Transabled: Choosing to become physically disabled

[thetalkingasshole (OP)]

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com//news/canada/becoming-disabled-by-choice-not-chance-transabled-people-feel-like-impostors-in-their-fully-working-bodieshttp://dailycaller.com/2015/06/02/meet-the-transabled-able-bodied-people-who-identity-as-disabled/So I really am totally baffled by this

I know its forrealz, that these people are super cereal about this
but I just cant understand it
any part
except that I used to have a wheelchair to roll around in for fun
Which even I feel, now at least, was very distasteful, despite never leaving my room with it

So I dont know that we have many "transabled" members
but I know for a fact we have many members who did not get the choice
And I would like to hear how you feel about this phenomenon

This reminds me of Rachel Dolezal
you dont just get to decide you want any kind of cred a white person
(Or non-disabled persons in this case)
Thinks comes with the adversity you have to deal with on a daily basis as a minority

Here are some links about it
they all came out a few months ago
which tends to happen in online media too
where ten outlets gonin order reporting on the previous story as their own

[Pullmyhair.]

Yeah I don't know how I feel about it. I mean I know there are legit psychological disorders associated with it (it's rooted in the same kind of body dysphoria that transgender people experience). I read this book recently by this psychiatrist where he kind of did a profile of his most extreme patients, and there were several that were experiencing this kind of thing. One guy had always felt his left hand shouldn't be there, and for years he would try to hide it, and he would injure it in hope that doctors would decide to amputate. He eventually cut it off himself. I don't doubt that these people have a strong or overwhelming desire to live that way, but I don't think they'll ever be accepted the way trans people are (starting to be) accepted.

[Junkette]

Man, pretty soon the whole DSM-5 will be pointless. 

But seriously, there is a line that needs  to be drawn between shit that should have never been a mental illness and stuff that is obviously a mental illness. Being gay, not a mental illness. Feeling like you should have only been born with one arm so cutting your arm off, high probability of having a mental illness.

I also find it insulting to trans people that they are calling this phenomenon transabled. It's not only insulting but it insinuates that being transgendered is just grandiose body mutilation. 

Yea know, as someone who was born disabled, I find this asinine and absurd.

[corlene]

I would give the world not be chained to the feeding pump 16 hours a day. I would pay any amount to not be as fucked up I am. You'd have to be nuts to go thru what I do every day.

[Pullmyhair.]

Man, pretty soon the whole DSM-5 will be pointless. 

But seriously, there is a line that needs  to be drawn between shit that should have never been a mental illness and stuff that is obviously a mental illness. Being gay, not a mental illness. Feeling like you should have only been born with one arm so cutting your arm off, high probability of having a mental illness.

I also find it insulting to trans people that they are calling this phenomenon transabled. It's not only insulting but it insinuates that being transgendered is just grandiose body mutilation. 

Yea know, as someone who was born disabled, I find this asinine and absurd.

Whether or not its defined as a mental illness is really a pretty arbitrary distinction. The fact is, these people have to live with it, it's their life, if someone wants to cut off their leg or blind themselves, I don't have a problem with it. Your comment about being born disabled isn't dissimilar from those who say 'as someone who was born a woman, I find transgender people asinine and absurd'. I don't know, I don't think we have to understand it to accept it.

[St. Theresa]

I watched a doc about a guy from iirc Scotland who wanted his legs off below the knee. He was fucking dead serious and hated the fucking thing.

I say do what makes you happy but beware...know what you're getting yourself into.

[Thoms]

I dont have the fucking words.

[skramamme]

I have acquired some mobility issues as well as have being born with hip dysplacia which causes a lot of pain doing normal shit like walking. However, I don't think this is as easily dismissed as trying to gain "cred" or be something they're not. These people go to the extremes of amputating their own limbs in the quest to feel "whole" (and most do if they can manage the amputation).
I think like any significant pathology trying to look at it and grasp from a layman's perspective is unhelpful and potentially damaging.

[thetalkingasshole (OP)]

Im starting a new trans movement

I identify as transsober
I just feel like my brain and body isnt the way it should be
unless I have a decent dose of morphine coursing through my veins


I know body dysmorphia is a very serious and potentially cripplng (pardon the expression) disorder
but I dont think it helps anyone in the transgender community to compare these two things

How does having your biological sex changed compare to self-amputation or mutilation?
Yes, mutilation. Chopping off your own hand, I think that counts.

[nick]

Just another paraphilia-a Mexican doctor(well,he claimed to be a doctor) got bust a few years ago when he accidently killed a guy whilst lopping off his perfectly healthy leg because the guy had always wanted and fantasised about being an amputee.

We're definitely in Kraft-Ebbing territory here,guys.

[thetalkingasshole (OP)]

Just another paraphilia-a Mexican doctor(well,he claimed to be a doctor) got bust a few years ago when he accidently killed a guy whilst lopping off his perfectly healthy leg because the guy had always wanted and fantasised about being an amputee.

We're definitely in Kraft-Ebbing territory here,guys.

Do you mean that by being bothered by this
to the point of trying to turn it into a mental "disorder"
Is similar in regards to Krafft-Ebing calling all non-procreative sex perverse?

I kind of see where youre coming from
but can you explain it more fully?


At what point does a desire for something extra-ordinary for your circumstances
become a psychopathy or other mental disorder?

[nick]

Just another paraphilia-a Mexican doctor(well,he claimed to be a doctor) got bust a few years ago when he accidently killed a guy whilst lopping off his perfectly healthy leg because the guy had always wanted and fantasised about being an amputee.

We're definitely in Kraft-Ebbing territory here,guys.

Do you mean that by being bothered by this
to the point of trying to turn it into a mental "disorder"
Is similar in regards to Krafft-Ebing calling all non-procreative sex perverse?

I kind of see where youre coming from
but can you explain it more fully?


At what point does a desire for something extra-ordinary for your circumstances
become a psychopathy or other mental disorder?

When the abnormal becomes one's norm?   That's an interesting question and open to debate,but one thing I think we can both agree on is, getting your perfectly healthy limb hacked off by a Mexican quack falls on the wrong side of the line.

[Flutterby]

Sorry I am posting in an older thread, but I just saw this and found it really interesting.

So am I to understand that this isn't someone trying to garner infinite opioid therapy or sympathy?

When I first read the article (thanks for posting it TTA), I thought it sounded like Munchausen's Syndrome. But as I read, it sounds more like they just hate their body part so much they want it removed. I guess it comes down to why these people want to remove body parts or paralyze themselves.

I don't understand their thinking, but I believe people should be able to do what they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. I just hope these people realize they could end up in intractable pain from either injuring or amputating themselves, or even if they find a doctor to perform the surgery. Many of us are CPPers that can't conceive of someone making the conscious decision to CHOOSE to do something that might cause them to be in intractable pain.

I also thought it was interesting that the transgender community was lobbying aggressively to have their diagnosis removed from the DSM, while the transabled community wants to be included in the DSM.

* Apologies for the multiple edits, on the phone and didn't proof carefully before submitting. 

[Narkotikon]

Im starting a new trans movement

I identify as transsober
I just feel like my brain and body isnt the way it should be
unless I have a decent dose of morphine coursing through my veins


I know body dysmorphia is a very serious and potentially cripplng (pardon the expression) disorder
but I dont think it helps anyone in the transgender community to compare these two things

How does having your biological sex changed compare to self-amputation or mutilation?
Yes, mutilation. Chopping off your own hand, I think that counts.

I can't give the insight that a transgendered person can simply because I'm not trans. Hopefully some of our trans members will chime in to give a definitive answer.

But in regards to mutilation, there have been transgendered people who have been so desperate to become their desired gender that they have taken the extreme step of performing surgery themselves. Trans women cutting off their penises, for example. I'm not saying doing it yourself is a good idea, or even that it's common. But it has been done before.

It's because the people are so desperate to be who they really are, and having no medical recourse. I don't think the people who choose that action would consider it mutilation though, because they deem the change to be positive rather than negative. Mutilation is usually considered an act of self-harm that is negative, to me at least.

Now if you were talking to a very conservative and / or transphobic person, they probably would consider it negative simply because they consider it an immoral act that they deem crazy and unneeded.

Again, I'm not transgender, so if I'm wrong or totally off base, please correct me.

........................

I can understand why some people would have problems with people who want to amputate their body parts to become disabled. I can certainly understand why it would be a problem for CCP's. I do think it's a good candidate for mental disorder status though.

I also think it's somewhat demeaning to label these people "trans," because it creates negative connotations for transgender people. Trans people are finally starting to be accepted, but it's still a struggle that many face. I think undermining their efforts by having to share the "trans" label is an unneeded setback. It's too easy for some people to lump all "trans" people together (genuine trans and these "trans" people), even if the "trans" label is used to denote two entirely separate, unrelated groups.

What I think is interesting is how insurance providers, the government, and healthcare systems are going to treat these people. Will they receive coverage as a genuinely disabled person would? Would they be eligible for SS Disability Income? And even Medicare as a genuinely disabled person would when they're elderly and retired?

[robojunkie]

Maybe this is a case where the person with this issue ought to be finding a really good therapist and figure out why the fuck it is they hate whatever fully functional appendage or organ so much and why they would seek to have it removed (assuming its not some opioid scam or SSI/disability con).  It clearly is a serious mental illness if real, and I'm not trans or gay, but I would have to imagine if I were trans this would piss me off to no end.  I can get the idea of a person's phyche's gender being opposite of the physically present one and how that would be an irresolvable conflict left as is, as it involves one of the primary emotional and physical senses of oneself.  Having or not having a fucking foot is about being a whole person regardless of gender and wanting to cut off a foot that is healthy and not a source of never ending pain is beyond mental illness and is clearly not something that I would think any ethical surgeon would ever participate in.

I'm gonna claim trans-human and demand neural stem cells and a cranial expansion so I can be more at peace with my alien origins.  At least that's how I feel, so it must be true.  Or maybe the answer is the other way I'll get a lobotomy and be happy with the pointless and unmeaningful pursuits (for me) that most humans engage in.  Yeah, that'll fly I'm sure...