Comments on: You must be mental

By: Nicola

Nicola — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:34:29 +0000

i agree with the original post.
it’s like how boys in my school call each other “faggot” and “gay boy” all the time, but if one of the actually came out, no-one would dare insult them with it.

i think it’s intersting that (in english) we still insult each other with such “old” ideas, like gayness, being born out of wedlock, having a mentel illness etc. when now these are more “socially acceptable”.

By: Ceri

Ceri — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:16:26 +0000

I’ve always felt that people could relate to my physical disability. No problem there apart from the fact that they sometimes talk to me through the person I’m with. What they can’t relate to is my depression because they can’t see it. I once told my mother that I was taking Prozac and I was banned from the kitchen. Too many sharp knives there. We have so many attitudes to demolish.

By: Brice

Brice — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:25:55 +0000

@Sophie, sorry I might not have been clear in my effort to be brief. What I really need and have always needed is to have had my legs disabled by polio about fifty years ago, enough that I would need braces to stand and crutches to walk. I’m that specific about it because there’s nothing in me that would find satisfaction in losing bladder and/or bowel control, or complete loss of sensation in my legs. Using braces and crutches or a wheelchair gives me relief for as long as I get to do so. I think that this is in part because the braces in themselves produce some impairment. I am unfortunate in never having had enough of a private life to take up full time use of them, which might eventually produce a permanent impairment and dependency on the aids. I have in the past had several opportunities to go crip 24/7 for four or five days at a time, visiting brace buddies I otherwise knew only via the ‘net, and they were glorious times. Am I crazy? Well, yes, but after all these decades of BIID experience I know of no cure for this obsession and compulsion other than to get the body to match the mind.

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:34:48 +0000

@Wheelman: Well, first of all, have you been at all following the research of McGeoch and Ramachandran? They are most likely PROVING at this moment that BIID is neurological and thus, yes, is an illness. You can call it whatever you want, but you’ll just be proven wrong by science.

Aside from that, if we go around saying that it’s a “lifestyle choice” or whatever, then the people who desperately need help, the ones who NEED to acquire their impairment, will never do so. We need the medical community on board with us before they will ever agree to start treating BIID with surgery. And they will NEVER, EVER do that until BIID gets recognized as a genuine, serious mental illness.

The people who deny that BIID is an illness are a serious danger to the rest of us who are in desperate need of treatment. You are undermining our efforts to obtain that treatment and I will fight you tooth and nail.

Don’t take this personally Wheelman, it’s not meant as a personal attack…it’s just the way I feel.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:27:12 +0000

I’m glad simply using mobility aids makes you happy but using my wheelchair does not make me happy. I am not who I am meant to be and that makes me very unhappy.

By: Wheelman

Wheelman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:25:49 +0000

Very well said Brice.

-Wheelman

By: Brice

Brice — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:00:22 +0000

I am a person who has an emotional disability that expresses itself in a physical way, namely the need to use mobility aids. I am not my disability so be careful about labels please. My name is Brice not BIID.

By: Sophie

Sophie — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:46:48 +0000

I personally think refusing to accept I’m mentally ill shows that social stigma against mental illnesses. Merely saying you are different to everyone else shows that you don’t accept everything about you and you would never move forward in terms of a solution.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:29:03 +0000

Claire, despite all the soothing rhetoric about those with mental illness being just like you and me (in this case, it’s true…), there is a stigma attached to it that I think is stronger than the stigma attached to physical disabilities.

The mentally ill, untreated and unmedicated, can be physically and psychically dangerous. The mentally ill are unpredictable. Staying away from them seems to be the only way to deal with it - this seems to be the popular line of thought.

I have even known someone with BIID to denigrate my depression and devalue me because of it.

When I applied for jobs, at the advice of an attorney who deals in disability rights issues, I did not say I have a mental illness.

Wheelman, I am not looking for someone to pity me. I am trying my best to make my own way in this world. My brain chemistry is off and because of traumatic events that happened to me, I will likely face the struggle to deal with depression for the rest of my life. Just like nearly everyone else, I’m moving along and doing the best I can with my life. Sometimes it stinks. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s perfect. Those days are rare and precious. Personally, I’m aiming for the good to outweigh the bad and any ‘perfect’ that comes along will be appreciated and savored.

By: wheelman1912

wheelman1912 — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:19:36 +0000

Dear Claire,

It is in my opinion that I believe you cling too strongly to the “mental illness” side of BIID. I mean sure alright you now have a medical term that you can tag how you feel with…but honestly…I believe the reason that it was given a name is just simply so people could explain it to people and have something to label it with. I mean do you honestly believe you are sick? I mean sure you want to truely be disabled yes I understand that…but to say you are mentally ill to me means that you are broken in a bad way and that you need therapy and everyone to feel sorry for you and take pitty on you. To say you are mentally ill to me is to say…hay I am sick…

To me…I believe how you should feel is…ok, I have BIID…I am just different from everyone else, but this is just part of who I am…part of my personality…See I hate people trying to label me with some medical sickness…why…because I am not sick, I am not broken…this is who I am…it’s part of my personality…it’s part of how I was created. I am just different than the other 97% of the people in the world. We are all different in so many ways…just because our difference seams so strange and wierd and unusual doesn’t mean that people have the rigtht to lable us as mentally ill or sick or anything like that…we are just different. We are who we are…How God created us…he gave us this gift…It’s not our fault that the rest of the world doesn’t understand us.

-Wheelman