jillio

[quote=Claire_C;852576]Yes, that's fine. Maybe that's it. But there's still no way to make the obsession go away, to date. Even if we knew for sure that was the case, we still are stuck with BIID.

Actually, there is treatment that can reduce and control the obsessive thoughts. You simply have not engaged in finding that treatment.

Because every professional I've ever talked to about it had never heard of it. Because on the BIID discussion groups, that is the case for the vast majority of sufferers. Because scholarly articles written on BIID by the few medical professionals who do so, mention that BIID is mostly unknown in the field.

You are using discussion groups for a treatment that should be undertaken by a psychiatrist, or at the best, a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist working in tandem.

How would other people be able to determine if someone has any one of a myriad of "invisible disabilities" or other mental conditions such as phobias?

That is your problem. Your disorder is one of a mental disorder, and you desire for it to manifest as a physical disorder in order that you be recognized as disabled by the general population, thus putting yourself in the position of receiving attentionand sympathy from others. Generally known as a narcissistic personality disorder.

BIID is determined by an obsessive and irrational desire for disability that goes back to early childhood. If you have that, you have BIID. Like many mental illnesses (such as depression, phobias), you can't "prove" it to anyone. Your behavior and what you say about how you feel is the only proof you can offer to anyone. BIID is not alone in not being provable by objective scientific tests, many common mental conditions are like that. That doesn't make it not real.

The same can be said for any disorder that involves obsession and compulsion. All are treatable. Int he case of this BIID, however, chances are great that you have several concomittant disorders: personality, OCD, and anxiety.

That is precisely the problem. There have been very few, too few. We want more. But it's hard to interest professionals in this topic because it effects such a small number of people and they want their research dollars to go where it can help a greater number of people (understandably). Thus, not much is going on research-wise on BIID. But I wholeheartedly support the concept of independent BIID studies. Bring them on!

Once again, this is a mix on concommittant disorders, not a disorder in and of itself.


I agree, and that is why we want more studies and we SPECIFICALLY want scientific studies done on these people. But so far, no one has conducted such a study. So we rely on anecdotal evidence. That's all we have. But there is something to be said for first-hand accounts.
You want more studies for the same reason that you want to be disabled. Since this is not a diagnosable disorder in an of itself, research dollars will not be spent in researching something that doesn't exist. There has been suffiecient research done on the number of disorders that are comorbind in any such individual, and therefore, there is established protocol for treatment of each of them.


I understand your point. But the issue there is in providing more resources for everyone who needs them. The issue is not that there is a very small population of BIID sufferers whose mental illness requires that they make use of some of these resources. The real issue is providing resources for everyone in the disabled community (and I am including mental illnesses in the disabled community here). Let's not refuse resources to those with mental illnesses, but let's work on improving the availability of those resources for everyone.
Your mental illness does not require that you make use of resourcedc intended for those with a disability of a physical nature. Your disability is of a mental nature, and the resources you need are of the psychiatric variety.


It is not fair to say "a person with Condition X needs a finite resource, so the person with Condition Y just has to suffer." The person with Condition Y also has a right, a real and undeniable right, to aid. People with BIID have a right to therapy. Right now, pretending is about the only therapy that anyone has found. I am open to other therapies that don't include pretending, except that to-date, there are none. Give me some options. Until other therapies are found, we have a right to deal with our condition the best way we can, just like anyone else does.

You do not suffer from a physical disability,therefore, there is no justification for utilizing resources intended for those who do. Simply wanting to suffer from a physical disability as the result of a mental disability is not justification for utilizing these resources. Utilize the resources that can acutally treat your disorder: mental health resources.


That is WAY too simplistic. If BIID were simply a question of self-esteem and a need for attention, it would respond to traditional therapies designed to address these issues. The fact is, it does not. You can work on my self-esteem all day and while I may feel better about myself, my BIID will not go away. If BIID were about self-worth, then explain to me why talk therapy has had so little success with treating BIID.

You need treatment designed to address not just self esteem issues, but the personality disorder,a nd the OCD. You are not neurotic, you a seriously mentally ill.

Besides which, as any person with a disability ought to know, you don't usually get positive, affirming attention from the majority of people who believe you to be disabled. They are either weird with you, or way WAY too sugary sweet, or try to help you when you don't need help, or stare at you like a beast in a cage. If my wanting to use a wheelchair was about self-esteem and attention, I would have abandoned the wheelchair long ago because the attention is far from positive most of the time. At best, it's neutral. But I continue to use the wheelchair, because it's about being myself, and not about how other people treat me.

Being in a wheel chair is not being yourself because you have no physical need for the wheel chair. It is about presenting yourself as someone you are not in order to manipulate others.