But last week I finally got a Chromedome to go with my Rewind, yaaaaay.
The Other Mike
Seconded on the Nautica toy. I also want an Aileron. (The Transformer, not the aircraft part.) Aileron actually looks fairly easy to realize in plastic, so… Get on it, HasTak.
Oh gosh. I’m calling it now: Roz will call Leslie to tell her about getting Robin to show up at class, then zoom out and we see Leslie is actually in bed with Robin.
SgtWadeyWilson
Aaannd still holding the sign over her face…
Deanatay
“How can my brain be so ashamed, and my body so happy?”
Come again? That’s one of the main reason for separation and smaller do-overs: getting rid of the personality you became stuck with in relation to a social circle and your role in it. Humans are obsessed with identity. I’m a male alto singer and I finally changed to doing performances in drag because it’s a real downer if the principal reaction you can expect from your audience is “why are you singing like that when you are obviously a male?” “Was there anything wrong or bad with it?” “No, but you must have a reason for that?” They can’t relax and enjoy. Perform in drag, and they can.
Yes, things are really that stupid. In my opinion, it’s more an identity disorder of society than of individuals.
Back when I had a system, there was a, er, a… system. in place. we couldn’t like pick at will, but it’s not like we didn’t have any influence over the situation either. My situation was a lot like Amber’s, which is to say, somewhat purposeful compartmentalisation rather than like, traumatic, sudden involuntary splitting, which is what DID usually is.
get your bullshit out of here.
The last thing the world needs is more of your self diagnosed tumbleritis bullshit. how do I know you’re full of shit ?
Simple. No one who actually has been diagnosed with disassociate identity disorder calls it “a system” I have friends who have fucking DIED because tumbleristas told them “oh this is normal you just need to xxx” encouraging them not to get professional help. Every time I see one of you special snowflakes it fills me with uncontrollable rage when i think about the damage you do to people who genuinely need help
ObiKemnebi
I have been diagnosed with DID, and we do use the word “system”. It’s used in a different context than “collective”, but it IS used. We’ve been working on working together more, so there are fewer memory lapses and we can all (mostly) perform our various functions without too much chaos. There is a certain amount of cohesion that can be achieved when we all agree that we’re working for the same goal, but there will always be some disagreements on the best way to achieve that goal. I function as the “face” of the collective, sorting through the others’ various thoughts and desires and seeking out the best or most appropriate way to behave outwardly. Basically, I maintain the outer system and do what I can to keep it properly connected to the inner system in an attempt to allow the overall “person” we comprise to live relatively normally. When I fail to do my job properly, another can and will front and behave as they see fit, given the situation.
From what I can tell, AG takes control when she believes Amber isn’t capable of dealing with a given situation at hand in a manner that either of them finds acceptable, and Amber generally allows it because she agrees. I’d also take a stab in the dark and suggest maybe there’s a third in there who functions similarly to one of us, whom we call V. V has a horrible temper, but more than that, he learned from our father that hurting people makes us feel strong, feel like we’re in control of something. Like our father, he goes after those he CAN hurt, not necessarily those who set him off, so bystanders often reap the suffering he doles out just because they can’t or won’t stop him. My bet is that AG exists to take the violence their “V” wants to dish out and explicitly looks for people who she believes deserves it so it can’t be vented from their system without hurting innocents. Amber probably doesn’t even recognize that the third is there. I used to have issues with unwitting co-fronting where I saw what the body was doing and felt like I was the one doing it, but couldn’t make “myself” stop; Amber might experience something like that when she goes all red-background.
Or, y’know, I might be talking out of my arse and over-analyzing a comic. *shrug*
ObiKemnebi
*can be vented without hurting innocents
Derek
What’s your damage, sir? You can disagree with an opinion whiteout bringing out insults and (bizarrely) accusing the person of frequenting a popular blogging site that you seem to irrationally hate.
Your “special snowflake” wording makes you seem 100% more full of shot than the other poster
What is and is not normal in cases of any dissociation disorder are debatable at best. That said, Amber more resembles CPTSD, a relatively recently distinguished variant of PTSD that is so far rather under studied and lacking systemic diagnostic criteria, than DID or any other dissociation disorder with systemic diagnostic criteria.
Huh. Seems odd to call it a variant of PTSD when it has dissociative symptoms. Seems like it should be in the dissociative paradigm too, not just the anxiety paradigm.
Way too much of what happens works under the dissociation umbrella. Cerberus hasn’t been wrong about what she’s experiencing.
This makes me wonder if DID is also a prolonged stress disorder. Because, basically, Amber O’Malley just seems not as bad as full out DID.
Terry
trlkly, diagnoses are classified under the causes as often as they are under the similarity of symptoms. If it’s dissociation caused y depression, it’s found under the emotional disorders section. If it’s caused by acute stress, it’s found under the anxiety disorders section. Yes, many diagnoses have similarities to others, but the point of categorization is to make identification and treatment easier. If the dissociation is caused by anxiety, it would be important to treat the root causes of the anxiety and trauma in order to address the dissociative symptoms.
DID itself has many different potential causes from a traumatic experience to difficulties adjusting to new situations to conflicting beliefs and/or moralities.
Mav
Wouldn’t she still have PTSD? I feel like it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Also, people who grow up in dysfunctional and/or abusive environments can and have attested to the situation of being one person in the presence of their abuser, and being totally different in places where they feel safe.
Amber has DID, but I’m wondering if it might be a little bit like that. You stuff the “great/true” version of yourself inside yourself, it only comes out to people you trust, but when you get beaten down enough the version that your abuser claims you are (Blaine thinks Amber is a timid, worthless, dysfunctional powder keg. Notice how Amazigirl is the opposite.) is there all the time. Even after you’ve left the environment, hence the PTSD part as well.
But it results in many people having shaky identities, because often who they are with their abuser is a facade or simply a part of who they are, and they become insecure because they’re never truly allowed to be themselves or find out who they actually are. I honestly don’t think Amber has BPD like other people have said, even though one of the core parts of the diagnosis is the lack of or shaky identity.
This is just my layman’s ignorant thought about it, but living with someone who im pretty sure has it (BPD) I’ve always thought of it as an especially severe form of PTSD, even though it is a personality disorder due to the nature of the Self being shaky, feeling like everyone is against you, feeling like you constantly have to defend your existence by attacking others, trusting no one, explosive bottled up anger, inability to regulate emotions in situations that shouldn’t phase most people, etc to the point where it’s all you are most of the times, depending on the severity of course. And the correlation between BPD and severe abuse, although not all who have it were abused. Alot of these also happens to overlap with PTSD, but Amber does not seem to have that disorder.
Yup PTSD and DID can both be things a person has and frequently go hand-in-hand. Amber definitely exhibits many signs of PTSD surrounding her years of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of Blaine as well as surrounding the Robbery Incident.
To answer Derek, conscious switching between alters can exist, even in somewhat disassociated individuals, especially if there are “firm rules” when specific alters can show up (which can make a nice compromise step towards integrating disassociated alters). Whether or not that’s “normal” is a much harder question to answer. I can at least say some measure of semi or fully conscious switching to alters having more or less control over the body is not uncommon and may be more common among integrated individuals.
Personally, I’ve been integrated for a long time, but I am able to consciously shift greater control to specific alters semi-reliably and have used that semi-reliably to, for instance, better be able to handle emotionally intense situations in my day job, like supporting a student with a physically abusive dad.
vlademir1
Classification of mental issues can be extremely difficult due to the prevalence of causal and corollary relationships between various conditions. DID, for example, has a list of myriad other issues it reasonably commonly coexists with in a given individual.
I’m personally suggesting CPTSD here because Amber and AG don’t exhibit the level of differentiation that one sees in case studies of DID (I don’t have direct experience with DID, mind, so have to rely on what I have learned from published material) and doesn’t quite fit any of the other recognized diagnoses in the dissociation spectrum while concurrently showing very strong PTSD triggers with elements more akin to CPTSD than the more recognized variant and some elements of one or more personality disorders as well.
275 thoughts on “Amber”
Ana Chronistic
oh here we go
butts
now kiss
pixiekhatt
Not sure if you intended your picture to match your comment so well or not…
butts
I always intend everything I ever say, ever.
Slartibeast Button, BIA
So we can take everything you say as “straight from the horse’s …” ummm…
Cholma
I love that pic was Pinned by the man once known as _gerald on the old It’s Walky! Nightstar forums.
Doctor_Who
Poor Skids.
(Spoilers for MTMTE, if you intend to read it, and you should.)
Doctor_Who
Oops, my link didn’t work.
Tacos
Why’d you have to remind me. Dammit ;_;
Undrave
Skids ;_;
Nautica toy when?
Doctor_Who
Seriously. I need a Nautica like yesterday.
But last week I finally got a Chromedome to go with my Rewind, yaaaaay.
The Other Mike
Seconded on the Nautica toy. I also want an Aileron. (The Transformer, not the aircraft part.) Aileron actually looks fairly easy to realize in plastic, so… Get on it, HasTak.
Tomas
That’s not Tumblr!
Jen Aside
I legit don’t know how to Tumbl. I only view two (sets of) Tumblrs: Willis’s and mine.
Ana Chronistic
damn it iPad logged in the wrong acct
Fart Captor
I’m just waiting for “Ann Aside” to show up.
Fart Captor
…or perhaps your brother, Reg
a snow ʍousɐ
Herb Aside is pretty dull. He’s really anti-marijuana. Whenever he finds any, he incinerates it in the fireplace while yelling, “WEED, BEGONE!”
Fart Captor
That made me chortle like some kind of huge dork. Well done.
ety
I’m really not sure that’s the best idea when it comes to disposing marijuana…assuming you’re actually anti-marijuana.
Ana Chronistic
y’all keep forgetting these are actual characters of mine (Reg is the dad)
Fart Captor
To forget, I would have to have known in the first place. I just thought you liked punny names
Roborat
And twin brother Fratr.
TheAnonymousGuy
Damn it amber! no more sneak peeks a the Amazi-girl movie it’ll be out soon
AnvilPro
I guess nothing exciting happened at the rally or between Marcie and Sal
inqntrol
It probably went like this between Sal and Marcie: “Why are you so angry? I took you advice and tried to befriend AG.”
-Sentinel-
And more importantly, Leslie did not try to make a move on her favorite congresswoman.
Tacos
We don’t know that yet.
AnvilPro
Oh gosh. I’m calling it now: Roz will call Leslie to tell her about getting Robin to show up at class, then zoom out and we see Leslie is actually in bed with Robin.
SgtWadeyWilson
Aaannd still holding the sign over her face…
Deanatay
“How can my brain be so ashamed, and my body so happy?”
Bagge
LESLIE maybe didn’t…
JESSICA on the other hand
Orion Fury
Go Jess.
Fart Captor
Considering the sun was coming up, Sal probably went to bed, not back to the rally. Avoiding the fight with Marcie, for now…
BenRG
Nothing that Willis wants to tell us about immediately, no.
Sporky
Amblr
butts
Ambering of Age
Doctor_Who
Glad she grew out of her 4Chamb phase.
Disloyal Subject
You never really outgrow it.
The ride never stops.
caesaria82
lol this legit made me chucke, a++
Orion Fury
9/10, would comment again.
SailorCakes
And now we welcome back Amber
Wheelpath
Not like this Amber
Stephen R. Bierce
FLASH! AH-AH-AH!
JetstreamGW
… Savior of the Universe?
Mr. Random
I fel like Amber needs help.
Orion Fury
It’d probably be safer to get her to stop fighting crime as AG than get her to stop with the fanfics.
You meant the first part, didn’t you?
SgtWadeyWilson
Yeah, it’s so hard to find a good shipping tumblr.
…I assume. I don’t actually use tumblr much.
Vinny
It’s Amber time!
Orion Fury
She’s the best at what she does.
AngelBadman
In more ways than one. I think she is about to find some pics of herself, posted by Ryan, online.
Derek
So Amber can actually decide to switch between alters? Is that normal for dissociative identity disorder?
Riku
I don’t think she actually has DID does she? I can see some symptoms but I don’t think it would get a full blown diagnosis.
Riku
Also I’ve heard of cases of people being able to switch between personalities but I think it’s rare.
David
Come again? That’s one of the main reason for separation and smaller do-overs: getting rid of the personality you became stuck with in relation to a social circle and your role in it. Humans are obsessed with identity. I’m a male alto singer and I finally changed to doing performances in drag because it’s a real downer if the principal reaction you can expect from your audience is “why are you singing like that when you are obviously a male?” “Was there anything wrong or bad with it?” “No, but you must have a reason for that?” They can’t relax and enjoy. Perform in drag, and they can.
Yes, things are really that stupid. In my opinion, it’s more an identity disorder of society than of individuals.
No Name
I don’t think she did, I think she woke up as Amber and, as it were, “took the hint” from AG (that is, she needed a rest).
Pearl
Back when I had a system, there was a, er, a… system. in place. we couldn’t like pick at will, but it’s not like we didn’t have any influence over the situation either. My situation was a lot like Amber’s, which is to say, somewhat purposeful compartmentalisation rather than like, traumatic, sudden involuntary splitting, which is what DID usually is.
Locke
get your bullshit out of here.
The last thing the world needs is more of your self diagnosed tumbleritis bullshit. how do I know you’re full of shit ?
Simple. No one who actually has been diagnosed with disassociate identity disorder calls it “a system” I have friends who have fucking DIED because tumbleristas told them “oh this is normal you just need to xxx” encouraging them not to get professional help. Every time I see one of you special snowflakes it fills me with uncontrollable rage when i think about the damage you do to people who genuinely need help
ObiKemnebi
I have been diagnosed with DID, and we do use the word “system”. It’s used in a different context than “collective”, but it IS used. We’ve been working on working together more, so there are fewer memory lapses and we can all (mostly) perform our various functions without too much chaos. There is a certain amount of cohesion that can be achieved when we all agree that we’re working for the same goal, but there will always be some disagreements on the best way to achieve that goal. I function as the “face” of the collective, sorting through the others’ various thoughts and desires and seeking out the best or most appropriate way to behave outwardly. Basically, I maintain the outer system and do what I can to keep it properly connected to the inner system in an attempt to allow the overall “person” we comprise to live relatively normally. When I fail to do my job properly, another can and will front and behave as they see fit, given the situation.
From what I can tell, AG takes control when she believes Amber isn’t capable of dealing with a given situation at hand in a manner that either of them finds acceptable, and Amber generally allows it because she agrees. I’d also take a stab in the dark and suggest maybe there’s a third in there who functions similarly to one of us, whom we call V. V has a horrible temper, but more than that, he learned from our father that hurting people makes us feel strong, feel like we’re in control of something. Like our father, he goes after those he CAN hurt, not necessarily those who set him off, so bystanders often reap the suffering he doles out just because they can’t or won’t stop him. My bet is that AG exists to take the violence their “V” wants to dish out and explicitly looks for people who she believes deserves it so it can’t be vented from their system without hurting innocents. Amber probably doesn’t even recognize that the third is there. I used to have issues with unwitting co-fronting where I saw what the body was doing and felt like I was the one doing it, but couldn’t make “myself” stop; Amber might experience something like that when she goes all red-background.
Or, y’know, I might be talking out of my arse and over-analyzing a comic. *shrug*
ObiKemnebi
*can be vented without hurting innocents
Derek
What’s your damage, sir? You can disagree with an opinion whiteout bringing out insults and (bizarrely) accusing the person of frequenting a popular blogging site that you seem to irrationally hate.
Your “special snowflake” wording makes you seem 100% more full of shot than the other poster
Derek
*without
*shit
damn autocorrect
vlademir1
What is and is not normal in cases of any dissociation disorder are debatable at best. That said, Amber more resembles CPTSD, a relatively recently distinguished variant of PTSD that is so far rather under studied and lacking systemic diagnostic criteria, than DID or any other dissociation disorder with systemic diagnostic criteria.
Orion Fury
This I like reading about. General, common-man rare, psychological discussion.
trlkly
Huh. Seems odd to call it a variant of PTSD when it has dissociative symptoms. Seems like it should be in the dissociative paradigm too, not just the anxiety paradigm.
Way too much of what happens works under the dissociation umbrella. Cerberus hasn’t been wrong about what she’s experiencing.
This makes me wonder if DID is also a prolonged stress disorder. Because, basically, Amber O’Malley just seems not as bad as full out DID.
Terry
trlkly, diagnoses are classified under the causes as often as they are under the similarity of symptoms. If it’s dissociation caused y depression, it’s found under the emotional disorders section. If it’s caused by acute stress, it’s found under the anxiety disorders section. Yes, many diagnoses have similarities to others, but the point of categorization is to make identification and treatment easier. If the dissociation is caused by anxiety, it would be important to treat the root causes of the anxiety and trauma in order to address the dissociative symptoms.
DID itself has many different potential causes from a traumatic experience to difficulties adjusting to new situations to conflicting beliefs and/or moralities.
Mav
Wouldn’t she still have PTSD? I feel like it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Also, people who grow up in dysfunctional and/or abusive environments can and have attested to the situation of being one person in the presence of their abuser, and being totally different in places where they feel safe.
Amber has DID, but I’m wondering if it might be a little bit like that. You stuff the “great/true” version of yourself inside yourself, it only comes out to people you trust, but when you get beaten down enough the version that your abuser claims you are (Blaine thinks Amber is a timid, worthless, dysfunctional powder keg. Notice how Amazigirl is the opposite.) is there all the time. Even after you’ve left the environment, hence the PTSD part as well.
But it results in many people having shaky identities, because often who they are with their abuser is a facade or simply a part of who they are, and they become insecure because they’re never truly allowed to be themselves or find out who they actually are. I honestly don’t think Amber has BPD like other people have said, even though one of the core parts of the diagnosis is the lack of or shaky identity.
This is just my layman’s ignorant thought about it, but living with someone who im pretty sure has it (BPD) I’ve always thought of it as an especially severe form of PTSD, even though it is a personality disorder due to the nature of the Self being shaky, feeling like everyone is against you, feeling like you constantly have to defend your existence by attacking others, trusting no one, explosive bottled up anger, inability to regulate emotions in situations that shouldn’t phase most people, etc to the point where it’s all you are most of the times, depending on the severity of course. And the correlation between BPD and severe abuse, although not all who have it were abused. Alot of these also happens to overlap with PTSD, but Amber does not seem to have that disorder.
Cerberus
Yup PTSD and DID can both be things a person has and frequently go hand-in-hand. Amber definitely exhibits many signs of PTSD surrounding her years of emotional and physical abuse at the hands of Blaine as well as surrounding the Robbery Incident.
To answer Derek, conscious switching between alters can exist, even in somewhat disassociated individuals, especially if there are “firm rules” when specific alters can show up (which can make a nice compromise step towards integrating disassociated alters). Whether or not that’s “normal” is a much harder question to answer. I can at least say some measure of semi or fully conscious switching to alters having more or less control over the body is not uncommon and may be more common among integrated individuals.
Personally, I’ve been integrated for a long time, but I am able to consciously shift greater control to specific alters semi-reliably and have used that semi-reliably to, for instance, better be able to handle emotionally intense situations in my day job, like supporting a student with a physically abusive dad.
vlademir1
Classification of mental issues can be extremely difficult due to the prevalence of causal and corollary relationships between various conditions. DID, for example, has a list of myriad other issues it reasonably commonly coexists with in a given individual.
I’m personally suggesting CPTSD here because Amber and AG don’t exhibit the level of differentiation that one sees in case studies of DID (I don’t have direct experience with DID, mind, so have to rely on what I have learned from published material) and doesn’t quite fit any of the other recognized diagnoses in the dissociation spectrum while concurrently showing very strong PTSD triggers with elements more akin to CPTSD than the more recognized variant and some elements of one or more personality disorders as well.
Derek
Thanks for all the answers! this comment section is fantastic with random information like this
nobodybasically
Important question: Will Amber then write a little something-something to accompany that fanart?
Doctor_Who