Trans-FUCKING-everything

[Longhorn]

KUSA has feelings, I wish I could relate to them - I guess I just can't understand the guy, should I assume he's a stupid person?

You can assume what you want. Perhaps my disability is to not be able to understand someone that chemically burns their eyes out. Where is your sympathy for me? Where is my disability check?

Consult the appropriate professional, get a diagnosis and then we can talk, k?

[Edwardo Piet]

K? K.

@ KUSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10sxcRPhp-k

[Losty]

Last I checked it wasn't a disability.

I do sympathize, I feel sorry for you that you lack the empathy that - *holds hand to heart smugly* - I, myself, have.

Poor unfeeling little sausage.

That was so condescending.....I have to admit, I loled a little smh

[Edwardo Piet]

As long as you know it was meant to be!!! lol

[Violet]

Well Violet, the issue is that those attitudes lead to "us and them" divisions. I don't have to tell you, for example, that it was quite some time before the LGB community accepted and acknowledged the T's, and then it was even longer before the Q's, I's, and A's were accepted. Of course LGBTQIA people are not necessary disabled, but similar principles apply in the disabled community. Often those who hold a disability from birth feel their disability is more important than someone who developed - perhaps even by making poor life choices. Again, not limited to disabilities, the cancer patients might not like sharing their doctors and nurses with people who ended up in hospital through self-harm measures such as drug abuse.

I know... it's frustrating, and I tend to disagree with separatism/diversionary thinking, and I disagree with it here and in this case. But... that doesn't mean I don't also have some empathy for people who hold that kind of thought. I understand their frustrations, but... I also hope to address those frustrations in a way that doesn't leave the people they're angry with... isolated, and publicly denounced as 'not one of us'.

Note if you will that she didn't actually blind herself - her psychologist poured the drain cleaner in her eyes. "In the world of psychiatry cures are rare, very often it’s about asking how you make someone’s life fulfilling despite their condition." (Dr Michael First via The Mirror).

There have been unspeakable harms done in the name of psychiatry. However, by all account the patient is much happier now that she is blind. Also it's not her fault that she suffers from a disease (Body Integrity Identity Disorder), just like it's not any patient's fault they suffer from a disease. And she's absolutely right that other patients suffering from this disease do go to extreme lengths to fulfil their desire to be disabled (including being run over by trains). Here's one person on Springer who cut of her legs with a circular saw:

<snip>

It's not very nice to laugh at someone with an illness. Note that she explains that she tried multiple times before to destroy her legs, including infecting them so they could be amputated.

I figured she would be Actually, the coolest thing about all of this to me... is seeing people, well... actually defending her. I'm really used to seeing just... a LOT of negative, disgusted, and ostracizing statements aimed towards well, transpeeps.

Because of my own 'baggage', I have a major bridge when it comes to understanding and empathizing with things that, to many people, look utterly severe and, even insane. But... I want to help bridge the people who don't understand, too.

I completely disagree with the op. Psychiatry has changed a lot over the past 50 years, and institutionalising someone is now seen as an absolute last resort. Which is why they are no longer referred to as "Mental Institutions" and are instead referred to as Psychiatric Hospitals since the focus is on helping patients recover from their disease and lead a normal life outside of a hospital - not on institutionalising them because they have a mental health condition. A people who suffer from an illness should not be labelled as "crazy".

BrokenQuill, do you think transsexuals are crazy as well? They also want to change their bodies to match what is inside their brains. What makes them sane and people who suffer from BIID crazy? Therapy and medication do not work for changing transsexuals, so why would it work for BIID?

http://youtu.be/WdRihAJ3H9Q

It's a good thing to keep in mind, thank you

I will, however, note... that some transgendered persons are actually pretty happy with medication and therapy. A lot of them are. I'm not one of those people, but... medication and therapy *definitely* help. I don't know about BQ, but.. .I don't usually think I'm crazy.

Until... I'm off my meds... Tt__o

[Violet]

What does money mean when you are dead?

About as much as it means when you're alive and it isn't helping you.

[Violet]

I can understand if someone wants to end their life. There is no misery after you are dead. I can't understand why someone would choose to make their life more miserable.

The only thing that makes sense is that they want attention. Screw that.

Seeing, for this woman, was miserable.

Also... there's something really nice about sensory deprivation... a really warm feeling of contentedness...

Peace.

So... I really don't think she wants the attention, in this case. I think she's more likely tired of suffering, and wants some fucking peace.

But... I'm not her. I can't say what necessarily makes sense to her, or what she actually wants. Me, I'd rather hear what she thinks and what she says, before writing her off as 'some kinda fuckin nutter'.

[KUSA]

If you want to be blind then you are a fucking nutter.

[Violet]

By the way, I probably should have said this in my first reply. If transsexualism isn't viewed as a 'disorder' but rather a 'mental condition', then perhaps it's wrong to view BIID as a disorder rather than a mental condition. The striking similarities (feeling as though one is trapped in the wrong body, and needing physical change to feel at peace with one's body) suggest to me the disease-model of psychiatry is often flawed.

Also, I should note the lady on Springer did not say she had BIID, and I don't want to presume to know what condition she might have, I just wanted to point out how rude it is to label someone as "wacky" or "dumb". She is also a transsexual which suggests to me that BIID and transsexualism may have quite a lot in common with each other and can coexist in the one patient, although as I mentioned I'm not suggesting to know what condition the Springer lady actually has. Just pointing out the similarities to the blind lady with BIID - they both say they felt as if they needed physical change in the bodies from when they were children - and they both went to extreme lengths to achieve it - and they are both much happier with their bodies following the change.

I wouldn't call them 'strikingly similar'.

I'd call them nearly-fucking-identical. They're different only because of the subject matter of the discomfort and dysphoria.

And, just like not every transgendered person needs to "go all the way" (as it were..) to be happy... I reckon plenty of people with BIIID can live fulfilling lives without "going all the way". Not all of them. Perhaps not even most of them. Perhaps even only a few of them... but some of them, for sure.

I think that treatment for both conditions needs to reflect that there is a spectrum on this kind of thing... to which some people are pretty low key, and fewer/less invasive modifications (including behavioral)/medications are required, and some people are well beyond the severe end of that sliding spectrum. It's just something of a nuanced approach that needs to be kept in mind (and I'm not saying that it isn't necessarily: i'm not a psychologist, and I don't speak for every psychologist, or to every psychologist).

[Violet]

If you want to be blind then you are a fucking nutter.

That's what I told your nan last night, but no no.. she insisted on the blindfold. She really musta struggled with my being so much larger than her ex-husband.

...... Because she wouldn't stop struggling

...

I really don't know how to give you something more than an asinine response to that. It's kinda a... statement, that doesn't give you a whole lot of wiggle room to talk about. Sooooo, ummm... I guess....