FAQs and Misconceptions

What does the dysphoria feel like?

Like watching maggots crawl in your skin. There is something where there should be nothing. It fills a person with dread and disgust. Some days are worse than others but it never goes away forever.

Is receiving a need the best way to treat BID?

This is a question that can only truly be answered by the individual whos life it affects, but the people who have achieved their need show improved mood and report higher quality of life.

What if someone's BID starts targeting something else after achieving their need?

While BID is not always static, the sufferers who have dynamic needs are usually aware of it, and know the baseline of needs they should treat. But for most people with BID their needs do not change and dysphoria goes away after achieving their need.

That's scary.

This is often the first thing heard when a sufferer tells someone they have BID. It is important to remember that this is their reality, and it is the dysphoria that hurts them, not the desire to treat their BID.

"People with BID are irrational"

People with BID are capable of making decisions that would be best for their quality of life. If they decide that life without a disability is better than a life free from dysphoria then they may choose to not pursue their need.

But similarly they are capable of looking at the places they could never go, the things they couldn't do, the weird looks, and the physical pain of disability, and then look at the emotional pain of dysphoria. They can look at all that and decide that the BID is worse, that it would be best to pursue their need. It is a decision that is informed and rational, and a decision only they are able of understanding the scope of.