pure psychosis.

Its all in your head.

The matrix feeling. Is this real, am I here? Is this my body? Blah blah.

In short, you need your body parts, whether you think you don't need them or not.

This is a brain disorder, and I think its a lack of a strong mind.

wow. ok. so 1) ive spent my entire adult life in a hospital as a health care provider. 2) ive spent my entire entire life caring for/surrounded by people with psyciatric disorders

that said. i have no idea how i feel about this. mostly i feel like people should be able to do whatever they want with their bodies as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others. the other part of me knows the consequences of becoming an amputee. and i feel like unneccesary medical procedures are unethical, dangerous to the patient, a huge contributor to rising healthcare costs and happen WAAAAAY more often than you'd think.

i have decided that gastric bypass is mutalation. and also just a bandaid. i have no problem with sex change operations. i am concerned about the implications of making someone who is not disabled, disabled. these 2 people seem to lead productive lives and seem self sufficient so maybe they do not illustrate what concerns me. i know i would be out of both of my jobs if i decided i couldnt live with my limbs anymore, no job because im disabled= momma gets on disability and food stamps and state health insurance! and now me and my 2 children are now a financial drain on society and infriging on the rights of others. selfish. they will undoubtly need help with certain daily functions they probably take for granted now, im pretty sure i would have a hard time finding compassion and patience and time to help a loved one who put themselves in that position in this fashion.

its probably time to reevaluate my positions on medical ethics and gov't assistance.

This is a brain disorder, and I think its a lack of a strong mind.

I've got to say I disagree that it's a lack of a strong mind. It's not like everyday we are all faced by these challenges and we just have to continue and be strong and get through it.
If anything this guy is determined to do what he believes in, as crazy as anyone may think that is, including himself. So that takes a certain kind of strength of conviction to stick by that even though it goes against the grain of pretty much anyone else's thinking.
How many times have you had some crazy thought like this that you've just had to resist no matter how tempting?
It's just not, it's not a tempting thing, like giving into a craving for chocolate. This guy knows that what he's doing is going to make his life difficult, but he still wants to carry it out to fit with his beliefs.
I just don't think you can call this a lack of a strong mind, crazy - yes, disorder - yeah why not? But it's not like this guy lacks some kind of commitment and dedication to what he's doing, is it?
Btw, I just realized I made the assumption you are talking about the bloke called Greg, which is who I'm talking about.

Kinda reminds me of the Capgras delusion, except applied to parts of your body as opposed to other individuals.

Oh and the psychiatrist cracks me up for some reason

it seems that performing the surgery is avoiding the cure of this mental disease. The fact that the pacients want to be amputated as phisically healthy as they are is a sign of that disease and not a matter of medical ethics. next to this , euthanasia shouldn't even be considered an odd choice in the view of medicine and its ethics.

wouldn't it be better to put neurologists looking for brain damage on these pacients? or even looking for worms that control certain basic functions of the brain (which here would be to perceive the body as an integral part of the self)?

the assumption that psychiatry, and any other area of medicine possibly concerned with body dismorphia, is impotent to manage the pacients' integreal health seems utterly easy, careless and cinique (by integral, body is included, since the body suffers as a consequence of several mental conditions, take depression and attempted sucidide for example).

Seems a direct violation of, "First, do no harm."

These patients should have to pay for all medical treatment out of their own pockets, even as citizens in countries with socialized medicine.

They should also be barred from all government aid associated with their condition and barred from suing anyone on account of their chosen "disability".

Even after all that, these patients are making themselves an additional burden on others whether intended or not. A firefighter has to run upstairs in a burning building to save you because your legs were voluntarily removed?

It won't work for me, it says this site is not permitted access to the video. No idea why, people have obviously watched it

>> ^alien_concept:
It won't work for me, it says this site is not permitted access to the video. No idea why, people have obviously watched it


That happened to me too. It worked after refreshing the page.

It's pathetic that we pander to things like this as a society. as far as I'm concerned they should harden the fuck up.

That surgeon who "did a lot of research" was wholly unqualified to create a psychological treatment plan for his patients. He should only have removed the limb after a recommendation to do so by the patient's psych consult. In this scenario, the surgeon would not be in the wrong for performing the procedure, but I'd like to have a chat with the psychologist to see exactly what he or she was thinking.

EDIT: OK, so he did require psych consults. I hadn't gotten that far yet -- what fucking insane psychologists are out there?

It's unfortunate that there are people who suffer from this affliction, they put doctors in a difficult position because I'm sure no doctor wants to cut off a perfectly healthy limb, but some of the past cases of this have gone so far as to sit in garbage cans full of dry ice in order to force the amputation, so I suppose it's probably least harmful to just perform the amputations before the person risks death to force the issue.

I wonder though, when you see pictures of people who have radical body modifications(piercings, tattoos, plastic surgery, etc.), does that person also suffer from a similar disorder, just on a different scale?

@ peggedpea: I completely agree with you about gastric bypass. I hate that it has become such a popular "treatment" for obesity. The ridiculous part is that if the surgery wasn't performed, but the patient was put on the same nutritional regimen the same weight loss would be seen. That's why I think they should require a person to follow the post-surgery diet plan for 6 months prior to performing the surgery so that people would realize it's the alteration of their lifestyle that is the source of the weight loss, not the dangerous and permanently debilitating medical procedure.

My father in law is morbidly obese, and seeking to undergo gastric bypass, but I cannot convince him that it is needlessly risky, and that if he'd just eat healthier/smaller meals, he'd lose the weight. But he'd rather endanger his life, than to voluntarily change his lifestyle. I'm more saddened by this because he's not even 40 yet.

Here is Part 2: http://www.veoh.com/videos/v15551479cZwSqRfT

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