Body Integrity Identity Disorder has many names but only one meaning. This disorder has been called apotemnophilia and even amputee identity disorder. No matter what the name someone suffering from this disorder decides to use it all goes back to the same meaning. Each of these words used above mean that the individual longs for an amputation. Often times an individual may see someone coming down the street and think “wow, I wish I didn’t have an arm like them.” It may sound kind of crazy to some but this is a legitimate mental disorder. It can be taxing on someone who has become preoccupied with becoming an amputee. Strangely enough they may even pretend to be an amputee by hiding their arms in their shirt or something like that. This often times is just not good enough for the person with biid.
Some individuals may even go the extremes of harming themselves in order to achieve an amputation. When receiving medical treatment they may say that it was just an accident. Maybe they were cutting down a tree and the axe went into their leg and the blood loss was so much that they had to amputate. Another scenario may be that of a person saying they were making dinner or a home improvement project and accidentally cut off their finger. Generally a person suffering from this disorder longs for a bigger amputation such as a leg or arm but having something as small as a finger come off will ease them for the time being.
Unless a person is willing to undergo pharmaceutical as well as psychological treatment there is no other help for them. No doctor will perform an amputation simply because the patient wants it. The patient as they get older may regret their decision and blame the doctor; therefore this is no longer practiced. No matter what you want to call the disorder it all comes back to the longing for an amputation.
