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

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

As someone with autism & multiple chronic illnesses i’d like To say that this person’s comments and thread posts have made me develop stage 10 ADD & terminal brain cancer.

I am writing this comment from my induced coma where I am only dreaming about leaking their information about their “super serious lung problems” from my excessive google searching.

Oops, did that just happen? Sorry, my autism is playing up & I can’t control what i’m saying or doing. Sorry not sorry

#chronicillnesswarrior

LOL:

"It is a very common finding in chest x-rays and other radiological studies, and may be caused by normal exhalation."

Alternatively:

"The most common cause is post-surgical atelectasis, characterized by splinting, i.e. restricted breathing after abdominal surgery."

So you can induce it on x-ray by breathing shallow for a while. Nice try.

 

[Ellesse_warrior]

LOL:

"It is a very common finding in chest x-rays and other radiological studies, and may be caused by normal exhalation."

Alternatively:

"The most common cause is post-surgical atelectasis, characterized by splinting, i.e. restricted breathing after abdominal surgery."

So you can induce it on x-ray by breathing shallow for a while. Nice try.

Also the top result on Dr. Google for treatment is take deep breaths. Cured.

 

[Munchie_Minder]

From my knowledge of lurking within the EDS community, people chase Chiari because it verifies their super serious neck instability & gives them an excuse to wear a neck brace to stop them internally decapitating theirselves, when the reality is if they had a Chiari that bad they’d be in a hospital & unable to stay sat up long enough to type their post - it would have been caught much earlier & would have been dealt with.

But hey, any excuse to be super OTT, right?

Which makes no sense because if Chiari is bad enough, they schedule surgery ASAP. I’ve actually seen a pediatric case that surgery was warranted (15mm herniation) and patient’s parents requested to wait a few months due to surgery timing. Patient actually improved SC flow in that time which rarely happens and surgery was no longer necessary.

Guess what, the kid doesn’t wear a neck brace. The ONLY indication for wearing a neck brace in EDS is due to very severe CCI which doesn’t have anything to do with Chiari, although they can be Comorbid. I’m talking instability so bad the patient can’t hold their head up and in danger of paralysis.

Here’s the rub: patients with EDS with neck pain do benefit from wearing neck braces for LIMITED periods of time. When prescribed, they should really be worn only for a flare of a day or two or for 2 hours a day to prevent muscle contracture in overworked neck muscles. Or, they can be used in cases where a fusion is necessary for spondylolisthesis. But these munchies get them and then wear them 24/7 or at least in every social media post, which is contraindicated because it weakens the neck muscles which can create serious issue.

Why do they want brain surgery? Because then think they can really play it up on SM and get people to visit them and send them gifts

 

[large_farva]

Does anyone know much about intracranial hypertension or pseudotumor cerebri?
Opinions on whether this is something people fake or a diagnosis munchies ever chase? Has anyone ever seen this one faked?

Spoiler: why do I ask

Curious because of a saga I watched that included no less than 6 brain surgeries, shunts, infections and lots of drama. I doubted a couple times because it was so extreme. I could just be a jerk, tbh.

 

[cosmicdare]

Does anyone know much about intracranial hypertension or pseudotumor cerebri?
Opinions on whether this is something people fake or a diagnosis munchies ever chase? Has anyone ever seen this one faked?

Spoiler: why do I ask

Curious because of a saga I watched that included no less than 6 brain surgeries, shunts, infections and lots of drama. I doubted a couple times because it was so extreme. I could just be a jerk, tbh.

I've wondered why more of them don't chase it--they seem to prefer insisting they have a Chiari malformation that's just not showing on MRI for mysterious reasons.

It IS a legit thing, from what I can tell. But I've seen a neurologist diagnose it based on reported symptoms alone (which means there's probably a surgeon out there with shitty enough ethics to do the surgery based on reported impairment alone). The more thorough testing for it is a spinal tap, but there are valid reasons to decline that (especially with a connective tissue problem and/or an existing Chiari malformation). Pretty sure symptoms can improve just from losing like 5-10lbs if you're overweight at all when you develop symptoms. For idiopathic intracranial hypertension, at least.

The 6 surgery thing sounds extreme but from what I've seen, even just having a single surgery can then officially be enough reason to need a half dozen more, just repairing complications from the first. I know munchies like attention but I really have trouble understanding someone wanting to fuck up their brain box. You can't exactly swap in a new one when you fuck yours up badly enough.

 

[Munchie_Minder]

Does anyone know much about intracranial hypertension or pseudotumor cerebri?
Opinions on whether this is something people fake or a diagnosis munchies ever chase? Has anyone ever seen this one faked?

Spoiler: why do I ask

Curious because of a saga I watched that included no less than 6 brain surgeries, shunts, infections and lots of drama. I doubted a couple times because it was so extreme. I could just be a jerk, tbh.

It is a real thing. It is generally caused by an increased cranial pressure though. In severe real cases, we are talking things that cannot be faked though: blindness, paralysis, etc.

Edit to add: interestingly I saw a case resolve itself after a medication that the person could not metabolize was ceased. This person had a genetic variant of a cytochrome p450 enzyme that caused the medication not to be able to be metabolized. The body tried then flushing itself out by adding fluid to the brain.

 

[thirsttrap12345]

From my knowledge of lurking within the EDS community, people chase Chiari because it verifies their super serious neck instability & gives them an excuse to wear a neck brace to stop them internally decapitating theirselves, when the reality is if they had a Chiari that bad they’d be in a hospital & unable to stay sat up long enough to type their post - it would have been caught much earlier & would have been dealt with.

But hey, any excuse to be super OTT, right?

Which doesn’t really make any medical sense bc Chiari isn’t helped by a neck brace- that’s cervical instability. They have nothing in common except sometimes they’re found in the same person. Chiari is horrific pressure like headaches that are debilitating. But maybe they chase Chiari to go along with the CCI bc it’s a more “impressive” surgery? A 2 in 1? God who knows why am I even going down this rabbit hole of speculation.

 

[large_farva]

I've wondered why more of them don't chase it--they seem to prefer insisting they have a Chiari malformation that's just not showing on MRI for mysterious reasons.

It IS a legit thing, from what I can tell. But I've seen a neurologist diagnose it based on reported symptoms alone (which means there's probably a surgeon out there with shitty enough ethics to do the surgery based on reported impairment alone). The more thorough testing for it is a spinal tap, but there are valid reasons to decline that (especially with a connective tissue problem and/or an existing Chiari malformation). Pretty sure symptoms can improve just from losing like 5-10lbs if you're overweight at all when you develop symptoms. For idiopathic intracranial hypertension, at least.

The 6 surgery thing sounds extreme but from what I've seen, even just having a single surgery can then officially be enough reason to need a half dozen more, just repairing complications from the first. I know munchies like attention but I really have trouble understanding someone wanting to fuck up their brain box. You can't exactly swap in a new one when you fuck yours up badly enough.

It is a real thing. It is generally caused by an increased cranial pressure though. In severe real cases, we are talking things that cannot be faked though: blindness, paralysis, etc.

Edit to add: interestingly I saw a case resolve itself after a medication that the person could not metabolize was ceased. This person had a genetic variant of a cytochrome p450 enzyme that caused the medication not to be able to be metabolized. The body tried then flushing itself out by adding fluid to the brain.

Thank you. That explains pretty much all I was curious about.

Spoiler: part two of the why i asked

I don't think my friend was faking anything, just one of those people who was a little OTT and made it their identity for a while. There were lots of infections in the shunt and it had to replaced several times and have surgeries to fix this or that. Oddly enough and fortunately, the shunt is gone now and the person seems to be doing very well. Idk if that stuff can resolve on it's own or if they figured out an alternative treatment plan. But it was a graphic saga to watch. Lots of surgery scars on their head, infected shunt pics.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

Thanks to a book I was reading I googled “nurse commits suicide by injecting bird feces”. While I didn’t any find info about this very bizarre, obscure suicide that was off handedly mentioned in my book, I did find a really interesting article on MBP rise via the Internet by a psychiatrist who studies it.

I don’t think its been posted here yet:

Sick for Attention - Issue 42: Fakes - Nautilus

Marc Feldman has spent more than 25 years studying fakes, but the bespectacled Alabama-based psychiatrist still vividly recalls the…

m.nautil.us

 

[Ms.bojangles]

Thanks to a book I was reading I googled “nurse commits suicide by injecting bird feces”. While I didn’t any find info about this very bizarre, obscure suicide that was off handedly mentioned in my book, I did find a really interesting article on MBP rise via the Internet by a psychiatrist who studies it.

I don’t think its been posted here yet:

Sick for Attention - Issue 42: Fakes - Nautilus

Marc Feldman has spent more than 25 years studying fakes, but the bespectacled Alabama-based psychiatrist still vividly recalls the…

m.nautil.us

It's crazy but that injecting with poop is pretty widespread and used... I can't imagine needing to be fawned over so needed as to purposefully harm myself. As shown in that article, it's possible to permanently damage yourself, which is like what Jacquie did. Once the damage is done, it can't be fixed, you really are sick and you might not get the help needed until it's too late. Just tragic...and mind boggling....

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

It's crazy but that injecting with poop is pretty widespread and used... I can't imagine needing to be fawned over so needed as to purposefully harm myself. As shown in that article, it's possible to permanently damage yourself, which is like what Jacquie did. Once the damage is done, it can't be fixed, you really are sick and you might not get the help needed until it's too late. Just tragic...and mind boggling....

Well the weird thing was this nurse I originally referred to committed suicide via this method, the author didn’t imply it was Munchausen but a suicide method.

Then again the nurse incident probably happened in 60s and it may have been Munchausen, but back then it was a pretty unknown phenomenon. The book I was reading was published in 1976. Maybe the nurse admitted what she had done when she had an “oh fuck I went to far” moment and realized she was going to die.

 

[pinkbutterfly]

Munchausen Stridor-A Strong False Alarm of Anaphylaxis

This is very late, but I thought it might be of interest to others who are catching up on the full Jacquie saga like I currently am. It was linked in one of her old lolcow threads, about two cases of misdiagnosed anaphylaxis which seemed to have more psychological roots. (One patient seemed to be outright faking it and hospital hopped, the other seems like they genuinely thought they were ill until told otherwise).

The reason it's so interesting imo is that Jacquie spent a long time in hospital once you add up her multiple stays for recurrent anaphylaxis in early 2017, and I wasn't sure at all how she'd managed to dupe, in her words, "an entire floor" of medical staff for that length of time. (Despite never being noticeably swollen after any of these attacks with her throat allegedly closing. I think it's been suggested before that she did have one or two genuine reactions, and anxiety produced the rest). Her allergies also seemed to slowly vanish (I've only reached early 2018 now, but they're reduced to a vague mention every few episodes about 'aborting an attack with IV Benadryl' which is how she reacted to feeling even a little itchy).

The cases in the above article also involved "multiple physicians" as witnesses, so I guess faking a reaction or some form of anxiety attack is actually a reasonable theory for what was going on. Her allergies generally made about as little sense as the rest of her medical history, but the hospital stays added a lot more authenticity to them.

 

[Clockwork_PurBle]

What I want to know is who was suicidal, saw some bird poop on like the windowsill or something, and thought "Hey, maybe I could find a way to shoot up with this and it'll kill me!"

 

[Underestimated Nutria]

So what are the dynamics of Munchie friendships or relationships with one another? Do they drop the pretence? Keep it up? Mutually assured destruction/wilful blindness? Insist that their sickness is metaphorically if not literally real? Previous to this thread, I would have thought they'd never want to have anything to do with one another. But they don't even seem to care about believability.

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Does anyone know much about intracranial hypertension or pseudotumor cerebri?
Opinions on whether this is something people fake or a diagnosis munchies ever chase? Has anyone ever seen this one faked?

Spoiler: why do I ask

Curious because of a saga I watched that included no less than 6 brain surgeries, shunts, infections and lots of drama. I doubted a couple times because it was so extreme. I could just be a jerk, tbh.

It's real but a lot of the symptoms are kind of vague and it's usually idiopathic (no one can figure out what caused it) so I am not surprised to have personally seen a few histrionic or hypochondriac people pick it up and run with it as a hypothesis.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

What I want to know is who was suicidal, saw some bird poop on like the windowsill or something, and thought "Hey, maybe I could find a way to shoot up with this and it'll kill me!"

Apparently it was a pet parrot’s poop she used and did it multiple times. Oddly, given how long parrots live it may still be alive. Parrots get a real freak show living alongside humans.

The more I think about it, it probably was a Munchausen case but given the era when she admitted to injecting parrot shit the doctors could only interpret it as suicidal behavior. I’m sure she wasn’t in any hurry to correct them either, and was soon dead anyway.

 

[thirsttrap12345]

So what are the dynamics of Munchie friendships or relationships with one another? Do they drop the pretence? Keep it up? Mutually assured destruction/wilful blindness? Insist that their sickness is metaphorically if not literally real? Previous to this thread, I would have thought they'd never want to have anything to do with one another. But they don't even seem to care about believability.

There is a particularly interesting clique on Instagram (of the EDS/GP/POTS variety) who flaunt their friendship on the daily. While some of their dx may Be legitimate, it’s genuinely interesting how they’ve become “friends” and haven’t (yet) turned on each other. My theory in this circumstance is the “if you can’t beat em join em” mentality- it only adds to their perceived legitimacy if they can make strong public alliances with others, and then in turn it becomes a giant echo chamber that they perceive as validation for their constantly progressing diseases.

But... do you think they ever confess their doubts to each other? I mean even legitimately chronically ill individuals sometimes feel like their existence is surreal and vent to others asking if they’re losing touch. Or are they in too deep by the time these relationships take hold? Example- Izzy seemed completely 100% believing Jaquie. Which blew my mind.

Of course, Julian keeps getting used and abused by many of them so he’s an exception. Lol.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

The more I think about it, it probably was a Munchausen case but given the era when she admitted to injecting parrot shit the doctors could only interpret it as suicidal behavior. I’m sure she wasn’t in any hurry to correct them either, and was soon dead anyway.

Well, it probably was suicidal behavior. Nurses have an insanely high rate of suicide (number one in careers dominated by women) but they generally don't stoop to bird poop.

If they paid attention in nursing school they'd know of a lil' compound that would likely never come up on a tox screen and make your suicide look like a heart attack, so I'm sure the suicide rate is under-reported too.

 

[The1ThatStartsWithD]

So what are the dynamics of Munchie friendships or relationships with one another? Do they drop the pretence? Keep it up? Mutually assured destruction/wilful blindness? Insist that their sickness is metaphorically if not literally real? Previous to this thread, I would have thought they'd never want to have anything to do with one another. But they don't even seem to care about believability.

They absolutely keep up pretenses. Munchies are known to keep acting everything out even when alone and unobserved. I am sure it is similar to a method actor staying "in character". Munchie "friendships", at least the ones we know from LC days, are both competitive and educational endeavours. They may hang around sick people in order to learn to copy symptoms, body language and phraseology. Believability is only relevant to their sick role narrative.

 

[Crpnt]

Does anyone know much about intracranial hypertension or pseudotumor cerebri?
Opinions on whether this is something people fake or a diagnosis munchies ever chase? Has anyone ever seen this one faked?

Spoiler: why do I ask

Curious because of a saga I watched that included no less than 6 brain surgeries, shunts, infections and lots of drama. I doubted a couple times because it was so extreme. I could just be a jerk, tbh.

Edited to remove some details, but I'll just say that someone with munchie tendencies can take that diagnosis and run with it. The initial diagnosis might be real, but the online chronic illness community can really encourage a lot of unnecessary treatment for someone only mildly affected, sometimes to tragic results.