Some healthy people wish to be amputated because they have a syndrome called Identity Disorder and Body Integrity. In this psychological disorder people, despite being apparently healthy, are not happy with their own body and want to amputate an arm or leg, or even become blind.
These people have shown dissatisfaction with their own body since childhood and this can lead them to cause accidents to lose the part of the body that they feel is 'left over'.
How Identity Disorder and Body Integrity Appears
This disorder presents the first signs in childhood or early adolescence, when the individual begins to talk about their dissatisfaction, to pretend that the member does not exist or to feel attraction to people with disabilities. There is still no cause for this problem, but he seems to be linked to affective disorders in childhood and the need to draw attention.
Because their brains do not recognize the existence of any part of the body, such as a hand or a leg, for example, they end up rejecting the limb and wanting it to disappear. People with this disorder often engage in extreme sports or cause accidents to try to lose the unwanted body part, and some individuals do limb amputation alone, which carries high risks of bleeding, infection and death.
Treatment of Identity Disorder and Body Integrity
Initially, treatment for this disorder involves therapy with the psychologist and psychiatrist, and the use of medications to try to control anxiety and identify the problem. However, this disorder has no cure and patients continue with the desire to lose a specific part of the body until this happens.
Although the surgical treatment is not recognized, some doctors support the decision and amputate healthy limbs from the body of these people, which are said to be performed after surgery.
How to get along with people with Identity Disorder and Body Integrity
Relatives and friends of people with Identity Disorder and Body Integrity need to understand the disease and learn to live with the patient. Just like individuals who wish to change their sex, these people believe that only a removal surgery is the solution to the problem.
However, care must be taken so that individuals with this disorder do not cause accidents on their own or amputate the limb without medical help. Also, it is important to note that some people after the amputation surgery have the same problem in other parts of the body.
Here are the precautions you should take after your amputation:
- How to take care of the amputation stump
- How is life after amputation?
- How to get back to walking after amputation
