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

[Dawdler]

I think there’s also bit of a fuck you to society going on: they think it makes them aspirational to not conform to the 9-5 grind and spend all their time celebrating “disabled joy” or whatever the fuck.

Disney tickets are like 150 USD per person. It's not a cheap option

 

[Sammies#1Fan]

Disney tickets are like 150 USD per person. It's not a cheap option

They probably have annual passes.

Spoiler: Relevant PL

I pay like $63/month and I have some blackout dates. I go fairly often, mostly to Epcot to try all the food and drinks at the festivals. Occasionally to the other parks. But I like to munchie hunt too, hoping to spot one of our princesses in the wild.

 

[Polychromos]

I think it's also because Disney used to have really extensive accomodations for disabled people and they used to never question the disability of a person.
So it was the perfect venue to get a ton of attention.
They cracked down on the munchies about a year ago, because groups of like 20 people used the disabled status of a single person to always get in front of the line, in combination with other munchie annoyances. Now it's apparently a more complex process and they won't give you a free for all. Especially for issues, which should prevent you from riding most of the rides anyways. So I think today it's a combination of Disney adult arrested development and the memory of what it used to be like in the past.


@Endangered Species List made several posts about a Facebook group of people with supposed disabilities, who want to sue Disney for the changes of their policy. I only linked one, because I'm lazy, but they're all worth a read. Lot's of people complaining about having to wait in line for the most insane reasons

Hello everyone I am back with another update to this. Things have developed into a lawsuit, something that the DAS Defenders have been claiming to work on for years ever since the DAS changes were made (see my original post that I’m replying to).
Facebook post
View attachment 6972935View attachment 6972936

Spoiler: Law firm’s instagram

https://www.instagram.com/mccunelawgroup
They’re exactly the kind of law firm that one would expect to be interested in a case like this
View attachment 6972952

pdf of the google link attached, maybe if there are any law kiwis lurking here they can give us some insight into how this might play out.

 

[Sammies#1Fan]

I think it's also because Disney used to have really extensive accomodations for disabled people and they used to never question the disability of a person.
So it was the perfect venue to get a ton of attention.
They cracked down on the munchies about a year ago, because groups of like 20 people used the disabled status of a single person to always get in front of the line, in combination with other munchie annoyances. Now it's apparently a more complex process and they won't give you a free for all. Especially for issues, which should prevent you from riding most of the rides anyways. So I think today it's a combination of Disney adult arrested development and the memory of what it used to be like in the past.


@Endangered Species List made several posts about a Facebook group of people with supposed disabilities, who want to sue Disney for the changes of their policy. I only linked one, because I'm lazy, but they're all worth a read. Lot's of people complaining about having to wait in line for the most insane reasons

OMG yes, my Facebook is full of them complaining in the Disney groups. Apparently they have their own separate groups just for the DAS complainers but it still spills into the regular groups. Annoying AF.

 

[Polychromos]

OMG yes, my Facebook is full of them complaining in the Disney groups. Apparently they have their own separate groups just for the DAS complainers but it still spills into the regular groups. Annoying AF.

If you can do it without outing yourself, I would absolutely love some screenshots. Disney adults in crisis are defeneatly a guilty pleasure of mine.

 

[Potatis Salad]

They probably have annual passes.

Spoiler: Relevant PL

I pay like $63/month and I have some blackout dates. I go fairly often, mostly to Epcot to try all the food and drinks at the festivals. Occasionally to the other parks. But I like to munchie hunt too, hoping to spot one of our princesses in the wild.

Whether or not you're spotting fan favorites in the flesh, are munchies a visible phenomenon at Disney? They're few and far between in my area but as clockable as troons when you spot them.

 

[Sammies#1Fan]

If you can do it without outing yourself, I would absolutely love some screenshots. Disney adults in crisis are defeneatly a guilty pleasure of mine.

I'll see what I can find. Maybe I'm just jaded now but any time I see a DAS complainer I always assume munchie.

Whether or not you're spotting fan favorites in the flesh, are munchies a visible phenomenon at Disney? They're few and far between in my area but as clockable as troons when you spot them.

I haven't seen any of our lil sickbed princesses but any time I see a youngish girl with accessories or a dog I wonder. Again, probably jaded. They don't frequent Epcot as much...Magic Kingdom is way more munchie friendly in my opinion, because of the more child-like atmosphere.

 

[alogatog]

I haven't seen any of our lil sickbed princesses but any time I see a youngish girl with accessories or a dog I wonder. Again, probably jaded. They don't frequent Epcot as much...Magic Kingdom is way more munchie friendly in my opinion, because of the more child-like atmosphere.

Magic Kingdom is fitting for a fantasy i suppose.

If you can do it without outing yourself, I would absolutely love some screenshots. Disney adults in crisis are defeneatly a guilty pleasure of mine.

If there isn't already a thread for disney adults, there should be

 

[OrSoHelpMe]

Disney Adults thread

 

[Accidental Protege]

The english sweat would be a good one. Although perhaps not, you tended to be better or dead within hours and where’s the months of attention in that?

The sweating sickness is such an interesting topic. Do you have any thoughts on it or recommendations for further reading? Most of what I’ve learned seems to boil down to “probably a hantavirus but no one knows for sure.”

 

[Otterly]

The sweating sickness is such an interesting topic. Do you have any thoughts on it or recommendations for further reading? Most of what I’ve learned seems to boil down to “probably a hantavirus but no one knows for sure.”

I don’t buy hantavirus, personally. The sweat disproportionately hit the rich. It’s absolutely fascinating stuff but remember that everyone’s got an axe to grind and a pet theory when they talk about these past plagues. I’ll have a look and see if I can pull up some further reading if I’ve got time today

 

[InternetDramaFillsTheVoid]

Once one CI “influencer” started to get noticed for going to Disney, they all started doing it. I’m sure someone like Kate Farms Shill could probably map out how the Disney contagion has spread over time.

I’d love to find out who Patient Zero is for the Disney World obsession.

 

[Otterly]

The English sweat;

Spoiler: Spergery:

OK so the English sweat is basically a short, very fast onset sickness. You’re dead or going to live in a day. Very sudden onset of sweating, high fever, cardiac palpitations, and people literally just dropped dead. Or started pissing gallons and got better.



Some interesting things about it.

-there were five main epidemics

-the disease hit the English really hard. There were very minor outbreaks on the continent but nothing too bad. This was a disease associated with the English

-Sweden and Denmark and Russia got hit too.

-The disease appeared irregularly, in summer and apparently after hard rains (suggests that the weather was a factor somehow, perhaps in crop fungus or mouse or VOLE explosion.)

• outbreaks moved west to east. This is important because flu and almost all other pestilences moved east to west, it suggests an origin in the west, rather than the typical flu or other horror which originates around the levant, crimea or china and moves westwards.
• There was a thing called the Picardy sweat but it wasn’t quite the same
• It predominantly killed healthy and RICH young men, 20-45 sort of age. -The monasteries were badly hit hit
• It didn’t seem to hit very young children or the very elderly.
• No rashes or buboes are recorded. The Picardy sweat did have rash
• Never really happened in Scotland or wales. Contemporary writers mused that the tall fair haired races were susceptible
• Getting it and recovering provided no immunity at all. (Argues against a virus.)

Arguments for a hantavirus.

Well it could have been one, but they don’t kill that fast, not the ones we know. Hantavirus is more like feeling like you’ve got a bad flu, then pneumonia then dead.

• seasonality. Could be associated with a mouse vector.
• Polyuria on recovery
• -difficulty breathing
• -occurrence after flooding suggests a vector that wasn’t usually around humans but was displaced.

Against hantavirus. Too fast, The poor would surely have been affected more, being in the fields, and children, playing in the floor in the dust and inhaling dust from rodent poop would have been too.



Other possible causes.

1. Anthrax. This is possible, but anthrax gives skin lesions and these weren’t widely reported (some apparently had black spots but not all.)
2. A mosquito bourne arbovirus. Possible as well, especially after reports of flooding or hard rain before . Doesn’t explain why children and the elderly didn’t get sick
3. Ergotism - fits with the rains, sudden onset, and recovery and no immunity, but not other features
4. Something tick bourne
5. Something food related - might fit with the demographics, if it was a food consumed mainly by higher status people.

No explanation is very satisfactory. If it was a virus endemic to the uk, why was it only seen in such restricted outbreaks and disappeared?

Mozart, by the way, is supposed to have died of the Picardy sweat or similar.

I’ll do encephalitis lethargica later, because I’ve just had some thoughts about covid and I want to think them for a while

 

[Aunt Carol]

No explanation is very satisfactory. If it was a virus endemic to the uk, why was it only seen in such restricted outbreaks and disappeared?

You know, this would also be a fun gimmick for a pulp time travel novel. Everyone knows not to go kill Hitler, the Time Research Bureau sends back drones to get good footage of Ancient Greek poetry readings and close the case at Hinterkaifeck, but then someone fucks up investigating the death of Mozart and you can crib half the rest of the story from Outbreak.

 

[Not_a_Doctor]

The sweating sickness is such an interesting topic. Do you have any thoughts on it or recommendations for further reading? Most of what I’ve learned seems to boil down to “probably a hantavirus but no one knows for sure.”

This Podcast Will Kill You has an episode on it

TPWKY Sweating Sickness

If you check out the episode page they have an extensive list of references on both the historical and biological context.

 

[Less Nasty Old Person]

On a different topic, has anyone been following the mushroom trial in Oz? Short version is 50 something Mum allegedly poisons relatives with foraged death cap mushrooms. Turns out, on top of being an alleged murderer, she also faked cancer! She announced that she had ovarian cancer and had had a biopsy recently, and even discussed whether or not to tell her children.

...

If you haven’t been following it, it is well worth a google.

Yes, Erin Munchcow Patterson! As of the end of the trial, she has munched the following:

1. Bulimia
2. Ovarian cancer
3. Multiple Sclerosis
4. Mushroom poisoning
5. And probably more I may have missed

She's a 50 year old cow who let herself go and weaponized her grudges against husband and his family. She's also an incompetent murderess. The trial and commentary about the trial have been the highlight of my year so far.

 

[Not_a_Doctor]

Yes, Erin Munchcow Patterson! […] The trial and commentary about the trial have been the highlight of my year so far.

It has been a ride for sure! She is so obviously guilty. I was amused by her attempting to cover up her weight loss surgery by pretending it was cancer, and then it turned out she was lying about that too and it was actually liposuction she was after

Spoiler: Mushroom Madness

From ABC

“Ms Patterson told the court that during the meal, she led her guests to believe she might be needing treatment for ovarian cancer when that was not the case.

She said that was because she was to embarrassed to tell them the truth: that she was planning to have gastric-bypass surgery later that year and wanted to know they would be there to support her.

She later conceded under cross-examination that a clinic where she had told the court she was booked in for a gastric-bypass pre-surgery appointment months after the lunch did not in fact offer gastric-bypass surgery at all, telling the court that she did not know this when she made the appointment in 2023.

Her defence barrister, Colin Mandy SC, later highlighted to the jury that the clinic appeared to offer liposuction in 2023, and Ms Patterson told the court that this was also a procedure she had been investigating.

Dr Rogers put to Ms Patterson that she used a series of lies to lure her guests to a deadly meal, which she had also hoped her estranged husband Simon would attend.

"I suggest that you never thought you would have to account for this lie about having cancer because you thought that the lunch guests would die … and your lie would never be found out. Correct or incorrect?" Dr Rogers asked Ms Patterson.”

The photos and court pictures of her are equally amusing. See some below the spoiler for anyone interested.

Spoiler: Woe is me, Erin P

 

[Spunt]

That drawing looks like if Edvard Munch painted the Mona Lisa.

 

[Equus quagga]

The Zeebs™ (Christi Mercer aka The_Rad_Zebra) is at it again — to be honest, she never actually stopped. Since the introduction post less than two months ago she has cranked out an eye-watering 427 TikToks. That’s not a typo. Seventeen of them were posted in a single day (April 25), and she’s held steady at an average of 8 posts per day. She’s missed exactly zero days since July 14, 2024 — yes, she is barreling toward an entire year of daily content with the manic energy of someone being chased by a deadline and a diagnosis.

But hey, who needs rest when there’s attention to harvest?

When we last checked in, she had convinced her husband (or as she calls him, her “caregiver”) to bleach her hair — a task she apparently can’t manage herself due to "not being able to hold her head up," or whatever vague affliction she’s claiming that week. Shockingly, the bleach sat too long, and the result was a fried mess that looked like overcooked angel hair pasta left in a tanning bed.

Spoiler: bald headed melt-down 2.0

Naturally, the bleach disaster was short-lived. On June 7, 2025, Christi dramatically shaved her head, citing — yet again — that her “hair hurts.” Girl. Your hair doesn’t hurt. Your scalp might be protesting after you doused it in chemicals and raked it with a brush like it owed you money, but let’s not pretend this is some rare medical phenomenon. You're not Patient Zero in the war against follicles.

But don’t be fooled — this wasn’t just a meltdown-in-motion. It’s conveniently timed. Zeebs has her SSI/SSDI disability hearing on Monday, June 16. And what better way to present yourself as a tragically fragile uwu spoonie than to walk in freshly shorn, pale, and ready to perform your Sad Sick Girl cosplay? The timing isn’t suspicious at all. Totally natural progression. Definitely not manipulative.

And while we’re on the subject of manipulation: this girl’s entire medical persona is built on contradictions. She’s said — repeatedly — that she doesn’t have bipolar disorder or fibromyalgia. And yet, those are the exact conditions she’s banking on to get approved for disability. She’s swapped out diagnoses like they're seasonal nail colors, curated a rotating carousel of vague symptoms, and built a whole aesthetic around being the sickest girl on the internet without actually having anything objectively verifiable. Just a 1,000 page tome of vague, subjective, and self-reported symptoms.

Because at the end of the day, Christi doesn’t want actual professional help. She wants a following and that sweet sweet ketamine. She’s not managing an illness — she’s managing a brand with a side of addiction. A brand built on hospital bracelets, unnecessary lymphatic pumps, and crocodile tears filtered through soft lighting and lo-fi TikTok tracks. Did you peep the @The_Rad_Zebra merch in her head shaving ritual?

Spoiler: accusations of munching

The backlash against Christi's ever-growing list of dubious diagnoses is picking up steam — and it's clearly getting under her skin. More and more users are calling out the sheer absurdity of her claims, raising eyebrows at the impossibly long list of overlapping, vague, and often mutually exclusive conditions she parades around like merit badges. They’re questioning her unhinged and conflicting claims of MCAS, HSD, fibromyalgia, insomnia, tinnitus, pelvic floor dysfunction, dyspareunia, “unspecified headaches,” nausea — basically every symptom you’d expect to find on WebMD after typing “Why do I feel weird?” Commenters have rightly pointed out that many of these “conditions” are self-reported, lack formal diagnosis, or are conveniently unverifiable — which makes sense, considering she’s more interested in castor oil packs than proven medicine. One incredulous commenter asked if we’re all just forging medical documents now. Others called out how her former alcohol abuse and obesity can exacerbate many of her supposed conditions — a point she predictably ignores in favor of blaming it all on elusive, untreatable, rare diseases only she seems to have.

And what does Christi do when faced with these completely valid criticisms? She doesn’t clarify. She doesn’t provide medical proof. No — she posts a self-righteous "clap back" about how dangerous it is to accuse people of “faking illness” and how it’s a privilege to be a voice in the chronic illness community. Girl. Please. The only thing you're a voice for is performative martyrdom. Instead of addressing the very obvious holes in her narrative, she plays the victim card — again — as if being mildly questioned about her ever-shifting symptoms is a hate crime. She claims to want to “spread positivity,” but the second anyone doubts her, she melts down like it’s a personal attack on her entire existence. Which, to be fair, it kind of is — because without her fabricated illness identity, what does she have left? A ring light, a TikTok account, and a burning need for validation.

She’s the SHE-EO of performative suffering. And on Monday, she’s bringing her one-woman show to a courtroom near you.

Spoiler: i warned you

this woman is obsessed with telling us about her poonanie and putting things inside it

Especially for issues, which should prevent you from riding most of the rides anyways

Disney adults have always stuck out to me for this reason. People suffering from debilitating POTS, MCAS, hEDS, etc are not seeking opportunities to be flung upside down while spinning. These girls want all the ailments of an 80 year old woman and none of the reality.

 

[Otterly]

Especially for issues, which should prevent you from riding most of the rides anyways.

Exactly. I’m not a fan of such rides anyway and I’ve got nothing that would prevent me from using them, but I remember going to Alton towers when I was pregnant and finally having a rock solid excuse to not ride anything . If you’ve got heart issues, any kind of hernias, back problems, vertigo and I imagine a lot of other things they say to avoid. Even a bad back would probably make you very wary yet these girls are hobbling up the queue with canes and gleefully hopping aboard