t know if we remember to do that enough around here.
Sorry I could have SWORN I clicked the “Mature” checkbox when I uploaded!
Gotta LOVE sleep-deprivation :/
Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t, or maybe I’m just not paying attention who knows I’m sleep deprived too.
With my Dream Demon powers of pixel art, sleep-deprived viewers are sure to fail No Nut November!!!
…provided they haven’t ALREADY failed, that is!!!
😈😈😈
*evil laughter commences*
That is so wrong in all the right ways and I love it!
Praise the gravatar roulette, for I am become blowjob-cat!
So like, this is legit schizophrenia then?
Not all auditory hallucinations are schizophrenia.
Pretty sure Amber’s undiagnosed deal has been established as dissociative identity disorder, among the commenters who have it. She can definitely have multiple things, but signs don’t particularly point to schizophrenia right now.
Also, sleep deprivation. Her fav thing when she wants voices to shut up
But that seems to be the thing that draws Brain!Mike out…
Extreme sleep deprivation can also cause hypnagogic auditory hallucination
It could be psychosis.
There are a lot of things that are technically psychosis, but are actually a different diagnosis.
Possibly some sort of psychosis, not sure if she fits schizophrenia entirely (Trying to remember all the things involved with that but it’s been a few years) but she’s honestly been through enough trauma that I’d argue it could be a manifestation of PTSD.
But, the only person I know with DID also got a schizo-affective diagnosis, and I believe they might be comorbidities. And to be honest watching Amber go through this brings up bad memories. I watched a really close friend have a really bad time the months leading up to her diagnosis. I had to drive her to the hospital twice. Had to comfort her through hallucinations. Was a target of her paranoia more than once. I wish Willis could just say “Amber will get help with her mental issues by 2024” so I could just skip any strip I see with her in it, it just brings up that hopeless “I don’t know whats going on please be okay” panic.
PTSD can cause psychosis, though generally not in this particular way. I’m not really sure what’s causing her to *see* Mike as talking to him is an entirely normal DID thing but the visual part is not.
Seeing him may be more for our benefit, as a visual effect to communicate what Amber is experiencing, have they had any interactions where it was clear that she was visually observing him and not just kind of, aware of his presence in that hallucination kind of way?
It took Amber a while to recognize that Ghost Mike wasn’t the real deal the first time he showed up
The usual progression of untreated PTSD is depression first, then psychosis, then schizoid behavior, but if DID comes first I got nothing because when I was looking this stuff up I had been dealing with PTSD untreated for about 25 years. They were just getting a handle on PTSD without dealing with what comes from untreated PTSD with combat vets, traumatized as teens were just coming over the horizon of the book.
Internet hugs. I have a completely different set of issues but seeing the degree to which she hates herself to self-destructive extents… occasionally hits a nerve, let’s say.
So far we’ve never seen Brain Mike without sleep deprivation, which makes it pretty ambiguous whether he’s a full-time resident or just an occasional guest.
Hugs right back to you. I do wish a character would get more concerned. You figure out your friend is multiple and having visual or audible hallucinations…. I get its comic land and all, but most character in here go “Well that’s old Amber, having a mental breakdown like always” and not one of them is going “Uh, this is beyond not okay” – I guess I am wishing for some portrayal of the fear that’s more prevalent. Its terrifying to realize your friend is hallucinating. It’s hard to be the thing that tries to clarify what’s reality and what’s not. And i feel like every character has the same response of “meh, that’s fine.” And it just breaks me out of the world a little. Hopefully we are approaching the “oh wait this is bad and scary not some Amber quirk” that but idk. It hits too close to home sometimes.
My best guess is he is her self deprecation and survivor’s guilt manifested, but the visual and separation is new and might push this out of DID territory and into some sort of psychosis or schizo- disorder.
I guess the main problem is that Amber doesn’t really communivate with people so most of the cast don’t know how bad Amber is? The closest we’ve come to “oh god, my friend is really sick” is Ethan but I get the feeling their relationship broke down in the wake of Mike’s death? I can’t exactly blame him if that is the case though as it’s difficult being an anchor for someone when you’re depressed yourself…
I think this is the first time she’s actually openly talked to Brain-Mike in front of anyone else and it looks like Sal’s pretty disturbed by it.
Only a few characters have figured out Amber is multiple. I don’t think anyone knows about the hallucinations.
Sal reacted with concern about AG jumping around on cars and being extremely risky with her life. Sal tried to dissuade Amber/AG herself, plus she pulled Danny up short to convince him that this was a dangerous problem for Amber, and that he should stop her.
Sal’s distrust of authority — including therapists — means that she won’t try to move Amber towards professional help, but barring that, she treats this as serious business and does as much as she can think to do.
I guess not, because schizophrenia also brings negative symtoms, like aphatia and asociality. Amber still have some social tract.
…Amber kinda *is* the most apathic and asocial character of the whole cast, though.
I’m not sure what Amber interacting with this version of Mike in her head is, but she definitely needs some therapy because this can’t be healthy.
I don’t think so. Multiplicity/DID =/= schizophrenia, and honestly some people get hallucinations when they’re severely sleep-deprived without it being a neurodivergent thing.
But, at the same time, who knows. I’m not sure if Amber’s ‘seeing’ Mike because she’s sleep-deprived or it’s a comic thing to help us as the audience.
Ghost Mike is definitely caused by sleep deprivation and there’s a possible implication of Amber deliberately doing so to bring him out again.
But, yeah, it’s pretty blurry how he actually works given that he needs to appear in a way that’s interesting and concise in a visual medium.
Not likely. This is a pretty accurate representation of what it’s like talking to other alters you’re in communication with (DID system here). The talking can be done internally or externally, sometimes it’s a choice, sometimes it’s involuntary and you say it out loud without meaning to. The Mike “hallucination” might be something she’s seeing in the external world, or it could be a visual representation of seeing Mike in her head. We “see” each other in the inner world when we have extended conversations, rather than just hearing each other’s voices.
Also, important to emphasize, alters, and communication with alters, are not hallucinations. Most people have an inner voice that narrates their thoughts. Communication with alters is essentially this inner voice dissociated into multiple parts that each have their own priorities, mannerisms, and perspectives. This communication is not invasive or disordered (unless you’re dealing with a persecutor who is saying terrible things to you to try to shift your behavior). It’s the naturally occurring inner voice just organized in a different way.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you American type Pokemon who celebrate and happy “George Jetson’s Parents Fuck Day” to the rest of us.
I can see no reason for Sal to be concerned here at all.
How now, why couldn’t we celebrate both?!?!
I know what I’m gonna do — shove myself with tryptophan-enriched dinosaur meat and watch the Jetsons Movie!!!!
because Thanksgiving is in october
obviously
American types can totally celebrate both, but it’s not Thanksgiving where I am (it’s in October) so it’s solely “George Jetson’s Parents Fuck Day” for me.
Yep. Honestly I think the talking to herself, while offputting for us to see from an outside perspective and worrisome because it’s Brain Mike, probably qualifies as less concerning than the fact that she refers to herself as The Monster. Like, HOLY FUCK, she needs that DID support group to tell them that the golden alter/bad alter dichotomy is a crock of shit and AG did a lot of questionable shit she tried to attribute to Amber and Amber is not her own supervillain. (That is, obviously, Blaine, who is fortunately dead.)
Wait, did you mean to put this comment elsewhere?
*reads BBCC’s post*
😳
Sleep deprivation is one helluva a drug…
Is Blaine really dead? Maybe he’s in Witness Protection. With Mike.
No more concerned than usual. Amber has a heap of psychological problems and trauma sure, but she seems to function everyday without becoming a threat to herself and others. Now if Amber starts passing out from sleep deprivation or forgetting/not sharing AG’s actions, or any of the other really troubling signs she’s shown before I would be really worried. But I think at this point we’ve seen enough of Amber at her worst. I don’t think anyone would enjoy her having a mental breakdown.
Personally, I celebrate Pumpkin Pie day.
George Jetson was born a month earlier in Canada.
American is a Pokemon type now? When did that happen? What special attacks to we get for that?
The electoral college. I’m so sorry.
You know for second there I thought Amber was still talking to Sal in that last panel.
IMaybe it’s not backsliding but all new and different psychosis isn’t better.
All new and all different psychoses are generally worse than just backsliding into old ones
*plays Counting Crows’ remake of “The Ghost In You” on the hacked Muzak*
Sal, be very careful around her. Not saying she would stab you again but you never know.
Also, I try to ignore my hallucination and not talk to him. Is Amber’s approach better than mine?
Whatever works is the best approach.
Some people find ignoring them to be the best thing. Some talk to them and make boundaries, kind of like dealing with a difficult roommate. (It’s probably not best to do this in front of a person you’ve stabbed, while talking about stabbing them again, but whatchagonnado.)
I really hope Amber doesn’t try to stab or assault Sal in anyway, especially as of now unprovoked. That would make her mental issues far more serious than has been depicted. “Amber doesn’t sleep for a day and hallucinates Mike to make sarcastic comments and fucked your mom jokes in her head” is far different from “Amber doesn’t sleep for a day and tries to stab Sal”
Super duper unlikely that she’ll stab Sal again. It’s just, this entire little self-conversation might not be so reassuring to Sal.
Odds are while your approach may be healthier, it doesn’t make for as good of a comic strip punchline, so I wouldn’t worry about the difference in approach too much. At least, not just from this strip alone.
If Amber has DID, then Mike isn’t a hallucination but an alter. Ignoring alters is like ignoring your own needs. You can squash and suppress them but eventually they’ll pop back out, much more toxic and out of control than before.
So… over-under on Danny messing this conversation up without actually being there?
Oh. About 50:50.
I think Amber is faking this since DID doesn’t result in people talking to one another. You’re one than the other. At least as I understand it.
She’s definitely not faking it. We’ve literally seen her hallucination version of Mike. In addition we already know there is a break between Amber and Amazi-Girl in terms of communicating and memories.
That being said I don’t know enough about the brain to say what is going on with her.
She’s definitely not faking.
A. Why would she?
B. We’ve seen her alone, she acts the same without an audience.
She’s talking to Ghost Mike.
I think “Mike” isn’t the result of DID but a different mental illness
Also I know Amber is fictional but it’s generally not cool to say someone’s faking their mental illness
Seregiel up there mentioned it, hallucinations are a very common sleep deprivation symptom and Amber has explicitly been called out as having not slept in ages. I don’t think they’re normally audible as well as visual but I’ve never experienced it myself so who knows.
Alternatively (and where my mind immediately jumped) she’s having her first schizophrenic episode, which let me tell you is fun for the whole family :/
I can assure you that audible hallucinations are a thing.
You can, in fact, train yourself to hear them. Something I don’t recommend.
I, on the other hand, DO recommend. Aside from the one time I wandered all around my dorm apartment looking for the radio that was playing, I found listening to them very amusing, since I could usually make them say whatever I wanted
Making them say what you want isn’t nearly as interesting as not. Voices only you hear can be a very creative source of ideas, although their truthfulness can be a bit lacking. But…
Well, the thing is, there’s no off switch. Prolonged ignoring is somewhat effective, but to this day I have to have visual conformation to be absolutely positively sure that what I’m hearing isn’t something my mind is making up.
And waking up at 3AM to the sound of your dead mother calling for you, using your family nickname, can make it a bit difficult to go back to sleep. Just saying.
Oh, yeah. For me, it was only during states of extreme hypnagogia, so merely getting some good sleep was enough to make them go away again.
As a constant presence, they would be far less… entertaining
In addition to what’s been said above, DID alters certainly can and often do communicate with each other (as has been mentioned by several people in this section who have DID).
That isn’t *exactly* true. Alters can be co-conscious (for some systems this will be extremely common and for some systems it will be extremely rare, how often or if it occurs at all is unique to each system) with each other at the same time so it is possible for them to talk to each other but usually it occurs inside the head instead of being out loud. It is entirely possible for one to be speaking out loud and the other to be responding in their head similarly to the last panel though. Sometimes this will even be done on purpose so people around them know that a conversation is going on.
Brain Mike however so far has been presented somewhat more as an outside hallucination as if he was a physically present second person by being visible to her when he is around which wouldn’t follow the same rules as alters regardless. You could easily talk back and forth with a hallucination of a person.
I doubt she’s randomly decided to just fake symptoms as well. What would Amber of all people gain from pretending to be worse than she is when she loathes herself and generally avoids human contact? The latter of which greatly diminishes any kind of sympathy or gain she could get by faking symptoms.
Also, Amber and Amazi-Girl HAVE had at least one out-loud conversation before. They spoke to each other during the kidnapping.
Faking isn’t the right word but her conversation to Sal is something that I took as Amber making a joke.
Because while she hallucinates Mike, she’s never hallucinated Amazi-Girl.
She isn’t talking to Amazigirl though. She’s talking to ghost-Mike.
Confirmed by the hovertext, as well.
Until I read the hovertext, I also thought Amber and AG were talking now.
Funny thing, you can have more than one mental illness at a time!
“Funny thing” is probably the last expression I’d say to describe mental illness. Curiously or interestingly, other things maybe, but not “funny” thing.
Funny can mean strange or unexpected.
It can mean lots of things. If I say my milk smells funny, I don’t mean that it’s humorous, I mean that it’s gone bad.
Short for https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/the-funny-thing-is
It’s a conventional expression meaning “You’re wrong”.
I’m not using it to describe mental illness. I’m using it to say “You’re wrong” to the person to whom I was replying.
This is untrue. While typically, only one person is “fronting” at a time (though there are many variations of co-fronting, blending, passive influence etc), if you have communication with other members of your system, you can communicate in real-time with other alters while you are fronting. You can do so in your head or say things out loud. Some people find it’s *easier* to communicate with other alters by saying them out loud, other people find the opposite.
The thing I want to know is whether she means “the monster” as a descriptive term because the way it’s phrased almost sounds like she’s decided “The Monster” is the name of that alter, the one we tend to assume is the “original flavor Amber”, and uh
Self-persecution resulting in tying someone’s identity to how horrible they are is very bad and very much not going to make things easy to fix.
Amber is referring to herself as the monster. She still thinks that she’s too damaged to be a good person and that Amazi-Girl is her “good” side.
She isn’t using Amazi-Girl for anything but roller derby, that we know of at least.
yes, what she is doing is very bad.
I’m kind of wondering where Willis is going with Amber. The level of issues she’s displayed over the run of the comic strolled past “zany superhero,” jogged past “concerning trauma,” and then hotwired a car and are now careening towards a cliff. This is the kind of thing that gets people involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility. That’d be a hell of an end to the character arc.
‘End’. Yeah no life continues beyond and I expect she’d be in there for just a couple-three days, and the arc would continue altered but unended
I do not see a way out of this spiral that doesn’t somehow end with some degree of hospitalization. We are WAY past therapy at this point.
Genuine question: IS there a point where it’s irresponsible NOT to hospitalize her without her explicit consent?
Speaking as someone who has bipolar and had multiple friends hospitalized for psychosis for symptoms less manic than Amber’s rn. Whilst suffering actual manic episodes.
we may be past that point already
When the likelihood that she actually stabs someone unprovoked goes over some threshold.
With a reader’s perspective on her issues and knowledge of what she’s actually done, I don’t think she has to be hospitalized, but I agree that she’s basically teetering across the line.
Until that threshold, the main purpose of hospitalization would be to get her some much-needed care, not to keep people safe, and it’s not super-likely she’d get that care if hospitalized.
With a reader’s perspective we know that she’s not a danger to others and isn’t likely to become one, but these are some extremely severe issues that seem to be getting worse.
Tbh she probably needed to be hospitalized when she and amazi girl were actively trying to get themselves killed last semester
It would be irresponsible not to if she had an active plan to kill herself or to hurt someone else or is in a non-functional state e.g. if she is catatonic.
Otherwise, you can’t really take away someone’s free will about their own care and expect them to be grateful about it. Like yes, she probably needs care. But you can’t force people to take good care of themselves in healthy ways or to go to treatment, and if you try to force them, they will often resent you for taking away what little control they felt they had and they will resist treatment.
Did we ever learn Amber’s favorite dinosaur?
It’s a reasonable guess that it’s Yoshi, at least when she’s playing Mario games!
I don’t think so? I think T. rex was confirmed for Ethan and Walky, Therizinosaurus for Becky, Parasaurolophus for Joyce (at least formerly) and of course Pachycephalosaurus for Sal
But T. Rex was rejected by Dina as being dull/unoriginal, and Ethan’s replacement (pterodactyl) was rejexted for, well, non-dinosaritis.
And walky tried to use indominis Rex as his password (which Dina pointed out is not real)
Pterodactylus isn’t a dinosaur and Walky didn’t say Indominus Rex was his favourite and it wasn’t a real dinosaur. Neither count
Funny thing, the light makes Amber’s hair look like chocolate is melting over the top, and the cloche that Sal is wearing doesn’t, it makes her look like an old ikon’s halo that’s aged poorly. And now can’t unsee that.
Amber is trying a new tactic to get people to leave her alone.
Amber’s overall character progression is givin’ me real Long Day’s Journey Into Night vibes 🙁
Mike lives in her head rent-free.
Imaginary Brain George Jetson, here we come
Wait, are you trying to get an Introject?
Pachycephalosaurus is a good choice
I think Amber’s in deep shit, and her friends need to turn out and do something. If it were Florida, I’d suggest invoking the Baker Act. Take her to the mental hospital without consent for three days. Seriously, talking about being OK so far because you’re not stabbing is scary.
nope. Nope. Please do not participate in forcing someone into involuntary care. Not only is it a poor indicator of treatment response it can cause them to avoid ever speaking out about their problems again. As someone who has both been forcibly committed and has been the support person of someone involuntarily committed, this is not the route to take.
What route do you suggest?
This. Three day holds are for people who are actually going to hurt themselves or others. (although I agree she should be in treatment and ideally would go into voluntary care, inpatient or outpatient, not that I think that’ll happen)
As somebody who knows Amber, I completely agree with you. The trouble is, do others know that? From someone on the outside looking in, all they would know is that Amber HAS stabbed someone in the past, routinely used to beat up (admittedly bad) people, and cut somebody up so bad they got sent to hospital. In reality, somebody looking at Amber’s case basically would see red flags EVERYWHERE, that this person could snap at any moment and cause incredible violence. I’m reminded of the case of the Lindt Cafe Siege in Sydney 2014, where the culprit, Man Haron Monis, basically had a lot of past interactions with police and govt officials that suggested he was a high threat to public safety, yet fell through the cracks and he wound up taking a bunch of people hostage and killing two of them.
Would Amber ever go on such a rampage? I highly doubt it. But given her past history, it would almost impossible to defend such a case when there are so many warning signs that demand action be taken.
Uh, remember Amber is a fictional character written by one D. Willis. She’ll only go on a rampage if that is the story arc. Which then only raises questions about questions about Willis’s narrative choices. Or about Willis if he happens to identify with his characters too much…
But she’s such a nice person, quiet, keeps to herself, is kind to others. Who could have guessed that one day she would snap and take out the entire Korean mob.
If only they’d locked her up before the Korean mod attacked all her friends.
Except that the only people who know most of that also know that she’s rescued them from kidnappers and fought off a rapist and wannabe murderer. That all the worst things she’s done that you’re treating as horrible red flags were done in direct defense of others (except the attack when she was 13).
That doesn’t change things at all? Context, circumstances and self-defense? None of it matters. She’s done violence, so she’s likely to snap and murder people for no reason at any moment.
It doesn’t really matter that Amber had reasons for a lot of the violence, just that she has a VERY strong history of violence and is now, quite literally, hallucinating. What exactly do you think is going to happen if she starts forming delusions? Schizophrenia doesn’t usually make a person violent, but I’d be terrified about what would happen if somebody like Amber formed a paranoid delusion. And from the story perspective nobody knows what’s going on with her. Schizophrenic, tired, DID? Anything’s possible.
Seriously, hospitalization for psychiatric issues gets TRAUMATIC. There’s a very real chance she’d get a psychiatrist who doesn’t think DID exists, or wants to ‘cure’ it by trying to shut out one alter. That doesn’t work. As ADAMANTLY established when Amber tried, and supported by a lot of commenters during that series of arcs. She would not be allowed to leave if the psychiatrist didn’t think she was Better. And one of the things about inpatient stays is that you’re not allowed ANYTHING that could conceivably be used by you or another resident to hurt yourselves – this includes charging cables in case they can be used as a noose, which would mean Amber wouldn’t have access to electronics, which would take one of her biggest and safest coping mechanisms out of play. (Incidentally, this is one of the big reasons why we opted for outpatient when I needed a stay at a psychiatric hospital, since I was an edge case.) And that’s setting aside all the OTHER issues with inpatient, which I can’t speak to specifically but are well-documented. It would take Amber out of the cast indefinitely, which is why I think it’s seriously unlikely, but it’s also one of those things that even as an absolute last resort is going to run the serious risk of making things worse and guaranteeing the person you had committed doesn’t trust you ever again.
If it were Florida, I suggest they move to another state (not Texas).
But if she moved to Texas she could carry a weapon with no permit required.
She doesn’t need to carry weapons. If she needs a knife, someone will bring one for her to use.
Or a phone.
Surprised it took almost two hours for someone to say this.
Nobody expects the delay of the knife-phone combo. Its chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and a great data plan.
I have returned from the future to award JBento the Internet.
this really isn’t looking good
Amber: “Customer support? This Ghost Mike you sent me is faulty, he’s got no switch”
Customer support: “…”
Amber: “Your mom can keep him. I want my money back!”
Things seem to go worse for Amber. People is starting to notice it. She lives with a ghost, who live in her mind… HELP!
All humor aside, this shit right here is severely concerning. She’s referring to herself as a monster, while speaking about a second personality/alter ego (not sure what Amazi-girl falls under), while at the same time “speaking” to a hallucination of her dead friend.
Honestly, I just want her to get ALL the help. Amber deserves a break for once. I hope nothing tragic happens before she gets the help she needs.
Is this real ghost works that way in your head? Like Mike talking to you and some day he’s gone, as he and you solves some unfinished business?…
Now, I’m asking it with a atheist perspective, not as a supernatural phenonenom.
My guess is this is a PTSD response from Amber.
For now Mike is a mystery. Someday you will become a mom and then you’ll understand.
What if I’m out of nickels?
It’s also probably a sleep deprivation thing. Last time she was hallucinating, she hadn’t been sleeping. She was just recently noted as not being sleeping again.
Talking to your hallucination in front of someone else just seems like a good way to make them think you’re insane. I really hope Amber can get therapy for her issues eventually.
I am afraid Amber is having a trauma-induced psychotic break with reality.
Her abusive criminal dad set her up for it; and having two identities was already a disturbing symptom. But I think the kidnapping and violence took her into psychosis territory.
If I’m right, talk-therapy could bring her out of this.
But I’m no expert. I could be wrong.
I just kinda read a lot of what Amber goes through as similar to the visual language of comics.
Part of that is that I don’t understand DID as easily as I do other complex mental disorders, I don’t know what would create a hallucination that appears due to sleep deprivation that can be actively spoken to. In a real world context I, and specifically myself here, this isn’t meant as a judgment of the series, don’t really have that context to latch onto.
But I do read a lot of comics, much to my growing regret, so a superhero who has two distinct identities that previously vied for control before coming to accept each other and a metaphorical conversation with the ghost of a dead friend in the name of providing an expression of inner turmoil is something I am familiar with.
Mostly at this point I’m curious about Amazi-Girl as a character herself, if that’s what we’re going for. Previously Amazi-Girl came off as Amber’s idealized self, an Amber who could speak confidently and engage in violence without it being another permanent stain on her person because Amazi-Girl punches for Justice and Amber only knows how to express anger in explosive, water boiling over the top anger that, once she comes down from it, instilled her with even further self-loathing. But then that rigid confidence Amber would assume when Amazi-Girl took the wheel led her to briefly do stupid things like the specific browbeating she put Danny through when dumping him and proceeding to stalk Sal, which Amber then internalized as her own fault while the Amazi-Girl identity remained pure.
But the last we saw Amazi-Girl, and the first time since the timeskip where previously she was starting to get downplayed as her own person, she was pretty mellowed out. She’s the one at roller derby and she’s actually having a great time engaging in smashing people around in a context where it’s just a fun game, she can sit and let Sal drink a beer despite being underaged so she doesn’t have the rigid need for absolute thinking other than not engaging in it for herself, she still speaks more confidently and assertive than Amber did, when talking to Sal she’s direct and then susses out Sal’s jealousy towards Jennifer for being with Asher and how she wants him for herself in a way that indicates she’s fine ribbing on Sal. She still fulfills the role of doing things Amber can’t, I just wonder how that’ll play out for herself going forward, if it will.
I think Spencer hit the nail on the head. For whatever reason, Amber is an example of how profoundly screwed up comic-book psychology is.
Which implies Amber (or her body) is heading to a bittersweet ending at Best.
Side note: Are Amber and Amazi-Girl’s memories still separate? Can that degree of seperation even be reversed?
…How little sleep is Amber running on between the insombia and body-timeshare?
Cause at this rate, I’m suddenly worried Amazi-Girl is going to collapse at Roller Derby and get hospitalized.
Amber and AG reintegrated while chasing down Blaine, whereupon Amber learned about AG driving Mike to the hospital. AG also knows about Sal’s history with Asher through Amber.
Separation between parts can be reversed, that is called integration. But a lot of systems don’t have that as a goal because full integration can be very difficult to do for a variety of reasons and further traumatic/stressful events can always cause them to split apart again. Some people also just like having their alters around so as long as they are working together well, they’re content.
Though re-integrating to the point of sharing memories while still remaining separate alters is more common, I believe. It’s closer to getting the alters to cooperate than full integration.
Yeah, Cerberus called them two different types of integration. The one where the alters all ‘become one’ she called the fusion model after Steven Universe, and the other where they remain separate alters but still shared memories, communicated and more or less worked together the ‘committee model’ after Inside Out.
All too fascinating! THANK YOU Sam!!!
While we’re still talking about alters, I have a few other questions since last time we talked about Introjects.
This is such a different version of Amber than the old Shortpacked version I’m familiar with. It’s kind of depressing really.
In panel four, Sal is looking at her like: That girl is not well.
So much angst in the comic currently.
I am starting to seriously worry about Amber’s mental state. It’s starting to feel like we are watching her decline into being institutionalized. But I feel like it could be avoided if she would just seek the necessary help.
This much mental decline should be happening until she starts her PhD.
I like that we don’t have to actually see/hear Mike to know what he’s saying in this page. ~<3
What’s he saying? In particular, what’s the “your mom” joke? I can’t figure it out…
Probably some variant on “I stabbed your mom for a nickel”, if I had to guess.
that’s a given and easy, but also he said she’s backsliding and to just admit she’s lonely and you know… talk to Sal. but also that he stabbed her mom for a nickel ~<3
Surprise: Amber isn’t hallucinating Mike. Mike’s ghost is actually haunting her.
Introduction of fantasy/scifi elements!
Off topic but sal is mad hot in this strip and I’m simping. In fact I’m gonna try grav roulette again
Oh Leslie cute, never got her before
Getting closer
Colder…
Ice cold
Oh come on
Man I’m just now realizing they both got way more emo looking
Fine this’ll work for now
phew, I was worried that everything wasn’t fine.
she’s fine!
Well, I don’t suppose we need to worry until she starts seeing people turn into toilets.
I really appreciate how Amber’s hair is doing that exact awkward growing-out thing that thick hair does when it used to be short and one is too lazy/depressed to go get it cut again.
Perhaps it’s because I actually have DID but I’m not nearly concerned about Amber’s well-being based on this comic as many folks are.
The mike “hallucination” is likely another alter. It’s unclear whether she is actually seeing him in the external world or if it’s a visual representation of what she see’s in her head. The internal world is highly visual and specific. I kind of think it’s somewhere in between– internal visuals that are being somewhat externalized due to heightened stress and sleep deprivation. With dissociative disorders, what is internal and what is external can get very muddy.
The “I haven’t stabbed her, have I?” comment sounds like Amber’s dark humor, not an actual assessment of whether she’s okay.
The fact that Amber is talking out loud to other alters is also not concerning. It’s slightly worrisome if she’s totally unaware of doing that but it’s not that weird to talk out loud in order to have conversations with other alters, or to go back and forth between talking out loud and talking internally. If she’s at least somewhat aware of what she’s doing, this sounds like a pretty typical conversation between alters, honestly.
What’s frustrating to us, as members of a DID system, is the concern for Amber’s well-being and stability and the suggestions of involuntary hospitalization seem much higher now that she’s being openly plural than they were when she was dealing with her trauma by enacting violence on other people. Yes, the people who were the victims of that violence were terrible people, and that makes the ethics more nuanced. But someone who is an active danger to other people and/or to themselves is MUCH more likely to require hospitalization than someone who is has open communication with their alters and isn’t hiding that.
The communication is *less* disordered than when she had no memory of what Amazigirl was doing. Amber honestly seems relatively stable right now. No violent outbreaks, no anger outbursts, she’s talking to people who talk to her, she’s in communication with at least two members of her system. She appears to still be eating, drinking, and practicing basic hygiene. The sleep deprivation is a problem and it looks like she’s dealing with some denial but doesn’t look like a breaking point to me. So, what would hospitalizing her protect her from exactly?
I also have little to no faith that hospitalizing her would help at this point. Most therapists have little to no training in how to treat DID, a number of them full-on deny its existence, and treatment from therapists who don’t know what they’re doing can most definitely do more harm than not getting treatment. The likelihood that their local mental hospital just happens to have a DID specialist is low. Our DId therapist lives 2 hours away and without the pandemic standardizing remote care, we wouldn’t have had access to that treatment at all.