[Deep sigh] Ugh really?!
We love you sweetie.
I love you too. Call if you need us.
[Bedroom door closes] [Front door opens and closes]
They bought it.
Please Ferris, not only are you not the first person to fake being sick to get out doing something,
you’re not even close to being the master.
[Intro music]
Before we get into the real masters of fake illnesses, let’s get some vocabulary out of
the way, and then talk about what it isn’t. A psychogenic disorder is when it originates
from or it’s entirely in your head. All mental illnesses are psychogenic, that should
go without saying. But there are some physical illnesses that fall into this category as well,
pain and sexual dysfunction are the two most popular culprits. If you have physical pain,
but there’s no test, x-ray, or scan that finds a reason, it’s probably psychogenic.
Pain is a gray area that can lead to the next step up the ladder. Psychosomatic and somatoform
disorders. These are when you actually have physical symptoms that can show up on tests
but the cause is still psychological. Again pain is the major culprit here. However it
can also manifest in some of the strangest ways. Like irritable bowel syndrome or other
gastro-intestinal issues. Anxiety and panic disorders could also be said to fall into
this category, especially when they cause physical symptoms like heart palpitations,
or high blood pressure, or even hysterical blindness, and paralysis.
Now before I get into the disorder that I really want to talk about, there are two similar
behaviors that are important to differentiate. The first is hypochondriasis. If you’re always
on WebMD and constantly think that you’re sick, that’s one thing. Even if you go to
the doctor and always make him run a test to find out that you’re okay. That’s another
thing. If you do it to excess, you might want to see a therapist, but you definitely
do not have what I’m about to talk about. The second is drug addicts. Specifically
drug addicts who go to the ER with some sort of psychogenic pain looking to score.
Doctors are aware of this and have to keep an eye out for it. But again, that’s nothing
compared to this. No, this… Is Munchausen syndrome.
People with this disorder take faking being sick to a whole new level. They’ll often ingest or
inject themselves with something that will mimic the symptoms of another illness, then go to the
doctor and pretend to not know why they’re sick. They’re often pretty knowledgeable about medicine
and they’re definitely not suicidal. So why do they do it?
For YouTube views... I mean, attention. They want attention and sympathy from family,
friends, doctors, nurses, coworkers, and whoever else will give them balloons. The thing is,
they actually have physical symptoms that require medical attention, unlike hypochondriacs. And
they’re not just looking for the drugs to get them high, like addicts. They just want
attention. And because of that, they’re not gonna fake things that’ll clear up in an hour or two.
They’ll often cause some serious harm by giving themselves sepsis, or abscesses, or mimicking the
symptoms of cancer in order to get chemotherapy. You might be asking yourself how on earth do you
mimic cancer in order to get chemotherapy? And since I don’t want to provide a how-to
in this video, let’s just say that it doesn’t take place at the diagnosis stage,
but usually the treatment stage, with some fake documents, and moving cities, and stuff like that.
So how does someone get this disorder? Well usually it’s because they grew up
around someone who was chronically ill. They saw a parent or a sibling always getting all
of the care and attention. So as they grew up and they continued to feel neglected,
they started inducing illness, and saw that they started to get that same attention.
Munchausens is extremely difficult to detect because the person really does have physical
symptoms that require treatment. It’s also not illegal. You may be wasting your doctor’s time
with your self-induced illness, but it is something that requires medical attention.
If anything, you’re just costing yourself and your insurance company money. You’re also hurting
your credibility by crying wolf all the time. If you do it often enough, your friends and
family are gonna get wise and stop giving you the attention that you crave. Your doctors might too,
but they can’t turn you away if you have actual life-threatening symptoms. So really in the end,
the only person you’re hurting is yourself. And here’s where we jump the fence. There’s
another tier to this disorder called Munchausen by proxy. This is when you’re just too chicken
to make yourself sick, but you still want that attention so bad, so you make someone else sick.
Usually it’s a child, elderly person, or disabled person. The normal do it to yourself Munchausens
is more prevalent in men, but Munchausen by proxy is more prevalent in women. This could be because
women are still primarily the caregivers in our society. The idea here is that by having
a chronically ill child, the neighborhood will rally to your side, and use words like brave
and strong when they describe you. While not knowing that you’re secretly poisoning the kid.
Many doctors have been trying to ge the DSM to remove the term Munchausen by proxy and
replace it with what it really is: medical abuse; child abuse; and attempted murder.
And now, to add a whole new layer of awful, something that’s only sprung up in the last
few years, Munchausen by internet. Obviously it’s pretty easy to fake an illness on the
internet for sympathy but this takes it a little bit further. You’ve probably heard cases of this,
you just didn’t hear it called Munchausen by internet. But this when someone with their
self-induced illness or poisoned child goes to the internet and elicits donations for
their medical care. This is fraud and illegal. This disorder is so incredibly rare that it’s
not worth thinking about or accusing people of. It’s also really hard for me to come up with my
usual ending tagline for this one. Maybe… maybe if you had an aunt that had ALS for like ten years,
and now you have a cousin who’s mysteriously getting diagnosed and cured of different
types of cancer. Or you see a GoFundMe page for chemotherapy for someone’s daughter who
looks weirdly healthy. Really it’s just a good idea not to donate to anyone that you don’t
know online. So maybe now you’ll know better.
Hey guys, if you enjoyed this video or you learned
something, go ahead and give that like button a click. If you’d like to see more from me, I put
out new videos every weekend, in addition to these random ones, so go ahead and give that subscribe
button a shave. Yes, I did actually shave my head and eyebrows for this, so imagine what I’ll do
for that 250 video. So be sure to share this video with your friends. In the meantime, if you’d like
to see one of my older videos, how about this one?
[Outro music]