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Munchausen's by Internet
Jul. 15th, 2006 09:04 amApropos of Nothing
Caroline likes to put things in things. She loves boxes and baskets and organizing her stuff that she is going to play with. Things do have places even if it is not necessarily how it should be done. If I put something back the way it should be like her blocks in the block box, I am probably going to be dealing with the blocks again the next day as she removed them from the block box and puts her chickens in there. Actually right now her chickens are in a basket and the blocks are in a bin and the pandas are in the block box. This arrangement makes perfect sense to her although the rest of us are still very confused.
And now for something completely different
Munchausen's Syndrome
Munchausen syndrome is a type of factitious disorder, or mental illness, in which a person repeatedly acts as if he or she has a physical or mental disorder when, in truth, they have caused the symptoms. People with factitious disorders act this way because of an inner need to be seen as ill or injured, not to achieve a concrete benefit, such as financial gain. They are even willing to undergo painful or risky tests and operations in order to get the sympathy and special attention given to people who are truly ill. Munchausen syndrome is a mental illness associated with severe emotional difficulties. Most sufferers of this syndrome are male. There is also Muchausen's Syndrome by Proxy which is very scary because it is child abuse pure and simple but the parent(s) are mentally unbalanced and in most cases do believe they are helping their child. These are real and serious mental conditions that people need help for.
Faking Death or serious disease on the internet is nothing new. It goes back to the BBS boards and probably further back than that. It is an attention getter and can get the party sympathy, money or even a strange fame. Someone coined a new phrase that I just love called "Munchausen's by Internet" for those who do this sort of thing. And there are more of them than I thought. The interesting thing is that the internet which makes it so easy for these people to communicate their situations also makes it easy to check up on whether they are telling the truth or not. If someone knows where you live they can check the local hospitals for the Dr. Zardoz that treated you and then told posted on your live journal about your condition. And they will call Shenanigans on you. Some people feel this is almost a holy crusade to find those on the internet who are faking this sort of thing.
I think this bothers me because I have had a couple of friends die over the years for real. One was a big blogger and a convention attendant that I met through my brother and sister-in-law. She had a bubbly personality and got on well with lots of people. She use to post sexy pictures on the internet on her web log and just talk about silly stuff. When a convention rolled around she would talk about how much she is looking forward to going to the convention and after the convention she would talk about what she did and who she met. Then at a convention that I was attending she missed a party that she was supposed to be helping with. This was a bit unusual for her but not totally out of character so no one thought anything of it. They found her beaten to unconsciousness in her hotel room a day later. When she came out of the coma she couldn't remember what happened. She started have neurological problems that steamed from the attack. She had to move back in with her parents because of her medical problems but she still posted in her blog. She asked not to be asked what happened because she really didn't remember and she didn't want to talk about it. She wanted to talk about getting better and seeing her friends and going to the occasional convention. She died of a seizure in her sleep at her parents' house. Her friends posted the news in her blog but no one wanted to believe it until her mother posted at the behest of a couple of her friends and told what she knew. I know this death is real since I had friends attend the funeral for her. Her blog still exists. Her last post is dated 7/15/2002. 4 years ago. She was trying to figure out which shot to use for her Christmas in July gallery.
I guess I am just a little sensitive to this sort of thing and every time I hear about someone faking their way through health problems and even death I just get angry because I know people who really have to deal with cancer, accidents, health problems and even death rather than a fiction presented to garner themselves some strange internet fame. "Munchausen's by Internet" is a good term for this sickness.
I am grateful that I don't deal with the silliness very often
Caroline likes to put things in things. She loves boxes and baskets and organizing her stuff that she is going to play with. Things do have places even if it is not necessarily how it should be done. If I put something back the way it should be like her blocks in the block box, I am probably going to be dealing with the blocks again the next day as she removed them from the block box and puts her chickens in there. Actually right now her chickens are in a basket and the blocks are in a bin and the pandas are in the block box. This arrangement makes perfect sense to her although the rest of us are still very confused.
And now for something completely different
Munchausen's Syndrome
Munchausen syndrome is a type of factitious disorder, or mental illness, in which a person repeatedly acts as if he or she has a physical or mental disorder when, in truth, they have caused the symptoms. People with factitious disorders act this way because of an inner need to be seen as ill or injured, not to achieve a concrete benefit, such as financial gain. They are even willing to undergo painful or risky tests and operations in order to get the sympathy and special attention given to people who are truly ill. Munchausen syndrome is a mental illness associated with severe emotional difficulties. Most sufferers of this syndrome are male. There is also Muchausen's Syndrome by Proxy which is very scary because it is child abuse pure and simple but the parent(s) are mentally unbalanced and in most cases do believe they are helping their child. These are real and serious mental conditions that people need help for.
Faking Death or serious disease on the internet is nothing new. It goes back to the BBS boards and probably further back than that. It is an attention getter and can get the party sympathy, money or even a strange fame. Someone coined a new phrase that I just love called "Munchausen's by Internet" for those who do this sort of thing. And there are more of them than I thought. The interesting thing is that the internet which makes it so easy for these people to communicate their situations also makes it easy to check up on whether they are telling the truth or not. If someone knows where you live they can check the local hospitals for the Dr. Zardoz that treated you and then told posted on your live journal about your condition. And they will call Shenanigans on you. Some people feel this is almost a holy crusade to find those on the internet who are faking this sort of thing.
I think this bothers me because I have had a couple of friends die over the years for real. One was a big blogger and a convention attendant that I met through my brother and sister-in-law. She had a bubbly personality and got on well with lots of people. She use to post sexy pictures on the internet on her web log and just talk about silly stuff. When a convention rolled around she would talk about how much she is looking forward to going to the convention and after the convention she would talk about what she did and who she met. Then at a convention that I was attending she missed a party that she was supposed to be helping with. This was a bit unusual for her but not totally out of character so no one thought anything of it. They found her beaten to unconsciousness in her hotel room a day later. When she came out of the coma she couldn't remember what happened. She started have neurological problems that steamed from the attack. She had to move back in with her parents because of her medical problems but she still posted in her blog. She asked not to be asked what happened because she really didn't remember and she didn't want to talk about it. She wanted to talk about getting better and seeing her friends and going to the occasional convention. She died of a seizure in her sleep at her parents' house. Her friends posted the news in her blog but no one wanted to believe it until her mother posted at the behest of a couple of her friends and told what she knew. I know this death is real since I had friends attend the funeral for her. Her blog still exists. Her last post is dated 7/15/2002. 4 years ago. She was trying to figure out which shot to use for her Christmas in July gallery.
I guess I am just a little sensitive to this sort of thing and every time I hear about someone faking their way through health problems and even death I just get angry because I know people who really have to deal with cancer, accidents, health problems and even death rather than a fiction presented to garner themselves some strange internet fame. "Munchausen's by Internet" is a good term for this sickness.
I am grateful that I don't deal with the silliness very often
