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

[TismFarmer]

I followed someone on Instagram who claimed to have Munchausen. Their name even had munchie in it. No idea where they are now, but they had quite a few followers that copied them.

Diary of a Munchie Kid?
Then someone other one like that, I don't think she was too far in, just dipping her toes in the water, and she got scared off when nobody sugar coated her likely future.
Hopefully anyway.
Otherwise she was just making it all up.
If she was just a LARPer, who cares what she's doing now...

 

[Zemblan Physics]

Regarding the differences between a munchie and a malingerer, I've known a guy for a long time who developed extreme hypochondria after a routine surgery had a bad outcome. He gets worked up about minor things like insect bites, but he's one of the realest guys I know and I 100% believe him when he says he really does feel the symptoms, even though all evidence points to psychosomatic. He doesn't get anything out of it like fun drugs or attention, just crippling anxiety and befuddlement from doctors. It's really distressing to witness to be honest and I get worried he will be labeled a malingerer because he really does need real (psychological) help.

If the pain isn't really there and it's just your anxious mind causing it, does the difference even matter to you personally? It sounds like hell to me. Not that this applies to any of the subjects of this thread. I just have slightly more empathy for legitimate hypochondriacs after meeting one (and more distaste for malicious fakers)

Sounds like health anxiety, or "illness anxiety disorder" in DSM V-lingo. It can be pretty debilitating but if there's some insight CBT might be helpful.

 

[Lolzalolol2324]

I can’t quote or reply for some reason, but “I have a lot to do today before I get sick” was good ol’ Dani Marina. It was info from the Discord-leak KFS posted a while back:
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/munch...ers-munchies-spoonies-etc.29936/post-20040686

I’m mainly posting this because the receipts are glorious and worth seeing/revisiting since it includes the notes documenting her FD in her chart. I think of her whenever the distinction between hypochondria/FD/malingering comes up.

 

[Hybrid Icing]

It can be pretty debilitating but if there's some insight CBT might be helpful.

A good way to tell if you've been on the Farms too long is to answer the question "what was your brain's first interpretation of 'CBT' in this sentence?"

I have been on the Farms too long.

 

[Oracular Slug]

A good way to tell if you've been on the Farms too long is to answer the question "what was your brain's first interpretation of 'CBT' in this sentence?"

I have been on the Farms too long.

You've only been here 4 years, implying you did not know the other meaning until then? You sweet summer child. Anyone else remember BME's CBT "era"?

 

[muhStarbucks]

It can be pretty debilitating but if there's some insight CBT might be helpful.

Also CBD.

I always wonder if the doctors aren’t explaining the conversion disorder/FND to the girls properly. They hear “it’s in your head” as in “you are making it up”, rather than having it explained that “yes, your pain receptors are actually activating but the cause is a subconscious psychological reason and therapy will work better than drugs”. Would never have believed it myself if I didn’t have ‘stress’ as one of my 3 migraine triggers. All I could think was “there is no way with this much pain”. Have also seen others get weird food allergies/inflammation from work burn out.

 

[Jupiter Doughnuts]

I don't love how conversion disorder and straight up faking are so muddled together, but it seems like the simple conversion people are pretty damn quiet relative to the ones with munchie/malingerer/attention seeking tendencies.

A massive portion of the population gets acid reflux or nausea related to stress, and it's not hard to understand that extreme mental distress could be expressed in other seemingly physical symptoms, and that various psychological interventions can help.

I have a personal cow who has serious mental health issues from some shitty childhood and teen experiences (suicides in the family, immediate relatives who were kidnapped during overseas deployments, sexual assault). She developed conversion disorder and now has tics that include screaming the N word, PNES, and difficulty walking. She got into the Tumblr world and got a service dog and wheelchair and a huge illness identity. I don't think she's straight up faking or doing it for attention on any kind of conscious level, but it's this mess of serious psychological issues and a disability identity that turns into a depressing self-reinforcing cycle.

 

[Potato Burrito]

I can’t quote or reply for some reason

Quotes/replies are disabled for long posts per Dear Leader's wishes.

Never fear, you can still quote or reply to the long post by highlighting an area of text. A small box will pop up below the highlight allowing you to choose quote or reply.

 

[WarpedTourWasFun]

Diary of a Munchie Kid?
Then someone other one like that, I don't think she was too far in, just dipping her toes in the water, and she got scared off when nobody sugar coated her likely future.
Hopefully anyway.
Otherwise she was just making it all up.
If she was just a LARPer, who cares what she's doing now...

Yes!! That's the one.

 

[PinkDancingDogs]

I think we all can see that these women have to varying degrees health anxiety, potentially conversion symptoms, outright fuckery with tests, addiction to social currency associated with illness roles, and often in the end real physical problems caused by unneeded meds and surgeries (plus a hefty dash of personality dx). These are girls/women that take honestly minor things like being more flexible than peers, getting hives after showers, being blotchy randomly, or reynauds and turn those possibly annoying but not life altering experiences into pathology. There's a lot less of one category excluding the other than current diagnostic options show imo.

The problem for doctors and even friends and family of these people is that sometimes the true solution for a lot of problems is eat better, stop the meds, sleep better, move more, and focus on things outside yourself--but no one wants to hear that. We want to go to the doctor be told it's not our fault we feel this way and pick up a bottle of magic at the pharmacy that will make us feel good. And obviously doctors don't want the liability or unsatisfied customers, so they tend to do that. It's an unfortunate cycle for which I don't have a real answer.

I have a personal cow who has serious mental health issues from some shitty childhood and teen experiences (suicides in the family, immediate relatives who were kidnapped during overseas deployments, sexual assault). She developed conversion disorder and now has tics that include screaming the N word, PNES, and difficulty walking. She got into the Tumblr world and got a service dog and wheelchair and a huge illness identity. I don't think she's straight up faking or doing it for attention on any kind of conscious level, but it's this mess of serious psychological issues and a disability identity that turns into a depressing self-reinforcing cycle.

I would be willing bet that you friend/cow is absolutely consciously choosing to say nigger as a "tic" and that social media helped her develop her problems. That's not to say she doesn't have real shitty memories of bad things that happened or doesn't suffer--I don't know her or whether those things really happened. Run fast and far from cluster B people.

 

[Jupiter Doughnuts]

I would be willing bet that you friend/cow is absolutely consciously choosing to say nigger as a "tic" and that social media helped her develop her problems. That's not to say she doesn't have real shitty memories of bad things that happened or doesn't suffer--I don't know her or whether those things really happened. Run fast and far from cluster B people.

She's more like a acquaintance of former friends- I can see her social media presence and read it with popcorn, but I don't actually interact with her in any way thank god. Her seizures/tics give much more of a like person possessed by a demon appearance than any of the clips I've seen here. The various childhood issues (besides sexual assault) are verifiable from normal family members profile histories.

Maybe I'm too gullible but I do think in her case it's legitimate conversion/subconscious as opposed to scheming manipulation.

 

[fagnarok]

She's more like a acquaintance of former friends- I can see her social media presence and read it with popcorn, but I don't actually interact with her in any way thank god. Her seizures/tics give much more of a like person possessed by a demon appearance than any of the clips I've seen here. The various childhood issues (besides sexual assault) are verifiable from normal family members profile histories.

Maybe I'm too gullible but I do think in her case it's legitimate conversion/subconscious as opposed to scheming manipulation.

Fair enough, and certainly generous of you, but also the manipulation is not always the result of deliberate scheming on the part of the manipulator. It usually isn't even conscious.

Some part of the lizard brain discovers, "when I go floppy and start yelling 'nigger', people stop telling me to get my shit together!"
They might not then consciously decide, "I'll use going floppy and yelling 'nigger' to get out of everything I don't want to do from now on!" Or even realize that's what is going on.
But the effect is the same.

Just like Pavlov's dogs never formed the conscious thought, "that bell ringing means it's dinner time!" But they still started drooling whenever that ding-a-ling dinged ... if that makes sense.

 

[Kufungisisa]

Agony Autie psychosis arch in the wings?

Describes seeing hundreds of people with the same "twisted distorted monster face" in a shopping centre 14 years ago:

Spoiler

Goes on to say she experienced this for 3 days (long bloody time to be in a shopping centre).

Spoiler

Answers a question on psychosis while admitting she is not remotely qualified. Why would anyone ask her advice on psychosis anyhow, she definitely makes these questions up.



Estimating from this post about the pregnancy and the date of her scan:



This would be her second NHS scan ('20 week scan' actually between 18 and 21 weeks).



She is likely due late May.

 

[LonesomeDud]

Rose is really dead? Now that's commitment to a bit. I can't even stick to going to bed at a decent hour.

 

[Otterly]

Hypochondria. Being convinced you are ill when you are not. You do not have symptoms and it's entirely psychological.
2 - Facticious Disorder. You are a hypochondriac but have real symptoms that are psychosomatic. You are not ill but you really do feel pain/breathlessness/tachycardia.

Hypochondriacs genuinely worry and believe they’re unwell.
Facticious disorder is munching.
Someone with severe health anxiety is unwell, just not with the things they worry about. They often seek reassurance obsessively and then you’re segueing into the pure O form of OCD. There’s a lot of overlap with hypochondriac behaviour and health anxiety and ocd.
And yeah, stress can harm you. Stress kills - chronic stress is linked to all sorts of very negative outcomes. Our bodies and minds are linked. Some people feel sick or get ulcers with stress, some get high blood pressure and lack of sleep then reinforces all that.
The big difference is probably that people with health anxiety don’t want to be sick whereas munchies revel in it

Would never have believed it myself if I didn’t have ‘stress’ as one of my 3 migraine triggers

A huge part of migraine is emotional. Oliver sacks wrote a very good book on this. Physical triggers are one side but emotional triggers like stress or ‘unusual’ emotions (good or bad!) are absolutely triggers for many people. Great book, well worth a read

 

[Polychromos]

Hypochondriacs genuinely worry and believe they’re unwell.
Facticious disorder is munching.
Someone with severe health anxiety is unwell, just not with the things they worry about. They often seek reassurance obsessively and then you’re segueing into the pure O form of OCD. There’s a lot of overlap with hypochondriac behaviour and health anxiety and ocd.
And yeah, stress can harm you. Stress kills - chronic stress is linked to all sorts of very negative outcomes. Our bodies and minds are linked. Some people feel sick or get ulcers with stress, some get high blood pressure and lack of sleep then reinforces all that.
The big difference is probably that people with health anxiety don’t want to be sick whereas munchies revel in it

I've met a bunch munchies (mostly old ladies with fibro or celiac) and also two hypochondriacs. On paper it might sound similar but there is such a big difference between "I want to be acknowledged as sick" and "I'm desperately afraid of being sick". One of the hypochondriacs was diagnosed with OCD and it was really obvious. They technically knew, that there was nothing wrong with them, but they couldn't help their anxiety and obsession. They were obviously embarrassed about it. Something you never see in a munchie. Even if it's just OCD, it's a lot easier for me, to excuse wasted resources for someone like this, who tries to get better, than someone who plays pretend for ulterior motives.

 

[prolific_mango]

Agony Autie psychosis arch in the wings?

Describes seeing hundreds of people with the same "twisted distorted monster face" in a shopping centre 14 years ago:

Spoiler

View attachment 7010049

Goes on to say she experienced this for 3 days (long bloody time to be in a shopping centre).

Spoiler

View attachment 7010051

Answers a question on psychosis while admitting she is not remotely qualified. Why would anyone ask her advice on psychosis anyhow, she definitely makes these questions up.

View attachment 7010095

Estimating from this post about the pregnancy and the date of her scan:

View attachment 7010195

This would be her second NHS scan ('20 week scan' actually between 18 and 21 weeks).

View attachment 7010232

She is likely due late May.

Oh good, pre-launching the post partum psychosis. God I hope she doesn’t kill the child.

 

[Fat Black Woman]

I really don't think Autie experiences psychosis except maybe as an extremely transient symptom of her incredibly obvious BPD due to her total inability to emotionally regulate. She has always wildly exaggerated and been a huge larper. This is just another ploy to get attention because apparently being pregnant with a very ill-advised baby isn't enough. Nothing ever is for Autie.

 

[Adrenochrome Dreams]

Someone contacted the coroner in Rose's county. Seems to confirm she is indeed deceased. Rest in piss, you creepy fuck.View attachment 7002142View attachment 7002141View attachment 7002143View attachment 7002144

So if Rose was under hospice does that mean she genuinely had some kind of illness?

Or did she induce or fake symptoms that effectively that she convinced the hospice?

But then how did she die? Was it a kind of suicide? Or accidental death from going too far?

The coroners obviously believe whatever diagnosis she had on paper and aren’t aware of her munching and disability fetish.

 

[Drive-by Farts]

As for the hypochondria vs munchie…
Hypochondria = that feeling you get after researching your cough on WebMD
Munchie = faking a cough to get out of school

But just stretched to being a mental illness rather than a one time thing.
I also suspect hypochondriacs aren’t the ones making their social media presence about their symptoms since their perceived/imagined illnesses fill them with very real dread. They’re more likely to be making occasional frantic sounding “uhh I have this symptom is it normal?” type posts, follow ups might include “Good news guys! I went to the doctor, it was nothing!” Whereas with a munchie, the ENTIRE account will be about their illness and they will be smug-mugging in at least some of the selfies.