Community Munchausen's by Internet (Malingerers, Munchies, Spoonies, etc) - Feigning Illnesses for Attention

[Phimosis Jonisis]

I’m an ignorant fucker and don’t know shit about anything but can someone enlighten me on something. Paige claims the posts written by her mom are irrelevant because her mom has BPD. Does BPD cause the sufferer to fabricate shit up about their daughters? Please, someone make sense of this for me.View attachment 3253114

Don't trust anyone online that says they have BPD!

 

[January First]

I’m an ignorant fucker and don’t know shit about anything but can someone enlighten me on something. Paige claims the posts written by her mom are irrelevant because her mom has BPD. Does BPD cause the sufferer to fabricate shit up about their daughters? Please, someone make sense of this for me.

"Bipolar" isn't the BPD people here usually mean when they say that, which is "borderline personality disorder". Historically bipolar was sometimes acronymed to BPD, but this is less common nowadays due to the confusion, especially as the symptoms of both overlap extensively and lots of people are diagnosed with both at different times.

I find it perfectly easy to believe Paige's mother isn't a completely innocent victim in the whole thing. That's not to downplay the tragedy -- I've read those posts, and tragedy isn't a strong enough word. But it would not surprise me at all if she was sometimes an unreliable narrator, or if she treated her children in ways that caused them suffering, or if she made it too clear to her kids that she wanted a different life. Seriously awful family relationships in the ways presented there tend to be nasty genetic-environment cocktails where all parties are dysfunctional. People seek clear-cut narratives with heroes and villains, and most dysfunctional families don't have those. It's just a sad story with a lot of lives fucked up and a lot of people going through needless, often self-inflicted suffering.

Paige wants to be seen as an innocent sick girl, and for her to be seen as an innocent sick girl, she has to claim her mother is wrong (whether lying or mistaken) about her having Munchausen's that developed from an eating disorder. Eating disorders, especially the kind that progress to Munchausen's as bad as Paige's, don't tend to come out of nowhere and often tie into dysfunctional family relationships. It's believable that Paige's issues can be traced back through her genetic line. It's not believable that her mother is wrong about what her issues are.

 

[2525ABC]

I have the “can’t reply” glitch going on right now

Omg me too! Do you think some tubie tubes and a service dog meetup will help us recover?

Yeah if you actually have whatever spooky post-infection thing causes real CFS you’ll feel like trash no matter how many walks you go on. If you have depression and are deconditioned you could notice a marked improvement in your stamina and mood and that’s why you don’t even want to try.

Power level, but I have a weird little pre-internet observational study...

So my high school had the mother of all mono outbreaks. (Not me, it was more a thing for people who had friends and opportunities for making out...).
Classes were half empty for months on end, formerly sporty kids would return to school all weak and skinny and pale etc etc. Most were gone for 2 - 4 weeks but as expected a fair percentage had post viral symptoms and were out of school for months / years.

The interesting part was the epidemiology - quite a few stable happy unremarkable kids got the shitty symptoms, but they studied at home, then started back at school part time, gradually got better.

A couple of the stressy overachievers (sports and or academics) pushed themselves like crazy and relapsed. At least one of those was parental pressure, poor thing wound up with horrible grades and barely graduated. Another one seemed relieved because he could finally quit sports and focus on weed and vidya.

And funnily enough the needy dramatic high ego types including our resident pro ana had endless exciting health crises, medical involvement, DRS ARE MYSTIFIED, exotic tubes and devices and attention and the usual munchie circus. At least one of those is still living with parents but she stays off social media and is just a sad shut in.

Not drawing any particular conclusions (at the time I was just a shitty teen and jealous because I had to keep going to class) but in retrospect it was a fascinating little microcosm.

And now there's a new proto munch-fest on my hometown social media groups because everyone saw the Epstein Barr links to MS research and they're freaking out. Not gonna link because most of them are nice people worried about their relatives and the dramatic ones are so far being told to stop fretting and listen to their GPs.

 

[SashaBastion]

"Bipolar" isn't the BPD people here usually mean when they say that, which is "borderline personality disorder". Historically bipolar was sometimes acronymed to BPD, but this is less common nowadays due to the confusion, especially as the symptoms of both overlap extensively and lots of people are diagnosed with both at different times.

I find it perfectly easy to believe Paige's mother isn't a completely innocent victim in the whole thing. That's not to downplay the tragedy -- I've read those posts, and tragedy isn't a strong enough word. But it would not surprise me at all if she was sometimes an unreliable narrator, or if she treated her children in ways that caused them suffering, or if she made it too clear to her kids that she wanted a different life. Seriously awful family relationships in the ways presented there tend to be nasty genetic-environment cocktails where all parties are dysfunctional. People seek clear-cut narratives with heroes and villains, and most dysfunctional families don't have those. It's just a sad story with a lot of lives fucked up and a lot of people going through needless, often self-inflicted suffering.

Paige wants to be seen as an innocent sick girl, and for her to be seen as an innocent sick girl, she has to claim her mother is wrong (whether lying or mistaken) about her having Munchausen's that developed from an eating disorder. Eating disorders, especially the kind that progress to Munchausen's as bad as Paige's, don't tend to come out of nowhere and often tie into dysfunctional family relationships. It's believable that Paige's issues can be traced back through her genetic line. It's not believable that her mother is wrong about what her issues are.

Sound explanation. Thanks

 

[HerbertWest]

and MCAS is a “fuck if we know” diagnosis that no one can even agree on what constitutes a positive test.

MCAS is a weird one. We call it pseudo allergies for most of the time here, because it kinda looks and behaves like a light allergic reaction but without any obvious allergen.
I personally think that it’s a psychosomatic problem as it is often triggered by some kind of stress.

Btw, I finally caught up with this thread, found it via Vampire Kelly (my favourite munch along with Paige ) and whew. I knew those kinds of people existed, I’ve met some and I can usually spot a bullshit but it really opened my eyes and I’ve realised that I’ve got one in my family too. She’s got legit conditions but exaggerates them greatly, adding special and mysterious diagnoses and I never questioned her, because everyone in the family knows that she’s always been ill and it was always a given.
But after reading this thread, I can see the signs are all there and the motives are the same - to feel special and cared for, not having to work, to get asspats, to have something interesting about her. She even has a “mysterious anemia”, is on opiates, has a medical fetish (wanted to be a nurse), black and white thinking, visible glee when describing her ailments etc. And when questioned thoroughly about her conditions, she gives vague answers or gets pissy or both.
So thank you, Kate farms shill and others for your good work.

 

[mooserangerofthenorth]

Given Paiges age they would more likely to for a girdlestone. You basically cut out the femur head. She is walrus that refuses to die.

 

[self-diagnosed dumbass]

I don't know why i can't reply to certain comments. I must be having the same glitch as KFS. But something that is really frustrating is that EDS including hEDS has specific diagnostic criteria. It's not a "catch all" diagnosis. You have to have a lot of other symptoms and health problems to be diagnosed even with the clinical diagnosis. If you go to a geneticist to be evaluated the appointment typically takes like 30 minutes and they go over every body system. They will often take measurements of your body because there's other signs that cannot be faked like having a longer wingspan than height, having long fingers, etc

I don't think it's that the clinical exam, when done by a geneticist, is "too lax." I think what's happening is people are straight up lying about having a diagnosis in the first place. Maybe some are going to a GP who knows fuck all and is willing to diagnose them even though it should really be done by a geneticist. Then there's the naturopaths and other quacks who are just willing to take money in exchange for a diagnosis.

I can always spot the fakers in EDS fb groups because they ask questions like "What symptoms should i tell my doctor?" "Which braces do I need?" "Which wheelchair should I get?" "What medications should I ask my doctor about?" People who really have EDS never need to ask these questions. They also get big mad if you suggest going to a PT and always have excuses.

And I love seeing the excuses people come up with for not being properly diagnosed. My favorite so far is "I have too many symptoms for doctors to take me seriously!"

Seriously. Preaching to the choir, but I've met many a white female in my life that claimed to have EDS and only one of them I actually believe. Said person goes to physical therapy every week and only brings up EDS in the context of their improvements (e.g.- "New exercises are going great! I'm building more muscle strength in X/Y/Z and I haven't had a dislocation in weeks!").
The funniest irl munch I know was a kweer white female who claimed the EDS/POTS/MCAS trifecta and used a wheelchair for years and suddenly when she wanted to do Things again she "cured all her illnesses" by treating her PTSD with a podcast therapist. No, I am not exaggerating. Once every few months I'll see her mention online how she "used to suffer from all these illnesses and was in a wheelchair for years, and with the help of (podcast link) I have cured myself and do ballet and pole dancing and travel all over the world!!!!!!!!"
Absolutely insane behavior. Fun to watch from afar.

 

[HerbertWest]

The thing that sucks the most about these EDS munchies is that they are a very bad influence. I can imagine a young female with vague symptoms of pain, fatigue, brain fog and lets say nausea. This poor girl doesn’t know what’s wrong with her, so she googles a bit and finds this whole community and latches onto it instead of being treated properly for psych problems and somatisation which is the root of the problems in 99% cases, after the docs ruled out any serious physiological causes.
It’s anxiety and depression most of the time, with a bad upbringing in the mix.
Another thing is that psychosomatic illnesses have a bad reputation and stigma going with it , especially in female patients. They are scared of being labelled as crazy and rightfully so, but that’s a system issue imo.

 

[Kate Farms Shill]

The thing that sucks the most about these EDS munchies is that they are a very bad influence. I can imagine a young female with vague symptoms of pain, fatigue, brain fog and lets say nausea. This poor girl doesn’t know what’s wrong with her, so she googles a bit and finds this whole community and latches onto it instead of being treated properly for psych problems and somatisation which is the root of the problems in 99% cases, after the docs ruled out any serious physiological causes.
It’s anxiety and depression most of the time, with a bad upbringing in the mix.
Another thing is that psychosomatic illnesses have a bad reputation and stigma going with it , especially in female patients. They are scared of being labelled as crazy and rightfully so, but that’s a system issue imo.

Thus why is posted Katie Stanina. She was that perfect mix of clinical low IQ, psychosomatic symptoms, and genuine but not yet dire illness to get sucked into this shit and it almost killed her. It might still kill her. She accidentally admit her MCAS was psychosomatic when she started reacting to things that didn't exist. Like she claimed to react to sudden weather changes and then reacted to the news of an approaching hurricane - except it never hit us.

Most of them I don't feel bad for, though, like Cheyanne who I think is totally aware she's lying or my next one who is also a fucked around/found out. I don't think those girls are somatizing. I think they're lying and that even if they do have some psychosomatic component that is causing real symptoms they aren't ever going to accept that's the answer because they want to be sick and they want to be sick with those specific illnesses no one can tell them they don't really have.

 

[Thomas Eugene Paris]

Oh man, I’m gonna laugh my fuckin’ ass off if she’s in for a hip disarticulation. Fuck around and find out, stupid fucking munchie bitch.

Hemicorporectomy or GTFO

 

[lolcow yoghurt]

Given Paiges age they would more likely to for a girdlestone. You basically cut out the femur head. She is walrus that refuses to die.

Explain for us non-medfags?

Hemicorporectomy or GTFO

Would hemicorporectomy make her a higher munchie from Kelly?

 

[OK_Cogitator]

Explain for us non-medfags?
Would hemicorporectomy make her a higher munchie from Kelly?

Its a removal of everything from the waist down. It's not very common, and is extremely radical.

And I'm fairly sure a full torso beats a pair of legs, but I don't play cards.

Edit: mobilefaggotry

 

[Thomas Eugene Paris]

Would hemicorporectomy make her a higher munchie from Kelly?

Yes, she would win the munchputation contest. Hemicorporectomy is an amputation of everything from the waist down.

 

[Cold Waffle]

Explain for us non-medfags?

From Dr. Google:
"Named after Gathorne Girdlestone, a professor of orthopaedic surgery from Oxford, the procedure involves removing part of the ball of the thigh bone or femur, allowing it to fuse with the hip socket (acetabulum) in the straight leg position."

"Girdlestone resection arthroplasty of the hip will cause shortening of the affected leg, often by several inches, and patients who undergo the procedure will not be able to walk unassisted. As such, this is considered a “salvage” procedure meant only to improve one's quality of life by way of providing pain relief."

 

[lolcow yoghurt]

From Dr. Google:
"Named after Gathorne Girdlestone, a professor of orthopaedic surgery from Oxford, the procedure involves removing part of the ball of the thigh bone or femur, allowing it to fuse with the hip socket (acetabulum) in the straight leg position."

"Girdlestone resection arthroplasty of the hip will cause shortening of the affected leg, often by several inches, and patients who undergo the procedure will not be able to walk unassisted. As such, this is considered a “salvage” procedure meant only to improve one's quality of life by way of providing pain relief."

Paige can grift the hell out of it if they go with this procedure.
I don't think they'd do hip disarticulation.

 

[Kate Farms Shill]

Paige can grift the hell out of it if they go with this procedure.
I don't think they'd do hip disarticulation.

Nah from what I saw it was a pocket of infection in her thigh and the "surgery" is just going to be to clean it out?

 

[OK_Cogitator]

Nah from what I saw it was a pocket of infection in her thigh and the "surgery" is just going to be to clean it out?

I mean I can't really think of anything else they'd be spurred on to do now besides that. I'm assuming that's all they'd offer her, as with her aggressively obstinate noncompliance I don't think the kiwi nhs would grant much else beyond "simple" excisions. But who knows, the baby docs start down there in June as well, maybe a new ortho wants to practice on her.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

She accidentally admit her MCAS was psychosomatic when she started reacting to things that didn't exist. Like she claimed to react to sudden weather changes and then reacted to the news of an approaching hurricane - except it never hit us.

That was hysterical.

 

[Systems All The Way Down]

Chrysmuu is a cosplayer and massive weeaboo from Maine that claims to have Tourette's and Functional Neurologic Disorder.
She has nearly 450 thousand followers on TikTok, despite being routinely "censored by the algorithm because she is disabled."

She's often thought to be one of the few TikTokers who aren't actually faking their condition, likely due to being in early on the wave of Tourette's fakers and having a (seemingly) supportive family. I remember seeing some videos of her floating around on /r/fakedisordercringe and/or youtube cringe comps in 2020, and many people would come to her defense. Recently, she's been showing up in my recommended feed, so I decided to check in on her and see how she's doing.

Spoiler: Not well, it turns out.

January 2022

In this video, she's in an electric scooter, she has a toob, her tics are violent and debilitating, she has coprolalia, she screams, she deepens her voice, and all sorts of things. To a layman like me, this is a fairly convincing depiction of severe Tourette's, but it's markedly different from what I remembered her content being.

The first post on her TikTok was made in August 2018. I've found plenty of evidence of deleted comments of hers, so I'm sure she's gone back and cleaned up her page quite a bit. Still, what is there is telling.

Spoiler: Part 1: Humble beginnings. Sept 2018 through May 2019.

Spoiler: September 2018. Singing and playing guitar.

I've heard plenty of stories of people with Tourette's having their tics subside when concentrating on tasks like playing musical instruments, so I don't find this unusual. In fact, she's strangely talented.

Spoiler: October 2018. Fine physical movement, no tics.

Still, she could have just done many takes and done her best to suppress her tics. But plausible deniability is the name of the game.

However, she has a weird fascination with medical stuff already. She states in multiple places that nurse Miku is her favorite cosplay, and she dons a lot a kawaii pastel goth syringe / menhera iconography and fashion.

Spoiler: Cringe nurse Miku TikTok

The first few videos where she tics are voiceovers of cosplay tutorials uploaded in January 2019.

Spoiler: First tics. She can't help but laugh at herself.

Spoiler: Increasingly high-pitched animu noises.

Spoiler: Increasingly catgirl themed as well,

Chrysmuu is frustratingly vague about her diagnoses and what's going on in her life. This is definitely alluding to her getting a fresh wheelchair, but AFAIK, she doesn't give any further details at the beginning.

She posts some more at the beginning of April, and her ticks are notably more violent than what we've seen so far.

Spoiler: Lots of gasping, yelling.

Spoiler: Ticing on camera for the first time with some very visible self-harm scars.

Spoiler: Loli squeal tics in loli cosplay from a lolicon anime. Very casually mentions her new wheelchair.

Spoiler: Shows up to Anime Boston as promised, but... without her wheelchair?

And we finally get an explanation for why she's in a wheelchair.

Due to Tourette's? Alright, I guess. A quick google confirms that collapsing tics are a thing, so, sure, fine.

Spoiler: Tiktok wheelchair dance

Spoiler: Tourette's education

This feels like a pretty authentic fusion of her spasms and cutsey vocal tics, but it's still pretty over-the-top, especially since we know that she can tic much, much less than this.

Spoiler: Part 2: The N-Word saga. October 2019 to September 2020

Spoiler: Trying too hard to look deranged, which is admittedly pretty deranged.

At the beginning, she mews something that sounds pretty close to "nigga," but seems like it could easily just be weird noises. She got very little flak in the comments, but this ended up being one of her most viewed TikToks (and likely most viewed at that point).

Spoiler: N-Bomb confirmed

Spoiler: Scolding her audience for trying to cancel her and being ableist

Spoiler: Rapid-fire N-Bomb

I guess she didn't get enough attention, because a month later she does a series of minute-long AMA videos. She manages to say "nigger" in almost every single one.

Spoiler: Week long break after getting banned.

Spoiler: Transcript

I logged in one day and it said that due to multiple community violations- WHCSPHSTPH- which there were none-- I was banned for a little over a week.

I didn't upload the entire AMA, but her only defense of uploading videos of her saying "nigger" is that she "can't control her tics." It takes many, many people asking her why she uploaded the videos anyways before she said that she didn't notice that she said that word in them.

She goes on one spiel where she now attributes her wheelchair to Functional Neurological Disorder instead of Tourette's. So, instead of it being the case where her tics prevent her from walking, she supposedly has weak muscles and fatigue. A quick google of FND shows that it's very often just conversion disorder.

Spoiler: The video.

Spoiler: Educational video with 11 million views where she screams, 'FAGGOT.'

The video was uploaded Jan 1st 2020, a little early for widespread masking in the US. She was also wearing it in one or two other videos uploaded around that time. I haven't found any explanation from her for why she was wearing it, though.

Around this point, Chrysmuu has started posting to Instagram too. She doesn't ever really say much though.

Spoiler: Very happy to be upgrading from a manual wheelchair

Another development in her personality! Now, she's VERY gay, and she has a quirky tic where she says, "MICHAEL JACKSON"! Funny how this cropped up around the same time that "beans!" and similar rAnD0m tics got popular.

Spoiler: Also, TikTokers are literally being persecuted by Trump

Spoiler: PART 3: MUNCHIE TIME. Sept 2020 to today

So, up until now, Chrysmuu was a pretty stock TikTok mental illness faker. The wheelchair is a step above, sure, but it's also so in-line with cutsey hospital aesthetics that it doesn't feel like it's a symptom of anything more than immature attention seeking.

This changes when Chrysmuu claims to have had seven grand mal seizures in a day and displays some pretty extreme, fake autism-esque tic episodes. She also seems to be doing weird "little" roleplay shit, but this doesn't persist (thank god).

Spoiler: Lots of grunting, squeaking, and flailing.

This supposedly leaves her with dystonia in her arm/hand. There were signs of it before, but it is markedly worse after this incident, and she doesn't start specifically complaining about until this as well.

Spoiler: Playing guitar while standing in the shower, with caption

(Sorry for no sound. Couldn't find it to re-record it, for some reason.)

Spoiler: I'm pretty sure this video made the rounds in cringe spaces.

Spoiler: Long post describing her arm condition. States she really likes nurses 'for some reason!'

Spoiler: Suspects dysautonomia, a form of which is our beloved POTS.

Spoiler: Drawing attention to her weight loss.

Spoiler: Dystonia and a new, very annoying tic

Spoiler: 'I personally go in and out of paralyzation and loss of sensation'

Spoiler: #gay #lesbian #abrosexual

Even though she was standing in the bathroom for long enough to play guitar, she apparently can no longer stand to reach shelves or get into a car.

Spoiler: Demonstrating the lift function on her wheelchair

She tells a story where she kept ticcing the word "nigger" in college, and she had to confront the guy. The story is retarded and likely made up due to some really weird details in it (she had to write to communicate because she was too nervous to talk), and the fact that she's clearly reading it off of something, but she looks positively miserable in the video itself. It's hard not to feel kind of bad for her, honestly.
Oh yeah, and now she has a feeding tube for some reason.

Spoiler: The story. September 2021

And now she's mad that people are saying her tics sound cute, even though she hasn't addressed this at all in the years prior, despite it being far, far more common than other comments she's addressed many times.

Spoiler: Mad

Spoiler: Comments on the NJ tube

She doesn't really clarify anything for real, but she does finally talk about it. It's possible that she could've said more about it the comments of other posts, but I'm too lazy to go through every one.

She decides to start a crusade.

Spoiler: I love to cook even though I can't eat!

Spoiler: Custom My Melody NJ Tube backpack

Honestly, if it weren't for the NJ tube, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable posting her here. I can find so little information about who she was before she started posting on TikTok that I'm really only relying on her word. Her behavior is fishy as hell, but it's not inconsistent with that of somebody who has severe psychogenic neurological issues and really likes attention. But there's just too many red flags, too many implausible and popular tics, and too much escalation,

Anyways, to finish this all off, here's a clip of an interview she was invited to do by a literal who. Some cringelord with a cartoon YouTube avatar that she likely knows through her cringe boyfriend. It's about 45 minutes long and she goes very long stretches without ticking much, probably because she can't do another take when she realizes that she was too busy talking to remember to tic. When she finishes a spiel, she seems to suddenly remember that she's supposed to be *very ill*, and she has overcompensates to catch up. Then, when she's a sentence into her next answer, the tics cease again.

Spoiler: Interview clip

Spoiler: Bonus: Her boyfriend is a furry, and a very cringe one at that.

Art Chrysumu made for him.

Spoiler: No, this is not especially old.

Art made by a friend commemorating when the lovely couple met at a con:

Spoiler: keyblade miku and dapper sylveon

One of the worst unironic profiles I've ever read

Spoiler: Seriously, it's bad.

Anyways, reminder to donate to her GoFundMe!

Her sister set it up as a surprise! Pay no mind to the fact that Chrysmuu was posting a barrage of TikToks complaining about how inaccessible her house right before the GoFundMe went up.

 

[LemonsFromTheSun]

View attachment 3246503
Slow Claps
What a performance
Love the music choice and making sure mom records the whole thing because you're SO BRAVE
I don't believe a moment of this.

Is this the dumb bitch who claims locked in syndrome? Maybe it’s just my delicate womanly heart but it feels very ill-timed for her to be posting this when someone who actually DID have locked in syndrome was found dead due to medical neglect recently. (Warning, the article is graphic and not for the faint of heart. Also sorry bc NYPost.)

Edit: sorry, I guess she was found dead at the beginning of the year. Her parents were just recently charged though.