BIID

BIID

            This article was particularly interesting. It offers many different sides to whether or not the way we see ourselves is a disease or a trait that we are born with. The disease that is being talked about in this article called, “Cutting Desire” by Jessie Ellison is know as BIID or Body Integrity Identity Disorder. The meaning of this disease is when someone has a very strong urge to cut off or amputate a perfectly healthy limb or body part. To many people this would seem strange and very absurd but to the people that are diagnosed with these symptoms feel the need to do this because they believe their body isn’t right with that body part attached to their body and once it has been removed they have a sense of relief and feel that is the way they should have been made.

It’s really hard to say what type of treatment a person with BIID should get as mentioned in the article. The first thing I would say is the best treatment to get would be therapy, where you can talk about your problems or maybe figure out what’s the deeper subconscious reasoning for this thought process to occur. That treatment may not work for a more severe case. They normally try to get rid of their unwanted limb in any way possible so talking many not work. This may mean that more invasive methods may need to be taken like getting put into a mental institution before you harm yourself and the people around you. In the article it states, “In studying the hinterland between neurology and psychology, we can tell not just about people with conditions themselves, but how all our brains work.” What this is saying is that now they think patients should go to Neurologists to get treatment because scientists are becoming involved in the situation saying that by studying the brain they can determine if you were born or hard wired with this trait. These are all extremely different treatment methods that could help a patient with BIID are free from their horrible thoughts.

 The idea that someone is choosing to be “disabled” or “handicapped” is kind of heartbreaking to me because I know even though they say they cant help these thoughts it still makes me think of people that are actually disabled. Many people each year are either born disabled or in a freak accident became disabled. I bet if you talked to anyone of those people they would tell you that they would give up anything not to be handicapped. Meanwhile perfectly healthy people are just cutting off their limbs as they please. Maybe if someone that was diagnosed with BIID talked or observed someone that was actually disabled they would see that its not as enjoyable as it may seem.