Trans-FUCKING-everything

[Aractus]

Hahh... I was wondering when you'd hear about that, BrokenQuill.

Why would you want to shun her if she's mentally ill?

Some people with disabilities find it very disrespectful and crass that someone else would passionately choose to have their disability.

Sure, I'm sure she's ill... but I can also understand why people who were born without sight (or who lost their sight to accident and disease)... could be angry.

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.

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:

http://youtu.be/KvY2ScZBCtQ

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 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