1. I am NOT saying that physical disabilities should come first in funding. My own stepson has Asperger’s and Bi Polar. I fully support funding for all disabilities. However, the funding I am talking about is when someone with BIID makes themselves disabled then applies for Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security and OTHER funding sources specifically intended for those with physical disabilities because they now have a physical disability themselves. I have seen those with physical disabilities they had no choice in having DENIED such services and yet some with BIID boast they are now on such services. Hardly seems fair.

2. I fully agree those with BIID have mental issues. They need funding for excessive amounts of THERAPY.

3. Nobody should pay for BIID operations. You want to compare it to transgender – we pay for ALL of our surgeries and most of our hormone injections (if not all of them). Insurance does not typically pay. I have paid out of pocket myself for what I need.

4. There is no proof BIID is biological. From all my reading it is either a fetish (granted maybe not for you, but the leader of the BIID community himself spoke of how it makes him horny – the excitement – sorry not comparable to being transgender) or it is the result of some childhood trauma. Some felt neglected by their parents or other family members. Having a disability supposedly gets you attention, therefore it makes them feel good to be seen with a disability, since they are doted upon. There is quite a bit of research supporting biological causes to transgenderism, but BIID seems to point to environmental causes, which could be fixed with exhaustive therapy if people with BIID really want to admit they need help and want to change.

I am basing this on the WORDS of those who claim to have BIID. Nothing more, nothing less.

5. How do you explain the stories of those who regret cutting off their limbs or disabling themselves. I have read more than one account of such or those who claim doing such did not make them happy. Try therapy. Really. Therapy only helps if you admit it can help. I feel a lot of people do not benefit from it because they have it in their mind the only solution is to become disabled and then when they do many seem to regret it and wonder what their problem really is.

6. Fighting for your rights? C’mon. Most of you won’t even use your real names. Most of you do not want the world to know the truth about you. You’d rather pretend you are someone else and hide behind a screen. True advocates stand up for themselves, let themselves be known and do not care what others think. I have yet to see those in the BIID community do such but prefer to hide behind online monikers and do their “fighting for rights” by coming and commenting on blogs.
Dominick recently posted..Alberto del Rio’s Anti-Disability Slur was Tasteless

I digress. This is not about people living their lives the way they want. If you’re a devotee and want to have sex with someone’s cane (or buy your own for that purpose) go for it. What you do in your bedroom is private. If you want to be a pretender and pretend you need a wheelchair, so you can trick innocent people into helping you up curbs in your chair (since it makes your panties wet), well I feel bad you are duping the other person and think it’s deluded for being a liar, but if it gets you horny, whatever.

If you are a wannabe and want to wear diapers, causing your penis to get hard (as is the case of some who have written about said experiences), but your diaper fetish isn’t really hurting anyone, that’s your business. Do what you want, but call it what it is. When you write this makes your penis hard or your panties wet, it is nothing more than a FETISH. If that is your thing, FINE. DO not claim it is something else.

Further, I have read time and again about how those who made themselves disabled on purpose aren’t happy after they do so. They thought they would be, but the happiness never comes. Get therapy to help you with your problems. It is much cheaper than losing a leg.

Apparently you think it is okay for the BIID community to take money from those who had no choice in being disabled.

1. The money I get for Medicare was money My DAD paid in for YEARS. My dad never got to use a cent of the money he paid in because he died before he could, but he was employed for some 40 years or so and paid in every year in taxes for his Medicare/Social Security. I get what HE paid to buy me wheelchairs. My wheelchair cost $25K. Even with a great job who the hell has that much sitting around? So telling me to buy my own stuff is BS. My dad is paying for my stuff in all the years he paid in to taxes.

Also, my family pays taxes. My partner/girlfriend pays a LOT in taxes with her job. So, if not for my dad, I am getting out what she puts in. You try having a disability then saying “pay for your own stuff.” It is not as simple as that.

If people want to have fetishes and they are not hurting others, fine. If it gets a person off, whatever. It is their business. When they start demanding operations to make them disabled so they can take resources away from those born with a disability, then it becomes a problem.
Dominick recently posted..Alberto del Rio’s Anti-Disability Slur was Tasteless

I think that can really give one some pause in concern.

Sorry for my seemingly long list of issues, and believe it or not it is actually the condensed version (and that I am also only 23 years of age)

Lastly, I’m also a person with biid, and no I do not get sexually aroused with any part off it whatsoever.

Have I merely accepted it? No.

Have I actually tried a number of methods to resolve, ranging from all, and I do mean all of what was stated. From prescriptions, including those mentioned (such as neurobiofeedback), to unconventional medicine, i.e. Zen Buddhism, acupuncture, vesicular caloric stimulation, behavioral modification, and few others, Did any of them have any effect. Yes, some of them did have an effect, unfortunately the opposite intended effect.

As you can see, I sometimes get frustrated with the blanket statement of something along the lines of “people with biid, don’t understand what it is like to have a disability.” I’ve also noticed that most people, that I’ve at least actually talked to with biid, actual have an unrelated physical disability.

I’ve also some issues with:

“It’s offensive because I have friend who died of Duchene waiting for a cure to make them not just walk, but make them LIVE! ”

Take out “not just walk,” and replace “Duchene” with biid (or for that matter almost any mental illness/disorder), and you get:

“It’s offensive because I have friend who died of biid waiting for a cure to make them LIVE! ”

Which is also equally true, for me. Even if you did substitute biid with any other mental disorder, it’d still probably be true for me. As I’ve worked/work in field/job where my job is/was essentially to become friends of those with mental illnesses and disability’s and friend of their family members.

Another one of my duties was to advocate for the person with the disability. and I think you’d be surprised at who I most often to advocate for them with, and that is of their own family members. I think that the fact that you could actually sense the difference of emotion, and you’d have to be blind not to (well, even those who were blind in the literal sense, could sense it) from when the first came to me (doom, gloom, hopelessness), and when I last saw them (happy, overjoyed, and hope). Most of the time I’ve never advocated for them with anyone else but their own family (and more specifically their parent).

Also, another part of my duties, was to advocate for the newly physically disabled (and for getting the service they need). And I’d agree that the 52% of American’s survey isn’t quite accurate, it’s more of 47.3% from my experience, even so that’s still in the margin of error for the survey. But that 47.3% didn’t survive their battle, not because of complication, rather because of suicide. About 90% of the reason of why the did it was, explicitly mentioned in their final letter that (in one way or another) that they indeed rather be dead than disabled, whether they be a burden on themselves, their families, or other they just couldn’t bear the thought/reality of things.

Again, I’ve another issue with one you statements, somewhere along the lines of the you support the mental help needed, but you also don’t want them taking away benefits from the physically disabled community.

That is actually quite hypocritic statement to make. At least for the bureaucracy, that I’ve been advocating in, there is no distinction or priority given to who gets the fund first between that of mental disability or physical.

Another reason, is, again from my experience (in my work) the treatment for a mental disability is quite exponentially more than it is for a physical disability. The difference is often in the hundreds of millions (even billions for some), as opposed to the hundreds of thousands, sometime reaching the millions, but rarely if ever the billions. Those figures, are of course from a lifetime.

Also, for those who were able to acquire the desired/needed impairment, for the majority them, that I’ve worked with, even ten years latter, yes, that does put my at around age 13 for working (well, volunteering) with/knowing them. What can I say I’m from, a very medical oriented family, and long line at that (since before the 1700′s).

They’ve actually had not required any further treatment, other than the normal physical ones associated with their amputation, and even so, it was drastically less. For a couple of them their time at rehab was for a day or two, for example.

As them for wanting to be on disability, With my experience, they were already on disability, wanting to get of off it (of which they successfully did).

Since there are no distinctions made between the funding of mental and physical disability, you could actually be advocating that they take more away from those with physical disability. Something I think you intended not to do.

As for if there is such a need to became ‘disabled,’ than how come we haven’t done it?

Well, we are not insane (although it may appear like it, just like how it appeared that transgendered/transsexual/gay/lesbian were insane not that long ago). Doing so with trained and skilled hands doing it would, be quite risky in regards to fatality.

While, yes I admit that even if with those skilled hands doing it, the risk of fatality is still there, although mitigated.

There is a cost to benefit analysis going on here. For those who did or are going to do it on there own, the cost-benefit was worth it. The cost of being of (greater) possible death, to the benefit (of ones new and enabled life).

Thus with the train and skilled hands, the cost is significantly less.

As for comparing the oppression of people of different races, yes, you’re right they did work their gluteus-maximus off to get the rights they deserved. Likewise did the Trans-gendered/transsexual/gay/lesbian have (and are doing). Again likewise with the ‘transabled.’ Likewise do all three share the very same resistance towards change. Except for that the ‘transabled’ are working theirs off (and up against a seemingly brick wall).

You have to remember that people shared your very same attitude towards gays/transsexual/trans-gendered (even to those of different races) not less than thirty years ago, even twenty years ago, and even today still.

Oh, how soon do people forget.

As for neurobiofeedback being an option for biid (and like wise not being an option to a transgenedered individual). The same circumstances for that of the transgendered, or at least similar in that at least this condition is also formed in the fetus (more specifically the development of the brain) is seemingly just starting to be explored. And it seems, as if with early indications that their brain (at least in the case for the amputees, both biid and actual). That their [biid] brain doesn’t behave all that differently than that of a congenital amputee (who does not have the experience of a phantom limb syndrome).

Quite frankly, this seems to me to mirror that of another debate that didn’t happen too long ago, which is that of the transgendered/transsexual/gay/lesbian community. And at first indications it seems as if it will play out as such, at least on the biological factor, maybe not on the societal factor. Based on the reaction of a few, especially from those who fought this very same battle not less than two decades ago.

And I mean the very same battle, right down to the people stating they are in need of mental help, and that they shouldn’t get the surgery, right down to being gay not being logical or rational, right down to even institutionalizing some, right down to finding that it is resulting from the formation/structure of the brain etc…

Hopefully those are the few with regards to the ‘transabled,’ as they are now the few in regards to the transgendered/transsexual/gays/lesbians.

Yes, I know this might be a hard story to swallow, (again as it was with the transgendered/transsexual/gays/lesbians in their time). To make things harder, having it come from someone so young, but with a vast experience already in this field (hey, psychologists and the like do claim people with biid tend to be extremely successful ), not to mention with disorders/things usually associated with older people.

-David

Moving on. This is what I had been trying to articulate to myself:

I am a man and was a man without them and before them. This brings up the major difference between transabled and transgendered.

Before transition, life was harder, but I was still a man. I obsessed sometimes over transition, and I think that’s fairly typical, but I didn’t feel that my life depended — or that my identity depended — upon it. It seems from what I’ve read that transabled people feel they can’t live or function without getting treatment, by which they mean having a doctor disable them.

I support the right of any sane adult to have autonomy over hir body, but that doesn’t mean I have to understand or like what sie does with that autonomy.

Another topic I’d really like to see the transabled address is why they prefer certain disabilities — visible ones with no chronic pain, from what I can gather. Degenerative,often ‘invisible’ auto-immune disabilities, like mine, seem to have no adherents. No one “needs” them, from what I have seen. Which is really too bad, as I’d just love to transfer my disability somehow. Living with chronic debilitating pain and no option to quit pretending for a day just might cure the much-discussed overwhelming desire.

#1. The guidelines for transitioning are necessary because there are some people who ARE not really transgendered. They just want to fit in. It happens in the GLB community, too. You know the people who either think its cool to be gay or bi or use it as a fad until they “miraculously” become straight again. I know a few people like that, who “experimented” and some thought they were gay, but they were really just desperate and lonely. The GLB community was accepting, so they clung to that acceptance. I’m not saying all or even the majority of people in the GLB community are this way, but it does happen.

The same is true with the trans community. Transition is a HUGE commitment. It is a lifelong commitment, and therapists need to make sure a person is ready for that commitment. Not all therapists follow this and I’ve had more than a few girls tell me they started on hormones just to transition back to female because they realized they were wrong. They were just confused, not trans. Had their therapists actually spent time talking to them, they might not have been so rash in their decision to give these people hormones.

#2. People with mental conditions are special cases when it comes to transitioning. Sure, some people with mental disabilities like Bi Polar and ASDs could very well be trans, but this needs to be examined closely and more in depth. It’s true, many with these conditions do not understand the long term effects of transition. Additionally, some of these individuals mimic those around them and may think they are trans because they want to be like a close friend or they think they are because they know someone trans they enjoy being around. I’m not saying this is the case for all, but since it will happen in some cases, therapists should use extra precautions to ensure the individual is trans, has a persistent desire to transition and understands as best they can the consequences of said transition. Also, if they are on medication, it may be pertinent to ensure hormone medications don’t counteract with what medications they are on for mood stabilization, hyper activity, etc.

A lot more is going to go into helping someone with a mental condition transition, so no therapist should just hand over a script and say “Here you go. Have at it, Bucko.”

It is coming out that many transabled people who have the surgery, end up regretting it. I saw that very thing on 48 Hours or 20/20. I can’t remember which. So, they are no better or worse after the surgery.

In every person’s story I’ve read about transabled individuals it seems as if BIID is nothing more than a fetish. Do you get horny every time you inject yourself with T (the injection process – not the results of taking T that is), or when you dress up in male clothes? I sure as heck don’t. To me, being transgendered is just who I am. People who are transabled often get hard-ons by being in their wheelchairs, braces, or wearing diapers. That’s NOT the same thing and any comparison to transgenderism is offensive IMO. While cutting off a limb may get their rocks off, the after effects are showing to be a major let down according to people with BIID who have been interviewed on television.

Finally, if they want to have surgery and disfigure themselves, that’s fine. My issue is with them trying to take services those of us born into our disabilities are having trouble getting because once they become “disabled” they will qualify for state funding and those of us taxpayers will all be paying for them to live as disabled individuals. You pay for your transition, that’s right, but you’ll also be paying for the transabled guy for the rest of his life, if he succeeds at hacking off his leg.

I went into this post expecting to be offended on the behalf of transabled people (I’m not transabled myself). I came out of it offended as a transsexual person (and I AM transsexual).

There are no “rules” for being transsexual. If you identify as a sex other than the one you were assigned at birth, and you agree that the label “transsexual” is appropriate for you, you’re transsexual, and that’s that.

If you mean that there are “rules” for medical transition, I would still disagree. There is a set of guidelines (which I personally think are BS, but that’s another story) but the arbiter of who does and does not access transition services is PRIVILEGE. I’m sure you’re familiar with it, since you’re a trans wheelchair user — well, it’s privilege that has prevented God knows how many gay trans people from transitioning medically, or forced them to lie in order to do so. It’s privilege that means that wealthy white people like me will be able to get the hormones and surgery we need, while poor people of color the world over never will. It’s privilege that allowed YOU to transition, and this whole post is dripping with it.

Brandon Teena’s death was his fault because he went to the wrong town and hung out with the wrong guys? Any other dude who did the same thing wouldn’t have gotten murdered! He was killed because he was transsexual, so unless you’re saying he was stupid for being trans… no, either way you come off as a huge dick.

Since you seem to get off on name-dropping all the PWD you know, I’ll do the same. My ex-boyfriend and still-close-friend is seventeen years old. He has Asperger’s Syndrome, just like your son. He is transsexual. He is under a power play from his therapist, who doesn’t want to write him an endocrinology letter because she feels that his Asperger’s might disqualify him from making his own medical decisions, even once he’s 18 and legally autonomous. The idea is that his Asperger’s prevents him from seeing the long-term consequences of transition. Well, guess what? AS makes my friend socially awkward, but it does not mean that he doesn’t know what he needs. It sickens me that people are trying to disempower him simply due to the AS label. It’s ableism in the first degree.

And I feel just as strongly that your assertion that transabled people are incapable of making their own surgical decisions is ableism. Whether or not BIID can be properly called a mental illness, and I believe that it may well be, it is totally ridiculous to then assume that people with BIID have dysfunctional thinking about their own needs. Certainly, people having psychotic episodes should not be allowed to injure themselves; nor should people with major depression be encouraged to commit suicide. But their thoughts are *delusional*: psychosis is being out of touch with reality, and suicidal thinking usually engenders the delusion that life is not worth living. People with BIID have no *delusions* about their status; they do not *believe* that they are disabled. They do *feel* that they need to become disabled, but I see no reason why such feeling is any less valid than my feeling that I need to transition to male. I have a spiritual belief in every person’s inherent worth and dignity, and if affirming a transabled person’s dignity means taking them seriously and letting them have the surgery they want, so be it.