Trans-FUCKING-everything

[Dystopia]

To be fair, most pro-life people I know support giving children to adoption instead and famous pro-lifers donate to charity to help adoption centers, but maybe you're just describing a more American way of doing things, it's certainly stupid.

[KUSA]

"Legitimately disabled". So I am guessing Robin Williams was perfectly well in your book KUSA?

He isn't on disability right now is he? He decided to take his life, not live a disabled one that everyone else has to deal with.

[Jenny A]

Also on a side note I call bullshit on cultural appropriation as a thing. Its just pointlessly divisive and mean spirited. But that's a whole other discussion xD

^this^

[Violet]

"Legitimately disabled". So I am guessing Robin Williams was perfectly well in your book KUSA?

He isn't on disability right now is he? He decided to take his life, not live a disabled one that everyone else has to deal with.

It surely doesn't help that he happened to have, oh, well, millions of dollars. Surely.

But, most people with moderately severe mental disabilities do not, infact, have millions of dollars.

[KUSA]

He isn't on disability right now is he? He decided to take his life, not live a disabled one that everyone else has to deal with.

It surely doesn't help that he happened to have, oh, well, millions of dollars. Surely.

But, most people with moderately severe mental disabilities do not, infact, have millions of dollars.

What does money mean when you are dead?

[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

[Shining_Finger]

Not making fun of disabilities or anything, but am I the only one jelly of the people born blind that gained echolocation? I mean, it has got to suck to not be able to read how most books are printed, not watching movies/anime/cartoons properly, video games being terrible and not being able to read forums like these as quickly and thus replying slower, but these sorts of things are like the Synthesenzia that has to be annoying to have but is useful in specific situations like finding a letter or similar.

I am posting this from the first page, so I am sure this is probably a giant change of context, but meh.

[Nay_Sayer]

There is a group of people who have purposely given themselves a mental disability in order to have conversations with an imaginary friend.

I guess the vast majority of the population has "given themselves" a mental disability then. I guess that means I'm mentally ill.

No No No, Care for this cracker that turns into human flesh?

[Rev. Rye]

Well, to be fair, she actually is blind now, so she's not faking.

Quite frankly, though I have done some reading on this disorder, I still have yet to imagine exactly WHY someone would want to be blind. Granted, this is coming from a man who reads, watches movies, and uses the computer most of his waking hours, all of which require (at least for me, since I can't read Braille) heavy ocular input, but still.

Also, I'm reminded of Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood; there's a preacher who claimed he would blind himself for Jesus (but didn't do it), but, eventually, Hazel Motes, his protege, eventually does blind himself for real for reasons that make little to no sense to the common man.

At any rate, WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS HAPPEN?

[Edwardo Piet]

It surely doesn't help that he happened to have, oh, well, millions of dollars. Surely.

But, most people with moderately severe mental disabilities do not, infact, have millions of dollars.

What does money mean when you are dead?

The point was KUSA, his illness was real. It's still a disability as in it is disabiling whether he has enough money to not need to be on 'disability benefits' or not.