Any experience with Munchausen Syndrome? (woman, issues, adult, people)
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Has anyone been a friend, relative or acquaintance of someone with Munchausen Syndrome? Where someone fakes symptoms of a serious illness for sympathy or attention?
(Not to be confused with Munchausen by Proxy, which involves pretending a loved one is seriously ill.)
I woman I know, but not well, has told people for the last couple of years that she has an extremely serious illness and at times has appeared to be literally deathly ill.
In the past couple of days however, some people who know her much better than I do reportedly have come to believe that she's not sick and has faked all of it.
I don't know what to believe. If she's faked it, she's good at it because she has looked really awful the last couple of times I've seen her. On the other hand, not all of her story adds up and there are some glaring inconsistencies.
Just wondering about others' possible experiences.
I know I could have posted this in the psychology forum, but this forum gets more traffic and I'm more interested in anecdotes than anything.
Dated a man whose ex was Munchausen By Proxy. She tried to get their son diagnosed with everything under the son (CP, autism, schizophrenia, you name it). But it was very calculated - she kept my ex away from the kid as much as she could and was really looking to get that government check (far more than she would have gotten from my ex's meager paycheck in child support for a healthy kid). In one particularly candid moment, she admitted she was manipulating things. Eventually she lost custody - but ironically, her dramatics left the kid with so many psychological issues I doubt he'll ever be normal. At the very least, he has crippling PTSD.
Was it true Munchausen by Proxy? I've heard it's rare, but she really did crave the attention more than she craved the government check. It was all about the drama for her, not the truth, not the kid. She had a history of impersonating medical professionals as well. I remember asking the social worker in charge of her case about her psych eval and he just laughed - "it's just as interesting as you think it is."
Yes, a teacher I worked with faked being sick with a brain tumor. She had to switch schools after everyone found out. I can't believe she is still teaching.
I haven't known anyone personally, but I suspect strongly that there are a lot of people on my facebook who do this with their pets. I have never seen so many people who have pets with serious medical conditions and disorders requiring surgery, treatments, etc. Of all the cats I have had (and there have been plenty of them), I have never *once* had one that needed an operation or had diabetes or lupus or some other type of chronic illness or disorder.
I think they do it for attention (the people, not the pets).
ETA: I am referring to Munchausen by Proxy not Munchausen.
Interesting...it seems it would be eASIER to have Munchausen and fake your own illness than to fake a loved ones illness for the attention.
In my Mom's case she doesn't FAKE the illness, but she is never happier than when someone is sick and needs caring for. She LOVES the attention she gets while interacting with medical personnel and feeling like she is Florence Freakin' Nightingale. It makes her feel competent. She's been milking my dad's Alzheimers for all the attention she can get.
She has never said it, but I think she wanted to be a doctor.
I haven't known anyone personally, but I suspect strongly that there are a lot of people on my facebook who do this with their pets. I have never seen so many people who have pets with serious medical conditions and disorders requiring surgery, treatments, etc. Of all the cats I have had (and there have been plenty of them), I have never *once* had one that needed an operation or had diabetes or lupus or some other type of chronic illness or disorder.
I think they do it for attention (the people, not the pets).
ETA: I am referring to Munchausen by Proxy not Munchausen.
20yrsinBranson
I've seen this as well. And the vet is always misdiagnosing the condition and doesn't know anything, etc. I always feel sorry for the vet as well as the pet.
Yes, a teacher I worked with faked being sick with a brain tumor. She had to switch schools after everyone found out. I can't believe she is still teaching.
Did she show any physical signs of illness or treatment? Or was it all talk? How was it discovered that she was faking it?
I had left the school around the time that she had the " brain tumor" and was taking time off work to get "treatment". She really painted herself in a corner with the whole dying thing. She had " chemo" and cut her hair really short.
People just took her at her word. She seemed such a dedicated teacher and such a nice person. I think it lasted about three years and she had to keep making it more and more extreme to get a reaction from people.
I think people gradually found out because she lived when she had "terminal brain cancer" and her lies started to unravel. She started telling people different things and not keeping her story straight. One principal saw her out shopping for fun when she was supposed to be getting treatment. The fact that she was getting brain surgery and then coming back to work a week later with no scars or bandages. I don't think it was ever proven 100%, and they just hushed it up and transferred her.
She was eventually moved to another school, and they had no clue. I was at a conference and I mentioned something to another teacher at her new school and I could tell she thought I was making it up. I still giggle at her reaction.
Does faking pregnancies count as Munchausen's? The daughter of a former friend/ex-neighbor used to post fake pregnancies on Facebook. She'd post sonograms (no idea where she got them), say she was having twins or sometimes it was just one baby, but there were never any pics of the baby or babies. (She did this more than once - by my count, there should have been several kids.) My friends who still lived in the neighborhood reported that there was never any baby and the girl would make excuses like "The baby is still in the hospital." I guess some people must have called her on her BS because she switched her tactics to pretending she had been injured in an accident and posting pictures of a broken foot/arm/leg on FB.
I never knew the girl as an adult, but she was extremely attention-seeking as a child. I guess it only got worse as she grew older.
I've known the professional equivalent. One of my clients was a chronic wait-until-the-absolute-last-minute kind of person. She'd call up in an absolute tizzy, we'd move heaven and earth to get whatever done for her, and then she'd tell her higher ups how she'd managed to pull off the impossible. It took a few times to realize what we had on our hands.
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