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

[reptilium89]

And here you have a video like this. A woman claiming to have the ever popular POTS syndrome and yelling at passers by for so much as looking at her dog. Minutes later she then gets off the bench, obviously deliberately lies herself down on the floor and claims is having a fainting spell of some kind.

I cannot explain how much I despise her shitty, bratty holier-than-thou attitude.
In one of her videos she legit starts shouting at some people who dared LOOK at her dog. Lady, if your dog is distracted by people looking at it then maybe it's not a fucking service dog.

 

[CatFace]

I cannot explain how much I despise her shitty, bratty holier-than-thou attitude.
In one of her videos she legit starts shouting at some people who dared LOOK at her dog. Lady, if your dog is distracted by people looking at it then maybe it's not a fucking service dog.

Literally last night I walked past a guy with a seeing eye dog (that was in an adorable raincoat with a clear visor so it could see in the rain). It gave a passing glance at me, moved the owner a little to the side and kept going.

If making eye contact or looking in the direction of a dog distracts them then it isn't a service dog. They retire dogs like that. Then they become pets.

Where did she get the dog from? Did she adopt a dog that was being trained as a service dog but it didn't have the disposition for it and thinks she can still call it that? Or did she just buy a dog breed that is usually used as a service dog and it's 100% bs?

 

[TexasTexas]

I cannot explain how much I despise her shitty, bratty holier-than-thou attitude.
In one of her videos she legit starts shouting at some people who dared LOOK at her dog. Lady, if your dog is distracted by people looking at it then maybe it's not a fucking service dog.

She's now threatening to pepperspray people who distract her service dog.

New here.

Not sure how many munchies are posted about here but Aubreys Lyme Journey recently got her MALS surgery and removed all the videos about it because she received backlash thay she was abusing pain meds, since she was extremely high in recent vlogs.

 

[neverendingmidi]

I just recently went to the ER. Had a fuckton of pain in my lower abdomen. I did notice that once the ER docs mentioned that they thought it was an infection and they were giving me antibiotics and I was relieved as hell that that was all it was, I had a lot less low grade suspicion and hostility from the nurses/docs. All I could think of was this thread and I wondered if they were suspicious that I was a munchie or a pill popper.

 

[Crunchy Leaf]

I just recently went to the ER. Had a fuckton of pain in my lower abdomen. I did notice that once the ER docs mentioned that they thought it was an infection and they were giving me antibiotics and I was relieved as hell that that was all it was, I had a lot less low grade suspicion and hostility from the nurses/docs. All I could think of was this thread and I wondered if they were suspicious that I was a munchie or a pill popper.

Probably pill popper, because way more people are drug addicts than munchies.

On that, it'd be interesting to know what training medical professionals receive on spotting munchies.

 

[Slay that Ramen]

For a reality TV show version of this, check out "A Spoonful of Us" channel on YT. Four adult daughters living at home because they are too sick to get jobs or go to college. (But not too sick to stay up late, play video games for hours at a time, spend hours editing videos, etc.)

1. Gene - dad, works non-stop to pay the bills for this motley crew. Rarely seen.
2. Lora - mom, conservative/religious, homeschooled all her special snowflakes, drives 15 passenger van everywhere. Has many of the diseases her daughters have, but magically able to do more normal stuff than they do. Enables daughters and feeds into their ideas of diagnoses. Goodwill hauls, hobby lobby, and jean skirts.
3. Sarah - (30?) oldest daughter shown. Actually has autism and medical issues; non-verbal. Needs to be cared for by other adults. Ironically doesn't get much screen time even though she's the only one who actually has severe disabilities.
4. Hannah (26 or something) - also doesn't get much screen time, but likely by choice. Has a litany of physical issues, but if you watch her, you may come up with non-physical diagnoses instead.
5. Rachel - about 24. Gets the most screen time. Spends most of it sighing and saying she's tired. Obsessed with anime, body piercings, and inexpensive jewelry. Actual diagnosis: fatty liver disease (non-alcoholic). Alleged other Dx: POTS, EDS, SPD, depression (that one might be real!), magic fainting and having to lay down in Walmart while shopping, and more. Needed a wheelchair for about a year, is now magically healed. Gamergirl. Gave herself multiple helix piercings on camera.
6. Caroline - 21 or 22, idk. Youngest. Professional victim of bad doctors. EDS, GP, POTS, Mast Cell Activation something something. Most or all self-diagnosed. Constantly going into "anaphylaxis" because she touched the wrong thing, smelled the wrong smell, ate something she wasn't allergic to yesterday. Doctors and nurses rarely believe her, and their casual response to her alleged life-threatening bouts is cause for suspicion itself. Wanted a tube, request rejected. Applied to several Mayo clinics, requests rejected. Medical tests consistently come back normal, convincing her that her diseases are "just too mysterious" for regular doctors.

My theory: conservative religious (controlling) mom doesn't want daughters to be independent or leave home. Enables them to think that their aches and pains = life threatening diseases so that they won't become independent.

A lot of their videos are boring because it's mostly whining, sighing, updating us on medical disorders they don't have, etc. but some are more exciting - Rachel sitting on the floor in Walmart, Caroline apparently having anaphylaxis and medics coming, etc.

Curious to know what you all think. The psychology is absolutely fascinating to me, and under-discussed. It just seems such a waste of life for these young women, it's quite sad when you look at it as a whole picture. What kind of future will they have when the parents pass away?

Some Spoonful of Us episodes, not in chronological order, for your viewing convenience.


Episode 1 - "Hospital Doctor Ignores Dying Caroline"
https://youtu.be/UeJgrXSpUy4

Episode 2 - "We Can't Figure Out Why People Don't Believe Spoonies"
https://youtu.be/jVbRaC457A4

Episode 3 - "Actual Footage of Hannah"
https://youtu.be/66KFSolUB9g

Episode 4 - "Getting Attention at Walmart"
https://youtu.be/BjMKSgPlUPc

Episode 5 - "Yuck" (Not for squeamish; Rachel gives herself Helix piercings )
https://youtu.be/o6QxKfMnVUY

 

[melty]

Curious to know what you all think. The psychology is absolutely fascinating to me, and under-discussed. It just seems such a waste of life for these young women, it's quite sad when you look at it as a whole picture. What kind of future will they have when the parents pass away?

Spoiler: Powerlevelling, but hopefully relevant

I might have some perspective on this. I suspect my mom is a munchie, or something like it (malingering, hypochondriac.. some kind of fake illness shit). I don't have proof, but it's something me and a lot of others in my family suspect. Reading this thread and Jacquie's thread bring up a lottttt of familiar behaviors and situations. I've read a lot about them for this reason, trying to understand. I'll just talk about things I've noticed from experience and stories I have read.
First of all, my mom doesn't like working. She grew up in a conservative religious area when women mostly didn't work. However, as times got more modern, I think she used her illnesses more, because my dad would like her to work. He doesn't make a lot of money and she spends most of it. I once asked her what would happen if she got completely better? Would she want to go back to work? And she actually told me she would not tell anyone she was better, because they would expect her to go to work.
Starting to work if you are entry level, which most of these people seem to be, really is a drag, so I think that's a big thing. If you are a guy and don't work, everyone calls you a deadbeat, regardless of what your situation is. If you're a women, which most of these munchies are, you're "taking care of the house," despite a serious illness and everyone gives you sympathy.

There is a huge lack of exercise and depression in munchies. If you're depressed, getting up off the couch is a huge deal. And you get so used to it that you don't realize what is wrong. Getting outside your house and off your coach and interacting with people is really really important for mental health. I think this is a huge problem with munchies and why so many of these munchies are female, especially housewives or girls that have not really worked much.

Someone in this thread or another asked if munchies maybe didn't understand how other people deal with fatigue - do they think other people have infinite energy? Well, maybe. Or rather they don't think about other people, really. They just know their aches and pains are WAY WORSE than everyone elses and everything needs to stop for them. On top of that they probably are more fatigued than everyone else because they don't fucking do anything.

And of course, there's attention, being able to make excuses for things all the time, and it just seems to become part of their identity. My mom really lights up when she talks about her illnesses. She LOVES it. It's like a passion of hers, the only passion she really has. My dad dotes on her. Other people don't really indulge her though, but I think she likes being a victim and getting mad at them for not catering to her. I would do a lot of stuff for her because I kind of had to lol.
Now, I think some things might actually be wrong with her, but not nearly as much as she claims. I bet that is true for a LOT of munchies. They may actually have (some disease), or were diagnosed at some point, but instead of taking the route of pushing through and managing it, it becomes debilitating. When people start to notice that other people with whatever disease are doing well, they tack on extra stuff. their stomachache becomes gastritis. etc.
If my mom has to do something she doesn't want to do, the illnesses flare up. If someone is mean to her, the illnesses flare up. It is a great way to control your surroundings and how people respond to you. It's also very childish.
Also, it becomes an absolute shitfit if you ever question them and you really do NOT want to do it. My dad was really passive and just didn't. That's what some of these munchie girls bfs/husbands seem to be like. Enablers are key.

Would my mom have wanted a life for me like these girls and their mom? Maybe. She pushed some of the munchie bullshit on me when I was a kid. I got a lot of treatments for allergies that don't exist. Every random thing that could be wrong became a sign of an illness. This was easy to milk to get out of school for things. My mom would swear up and down she didn't want me to "go through what she did" (being sick) but she also thought being a housewife was a great idea, and she liked having me around while overly catering to me any time I was perceived to be sick, so I think she might have been fine with it. It is a sad life and I realized that a long time ago. I would rather be independent.

tl;dr some things might actually be wrong with them, but they exaggerate it. I think a big reason is getting out of work and doing other things.

They probably don't think about the future much because someone else has always taken care of them. They are short sighted in general and want instant gratification. Jacquie demonstrates this a lot

 

[kaiwaii]

I just recently went to the ER. Had a fuckton of pain in my lower abdomen. I did notice that once the ER docs mentioned that they thought it was an infection and they were giving me antibiotics and I was relieved as hell that that was all it was, I had a lot less low grade suspicion and hostility from the nurses/docs. All I could think of was this thread and I wondered if they were suspicious that I was a munchie or a pill popper.

This is an unfortunate consequence of the opioid addiction epidemic. Sadly I don't know one over the counter drug that could control acute abdominal pain. Powerlevel, I've gone through it too with an LBO (large bowel obstruction) a few years back and was not a pleasant thing.

 

[There_is_no_Dana]

This is an unfortunate consequence of the opioid addiction epidemic. Sadly I don't know one over the counter drug that could control acute abdominal pain. Powerlevel, I've gone through it too with an LBO (large bowel obstruction) a few years back and was not a pleasant thing.

It's really obvious to anyone who has been in the ER more than once in the past decade. About 15 years ago, someone with severe stomach pain could go into the ER and be loaded up with dialudid while waiting for their tests to be run (imaging on the stomach etc). They'd get you comfortable while waiting for everything to happen because that shit takes forever.

The opioid epidemic has destroyed that sort of care, there is no immediate relief anymore. Now you are taken into the triage area while an expert assesses whether or not your pain is genuine. Once you're cleared, you are taken in for testing. If they don't believe you, you're sent home on your way with a recommendation to see a family doctor or go to the walk-in clinic. My local hospital now has a policy against giving opioid pain relievers to anyone who isn't being admitted for observation and treatment or surgery. You used to get vicodin for sprains and broken bones or even stitches if the injury was large. Now they give you directions to combine Tylenol with Ibuprofen and Benadryl for non-surgical pain relief. Oh and if you request anything stronger, they note it in your chart because addicts are known to injure themselves to get a fix. A lot of folks hospital hop, once turned away, but so many are linked now they're starting to share charts and info.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

It's really obvious to anyone who has been in the ER more than once in the past decade. About 15 years ago, someone with severe stomach pain could go into the ER and be loaded up with dialudid while waiting for their tests to be run (imaging on the stomach etc). They'd get you comfortable while waiting for everything to happen because that shit takes forever.

The opioid epidemic has destroyed that sort of care, there is no immediate relief anymore. Now you are taken into the triage area while an expert assesses whether or not your pain is genuine. Once you're cleared, you are taken in for testing. If they don't believe you, you're sent home on your way with a recommendation to see a family doctor or go to the walk-in clinic. My local hospital now has a policy against giving opioid pain relievers to anyone who isn't being admitted for observation and treatment or surgery. You used to get vicodin for sprains and broken bones or even stitches if the injury was large. Now they give you directions to combine Tylenol with Ibuprofen and Benadryl for non-surgical pain relief. Oh and if you request anything stronger, they note it in your chart because addicts are known to injure themselves to get a fix. A lot of folks hospital hop, once turned away, but so many are linked now they're starting to share charts and info.

I think it depends on where you’re at in the country, to ERs in non-major cities drug seekers are a new plague but they are very old hat to big city ERs. Each hospital seems to have different methods for dealing with them.

Also, the line “opiates only if you are admitted” they tell people in the ER is actually just a deterrent to drug seekers. I’ve been given pain killers when in the ER for a real issue, not too long after being read some standard line about it not being done. but you’re right they want tests or real proof of something legit causing pain before they do so.

With all of the crackdowns I do still wonder how some drug seekers are so successful at the con game. There’s a thread here about Steven Assanti - a 700 lb sack of shit who calls ambulances to go to various hospital ERs in Houston just to get pills - and he gets lots of them. Dr. Now actually reported him for this shit to alert all the ERs in the region he was hospital shopping for pills, it didn’t seem to change anything. He was still going to ERs several times a month and getting a shot of dauladid or sent home with pain pills.

It made me wonder if the hospitals don’t care as long as the person has Medicaid. I mean some druggie comes in, they pat him on the head pretend to find something wrong, give him a shot or Rx and can turn around and bill Medicaid for $8,000 for doing next to nothing. Some druggie dude without any insurance, kicked to the curb, or Someone with insurance coverage that will dispute an ER bill without proof something was amiss, nope. But Medicaid patients are just a cash register ringing for many hospitals, esp if there’s really nothing wrong to take up real time and resources. It’s the only reason I can fathom Assanti keeps getting pills dispensed to him by ERs even after a very long, known and reported by doctors history of abusing the system for drugs.

Makes me wonder if a lot of munchies are coddled in ERs and hospitals if they have Medicaid because the govt picks up the tab without questioning the BS.

 

[Dahmer]

I saw it mentioned that vitamin d deficiency is tied in with fibromylagia, and that makes a hell of a lot of sense.

Small :powerlevel:, I was diagnosed with severe vitamin d deficiency after having some odd symptoms, including deep seated pain in my arms and legs. It felt like the pain was coming from the bones and while it wasn't crippling, it was incredibly uncomfortable to do anything and prompted me to go to a clinic. It makes a lot of sense if people who've been diagnosed with this aren't treating their vitamin deficiencies and are complaining that the pain just won't go away, so they get diagnosed with shit they can milk for all it's worth.

 

[anondotcom]

I think it depends on where you’re at in the country, to ERs in non-major cities drug seekers are a new plague but they are very old hat to big city ERs. Each hospital seems to have different methods for dealing with them.

Also, the line “opiates only if you are admitted” they tell people in the ER is actually just a deterrent to drug seekers. I’ve been given pain killers when in the ER for a real issue, not too long after being read some standard line about it not being done. but you’re right they want tests or real proof of something legit causing pain before they do so.

With all of the crackdowns I do still wonder how some drug seekers are so successful at the con game. There’s a thread here about Steven Assanti - a 700 lb sack of shit who calls ambulances to go to various hospital ERs in Houston just to get pills - and he gets lots of them. Dr. Now actually reported him for this shit to alert all the ERs in the region he was hospital shopping for pills, it didn’t seem to change anything. He was still going to ERs several times a month and getting a shot of dauladid or sent home with pain pills.

It made me wonder if the hospitals don’t care as long as the person has Medicaid. I mean some druggie comes in, they pat him on the head pretend to find something wrong, give him a shot or Rx and can turn around and bill Medicaid for $8,000 for doing next to nothing. Some druggie dude without any insurance, kicked to the curb, or Someone with insurance coverage that will dispute an ER bill without proof something was amiss, nope. But Medicaid patients are just a cash register ringing for many hospitals, esp if there’s really nothing wrong to take up real time and resources. It’s the only reason I can fathom Assanti keeps getting pills dispensed to him by ERs even after a very long, known and reported by doctors history of abusing the system for drugs.

Makes me wonder if a lot of munchies are coddled in ERs and hospitals if they have Medicaid because the govt picks up the tab without questioning the BS.

Eh, I think it also depends on how you go into the ER.

:powerlevel: We took my dad in for severe stomach pain several times over the span of 5 months (it took them forever to diagnose and treat the root issue), and he got dauladid each time. But he's otherwise a very healthy human being with not a lot of hospital visits on his records and he's coming in at midnight on a week night with his wife and kid, saying he's in enough pain that he's nauseous.

What I'm saying is, you look a lot less like an addict if you're with family and/or coming in at weird times than if you're in by yourself in the middle of the day. Granted, my locale is not exactly the major hub of the opioid epidemic. It's more meth than anything else.

 

[Dorsia.Reservation]

It made me wonder if the hospitals don’t care as long as the person has Medicaid. I mean some druggie comes in, they pat him on the head pretend to find something wrong, give him a shot or Rx and can turn around and bill Medicaid for $8,000 for doing next to nothing. Some druggie dude without any insurance, kicked to the curb, or Someone with insurance coverage that will dispute an ER bill without proof something was amiss, nope. But Medicaid patients are just a cash register ringing for many hospitals

That wouldn't shock me in the slightest.
Because that's how some Doctors treat Medicaid paitents.

:powerlevel:

Spoiler: Medicaid Sperging

I help take care of a disabled relative and before we took charge and started going to the Doctors (and into the exam room) with him, it was INSANE what his former eye specialist was putting him through.
He had so many procedures (including TWO cornea transplants) done on the eye and a laundry list of $$$ daily eye drops and it was all billed to Medicaid without question. All for an eye that had no chance of being saved.

Most of this doctors paitents were elderly and or disabled and all Medicaid.
He was doing the same exact thing to most of them


We reported the doctor to the state but he is still practicing.

That wasn't his only doctor that treated him like that.
And they sure as hell did not like when we started questioning what was going on.

 

[MarissaXD]

It's really obvious to anyone who has been in the ER more than once in the past decade. About 15 years ago, someone with severe stomach pain could go into the ER and be loaded up with dialudid while waiting for their tests to be run (imaging on the stomach etc). They'd get you comfortable while waiting for everything to happen because that shit takes forever.

The opioid epidemic has destroyed that sort of care, there is no immediate relief anymore. Now you are taken into the triage area while an expert assesses whether or not your pain is genuine. Once you're cleared, you are taken in for testing. If they don't believe you, you're sent home on your way with a recommendation to see a family doctor or go to the walk-in clinic. My local hospital now has a policy against giving opioid pain relievers to anyone who isn't being admitted for observation and treatment or surgery. You used to get vicodin for sprains and broken bones or even stitches if the injury was large. Now they give you directions to combine Tylenol with Ibuprofen and Benadryl for non-surgical pain relief. Oh and if you request anything stronger, they note it in your chart because addicts are known to injure themselves to get a fix. A lot of folks hospital hop, once turned away, but so many are linked now they're starting to share charts and info.

Maybe if the hospitals and doctors didn't hand opioids out like candy in the past there wouldn't be so many addicts.

 

[A Seagull]

I'm really confused about why these slags latch onto EDS so much. It's really not that big of a deal or that debilitating. I get that it can cause "chronic pain". But at the most, it's usually no worse than a "growing pain". You just get an ace bandage for said joint, take some kind of pain killer, and move on with your life.Yeah, when you have the subluxations/dislocations those can hurt like hell, but it's not a daily fucking thing in most cases. I'm assuming that most of them don't do research or only see the sensationalized cases and latch onto it.
Not to mention, it's incredibly hard to get approved to see a non natal geneticist to even get diagnosed with it.
:powerlevel: I've got a huge chance of having it and am getting through the process of getting tested. :powerlevel:

 

[kaiwaii]

I'm really confused about why these slags latch onto EDS so much. It's really not that big of a deal or that debilitating. I get that it can cause "chronic pain". But at the most, it's usually no worse than a "growing pain". You just get an ace bandage for said joint, take some kind of pain killer, and move on with your life.Yeah, when you have the subluxations/dislocations those can hurt like hell, but it's not a daily fucking thing in most cases. I'm assuming that most of them don't do research or only see the sensationalized cases and latch onto it.
Not to mention, it's incredibly hard to get approved to see a non natal geneticist to even get diagnosed with it.
:powerlevel: I've got a huge chance of having it and am getting through the process of getting tested. :powerlevel:

Maybe because the public is generally ignorant about it and the malingerers are able to use that to their advantage to make it seem like a debilitating ''genetic'' disease.

 

[There_is_no_Dana]

Small :powerlevel:, I was diagnosed with severe vitamin d deficiency after having some odd symptoms, including deep seated pain in my arms and legs. It felt like the pain was coming from the bones and while it wasn't crippling, it was incredibly uncomfortable to do anything and prompted me to go to a clinic. It makes a lot of sense if people who've been diagnosed with this aren't treating their vitamin deficiencies and are complaining that the pain just won't go away, so they get diagnosed with shit they can tard cum for all it's worth.

The symptoms of Fibro and Vitamin D deficiency are similar, there's also a psychological component in play.

I think a lot of the #spoonies have lived very sad lives where they didn't receive enough attention so they've latched onto the only thing that makes them special, being sickly. Maybe they weren't the favorite child or they weren't as sporty and successful as a sibling, maybe they never felt like they were good at anything at all. Being unique fills an attention void in their lives and it's scary how some of them push so far to make themselves the most special, they want to be queen of the spoonies so they get all the love and attention. Even the negative attention feeds their need.

 

[Slay that Ramen]

Need more Spoonful of Us episodes?

1. "Caroline and Rachel Excited to be the Youngest Cardiology Patients"
https://youtu.be/yeV029tPygI

2. (My favorite episode) "Caroline Goes into Anaphylaxis While Filmed"
https://youtu.be/h2ZsFdwZXFo
@13:00 - drama begins
@14:00 - Dad's walking around ignoring the drama and going about his daily life. Lol
@14:30 - medics arrive. Imagine how confused they feel as Mom explains that Caroline touched sunbutter and went into anaphylaxis even though she ate sunbutter previous to this and was fine


3. "Caroline Stabs Herself with EpiPen"
https://youtu.be/fYKelAWiU9I
@9:00 the excitement begins. Rachel is filming the whole time as the medics take C out on a stretcher

 

[Cryin RN]

Maybe because the public is generally ignorant about it and the malingerers are able to use that to their advantage to make it seem like a debilitating ''genetic'' disease.

That's exactly it. It has "syndrome" in the name so it sounds scary, and there's an added bonus of being able to claim joint pain so you get narcotics. Mild non-genetic EDS diagnosed late in adulthood should never be all that relevant outside of joint/large-vessel injuries but these chicks make it seem like Super Fibro. Some people have mild hypermobility; sometimes that's fine!

 

[Broken Pussy]

I value everyone’s contributions to this thread, but on this page alone, there were 6 or 7 instances of someone saying “power level” and then talking about themselves or using the power level graphic and then talking about themselves. Can we do this less? Or not at all? This thread is about discussing other people.