I think she’s manic right now. Like, their relationship is less healthy than a stick of deep-fried butter but this is new heights of crazy out of Ruth, and given the sudden painting of her room…
Not a medical professional but not sure if her meds are meant to be mixed with alcohol at this stage either. Right now the combo might be making her higher then a kite.
Terry
Her meds shouldn’t be mixed with alcohol EVER. Alcohol is a depressant. She is on an antidepressant. The meds will be pulling her in one direction while the alcohol will be tugging in the other direction. At best, the alcohol will counteract the medicine. At worst, she can die as her body shuts down in confusion.
Dreizehn
That is not how it works.
John Smith
It is very true that you shouldn’t mix stimulants and depressants, though, or mix alcohol and… well, any drugs honestly.
Inahc
Alcohol and ibuprofen is safe, though 🙂 it doesn’t interact with NSAIDs, which I was very glad of back when I’d get bad cramps every month. ..and back when I wasn’t fscking immune to most NSAIDs.
Inahc
Yeah, those are two different definitions of “depressant” being conflated. What’s more likely to happen is the alcohol will enhance some of the meds’ side-effects, like drowsiness, dizziness, nausea… IIRC the biggest risks are liver damage, or her CNS being depressed enough to stop breathing.
One of my migraine meds was an antidepressant, and I had to be careful with alcohol while on it. After I’d gotten used to the meds and done some careful experimenting, I’d sometimes use small amounts of watered-down alcohol to give the meds a short-term boost so I could be social for a hour or two. If I had even one sip too much, I’d instantly feel massive nausea.
A mania reaction to antidepressants is a relatively common symptom of being bipolar as opposed to depression without being bipolar. Not sure I’ve really seen enough to speculate on this for Ruth though.
Sam
Right now it could still just be because she hasn’t finished adjusting to meds. People have said that when their emotions came back, it was at full blast at first.
Bipolar disorder alone would also not explain the crying/very low mood because the antidepressants would still counter against depressive episodes even if triggering hypomanic/manic ones. And, hypomanic/manic episodes would have been happening still even before now – which could explain part of how she used to go from :3 to -_O in two seconds flat with people, which we thought was just comedic timing at the time.
So it isn’t impossible that she is bipolar but more time would have to pass to know for sure it isn’t just med adjustment.
John Smith
Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. Maybe she’s a good actor, or maybe it was just the spite – but mania would explain the utter confidence she displayed in the femur collection department.
Marisa Mockery
Actually, it could. Antidepressants fuck bipolar people up. Something something something pushes you into mania something something something. This is actually pretty strong evidence she’s bipolar, not depressed, and unfortunately mania is usually when people figure that out. I feel bad for her. Based on myself, she’s in for a bad time. Well, bad when she gets to deal with the consequences of her manic actions. Right now she’s probably having a blast.
Sam
I am aware that it messes people with bipolar disorder up, but I don’t think bipolar disorder alone explains the episode where she was just crying about a lot of random slights? I mean, I could very well be wrong, and feel free to tell me if I am, but I thought the main issue with antidepressants and bipolar disorder is that it would trigger hypomania/mania episodes? Which would make the crying more like a part of the med adjustment during a period between episodes, then she cycled straight back into hypomania/mania? Because the antidepressants would still be mitigating depressive episodes and affecting her mood in between episodes right?
If I’m off base in thinking that, then feel free to explain/correct me.
biblioholic93
An important factor for that particular episode is that Ruth never grieved for her parents, she just felt numb about it. Then got shunted to her rot of a grandpa and, well, got more damage there from controlling behaviors. Continuing damage. She’s /stuck/ in the place that will give her a good resume. That’s never fun.
I don’t have much experience with bipolarism other than my brother being suspected but not willing to go to therapy to test it, but depression is in my wheelhouse, and repression, and freaking alcoholism culture. I’m pretty sure once her brain got a dose of real, actual seratonin she freaked the fuck out because she hadn’t had a chance to before. Because she did not feel good enough to know bad. In the void and utter dark, there is no shadow, because a shadow needs light, that metaphor works. Basically, she was so suppressed and twisted up tight inside that it never occured to her that freaking out would solve anything.
Well it does. It gives you closure. Eases the constant internal pressure that threatens a blowout, that she could only vent as anger and aggressive caring for folks. I counted that as a win. This though? Flip this moment. I’ve been here before and fudge it with a wire brush. Bleach as lube. No ducks given.
This is not precisely, or at least not all mania. Definitely codependence and the sick lengths an unhealthy relationship will reach to maintain placid indemnity.
for what value of “safe“?
She’s not gonna commit suicide tonight unless by “unintentionally“ drinking while on antidepressant?
biblioholic93
Ehhhhh it makes you high not suicidal. Maybe your issues crop up more, bipolarism for Ruth here, schitzophrenia for me. But it’s not medically dangerous other than brain chemistry. Unless she drinks a shit fucking ton like an… alcoholic.
I see your point.
Inahc
Ehh no, depending on the antidepressant it *can* be medically dangerous even in small amounts. I forget exactly what meds I was on at the time, but there was a point where my limit was four *sips* of something like beer or cider.
The problem is that the feeling is far more slippery than she gives it credit for, I’ve had to relearn that feeling through meds, through AA recovery, through breaking up codependent relationships, etc… like 5 times at least since I turned 17 and I’m only 31 now… That’s averaging once every 2.7 years.
I want them to have a relationship I really do but gods above they make it hard to root for them when they are both so toxic together. How do you even manage that?
Yeah… similarly, a friend of mine said that now that she knows what being NOT lonely means, it’s so, so much worse to feel lonely again than it did before…
You say that like Galasso doesn’t keep a Coffee of Doom esque broadsword under the bar. (And his desk, and the maitre’d counter, and the pizza oven, and the bathroom sink…)
Byron Orpheus
Now that you mention it, Ruth looks a lot like and Clinton. I smell a crossover!
I don’t know what it says about me that I had to google “crosstops.” Or rather I think I do know what it says about me, and I’m actually kinda glad, because alcohol all on its own was almost more than I could deal with.
The high-level individualized ones tend to be named by adding an x to their former self’s name, and then scrambling the letters – Sora becomes Roxas, Lea becomes Axel, etc.
Wait so she’s on medication while should face drunk? You know what Ruth Billy’s right this what’s a stupid thing to do. I know this is a romantic gesture but damn.
She’s an alcoholic, the first thing that an alcoholic does when feeling good is take a drink. The first thing they do when they’re feeling sad is take a drink. Essentially, our whole brains are wired to rationalize and excuse our way into our next drink. I’ve been sober 1 year, and I still have to stop myself from buying a six pack at the corner shop at the end of every week.
178 thoughts on “Dying”
Ana Chronistic
“and *I’m* dying for a drink!”
“NO, BAD”
Yumi
Ruth’s expression in this context is really creeping me out.
Doctor_Who
Personally, I’m beginning to suspect this isn’t the healthiest relationship.
Yumi
No. What? No!
Delicious Taffy
These two? Unhealthy? Never.
John Smith
I think she’s manic right now. Like, their relationship is less healthy than a stick of deep-fried butter but this is new heights of crazy out of Ruth, and given the sudden painting of her room…
Abbefaria
Not a medical professional but not sure if her meds are meant to be mixed with alcohol at this stage either. Right now the combo might be making her higher then a kite.
Terry
Her meds shouldn’t be mixed with alcohol EVER. Alcohol is a depressant. She is on an antidepressant. The meds will be pulling her in one direction while the alcohol will be tugging in the other direction. At best, the alcohol will counteract the medicine. At worst, she can die as her body shuts down in confusion.
Dreizehn
That is not how it works.
John Smith
It is very true that you shouldn’t mix stimulants and depressants, though, or mix alcohol and… well, any drugs honestly.
Inahc
Alcohol and ibuprofen is safe, though 🙂 it doesn’t interact with NSAIDs, which I was very glad of back when I’d get bad cramps every month. ..and back when I wasn’t fscking immune to most NSAIDs.
Inahc
Yeah, those are two different definitions of “depressant” being conflated. What’s more likely to happen is the alcohol will enhance some of the meds’ side-effects, like drowsiness, dizziness, nausea… IIRC the biggest risks are liver damage, or her CNS being depressed enough to stop breathing.
One of my migraine meds was an antidepressant, and I had to be careful with alcohol while on it. After I’d gotten used to the meds and done some careful experimenting, I’d sometimes use small amounts of watered-down alcohol to give the meds a short-term boost so I could be social for a hour or two. If I had even one sip too much, I’d instantly feel massive nausea.
desolation0
A mania reaction to antidepressants is a relatively common symptom of being bipolar as opposed to depression without being bipolar. Not sure I’ve really seen enough to speculate on this for Ruth though.
Sam
Right now it could still just be because she hasn’t finished adjusting to meds. People have said that when their emotions came back, it was at full blast at first.
Bipolar disorder alone would also not explain the crying/very low mood because the antidepressants would still counter against depressive episodes even if triggering hypomanic/manic ones. And, hypomanic/manic episodes would have been happening still even before now – which could explain part of how she used to go from :3 to -_O in two seconds flat with people, which we thought was just comedic timing at the time.
So it isn’t impossible that she is bipolar but more time would have to pass to know for sure it isn’t just med adjustment.
John Smith
Yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. Maybe she’s a good actor, or maybe it was just the spite – but mania would explain the utter confidence she displayed in the femur collection department.
Marisa Mockery
Actually, it could. Antidepressants fuck bipolar people up. Something something something pushes you into mania something something something. This is actually pretty strong evidence she’s bipolar, not depressed, and unfortunately mania is usually when people figure that out. I feel bad for her. Based on myself, she’s in for a bad time. Well, bad when she gets to deal with the consequences of her manic actions. Right now she’s probably having a blast.
Sam
I am aware that it messes people with bipolar disorder up, but I don’t think bipolar disorder alone explains the episode where she was just crying about a lot of random slights? I mean, I could very well be wrong, and feel free to tell me if I am, but I thought the main issue with antidepressants and bipolar disorder is that it would trigger hypomania/mania episodes? Which would make the crying more like a part of the med adjustment during a period between episodes, then she cycled straight back into hypomania/mania? Because the antidepressants would still be mitigating depressive episodes and affecting her mood in between episodes right?
If I’m off base in thinking that, then feel free to explain/correct me.
biblioholic93
An important factor for that particular episode is that Ruth never grieved for her parents, she just felt numb about it. Then got shunted to her rot of a grandpa and, well, got more damage there from controlling behaviors. Continuing damage. She’s /stuck/ in the place that will give her a good resume. That’s never fun.
I don’t have much experience with bipolarism other than my brother being suspected but not willing to go to therapy to test it, but depression is in my wheelhouse, and repression, and freaking alcoholism culture. I’m pretty sure once her brain got a dose of real, actual seratonin she freaked the fuck out because she hadn’t had a chance to before. Because she did not feel good enough to know bad. In the void and utter dark, there is no shadow, because a shadow needs light, that metaphor works. Basically, she was so suppressed and twisted up tight inside that it never occured to her that freaking out would solve anything.
Well it does. It gives you closure. Eases the constant internal pressure that threatens a blowout, that she could only vent as anger and aggressive caring for folks. I counted that as a win. This though? Flip this moment. I’ve been here before and fudge it with a wire brush. Bleach as lube. No ducks given.
This is not precisely, or at least not all mania. Definitely codependence and the sick lengths an unhealthy relationship will reach to maintain placid indemnity.
Felix
So it was the paint fumes…
biblioholic93
Oh man that smile takes me back. That smile sucks. Just cracks and seasickness beneath it, for me at least.
Agh, at least the codependence will keep her safe tonight, but seriously I just have to root for both of them to get to a better place.
Felian
for what value of “safe“?
She’s not gonna commit suicide tonight unless by “unintentionally“ drinking while on antidepressant?
biblioholic93
Ehhhhh it makes you high not suicidal. Maybe your issues crop up more, bipolarism for Ruth here, schitzophrenia for me. But it’s not medically dangerous other than brain chemistry. Unless she drinks a shit fucking ton like an… alcoholic.
I see your point.
Inahc
Ehh no, depending on the antidepressant it *can* be medically dangerous even in small amounts. I forget exactly what meds I was on at the time, but there was a point where my limit was four *sips* of something like beer or cider.
ValdVin
“Now I know what it’s like to feel better. To feel normal!” is good. (Take it from someone who has to adjust meds quarterly.)
What she’s done with it? Not so good.
ian livs
Was just coming here to say that, haha
Carlos Torres Meza
The problem is that the feeling is far more slippery than she gives it credit for, I’ve had to relearn that feeling through meds, through AA recovery, through breaking up codependent relationships, etc… like 5 times at least since I turned 17 and I’m only 31 now… That’s averaging once every 2.7 years.
StClair
“Girls, we only have one grenade, you can’t both throw yourselves on it!”
JetstreamGW
Well, I mean, strictly speaking they could…
Clif
Strictly speaking they are.
Kyrik Michalowski
No bad, both of you, this is not the way to healthy relationship. What the hell.
Carlos Torres Meza
This is 100% how codependency forms in relationships. In that sense it is disturbingly realistic. Speaking from experience.
Clif
Healthy relationships are overrated.
No, actually they are not.
Sam
Ruth, that is disturbing and not at all how that works.
Lexi
Oh Billie, no. Dying for someone is easy, it’s living for someone that’s the hard part.
Also Ruth… It doesn’t work like that. I’m sorry.
Delicious Taffy
Ruth. Sweetie. No.
BBCC
Nooooooo. No no no no no.
Dammit, you two codependent, toxic relationship having dear little twits are killing me.
Kyrik Michalowski
I want them to have a relationship I really do but gods above they make it hard to root for them when they are both so toxic together. How do you even manage that?
drs
How incompetent of them! They’re supposed to be killing themselves!
thejeff
Instead they’re killing each other and now spreading to the audience.
Anthony S
I can remember being completely happy too Ruth. That doesn’t make it better!
mrnoidea
At times when I’m depressed, remembering the times I was happy makes me feel worse. “Why can’t I go back to that,” I ask.
ditrysia
Can relate.
Felian
Yeah… similarly, a friend of mine said that now that she knows what being NOT lonely means, it’s so, so much worse to feel lonely again than it did before…
Sirksome
Or maybe you both could quit drinking? That sounds like a really good idea to me!
PB
I want to root for you, ladies. I really do.
Mada
Waiting for Jason to interrupt them in 5…4…3…2…
ValdVin
Does he have a broom of his own or will he have to borrow one from Asma?
http://www.dumbingofage.com/2019/comic/book-9-comic/02-but-the-sun-still-shines/chase/
Needfuldoer
You say that like Galasso doesn’t keep a Coffee of Doom esque broadsword under the bar. (And his desk, and the maitre’d counter, and the pizza oven, and the bathroom sink…)
Byron Orpheus
Now that you mention it, Ruth looks a lot like and Clinton. I smell a crossover!
Shade
I feel like Jason has probably quickly retreated into the back by this point.
mrj
she’ll give it the old college try
(the frequency I’ve had songs off of Tallahassee come to mind when Billie/Ruth are together has never struck me as a good omen)
Marsh Maryrose
Damn, this song is a punch right in the feels.
I don’t know what it says about me that I had to google “crosstops.” Or rather I think I do know what it says about me, and I’m actually kinda glad, because alcohol all on its own was almost more than I could deal with.
LeslieBean4shizzle
There’s a reason Billie is one of my favorites (and my gravatar). I loves me some melodrama!
Delicious Taffy
We have similar tastes.
Blanche Quizno
What did you do to your hair??
Marsh Maryrose
Either she lived to be old enough to have gray hair, or she’s a portait in the attic.
Delicious Taffy
Option 3: My grav is actually Ruth’s Nobody, Truhx.
Marsh Maryrose
I’m not familiar with the fandom from which “[person]’s Nobody” is drawn from, and Google isn’t really helping?
Kamino Neko
Kingdom Hearts. Nobodies are what’s left over when a person’s heart is taken to create a Heartless.
Kamino Neko
The high-level individualized ones tend to be named by adding an x to their former self’s name, and then scrambling the letters – Sora becomes Roxas, Lea becomes Axel, etc.
Delicious Taffy
Exactly. It just so happens that one of the only pronounceable variants for Ruth is also the best one for the comments section.
He Who Abides
Kamino, that Gravatar of yours is perfect for those last two posts.
LeslieBean4shizzle
… Truhx is an unexpectedly awesome idea.
Chaucer59
The Gift of the Totally Shit-Faced Magi
Blanche Quizno
Ooh – good call!
newllend(henryvolt)
Wait so she’s on medication while should face drunk? You know what Ruth Billy’s right this what’s a stupid thing to do. I know this is a romantic gesture but damn.
newllend(henryvolt)
Also Billie what fuck!?
Carlos Torres Meza
She’s an alcoholic, the first thing that an alcoholic does when feeling good is take a drink. The first thing they do when they’re feeling sad is take a drink. Essentially, our whole brains are wired to rationalize and excuse our way into our next drink. I’ve been sober 1 year, and I still have to stop myself from buying a six pack at the corner shop at the end of every week.
Delicious Taffy
Kudos on the year, mate.
Annamal
congratulations on the year 🙂
Lokitsu