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Home / Thoughts / BIID: A mental lllness

BIID: A mental lllness

Written by Sean on Thursday, March 15, 2007

I have been saying that BIID is a mental illness. Some people agree with me, others do not. Some people are in fact vehemently against that label. I find it interesting that the idea of BIID as a mental illness receives such a negative welcome in our community. Seeing BIID as a mental ilness may in fact be the only way we’ll ever be accepted in the disability community and receive treatment from the medical community. Otherwise, we’re just weirdos.

Before I go further, I should point out that I have also drawn a correlation between being transsexual and being transabled (no, I’m not saying that if you are one you’ll be the other, I’m saying that the two conditions are eerily similar in many ways). GID used to be perceived and classified as a mental illness. It is not viewed that way anymore. Despite the close relationship between the two conditions, I don’t believe that GID not being classified as a mental illness means that BIID shouldn’t be seen as such. Or vice versa.

What is a mental illness, and why do I say that BIID is one?

Wikipedia defines mental illness:

A mental illness as defined in psychiatry and other mental health professions, is abnormal mental condition or disorder expressing symptoms that cause significant distress and/or dysfunction.

Weee, beasties crawling out.

Let’s take that definition apart:

Abnormal mental condition. Abnormal, what does that mean? As Wikipedia points out, there are many ways to look at it, but perhaps a safe, non-controversial way is to look at it in terms of statistical infrequency. If the norm is what is found more often, abnormal is something that doesn’t happen very often. Mental condition. There are no (known/proven) physiological reasons for us to feel the way we do. There is not a "disability gene" (even though some disabilities are congenital). It *is* happening in our mind. Therefore, I feel confident to state that BIID is an abnormal mental condition.

Disorder. Well, d’oh! BIID = Body Integrity Identity Disorder. Need I say more?

Expressing symptoms. Hmm, ok, in other words, how do we see it’s there? I probably don’t need to decorticate it that far down, but heck, why not?

Significant distress. I think it’s fair to say that our BIID is causing the majority of us significant distress. Over the last 12 years, I’ve been in contact with hundreds of transabled individuals. I’ve exchanged emails or IM’ed with dozens of transabled individuals. All of the, all of *us*, have stated that they’ve experienced distress at not having their physical body conform to their mental image of it. Then, we’ve experienced shame, and guilt, and disgust. We’ve experienced being ostrarcised by family, friends, and perfect strangers. We most certainly experience significant distress, even though some of us claim they are perfectly happy to be transabled. I only hope for them that they aren’t just experiencing wishful thinking and trying to convince themselves by stating something to us.

Dysfunction. Does not function properly, or as well as possible. I think it’s also fair to say that our transabled thoughts have impaired our functioning at some point or another along the line. They may have in fact chronically affected everything we do.

And there you go my friends, we fit the definition of mental illness (well, one of many anyway).

So, why is it so distasteful for some of us to be labelled as mentally ill? Could it be perhaps that society as a whole views mental illness as something ubber negative? Even in the disability sector, mental illnesses are at the bottom of the totem pole. How many times have we heard (or said) negatively charged expression relating to mental illnesses? Expressions such as "Chill, take a pill", or "She must be off her meds today", or "Don’t pay attention to him, he’s just crazy". How many of us have been uncomfortable when in the presence of someone we know to have been diagnosed as schizophrenic, or as having bi-polar disorder? Why? Just because of the name of the condition they have, or perhaps because of a tic they have. I’m not the only one to discuss this. There’s an article from 2004 entitled: Mocking Mental Illness: a universal stigma (in this case, Universal is the cinema studio, but it is true that it is universaly perceived as a stigma…)

We’re all guilty at some level of buying into society’s message and perception that a mental illness is something negative, something to be shunned. But society is also under the impression that *any* disability is something to be shunned. One might think that attitudes are changing, but they aren’t, not really. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many people with disabilities stuck in nursing homes for the sole reason that they have a disability. Otherwise, there would not be so many places that aren’t accessible. Otherwise, there would not be so much unemployment among the disability population. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many doctors saying it’s ok to kill disabled infants. Otherwise… Well, I could go on and on. Fact is, having a disability is viewed really negatively in the world at large.

But in and of itself, a disability is neutral. And by the same token, in and of itself, a mental illness is also neutral. It’s not always pleasant, and it often causes distress, but it isn’t negative in and of itself. It only becomes a problem when a non-inclusive society creates barriers (for example, always having jokes at the expense of people with mental illnesses).

Let me ask you this: Why are you so desperate NOT to be labelled as mentally ill? Don’t you see the advantages of such a label?

People call us "sick". They don’t realise how true to the mark they are. Yes, we’re sick. Mentally ill. And if it’s a mental illness, we have no more control over our condition than we would be if we had cancer, asthma or the common cold. Why are people with a cold not shunned the way people with mental illnesses are? (that was a rethorical question…)

We have a mental illness, it is out of our control. We can’t be made to be ashamed of being transabled, because shame (should) derive only from things we have control over. Instead of shaming us for something we have no control over, help us get better!

And if BIID does become a recognised form of mental illness, then we are more likely to be better accepted by the medical community. Just as transsexuals started to see accepted avenues of treatment when their condition was accepted as a mental illness, I believe that it will take us being formally labelled as mentally ill before we see treatment options open to us. And I don’t necessarily mean to have a "cure" for BIID. I’ve spoken about what form I believe BIID treatment should take elsewhere.

For me, the concept of BIID as a mental illness explains many things. But it is also a means to an end. I’ll take just about any label anyone wants to apply to me, as long as it leads to me getting what I need, namely a spinal cord injury ’round L1-L2. Because, you see, if the label of mental illness is neutral, then there’s nothing wrong with being mentally ill. And there’s nothing wrong with BIID being a mental illness. And there’s nothing wrong with having BIID.

[tags]Mental+Illness, BIID, GID, Transabled, Paralysed, SCI, Medical+Community, Disability, Label[/tags]