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

[Otterly]

The contrast between Paige and her sister is so striking. One healthy, happy young woman graduating and living her life and the other trying her best to (publicly) self destruct.

Sometimes you find the other sibling also has a problem - when I’ve seen this kind of dynamic, it runs like this;
- sibling 1 is destroying themselves, gets a lot of attention from it, all the stuff we see here.
-parental reaction to any unrest from sibling 2 is to tell them they can’t manage two sick kids. Any acting out is quelled fast. There’s no sympathy for injuries or sadness and they are often not ‘allowed’ to show any negative emotion at all.
-sibling 1 ends up a perpetual victim, wrecks their life and health. Drains the rest of the family. Can never be criticised.
-sibling 2 defines themselves in opposition and is always fine. They end up as high performers because they know that’s the only way they escape. Sibling 2 will at some point face some kind of health crisis and be unable to cope or will allow it to get too far to easily treat because they have that dynamic. They are FINE. They do not get to play the dying swan. They leave the lump until it’s no longer ignorable, or they crash and burn through stress of pushing at work and never failing.

I feel sorry for her sister. I bet she has issues of her own. These people destroy a lot of lives as well as their own and I have no more sympathy for them. Think about Kelly Rohan s sister - she’s got to watch her literal twin rip herself apart. It’s like watching yourself be tortured to death. If she criticises Kelly the family will say she’s being awful. If she has a problem of her own it’ll be ‘oh I can’t cope with two of you being ill!’ The only release is the death of the munchie. They are self centred black holes of emotional destruction

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

This is why people are worried in the Luna/Empathic Nutritionist thread. Luna's little brother Atlas is 5 (?) and there's no evidence of him being able to speak at all, but he does understand verbal language. But that vital window is closing.

Oh jeez, I haven’t followed that thread in a few years and didn’t know he still wasn’t speaking.

If he’s not speaking it’s probably non-verbal autism or some other brain problem. Globyn is a crazy bitch but the kid has been around plenty of people and heard lots of language and conversations. If he’s not speaking there’s some problem but he’s been exposed to everything necessary for critical period language acquisition, so that isn’t the issue. If he demonstrates that he understands verbal commands then he has acquired language, he’s just mute for some reason. (Any indication he reads?)

Language acquisition is so primal a parent would have great difficulty keeping a kid from acquiring it. Like maintaining total verbal silence at all times and never letting the kid hear or see any media (tv, radio, Internet), no books.

Spoiler

Even deaf kids hundreds of years ago managed to acquire language via lip reading, feeling mouths, hand signals and learning to read which I think shows our brains are sponges trying to soak it up via any method the first six years. Helen Keller could understand speech by placing her fingertips on lips or slightly inside the lower lip of people speaking. She also managed to teach herself to speak via mimicking what her fingers felt with her mouth. The insular deaf community turned against Keller about 50 years ago because she supported an oral tradition learning for deaf ppl and didn’t think deaf ppl should be isolated and taught in deaf communities. I found her thoughts on it fascinating

For Keller, learning to speak was a liberating experience, albeit one requiring immense effort on her part. Keller felt that speech would enable her to communicate far more easily with her family and friends. Later on, she explained that speech allowed her to think more quickly (as opposed to fingerspelling or Braille) and made her more useful, since she could interact with far more people.

Mostly that she felt she was able to think faster simply by being verbal. Also I can see why a blind and deaf woman gave no fucks about learning sign language just so she could communicate only with deaf ppl when speech gave her the whole world.

Helen Keller was blind and deaf, but still acquired language and speech. If a kid isn’t speaking by 5 or 6 there is some issue but it’s not due to lack of language exposure during the critical period.

The few examples of severely abused kids that experienced something akin to the forbidden experiment are difficult to ascertain much from. The most famous case, Genie, probably had organic brain damage (possible genetic defects). It was assumed this was one reason she was so mistreated as a child. She was discovered thanks to her mother bringing her into a public welfare office. She was certainly suffered severe depravation and abuse, but she was exposed to language. I never believed she was kept in total silence in that room tied to a potty. I think the horrific and severe abuse plus possible organic brain damage was the real problem. In some ways scientists thinking she was an accidental “forbidden experiment” was a tragedy and a blessing. I think she was retarded. Brain damage was caused by terrible abuse and neglect as an infant and toddler was the main reason she never acquired language. You can argue possibly just the deprivation caused the brain damage and it probably did, but the reports of the beatings the father gave everyone makes me think she was a classic shaken baby and experienced organic brain damage in her first year.

 

[just lurking]

Paige has died. Her sister posted this earlier this week.
View attachment 7400046

Godamn. One of my fav munchies gone. I didn't expect her to actually die so soon

 

[The Hoh Rainforest]

-parental reaction to any unrest from sibling 2 is to tell them they can’t manage two sick kids. Any acting out is quelled fast. There’s no sympathy for injuries or sadness and they are often not ‘allowed’ to show any negative emotion at all.
-sibling 1 ends up a perpetual victim, wrecks their life and health. Drains the rest of the family. Can never be criticised.
-sibling 2 defines themselves in opposition and is always fine. They end up as high performers because they know that’s the only way they escape. Sibling 2 will at some point face some kind of health crisis and be unable to cope or will allow it to get too far to easily treat because they have that dynamic. They are FINE. They do not get to play the dying swan. They leave the lump until it’s no longer ignorable, or they crash and burn through stress of pushing at work and never failing.

If it's the mother that's munching and following the sibling 1 strategy, the kids can all get pushed onto the sibling 2 path, if she doesn't opt to by-proxy any of them.

 

[JacksSenseOfDread]

Yeah, I'm relieved for Paige's family. Don't understand why we had to waste so many resources to get there, either.

Anybody else feel kinda weird after reading the court ruling? Not a legalfag, but are we to assume all of her treatment the last few years was against her will? Just...why? Let her kill herself, ffs. Allowing that isn't some kind of systemic failure, it's reducing suffering...for her, for her family, for the public at large who has medical resources diverted to her instead of for their own care.

I just don't understand the impetus to keep her alive at all costs, including against her own will. Is there a name for that?

Some of it was against her will, but most of it was her choice. I still remember that video she did a while back, in which she had a smug grin while asking a nurse, who was off camera, how long she'd been in the hospital. This nurse, with an exasperated voice, said "8 months" (or something along those lines.) You could tell that Paige was really enjoying her stay, while the nurse was just completely over her bullshit.

 

[glioblastoma multiforme]

emergent consciousness, which can't be detected scientifically... for me at least is strong evidence that the mental world does not exist on the same plane as the physical, there's nothing about the structure of the brain that explains it. But it definitely exists somewhere (cf: Descartes), so that means, logically, that physical reality is not all that there is.

Emergence can be described scientifically, I haven't looked into it in a long time but they were using it to describe phase transitions when I did. So were nowhere near the level of sophistication in our models to get even close to describing consciousness. And I think you're bang on by saying "emergent consciousness," I also suspect there's a few levels of emergence between our aggregate neuronal states and the phenomenon we experience as consciousness. So I don't think we have to go the Cartesian route and call it god.

Most people agree that mathematical truths are somehow "real," but they aren't physical. But axiomatic systems of deduction seem more real than a bunch of symbols that have no meaning. We don't have to resort to some Godelian intuition to explain how we are able to reason with abstract symbols, cos we are just abstract symbols built on abstract symbols.

If you're interested in consciousness and haven't read it, I strongly recommend Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hoftsadter. Its truly beautiful and I think he's onto something with self-referential symbolic systems as a basis for our understanding of consciousness.

Sorry for OT sperg.

I'm neutral about Paige's death, though she was not fat I would not have sex with her, even if she was still alive. Think about all the highly drug resistant infectious material you'd be putting yourself at risk of catching.

 

[GainsGoblin]

If he’s not speaking it’s probably non-verbal autism or some other brain problem.

Of course we don’t get a lot of non-boomerang videos, but he doesn’t really present as autistic. My top theory is that it’s a physical issue from the unnecessary “tongue tie” surgery she had performed on him as an infant. What little noise we hear from him sounds like he really can’t form sounds.

 

[Sailor Kim Jong Moon]

I’ve heard 12 step programs help Munchies? Also, they have a skin pickers anonymous & overeaters anonymous. But being a munchie is a lot more rare than skin picking & obesity - so I don’t know how you’d have a peer2peer support group like that anyway.

Either way, I know in 12 step programs they say there are those that can’t be honest with themselves. They are the “unfortunates” who can’t seem to help it. They were born defective.

Reminds me a bit of Paige.

 

[OBserving from afar]

I browse a few medical subreddits and this woman's tiktok came up for discussion.

She's obsessed with one ER physician who has repeatedly called out her fake seizures, and according to this recording of their conversation she has called the police on him for being a big meanie about her munching.

It's very cathartic and entertaining to hear her being called out for her bullshit.

If anyone more tech savvy than I (which is everyone I think) knows how to archive a tiktok you have my thanks.

 

[vanilla_pepsi_head]

I’ve heard 12 step programs help Munchies? Also, they have a skin pickers anonymous & overeaters anonymous. But being a munchie is a lot more rare than skin picking & obesity - so I don’t know how you’d have a peer2peer support group like that anyway.

Either way, I know in 12 step programs they say there are those that can’t be honest with themselves. They are the “unfortunates” who can’t seem to help it. They were born defective.

Reminds me a bit of Paige.

I don't know, it might work a bit if there was some group-based CBT/DBT type program where the focus is on training these people to resist the default urge to respond to normal "stress" of life events by redirecting the focus to their "poor health" and instead deal with it like an adult. It'd take a skilled wrangler to hold firm and prevent it from degenerating into a retard theatrics competition, but having some self-aware somatizers and health anxiety people in there might keep it civil. Basically similar to anger management, but instead of trying to break the habit of losing your shit at people and ending up fired/arrested regularly, it's about shutting the fuck up about your health problems. Like most therapy it will probably do fuck all for a portion of them, but with the amount of resources pissed away on them you may as well try.

 

[It's Never Leprosy]

Are we sure that's what it is, though? An attempt to arrest development/avoid adulthood? Arguably, most of the women who engage in this are coming from so much privilege that their failure to launch isn't going to result in homelessness, prostitution/addiction or even (gasp) having to work a minimum wage job. Their families will just float them...forever.

And then there are those like Dani who don't come from any privilege, who DO have to work regular jobs, almost to the end that it's to support their munch habit. So it's a spectrum, maybe?

Also, some of them are just hell bent on punishing their physical bodies like the anachans. This body kept me from being a skater/gymnast? Watch me fucking destroy it so you can't judge me for failing.

I'd love to hear Feldman talk more about the recovered, former munchies. If there are any.

 

[S.C.U.D.]

I still find the case odd. I still can't figure out if this started out genuinely as a bad reaction to the covid vaccine/covid itself and she just ran with it, or if she planned this from the start.

She started munching right after she and her husband got married, I've posited earlier in the thread it could be psychologically similar to how dudes troon out on their wives right after tying the knot, something about monopolizing your spouse's attention now that they're committed to you. Dianna was always very careful shilling through this saga, not to say that donating to her Patreon is to help her get better (but still shilling her Patreon so she can get free money), I think she did it for attention at first, saw how much money she made doing literally nothing (see this post for a breakdown of her Patreon growth just from munching), and kept it up as long as she could stand before deciding to move on and "get better."

I think she'll fall back into it when it suits her though, "oh I have a long covid flareup I can't do anything" "sorry husband my CFS is hitting hard right now all I can do is lie in bed and talk to this German dude but not you" plus she makes tons of money doing it.

Also I saw this coming back in December, the "Dianna stood up for the first time in years!" I just knew she was getting tired of it.

 

[gampboonerisms]

I don't know if this was posted here already but I rolled my eyes at this video of Dianne "standing for the first time"

i posted it the day it came out i think. How can a person get married, get /sick/, not lose any muscle mass, and still be able to hold up a switch?

What's funny, in the first 30 secs of the new vid, they throw out ALL off the munchie words. me/cfs, pots, long covid.

some dude killed himself and she's now "better". ok.

 

[Aunt Carol]

some dude killed himself and she's now "better". ok.

obvs she transferred the illness to him and he killed it for her

Alchemy Girl

 

[Lesbian Grandma]

I know this isn't quite the right place since lyme disease is very real, but I stumbled across the reel on Instagram, a woman using honey bee stings to treat her lyme disease. Seems like some woo woo bullshit after some cursory research, allegedly the venom breaks down the outer biofilm of the lyme bacteria and allows treatments to be more effective, but it takes a much higher dose than a single sting and she says the treatment is going to take years. She claims the bees are "end of life" so it's not like she's going to be killing off thousands of healthy bees, but it. still reeks of horse shit to me. Anyone more medically inclined care to weigh in?

 

[Hybrid Icing]

Hmm I could do a quick round of doxycycline or get stung by dozens of bees. Decisions, decisions...

 

[GainsGoblin]

I know this isn't quite the right place since lyme disease is very real, but I stumbled across the reel on Instagram, a woman using honey bee stings to treat her lyme disease. Seems like some woo woo bullshit after some cursory research, allegedly the venom breaks down the outer biofilm of the lyme bacteria and allows treatments to be more effective, but it takes a much higher dose than a single sting and she says the treatment is going to take years. She claims the bees are "end of life" so it's not like she's going to be killing off thousands of healthy bees, but it. still reeks of horse shit to me. Anyone more medically inclined care to weigh in?

View attachment 7407590

Chronic Lyme isn’t real and she’s full of horseshit and bees.

 

[Dr. Butt]

Emma Kennedy [...] For added comedy, she lives with a creepy old troon (her caregiver) that she calls mom.

Hey, if these two ever advertise a room for rent, don't rent it. If they never get a tenant they might have to take each other out instead.

 

[WarpedTourWasFun]

She claims the bees are "end of life" so it's not like she's going to be killing off thousands of healthy bees

Honeybees have a 3-5 week lifespan. They're all "end of life" lmao

 

[failed mist]

I know this isn't quite the right place since lyme disease is very real, but I stumbled across the reel on Instagram, a woman using honey bee stings to treat her lyme disease. Seems like some woo woo bullshit after some cursory research, allegedly the venom breaks down the outer biofilm of the lyme bacteria and allows treatments to be more effective, but it takes a much higher dose than a single sting and she says the treatment is going to take years. She claims the bees are "end of life" so it's not like she's going to be killing off thousands of healthy bees, but it. still reeks of horse shit to me. Anyone more medically inclined care to weigh in?

View attachment 7407590

Kinda looks like she got taken in by some “chronic Lyme” shill and now she’s getting stung by bees as part of a “treatment,” but in a larger sense as a kind of cosmic punishment for being so easily duped.