How is it that Amber is both a traumatized violent teenage vigilante who dissociates her identity and hallucinates her deceased best friend, and the most relatable character ever?
Wait, but she was just Amazi-Girl until a second ago – does Amazi-Girl *also* require immense willpower to not look at her phone, or were the ~2 seconds before Sal was totally out of frame just absolute agony for Amber?
I think they might be co-hosting a bit. AFAIK Amazi-Girl doesn’t feel the need to look at her phone when people are talking to her—the only reason they’d feel that urge is if Amber were fronting or at least partially fronting.
Banner turns into Hulk when angry, and back into Banner when he calms down. But as Avengers reveals, “I’m always angry”, and I guess he controls it more through willpower until he can’t help it anymore.
Amazi-Girl is the one playing roller derby, and talking to Sal about Asher and Jennifer, because despite being a violent vigilante, she’s also less antisocial than Amber. But Amber always wants to look at her phone. Eventually she gives in, and thus becomes Amber.
I think they’ve gone from full switching to being co-pilots.
So they’re both “awake”, but one is more “in control” than the other.
Which I guess is technically a step in merging back into one person?
Yeah, from what I recall of what Cerberus (and a few other commenters too, but she’s most prominent) has said of her personal experiences with DID, “merging” – as opposed to working out a healthy relationship between the alters – is not a generally-recommended or healthy thing to attempt.
DID system here: So, two alters can “co-front” which means they are both somewhat in control. But if several alters have worked through the amnesic barriers between them, then it’s possible for one alter to be fronting and another isn’t but is aware of everything that’s happening. Just because you are in the backseat of the car doesn’t mean you can’t see out the windshield.
Having this ease of inner communication between alters and no longer being separated by amnesia does tend to be a sign of healing. But many systems don’t wish to become one person, and instead this step allows them to collaborate and build a life together that suits everyone.
Thanks for weighing in! Having done the Autism (and for that matter Depression) 101 in the comments before as relevant, I appreciate the effort explaining things to non-your-specific-neurodivergence people takes and appreciate the knowledge!
……….. I literally heard the Metal Gear “!” sound as I read this. It makes a ton of sense o___o Fingers crossed that’s where this leads because:
1 – It complicates Sal’s motivation (and frustration) even more
2 – Weird as it might be, Sal’s probably Amber’s System (is this accurately worded?) best friend, to the point she willingly put the phone away to be a better listener – Meanwhile Sal trusts her this much, yeah, but she was there only because she needed to vent and Marcie wasn’t an option.
3 – I’m a masochist, and 1+2= Delightfully painful
I don’t think they’re merging. Amber and AG flip back and forth pretty quickly and arbitrarily sometimes. I’m not even sure “merging” is possible with DID someone has to clarify that for me.
I don’t have DID but know a few systems. It’s possible for alters to ‘merge’ in a sense (there’s a term for it that I’m forgetting right now), but it’s relatively uncommon as far as I understand it, and what can cause that to happen isn’t very predictable? To the point that ‘merging’ is almost never a common goal in therapy to work towards, instead coping skills and finding ways for alters to cooperate to help with managing daily life.
I imagine what we’re seeing here just that the two of them have worked out a way to switch between them more seamlessly in a way that works for the both of them. For example–Amber doesn’t like being social, so Amazi-girl takes the reigns when she doesn’t feel up to it. Etc etc.
The word you’re looking for is “fusion”! Fusions do happen, I’d say about as often as new splits do, and just like splits, they usually happen out of necessity. If someone in the system is feeling like their role is utterly useless now when it used to be needed, or if someone is feeling that the tools they possess are simply insufficient to get by, sometimes a fusion of the two will happen so that the best qualities of both of them are combined into one new alter.
It’s not always smooth like that and can backfire into combining the distressing aspects of each alter, but it’s different every time. Sometimes the resulting alter is entirely new, other times they are mostly like one of the two alters that fused to make them, with some key changes. Also, an alter can fuse with the system as a collective and their essence is just sort of sprinkled over everybody.
Fusions can happen as a result of healing but many systems have no desire to become one person again, and typically it takes YEARS and years of therapy to get anywhere close to full-fusion, if it’s even desired in the first place.
Fusions are, however, very painful emotionally. It can be just as painful as someone you love passing away. A member of your inner family no longer exists to interact with. They are not fully gone but also they are not there.
Yeah, I know Cerberus used to say that the ‘fusion’ model of reintegration is often looked at by the alters as trying to kill them. She said it takes lots of respect for each alter and what they bring to the table to make it work and even then stressful situations can sometimes cause the fusion to split apart again, sometimes with new alters depending what causes the split.
She said the ‘committee’ model is becoming more popular for integration, where the alters stay, but are communicating, sharing memories and can more or less work together as a collective (even as they each have their own understandings of the goal and how best to attain their goals). That seems like what AG and Amber have here.
This is fascinating and I’m very thankful for all of your sharing. But now I also can’t stop hearing Carrie Fisher’s line from star wars: “I am not a committee!” (and I really hope that isn’t insensitive or hurtful)
Not necessarily. They could both be aware of what’s happening in the external world even if only one is fronting at a time. I believe that beat in the middle was intended to represent a switch.
They’re both tagged, so presumably there’s still some separation. Of the two, Amazi-girl actually seems to be better at dealing with other people. Even when she can’t use her preferred method of interaction, ie punching.
This strip does make me wonder something. Do you think Amber or I guess the body that Amber and AG share actually needs glasses at all? Like is there a physical reason her vision is poor or is it a mental thing? AG seems to operate fine without glasses but Amber has been shown to really need them. What’s the deal with that? Is this DID specific or something else?
But then I could say “Dina=Best Girl” and wait for all the positive comments to roll in. Then I would change it to “All Hail Satan!” and make everyone look mighty foolish.
Speaking theoretically, the muscle action could be different with different alters, and the deconvolution algorithm used could be different on the back end.
Amber doesn’t consider it a big deal, and she doesn’t trust therapists. Stacy doesn’t know. The other people who know about it either don’t see it as an issue (Walky, Dina), also don’t trust therapists (Sal), aren’t talking to her (Ethan), or are just terrible at words (Danny).
DID diagnoses are extremely hard to get. Many cities don’t even have a single DID specialist, and large portions of the mental health field don’t even believe DID exists or will refuse to treat it.
From what I gather, if Amber found a therapist who was helpful and knowledgeable on DID issues, the ultimate goal would not be to erase the DID but to ensure the alters were communicating etc. And most therapists are not well-versed in this area, and if they try to eliminate her DID issues that would only cause more harm. (And Amber is unlikely to have access to any good therapists)
Yeah, I’d honestly feel more confident in Amber finding a systems support subreddit or the like than ‘therapist, no further specifications’ being helpful.
And even IF she found one, who was supportive and well-versed and equipped to help, and for whom insurance was a non-issue (maybe doable with Richard, but I guaran-goddamn-tee you Amber’s not ready to talk about this to her mother – ‘I swear, most of your issues could be traced to low blood pressure’ she says as Amber’s walking into her dorm building the first time since she STABBED A GUY RIGHT OUTSIDE – or her virtually-a-stranger stepfather, and she’d have to to answer why THIS therapist in particular,) AmbG would still be a system and three months would barely be adequate to address ONE of the massive sinkholes of trauma they’ve got on their plates. The kind of low self-worth that had them both engaging in suicidally reckless stunts, for instance? Years of defusing that thought pattern will be required, and there’d still probably be setbacks. Blaine trauma? That could take DECADES.
Trauma like that is the kind of shit you often have to work on for the rest of your life, even without DID making finding competent care much more difficult.
It would be easier to find a therapist who could help with the rest of her problems though – the social anxiety, the low self-worth, the abuse trauma. All of that’s more common and therapists are better prepared to deal with it than with DID.
OTOH, how much of that could she really address without revealing the disassociation?
And then there would also be the potential legal consequences of revealing the Amazi-Girl identity.
OTGH, if Richard has good insurance that covers her, I’m not sure how much she’d have to go to him or Stacy to use it. As an adult, she wouldn’t need their permission and they wouldn’t have access to anything about the sessions. Someone would need to cover the copays and deductibles though, so it would come back to how good the insurance was.
Yeah, I think the difficulty in discussing everything else without bringing up the dissociation would be a major barrier with a therapist for the more ‘common’ issues. Like, if nothing else they need to address the part where they’ve sometimes marked Amber as the ‘bad alter’ and AG as the ‘good one,’ including ascribing negative traits of AG to Amber and positive traits of Amber to AG, and that’s specific to dissociation in ways it would be hard to obscure while trying to work on them with a therapist. (Even if they claimed AG was her non-alter twin sister or something, there’s a distinction when they’re sharing a body that makes the dynamic tricker.)
Yeah, I’d be more worried about copays and deductibles (and also potentially transport, since Amber may or may not have a license but definitely doesn’t seem to have a car) on the practicality and insurance front. If she finds a therapist who’ll cover everything, no issues or questions asked, great, but since she’d already need someone in a particular specialty that narrows the field considerably. Odds are good she’d need Richard to know at least a little about the ‘I’m seeing a therapist and it had to be this one’ because the therapist does end up giving a copay, or they pay and then send the bill to insurance to reimburse, or some other tricky method because specialty care coverage can be pretty convoluted even with good insurance that does cover most of the cost.
I do actually think this is part of it. Mike’s death sealed the deal and Amber fell back into her self loathing where even attempting to fix herself is out of the question, and Ethan bailed to grieve.
And stuff like that’s why I don’t have a smartphone. Don’t want to become the kind of person who requires willpower just to pay attention to somebody I’m talking to.
Wow, y’all. I have a smartphone and I make a point of not looking at it when I’m interacting with people because I have ADHD and this means depending on setting difficulty parsing words from background noise my brain should be ignoring. AND there’s the other times when I’m either emotionally or intellectually, engaged and I know it’s important, and I love the person involved (examples just from this week: A friend telling me a story of their past! My mom talking about the bad day she had at work! My bro and dad in a lively conversation involving being lawyers!) – But nope, I struggle to stay “tuned”, grappling with the plotline as if trying to pick up a wet soap bar no matter how much I legitimately want to, because Not Enough Dopamine Disease ruins my life daily; meanwhile I don’t want to accidentally make anyone feel bad because “I didn’t have the willpower”.
Smartphones and social media are a combination of enough tactile and low-engagement peripheral stimuli they can actually be of help. Like doodling in class to take better notes, or listening to music while cleaning, but y’know. Leash can be an ugly word. I used to walk while reading a book like Belle in the “Not Like Other Girls” song since I was old enough to be allowed walking home from school. Never had an accident – I’m clumsier without the accommodation.
Pretty sure this is a textbook ADHD thing too, so.
And it’s not even that problem. Amber’s not easily distracted by her phone or more interested in her phone than dealing with real people, like stereotypical “kids these days”. She’s got serious anxiety issues and struggles to interact after awhile. Not nearly so bad as when she was a kid, but she still runs out of spoons.
And social anxiety and fatigue are issues which depression and trauma can make worse. In my experience the phone means she has something that she can fall back on once social interactions get a bit too much to either recoup and come back to the conversation or help her from completely exhausting herself once she’s spent and trying to exit. (Once you’re drained like that, being around other people at all, even while not talking is social energy you don’t have.) If it’s a choice between interact but with her phone out all the time and not interacting with people at all, the phone’s the way better option. (Especially since, with the DID as a factor, ‘not interacting with people at all’ could mean letting AG front any time she had to interact with other people. Completely isolating herself like that would be VERY psychologically bad for Amber, even if AG could handle the essentials like eating and doing classwork.)
I don’t have a smartphone either, but I’m still not good at actually looking at a person who’s talking to me. I am usually paying attention to what they’re saying, I just am terrible at eye contact.
For those confused – AG is the one in panel one. In panel 3 and onward, it’s Amber. You can tell who’s fronting because Amber has rosy cheeks and AG doesn’t.
Walky’s Night Guy thing seemed good for comic relief, but I don’t think it has potential beyond that. For all we know, Dina could very well be the next candidate.
Only two people could be amazigirl: Amber and Sal. We have not seen Carla or Lucy actually fight and want to continue to fight against evil. Plus I don’t see Lucy being a vigilante (other than being a fantasy for Walky)
My understanding from Cerberus is that both of those are forms of integration but they’re different models and the ‘working together’ one is more popular than fusing them all back together these days.
At least Amber doesn’t seem to be afraid of Sal anymore, which is a good thing. (Yeah I know Maise was driving for that interaction, but there wasn’t any freakout or shuddering once Amber took the wheel like there had been before.)
I feel like “Amazi-Girl” is a weird name now that she’s a roller derby gal rather than a super hero alter ego. I like the comments called her Maise, wonder if she’ll start going by something like that in-comic?
“Maise” is kinda corny and works in the comments, but I don’t think she’s ever been addressed as such in-universe. (Plus it might make “Amber ‘is’ Amazi-Girl” an even more open secret, which could come back to bite her.)
She might just roll with her derby name, ‘Slamber’ for now.
Maybe. Or while not a healthy crutch, there are others which are far worse, and if she needs this while she and AmaziGirl are working out a healthier arrangement for themselves (their System? terminology?), as well as the trauma of losing Mike, and her dad’s whole thing, and her mom settling down again, then /maybe/ it’s best we don’t advocate yanking away a coping mechanism right now.
That you have personal experience with it being unhealthy and wouldn’t wish that on Amber is heard and respected, and I don’t mean to belittle your sympathy or experience (in case that’s how this comes across). It just seems that with everything else that’s happened, I can understand if that issue (tech dependent addiction/escapism) is not her highest priority to deal with.
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For some reason Slamber is giving me Splatoon 3 vibes
Prolly nothing to do with the eye mask 🔫🦑🐟🗼
I choose to believe that Splatoon the third is a famous skater who wears an eye mask.
All of this is wrong but also not far off.
Aww. Why bring up Splatoon here? it’s painful to know Animal Crossing had been abandoned and Nook’n’,Cranny store will NEVER get an upgrade
How is it that Amber is both a traumatized violent teenage vigilante who dissociates her identity and hallucinates her deceased best friend, and the most relatable character ever?
Like I said, she reminds me so much of my own mother it scares me.
Your mother was a traumatized violent teenage vigilante who dissociated her identity and hallucinated her deceased best friend?
Yours wasn’t?
I thought that was just normal.
This explains so much about the comment section.
^^^^^^ BOOM!
Compartmentalization.
Seems like that question answers itself.
I feel like this is personally attacking me
Same
Yes, we all feel this is personally attacking you
(Back me up here.]
/Places arms out in front of body, palms up.
Bends elbows lifting hands up and towards face.
Repeats motion./
Ok, now what?
Definitely.
And it’s so cruelly specific, too! ;A;
Imagine anyone but Rassilon TDavros ever feeling this.
“Hey, if you push that notification, I’ll release some dopamine.”
“Okay!”
“Here.”
“Aaaaaahhhhhhh……”
“I’m in this photo and I don’t like it.”
*plays “Acceptance” by Ridiculon on Voxola PR-76*
The Blue Danube done metal. Cute.
Sorry. This is the right one.
Wait, but she was just Amazi-Girl until a second ago – does Amazi-Girl *also* require immense willpower to not look at her phone, or were the ~2 seconds before Sal was totally out of frame just absolute agony for Amber?
She changes drivers between frames 2 and 3. Roller Derby and interacting required Amazi-Girl to be in charge, but now she can yield to Amber.
I know you meant automobile-style drivers, but for a split second I thought you were making a Kamen Rider reference.
We all need to update our drivers on a regular basis.
But what do you do with the old ones?
Asking as my wife’s primary driver.
I think they might be co-hosting a bit. AFAIK Amazi-Girl doesn’t feel the need to look at her phone when people are talking to her—the only reason they’d feel that urge is if Amber were fronting or at least partially fronting.
look at tags
How is Willis going to tag the character when there is a fusion of the two?
And I just KNOW that there is going to be such a time…..
I’ll take that bet, and say that there won’t be.
Either tag them both, or they’ll agree to both be called ‘Amber’ I imagine.
They’ll be called Slamber.
Come on and Slamber
and welcome to the Jamber
I see it as a Hulk/Banner thing.
Banner turns into Hulk when angry, and back into Banner when he calms down. But as Avengers reveals, “I’m always angry”, and I guess he controls it more through willpower until he can’t help it anymore.
Amazi-Girl is the one playing roller derby, and talking to Sal about Asher and Jennifer, because despite being a violent vigilante, she’s also less antisocial than Amber. But Amber always wants to look at her phone. Eventually she gives in, and thus becomes Amber.
It’s either a Hulk thing, or a Venom thing.
Like when Banner goes to sleep?
I’m sorry, but I regard that as Joss being a wiseass instead of a retcon to the entire history of the Hulk.
So Slamber/Amaziber would be Smart Hulk?
I think they’ve gone from full switching to being co-pilots.
So they’re both “awake”, but one is more “in control” than the other.
Which I guess is technically a step in merging back into one person?
I don’t think they’ll ever merge (reintegrate). But hammering out a timeshare relationship could be feasible.
Yeah, from what I recall of what Cerberus (and a few other commenters too, but she’s most prominent) has said of her personal experiences with DID, “merging” – as opposed to working out a healthy relationship between the alters – is not a generally-recommended or healthy thing to attempt.
^ Yep, you got it!
this is correct, yeah. some systems do it with the aid of a therapist but few want it ~chrys
DID system here: So, two alters can “co-front” which means they are both somewhat in control. But if several alters have worked through the amnesic barriers between them, then it’s possible for one alter to be fronting and another isn’t but is aware of everything that’s happening. Just because you are in the backseat of the car doesn’t mean you can’t see out the windshield.
Having this ease of inner communication between alters and no longer being separated by amnesia does tend to be a sign of healing. But many systems don’t wish to become one person, and instead this step allows them to collaborate and build a life together that suits everyone.
Thanks for weighing in! Having done the Autism (and for that matter Depression) 101 in the comments before as relevant, I appreciate the effort explaining things to non-your-specific-neurodivergence people takes and appreciate the knowledge!
Okay okay, this is a wild guess, but…
I think this is less a Asher thing and more of a Marcie thing.
Ooh, you’re definitely right. She’s even here for the roller derby and not hanging out with her.
Maybe she’s making out with Malaya?
god i hope so
……….. I literally heard the Metal Gear “!” sound as I read this. It makes a ton of sense o___o Fingers crossed that’s where this leads because:
1 – It complicates Sal’s motivation (and frustration) even more
2 – Weird as it might be, Sal’s probably Amber’s System (is this accurately worded?) best friend, to the point she willingly put the phone away to be a better listener – Meanwhile Sal trusts her this much, yeah, but she was there only because she needed to vent and Marcie wasn’t an option.
3 – I’m a masochist, and 1+2= Delightfully painful
Gee, Sal is really sensitive about this topic.
What? No, she’s totally FINE!!!!!! about it.
Like is Sal really that hot for Asher? I get that he’s supposed to be “pure sex” but he’s just Asher.
And Walky is just Walky, but we just had a storyline with multiple women tripping over themselves for him.
Oh cool, I guess they’re finally merging.
I don’t think they’re merging. Amber and AG flip back and forth pretty quickly and arbitrarily sometimes. I’m not even sure “merging” is possible with DID someone has to clarify that for me.
I don’t have DID but know a few systems. It’s possible for alters to ‘merge’ in a sense (there’s a term for it that I’m forgetting right now), but it’s relatively uncommon as far as I understand it, and what can cause that to happen isn’t very predictable? To the point that ‘merging’ is almost never a common goal in therapy to work towards, instead coping skills and finding ways for alters to cooperate to help with managing daily life.
I imagine what we’re seeing here just that the two of them have worked out a way to switch between them more seamlessly in a way that works for the both of them. For example–Amber doesn’t like being social, so Amazi-girl takes the reigns when she doesn’t feel up to it. Etc etc.
The word you’re looking for is “fusion”! Fusions do happen, I’d say about as often as new splits do, and just like splits, they usually happen out of necessity. If someone in the system is feeling like their role is utterly useless now when it used to be needed, or if someone is feeling that the tools they possess are simply insufficient to get by, sometimes a fusion of the two will happen so that the best qualities of both of them are combined into one new alter.
It’s not always smooth like that and can backfire into combining the distressing aspects of each alter, but it’s different every time. Sometimes the resulting alter is entirely new, other times they are mostly like one of the two alters that fused to make them, with some key changes. Also, an alter can fuse with the system as a collective and their essence is just sort of sprinkled over everybody.
Fusions can happen as a result of healing but many systems have no desire to become one person again, and typically it takes YEARS and years of therapy to get anywhere close to full-fusion, if it’s even desired in the first place.
Fusions are, however, very painful emotionally. It can be just as painful as someone you love passing away. A member of your inner family no longer exists to interact with. They are not fully gone but also they are not there.
Yeah, I know Cerberus used to say that the ‘fusion’ model of reintegration is often looked at by the alters as trying to kill them. She said it takes lots of respect for each alter and what they bring to the table to make it work and even then stressful situations can sometimes cause the fusion to split apart again, sometimes with new alters depending what causes the split.
She said the ‘committee’ model is becoming more popular for integration, where the alters stay, but are communicating, sharing memories and can more or less work together as a collective (even as they each have their own understandings of the goal and how best to attain their goals). That seems like what AG and Amber have here.
This is fascinating and I’m very thankful for all of your sharing. But now I also can’t stop hearing Carrie Fisher’s line from star wars: “I am not a committee!” (and I really hope that isn’t insensitive or hurtful)
Thank you for sharing!
I’m not so sure about merging, per se, but they do seem to be more actively co-piloting.
Not necessarily. They could both be aware of what’s happening in the external world even if only one is fronting at a time. I believe that beat in the middle was intended to represent a switch.
Y’all clarified several things for me tonight! Thanks for taking the time to type all this ^^
So, is Slamber only the Roller Derby nickname? Or is it AG’s new name, since she isn’t a superhero anymore?
Appropiate “Thunking” avatar is appropiate apparently.
It’s a nickname Malaya used at least once. Dunno that it has any deeper significance.
I don’t know if Malaya’s even aware that there’s a difference between Amber and Amazi-Girl at all.
Wait, so are Amazi-Girl and amber the same now? Or are the just both anti social
They’re both tagged, so presumably there’s still some separation. Of the two, Amazi-girl actually seems to be better at dealing with other people. Even when she can’t use her preferred method of interaction, ie punching.
Panel 1 is Amazigirl. Panel 3 is Amber. Panel 2 is probably Amber, but maybe not.
Panel 2 is Amazi-girl. The blush spots on the cheeks are absent in 2 and present in 3.
Maybe putting the glasses on is a symbolic “here, you take the helm” gesture.
Or Amber did that so she could read her phone. (Looks like the blushes are there in panels 3 and 4.)
This strip does make me wonder something. Do you think Amber or I guess the body that Amber and AG share actually needs glasses at all? Like is there a physical reason her vision is poor or is it a mental thing? AG seems to operate fine without glasses but Amber has been shown to really need them. What’s the deal with that? Is this DID specific or something else?
They both have astigmatism, which Willis based on his own.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2015/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/astigmatism/
Aw. That’s not as cool as AG being able to ignore bad vision but whatever. Thanks for clarifying that.
Maybe Amazi-Girl wears contacts?
Oh never mind, she just needs glasses them for computer work. I should’ve clicked on the link before commenting.
I wish there was a way to make corrections!
But then I could say “Dina=Best Girl” and wait for all the positive comments to roll in. Then I would change it to “All Hail Satan!” and make everyone look mighty foolish.
I know I sure would/
I’d also change that slash to a period.
Wait… You’d edit your post to ‘All hail Satan!”? Or Dina=Best girl or….?
And was that just a sly way of making a subliminal comment about /. ?
I like your thinking!
There is actually research showing that different alters can require different prescriptions of glasses! It’s wild!
But how different? They’re sharing the same distorted corneas, and muscle action can only change that so much (especially in a short time frame).
Speaking theoretically, the muscle action could be different with different alters, and the deconvolution algorithm used could be different on the back end.
Wait are we still doing the whole DID thing with Amber? Why has this girl not seen a therapist for this shit?
Amber doesn’t consider it a big deal, and she doesn’t trust therapists. Stacy doesn’t know. The other people who know about it either don’t see it as an issue (Walky, Dina), also don’t trust therapists (Sal), aren’t talking to her (Ethan), or are just terrible at words (Danny).
Do you think a therapist would magically make it go away?
Yeah, like even if she is currently seeing a therapist, which she might be for all I know, it’s been like, months.
Also, treatment of people with DID in the pysch fields is currently…highly variable at best.
No therapist can make anything go away magically, but it can help.
Even if they can’t help her with her cranial roomie, Amber should be seeing someone regularly for her anxieties.
DID diagnoses are extremely hard to get. Many cities don’t even have a single DID specialist, and large portions of the mental health field don’t even believe DID exists or will refuse to treat it.
Do you think that serious psych diagnoses go away in a couple months of therapy? Man, have I got news for you…!
From what I gather, if Amber found a therapist who was helpful and knowledgeable on DID issues, the ultimate goal would not be to erase the DID but to ensure the alters were communicating etc. And most therapists are not well-versed in this area, and if they try to eliminate her DID issues that would only cause more harm. (And Amber is unlikely to have access to any good therapists)
Yeah, I’d honestly feel more confident in Amber finding a systems support subreddit or the like than ‘therapist, no further specifications’ being helpful.
And even IF she found one, who was supportive and well-versed and equipped to help, and for whom insurance was a non-issue (maybe doable with Richard, but I guaran-goddamn-tee you Amber’s not ready to talk about this to her mother – ‘I swear, most of your issues could be traced to low blood pressure’ she says as Amber’s walking into her dorm building the first time since she STABBED A GUY RIGHT OUTSIDE – or her virtually-a-stranger stepfather, and she’d have to to answer why THIS therapist in particular,) AmbG would still be a system and three months would barely be adequate to address ONE of the massive sinkholes of trauma they’ve got on their plates. The kind of low self-worth that had them both engaging in suicidally reckless stunts, for instance? Years of defusing that thought pattern will be required, and there’d still probably be setbacks. Blaine trauma? That could take DECADES.
Trauma like that is the kind of shit you often have to work on for the rest of your life, even without DID making finding competent care much more difficult.
It would be easier to find a therapist who could help with the rest of her problems though – the social anxiety, the low self-worth, the abuse trauma. All of that’s more common and therapists are better prepared to deal with it than with DID.
OTOH, how much of that could she really address without revealing the disassociation?
And then there would also be the potential legal consequences of revealing the Amazi-Girl identity.
OTGH, if Richard has good insurance that covers her, I’m not sure how much she’d have to go to him or Stacy to use it. As an adult, she wouldn’t need their permission and they wouldn’t have access to anything about the sessions. Someone would need to cover the copays and deductibles though, so it would come back to how good the insurance was.
Yeah, I think the difficulty in discussing everything else without bringing up the dissociation would be a major barrier with a therapist for the more ‘common’ issues. Like, if nothing else they need to address the part where they’ve sometimes marked Amber as the ‘bad alter’ and AG as the ‘good one,’ including ascribing negative traits of AG to Amber and positive traits of Amber to AG, and that’s specific to dissociation in ways it would be hard to obscure while trying to work on them with a therapist. (Even if they claimed AG was her non-alter twin sister or something, there’s a distinction when they’re sharing a body that makes the dynamic tricker.)
Yeah, I’d be more worried about copays and deductibles (and also potentially transport, since Amber may or may not have a license but definitely doesn’t seem to have a car) on the practicality and insurance front. If she finds a therapist who’ll cover everything, no issues or questions asked, great, but since she’d already need someone in a particular specialty that narrows the field considerably. Odds are good she’d need Richard to know at least a little about the ‘I’m seeing a therapist and it had to be this one’ because the therapist does end up giving a copay, or they pay and then send the bill to insurance to reimburse, or some other tricky method because specialty care coverage can be pretty convoluted even with good insurance that does cover most of the cost.
Amber promised Ethan that she would get therapy.
I wonder if she reneged on that promise, which that played into Ethan’s absence?
Alternatively, she’s seeing a therapist which is indirectly leading to seamless transitions between Amazigirl and Amber, such as we see here.
I do actually think this is part of it. Mike’s death sealed the deal and Amber fell back into her self loathing where even attempting to fix herself is out of the question, and Ethan bailed to grieve.
Amber, symbol of a generation.
amber is doing fine.
What’re you talking about, she’s not in a relationship with Sal??
Y e t.
And stuff like that’s why I don’t have a smartphone. Don’t want to become the kind of person who requires willpower just to pay attention to somebody I’m talking to.
People used to manage FINE without smartphones.
Leashes, I call ’em.
Wow, y’all. I have a smartphone and I make a point of not looking at it when I’m interacting with people because I have ADHD and this means depending on setting difficulty parsing words from background noise my brain should be ignoring. AND there’s the other times when I’m either emotionally or intellectually, engaged and I know it’s important, and I love the person involved (examples just from this week: A friend telling me a story of their past! My mom talking about the bad day she had at work! My bro and dad in a lively conversation involving being lawyers!) – But nope, I struggle to stay “tuned”, grappling with the plotline as if trying to pick up a wet soap bar no matter how much I legitimately want to, because Not Enough Dopamine Disease ruins my life daily; meanwhile I don’t want to accidentally make anyone feel bad because “I didn’t have the willpower”.
Smartphones and social media are a combination of enough tactile and low-engagement peripheral stimuli they can actually be of help. Like doodling in class to take better notes, or listening to music while cleaning, but y’know. Leash can be an ugly word. I used to walk while reading a book like Belle in the “Not Like Other Girls” song since I was old enough to be allowed walking home from school. Never had an accident – I’m clumsier without the accommodation.
Pretty sure this is a textbook ADHD thing too, so.
I’ve got ADHD too, FYI.
Then it’s likely I misread tone due to another commenter’s – I’m sorry. The FYI immediately turns you into someone who knows The Struggle ^^;;
Apology cheerfully accepted, mate!
I call ’em magical devices that would be banned in fantasy books or games for being too powerful.
Sometimes having something to do – like look at a smartphone – makes it easier to pay attention to the person you’re talking to.
That is not in fact an inevitable consequence of having a smartphone. Even in this comic, it’s only Amber who has that problem.
And it’s not even that problem. Amber’s not easily distracted by her phone or more interested in her phone than dealing with real people, like stereotypical “kids these days”. She’s got serious anxiety issues and struggles to interact after awhile. Not nearly so bad as when she was a kid, but she still runs out of spoons.
And social anxiety and fatigue are issues which depression and trauma can make worse. In my experience the phone means she has something that she can fall back on once social interactions get a bit too much to either recoup and come back to the conversation or help her from completely exhausting herself once she’s spent and trying to exit. (Once you’re drained like that, being around other people at all, even while not talking is social energy you don’t have.) If it’s a choice between interact but with her phone out all the time and not interacting with people at all, the phone’s the way better option. (Especially since, with the DID as a factor, ‘not interacting with people at all’ could mean letting AG front any time she had to interact with other people. Completely isolating herself like that would be VERY psychologically bad for Amber, even if AG could handle the essentials like eating and doing classwork.)
I don’t have a smartphone either, but I’m still not good at actually looking at a person who’s talking to me. I am usually paying attention to what they’re saying, I just am terrible at eye contact.
Welp, Sal’s doing great.
Amber is seriously relatable.
For those confused – AG is the one in panel one. In panel 3 and onward, it’s Amber. You can tell who’s fronting because Amber has rosy cheeks and AG doesn’t.
For those saying AG doesn’t have superpowers: she’s able to lower her face skin temperature .
I feel like amazigirl needs to be reborn. The world needs her.
Yeah, but she doesn’t have to be using Amber’s body for it: lotsa good candidates there for replacements, like Lucy, Carla, or even Walky.
Walky’s Night Guy thing seemed good for comic relief, but I don’t think it has potential beyond that. For all we know, Dina could very well be the next candidate.
NightGirl!
Only two people could be amazigirl: Amber and Sal. We have not seen Carla or Lucy actually fight and want to continue to fight against evil. Plus I don’t see Lucy being a vigilante (other than being a fantasy for Walky)
Amazi Girl is slowly disappearing??? HOORAY!!!! This is the greatest news! Let’s hope Amber will be happy.
I don’t think so. They’re just taking turns.
Amber definitely wouldn’t want her biggest coping skill to disappear. Luckily, AG doesn’t have to disappear for them to become more OK in the world.
Instead of reintegration, a bigger focus nowadays is helping the system to function together more successfully.
My understanding from Cerberus is that both of those are forms of integration but they’re different models and the ‘working together’ one is more popular than fusing them all back together these days.
At least Amber doesn’t seem to be afraid of Sal anymore, which is a good thing. (Yeah I know Maise was driving for that interaction, but there wasn’t any freakout or shuddering once Amber took the wheel like there had been before.)
I feel like “Amazi-Girl” is a weird name now that she’s a roller derby gal rather than a super hero alter ego. I like the comments called her Maise, wonder if she’ll start going by something like that in-comic?
There was also Sal’s old nickname: “Amazo”. 😛
“Maise” is kinda corny and works in the comments, but I don’t think she’s ever been addressed as such in-universe. (Plus it might make “Amber ‘is’ Amazi-Girl” an even more open secret, which could come back to bite her.)
She might just roll with her derby name, ‘Slamber’ for now.
(Puns are funs.)
I’m not sure if she needs a “normal” name, but I think “Maisie” would be a good option if she does decide to go by one.
[checkmark yes] I’m in this comic strip and I don’t like it
Relax. It wasn’t meant to be you, it was meant to be RassilonTDavros.
Cell phone addiction ruined my college years. Amber should consider doing a tech detox.
Maybe. Or while not a healthy crutch, there are others which are far worse, and if she needs this while she and AmaziGirl are working out a healthier arrangement for themselves (their System? terminology?), as well as the trauma of losing Mike, and her dad’s whole thing, and her mom settling down again, then /maybe/ it’s best we don’t advocate yanking away a coping mechanism right now.
That you have personal experience with it being unhealthy and wouldn’t wish that on Amber is heard and respected, and I don’t mean to belittle your sympathy or experience (in case that’s how this comes across). It just seems that with everything else that’s happened, I can understand if that issue (tech dependent addiction/escapism) is not her highest priority to deal with.
way too relatable
Can we talk about the dissappointing fact that apparently AG/Amber is no longer thicc?