A woman wanted to be blind, by the time she reached 20 she actualized her dream

Jewel Shuping

A woman who dreamed of being blind arranged to have drain cleaner poured in her eyes to fulfil her wishes. Jewel Shuping, 30, from North Carolina has Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), a condition in which able-bodied people believe they are meant to be disabled.

Her desire to lose her sight was so strong that she decided to blind herself - by having a sympathetic psychologist pour drain cleaner into her eyes. Telling her shocking story, Ms Shuping said her fascination with blindness began early in childhood. 

When she was a teenager she started wearing thick black sunglasses and got her first white cane aged 18 before becoming fully fluent in braille by the age of 20. 'I was 'blind-simming', which is pretending to be blind, but the idea kept coming up in my head and by the time I was 21 it was a non-stop alarm that was going off,' she said.

Determined to turn her dream into a reality, Ms Shuping found a psychologist willing to help her become blind and took the necessary steps in 2006. They first put in numbing eyedrops - which Ms Shuping picked up during a special visit to Canada - followed by a couple of drops of drain cleaner in each eye.

It is not known if the unidentified psychologist is facing prosecution for their actions. Ms Shuping admitted the process was extremely painful. 'My eyes were screaming and I had some drain cleaner going down my cheek burning my skin. 'But all I could think was 'I am going blind, it is going to be okay.'

Medics at a hospital tried to save her vision, against her wishes, but they were permanently damaged.

But it took about six months for the damage to fully take effect.

Ms Shuping said her delight went to disappointment when she opened her eyes and realised she could still see. 'When I woke up the following day I was joyful, until I turned on to my back and opened my eyes - I was so enraged when I saw the TV screen.'

However, over time her eyesight diminished to nothing. Her left eye suffered a 'corneal meltdown' - collapsing in on itself and requiring the eye to be removed - while her right eye had glaucoma and cataracts, and a webbing of scars. Ms Shuping's family have disowned her after learning it wasn't an accident.  Dailymail