Daily Caller News Foundation

North Carolina Woman Identifies As Blind, Pours Drain Cleaner In Her Eyes

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Blake Neff Reporter
Font Size:

A woman in North Carolina is attracting media attention for telling her story about pouring drain cleaner in her eyes because she identifies as a blind person.

Jewel Shuping was born with perfectly healthy eyes, but she told Barcroft TV in a recent interview that growing up there was always something missing.

“By the time I was six I remember that thinking about being blind made me feel comfortable,” she said. She fantasized constantly about losing her vision, and spent hours staring directly at the sun after her mother warned her that it would damage her eyes.

At first, Shuping simply pretended to be blind, going about with sunglasses on, her eyes closed, and using a cane to navigate. She also became fluent in braille. But after a while, that just wasn’t enough. (RELATED: Why CAN’T Rachel Dolezal Be Black?)

“By the time I was 21 it was a non-stop alarm that was going off,” she says in the video. So, she did the only rational thing: She got a sympathetic psychologist to pour drain cleaner in her eyes.

“I laid down on the sofa, and he sat next to me, dropped two drops into each eye,” she says matter-of-factly. “In the moment, all I could think of was ‘I’m going blind, it’s going to be okay.'”

“When I woke up the following day, I was joyful, until I turned on my back, opened my eyes, and could see the TV screen,” she says. Then, thankfully, over the next six months her eyes gradually failed due to the damage, and Shuping was finally blind like she’d always dreamed. She says she has no regrets.

“I really feel this is the way I was supposed to be born, that I should have been blind from birth,” she told Barcroft.

Shuping initially told family members her blindness was due to an accident, but they later found out the truth, and both her mother and sister cut off contact.

Officially, Shuping’s desire to be blind is labeled body integrity identity disorder (BIID), an ailment where people with healthy bodies strongly desire a disability. Most of those with the disorder seek to amputate healthy limbs, though, while Shuping’s desire to mutilate her eyes is less common. Those who seek to become disabled in this way often are described, and identify as, “transabled.”

Shuping is willing to admit that her self-mutilation stems from a disorder, and she says she hopes others don’t follow her path.

“Don’t go blind the way I did. I know there is a need but perhaps someday there will be treatment for it.”

Follow Blake on Twitter

Send tips to blake@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Blake Neff

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel