Hi,
My name is Sean, I have BIID, and I am the owner of the link that Nero originally posted.
I am not poking my head in to your forum to cause an argument or a fight, but only to rectify some misconceptions, and to offer to answer any questions you might have.
BIID is a real condition. I will not go into the philosophical question of whether or not it is a mental illness or a "disorder". It just is real.
BIID is *not* in the Factitious Disability Disorder family. That is, it is not Munchausen. Transabled folks don't want the attention. We'd rather have the impairment we need and be left alone than get the positive attention of hundreds, but still be "able bodied". Don't just take my word for it, you can check out the research yourself biid dash info dot org lists and comments on most of the currently available research on the topic (disclaimer: I also own and run that site).
In response to Autumn. I am sorry we offend you deeply. I guess we *are* similar in that, since so many people are unreasonably deeply offended by transsexuals.
Note that people who get themselves infected with AIDS on purpose do not actualy fit the BIID "criteria".
Also note that we aren't after going "on benefit". People with disabilities are able to, and do, work for a living. I have been living as a wheelchair user for the last 12 years. A bit like some of you have to do a "real life test", well, I'm stuck where I'm at, surgery isn't available to me. The point is, however, that I am gainfully employed as a wheelchair user. I don't know anyone who has managed to become an amputee who is sucking up the system dry. To assume that because someone is an amputee or paralysed means they can't be productive part of society is a major misunderstanding, if not an outright negative prejudice.
It's also worth considering that once people get the physical condition they've needed since childhood, they don't need "more". They are happy. And they keep working.
It's interesting that people refer to disabilities as "defect". Most people with disabilities I know (and I know lots) see disability as a difference, not as a negative point. Is it possible that your disgust has more to do with your negative view of disabilities than anything else?
There's been a few comments on the thread that say that we need help. Well, the thing is, there is no help. Seriously. The vast majority of psychatrists and psychotherapists have NO idea what BIID is. Beyond that, studies are showing that neither psychotherapy nor pharmacotherapy do one bit of difference to BIID. In my experience, psychotherapy has helped me understand myself better and handle my situation better, but it has NOT resolved my need to be paralysed.
To suggest we need to get help is akin to me saying that being transexual is just a phase you're going through and if you seek appropriate counselling you'll stop feeling that way.
I often compare my condition to transsexual. Because our life stories and experiences and emotions towards our bodies are indeed extremely similar. We experience confusion, shame, guilt. We experience ostrarcism from our own famillies, and society. I don't, never have and never will, claim that BIID and GID are the same thing, or from the same cause.
There has been evidence that BIID actually has a neurological cause. Folks at UCSD have actually found differences in the brain, and neurological responses that differ from one limb to another in people with BIID. So folks, it's not completely "just in our heads".
Anyway, I'm open to answer and discuss with people who have an interest in understanding better. Flames WILL be ignored.
Sean O'Connor
