For centuries, we heard tales or stories about people who tend to remove or mutilate certain parts of their body in order to discourage wrongdoing, as a sign of penitence or, as of now, for medical purposes. One good example is the cutting off of a thief’s one or two hands as a punishment for his or her theft or the doctor’s amputation of a patient’s leg in order to suppress gangrene infection.
Unknown to most of us, there are certain people that are experiencing a rather ridiculous kind of disorder that somehow drives them to remove a certain part of their body. As for this time, this is called Body Integrity Identity Disorder or BIID.
Ridiculous as it may seem, people (a few of them really) with this kind of disorder somehow has a certain part in his or her body that makes him or her feel ‘over complete’. As a result, the person who had this kind of disorder finds ways, seeking a sort of ‘solution’ to his or her problem. If the problem is in his or her legs, they usually go to the doctor to have one or two of his or her legs removed. If the problem is in his or her eyes, they either went about blindfolded or, sad to say, undergo a surgery, etc.
As a matter of fact, this disease is not just ridiculous; it is also very disturbing and unnerving, even in the side of doctors. Just imagine that a healthy patient goes inside your office one day, though being healthy, asking you to remove his or her eyes, limbs, legs, etc. just because he or she feels over complete?
The truth is, it is very difficult to treat BIID. Even though physicians know that it’s more of a mental disorder, prescribing antidepressants or doing psychotherapy is very dangerous since they don’t even have any idea where that disorder originated from. Doctors who encounter patients with BIID often tab them as ‘mere psychotic’, therefore nullifying their consent to undergo surgical removal procedures.