What could be causing this?
Well first off, one possibility is malingering.
What's called malingering.
Now malingering is the intentional reporting of
fabricated symptoms motivated by a clearly recognizable
goal like money, avoiding responsibilities,
or obtaining drugs.
That's just when somebody's just making it up.
Okay.
Now, I can't diagnose your daughter because first off
I've never met her. Right.
And when I do, in order to properly diagnose her
I would probably need a couple of weeks to do that.
So it'd be improper and unethical for me to attempt
to do that, but I'm gonna tell you what process
I would go through and I could tell you that
malingering would be crossed off my list instantly.
I don't think your daughter is faking for one second.
I believe something has happened to your daughter.
I believe that at some level,
she has been violated in some way.
Right. I would then
consider what is called somatic symptom disorder.
And somatic symptom disorder is when someone has
abnormal thoughts or feelings and behaviors
in response to perceived physical symptoms.
Even when there is evidence to the contrary.
Like you're paralyzed but there's no reason
for you to be paralyzed.
And there are characteristics that go with that.
There's disproportionate and persistent thoughts
about the seriousness of one's symptoms.
Persistently high levels of anxiety about
health or symptoms and there's excessive time and energy
devoted to these symptoms or health concerns.
That sounds like us.
How do we get away from that?
I'm not through. Okay.
Okay, so-- We're trapped there.
Okay then also what would be on my short list
for considerations is conversion disorder.
And every hospitalization you've had has talked
about this one way or another.
And it's also called functional neurological symptom
disorder and it has four basic characteristics.
A. One or more symptoms of altered voluntary muscle
or sensory function, like voluntary muscle movements.
B. Clinical findings provide evidence of incompatibility
between the symptoms and recognized neurological
or medical conditions.
So whatever the symptom is, it's incompatible with
the body, it's like if somebody has a L5 disc
and they say their shoulder hurts, no no no.
L5 goes down the leg, not up the leg.
It's incompatible.
Right. Okay, C,
the symptom or deficit is not better explained by some other
medical or mental disorder.
And D, the symptom or deficit causes clinically significant
distress or impairment in social, occupational,
or other important areas of functioning.
All of the above, check, check, check, check.
And these, you could have these multiple diagnoses.
And they can all fit.
Let's assume she was a paraplegic.
Yes. And it wasn't
conversion, it wasn't something that she was
creating to her belief system.
She should've come back.
Let's assume she really was a paraplegic.
Right. You are babying
her to the point that you are crippling her if
she truly was a paraplegic.
You are crippling her further.
Because we feel so guilty.
That's right, you're treating her that way
to make yourselves better and causing her to not
be able to function because you're parenting
her out of guilt.
She has been in a wheel chair for 10 years.
And there's nothing wrong with her legs.
And these memories that are being dredged up here,
let me tell you--
I don't know how Kelly--
If seven men hunted her down in the woods
and gang raped her,
here's some good news, that didn't happen.
Thank you.
(crowd applause)
Now does that mean somebody did not touch her
inappropriately in some way?
No that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
And more than likely, something probably did happen.
We don't know what to do to get her out of it.
Well-- Other than scream
Dr Phil. The first thing
you gotta do is start being honest with yourself.
I asked you about the rape kit,
you said well I'm not sure.
Yes you're sure.
Okay. You know
that the damn rape kit was negative.
Okay. Stop telling
yourself that you don't know.
(audience applauds)
Was she raped or gang raped?
No she was not.
Again.
That doesn't mean she's a liar, that just means
that she's having trouble separating reality
from fantasy right now and we have to help her with that.