Munchausen's Syndrome

[Aztec Triogal]

I find this mental condition fascinating. Basically it's people who make themselves sick to gain attention from friends, family, and hospital staff. It usually includes dosing themselves with drugs/poisons that replicate symptoms of typical diseases. Most people with this condition had some relative when they were younger with a serious disease that garnered that person a lot of attention.

Thoughts?

 

[The Illusive Man]

got one of those type of people at work, in the uk we call them hypercondriacts

they constantly pretend to be ill all the time to get attention and its annoying

 

[Big Casino]

i thought this thread was a piss take at first til i noticed it was in the sleeping forest. Ugh the whole thing is just pathetic really, i mean poisoning yourself to get attention? The people in question must be really needy. Surprising though is the fact thats its an actual mental illness, i dont know anything about it so i try to withhold judging but it sounds more like attention seeking than an illness really.

 

[Jasmine You]

Nyeh, I wouldn't call that s disorder really, just an attention grabber.
Maybe it would be a disorder but the bad thing about that is that sometimes there is nothing wrong with the person, they just plain want attention from others and such. =/
Kinda hard to draw the line between having a disorder and just plain being rude.

~Tifa~

 

[Aztec Triogal]

got one of those type of people at work, in the uk we call them hypercondriacts

they constantly pretend to be ill all the time to get attention and its annoying

Hypochondria is different actually. People who have this typically are overly concerned with their health. They truly believe they have medical issues. Their leg falls asleep and they think they've got paralysis. They get a bug bite and they think they've got a fatal skin rash. They believe they have issues... it's not for attention.

People with Munchausen's know that nothing is wrong with them... but they hurt themselves just to get attention. They physically have to hurt themselves though.

 

[Holmcross]

I've heard of it, and it's really too bad that people need to stoop to that level to get attention. It takes attention and care away from people who legitimately have health issues that need to be dealt with. My brother is just like this, and he's older than me. My sister and I both have Crohn's disease, which is a disorder within the intestines and colon. We have to take medicine daily, visit the doctor regularly, and have intravenous therapy once every 8 weeks. It's sort of painful at times, but I mean, when you're stricken with an incurable disease, you learn to live with it, you don't wallow in self pity. Now, at the same time, people with Munchausen's do deserve attention - but a very different kind. They should be getting social or psychological treatment, learning how to make positive friends and how to be happy about themselves. The type of shoulder they need to lean on shouldn't be the kind they're asking for, but they do need something. Weaknesses come in all shapes and sizes, and every one has the right to be strengthened. If this sort of "syndrome" is diagnosed in someone, I hope that they're being given something altogether different, and have a guardian of sorts to make sure they stay away from anything that could harm them any further.

 

[Shu]

No sir.. I didn't like it.

Well I do believe attention is needed by all in some form of another, but most can do without that type of attention. That kind of makes me sick, but I would hardly give it a psychological medical name. I mean I would just call them crazy. Honestly I think it is more of a psycho-therapeutic thing for them.

You know those pathological liars that dig themselves their own grave. I believe these are them, they need to be on top. Sort of like the lead cheerleader in the high school squad... they need to be heard, need everyone's attention.. or else.

 

[Busta]

I worked with a girl at my last job whom Aztec knows. She was under-age at the time, so we had to give her only like 16-20 hours a week since she was still in High School. However, she would always come into work sick in some way shape or form and want to leave as soon as she got there. I mean, if we would have let her go home every time she did that, she would barely make $5 a month.

I know she did it all for attention, because then our assistant manager who had a raging hard-on for her would take her in the office and talk to her for 2 hours before she would even do an ounce of work. So she got paid for 4 hours of work, but only did 2 since her first couple were sitting in an office telling the manager of how sick she felt. I know she did it on purpose. She was fine once she got out of work. I caught her one day when she got outta work early because of it and I drove by her driving somewhere and she was on the phone having an apparently hysterical conversation with a friend. Didn't seem too sick at all... :/