Hello, Please allow me to join this thread at this late stage. I wouldn't intrude on your site, except that you are discussing BIID, a condition I have been living with since the age of 3 or so, and I'm now past 40. I have been an active advocate in the BIID community (for what there is of it anyway), and have spoken to many of the few researchers in the field, including Dr. Michael First, who as you may know is the chief editor of the DSM.
I run two websites about BIID. One is more of a resource site that lists most of the research and academic publications on the topic, with some comments about each, an FAQ, etc. The other is a multi-authored blog discussing the experience of living with BIID. There are over 650 posts going back 10+ years. I do not say this to brag, simply to give you an idea of where I come from when I answer the questions and comments
Such details like Dopamine on effecting Schizophrenia, or like the enlarged cavities of the ventricles in the brain for Schizophrenics. Or how lithium can be used as a treatment for Bipolar Disorder. Stuff of that nature... I don't know the details for BIID in that regard.
Unfortunately, there has been no form of psychotherapy, psychiatry, talk therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy that has managed to affect BIID. Further, no course of prescribed medication has done a single thing to help with BIID. There hasn't been systematic research into this, but anecdotal evidence gathered from dozens of people who have BIID show that treating BIID like OCD doesn't work (my personal experience of Anafranil 220mg/day for 6 months also agrees). Anti-depressants don't touch BIID. Anti-psychotics either (and it is worth nothing that the medical consensus is that transabled individuals are not psychotic nor dellusional).
The fact is, today, there is only one known solution to make the BIID go away - surgery. But that isn't available to us, no surgeons are willing to do it.
The motivations of each are different. GID sufferers are seeking to have consistency between their body and brain. BIID sufferers are seeking to identify, physically, with the disabled.
Captain, I'm sorry to contradict you, but your understanding is innacurate. BIID sufferers want to get to one point, and one point only. We want to align our psyche with our bodies. Unfortunately, the psyche isn't responding to any methods, we are therefore left with changing the body. It is not a question of identifying with an outside group, it is a question of internal identity and body-image.
GID sufferers have been proven to have a genetic component, when post-mortem exams are done. BIID sufferers do not.
Yeah, but... The only reason that there is no such data is because the research hasn't been done. I'm not saying that there necessarily *is* genetic component, but I'm saying you can't argue that there is NOT. We simply do not have the data to state categorically one way or the other.
For what it's worth, Dr. V.S.Ramachandran (a world reknown neurologist) and Dr. P. McGeoch at the University of San Diego in California have uncovered incongruities in the MRI brain scan of several individuals with BIID that they studied. The research has not been released yet that I am aware of, but having participated in the study myself, I know that they've found something.
GID sufferers want to cease to be ill, and be healthy by enter the non-transsexual world, living as person with the sexuality that matches their brains. BIID sufferers want to cease to be ill, and become ill in a different way, becoming disabled.
This statement shows a misunderstanding both of BIID and of the experience of living with a disability. BIID sufferers want to be whole, and the only way to accomplish that at this point is by removing limbs, doing spinal cord transections, etc. We are not after "illness", nor even "disability". We are after having an impairment. If society makes that impairment disabling, then, we have to put up with that, but becoming "disabled" is not the goal. I made the previous statement assuming that you are aware of the differences between social models and medical models of disabilities. If not, a primer can be found on my site:
Impairment vs. Disability - BIID-Info.org
GID sufferers gain the ability to interact with others in a way that it is gender-consistent with their brains. They do not gain understanding of the gender they become; they already understand it. They only gain normalcy. BIID sufferers gain understanding of the disabled, being unaware of the experience.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here... What we gain is a feeling of wholeness, of rightness. When it comes to interacting with other people, we can do it from a position of internal and emotional strength.
The main component for GID is NOT genetalia alteration. It is gender alteration, which encompasses many aspects. The main component for BIID IS body alteration.
Well, not really. We do not seek body alteration. We seek to align our psyche with our body. The fact that the only way to currently do this involves body alteration is nearly irrelevant.
GID has components that are easilty distinguished from other disorders. From post-mortem exams, our understanding of brain chemistry, and new information on the formation of gender, the components of GID are distinct. BIID has components that are fairly indistinguishable from OCD and self-injury. Needs for acceptance, reduction in anxiety, fixated thoughts are all components of other disorders.
You're mixing and matching stuff here Captain, don't confuse the issue. People who have OCD don't do the things they do because of a need for acceptance. Self-injurers are repeaters of actions. Those of us with BIID who have managed to acquire the impairment they needed saw their anguish and need gone overnight. They state, almost universally that the only thing they regret is to not have done it sooner.
I'll give you that BIID might *look* like other conditions, such as BDD (anorexia for example), but there are some quite distinct differences.
Sufferers of GID have a brain-chemical component that makes them a different gender from this standpoint. BIID sufferers are intensely envious of the disabled. There is nothing in brain-chemistry or biology that makes them disabled.
As stated earlier, there is evidence of neurological changes in the brain of people who have BIID. There is also changes in skin conductivity above the required level of amputation/injury and below it - something that apparently can't be faked...
GID sufferers who receive SRT, alter their body to match their brain-chemistry/biology. BIID sufferers who have an amputation, are not biologically pre-disposed in any way to be disabled. This the important distinction, so I will repeat it. GID sufferers are predetermined to have a biolgicial component that makes them a different gender than what their biology presents. BIID sufferes have no predetermined biological component that makes them disabled.
That is, indeed, one of the strongest arguments here "against" BIID. There is no "natural biological state of being an amputee or paraplegic". But then, there are many congenital conditions that have people born paralysed (CP, Spina Bifida), or amputees (technically not amputees, but missing limbs). It is not inconceivable that our brain's body map has something screwy, for whatever reason, that makes us see ourselves the way we do. The fact that "disability is not a natural state" (even if you buy that argument) doesn't make the condition any less real or disabling.
Also, there is may be a political bent to some of the original research into BIID. I must further explore this.
Of course there is a political bend to the research into BIID. Researchers need to be funded, funders have political leanings. Doh! Doesn't mean that research is not appropriate.
If you're serious about reading up on BIID, I invite you to spend some time on biid-info.org. If there are papers there that you can't get your hands on, or papers that have not yet been uploaded, please feel free to contact me directly and I'll pass them on to you.
I invite anyone who is genuinely interested in learning more about BIID to come by my blog,
transabled.org Blogging about BIID and read up there, and contact me by email
Contact transabled.org Blogging about BIID
Cheers