Maybe this is a rant - feigned illnesses

Wouldn’t like to be her, she sounds incredibly anxious.

The World Health Organization defines long Covid as symptoms that start (usually) within three months of having Covid

I do honestly think if you haven’t been around one of these types extensively then you can’t understand how draining it is. You have to go through endless ‘oh poor you’ while wondering if it is real and then sometimes the time you go ‘that’s it it simply CAN’T all be real’ then something actually does happen! But worse, far worse than it would be if it happened to you of course.

The person in my life really does have issues with family members having medical issues and I have huge respect for them dealing with that but it seems to have spiralled into wild health anxiety, catastrophising, minimising others’ issues (because it’s always far far worse for them of course) EVEN WHEN there are really obvious markers, like not at all being on any clinically vulnerable lists, or called in for routine checkups of various illnesses they claim to have that have been going on (then resenting you - yes, resenting! - for being on several of these lists because you dare to really have an unwanted clinical diagnosis for something), yet hoovering up gp’s appts, insisting on referrals, talking about ‘my cancer thing’ YOU DIDNT HAVE CANCER YOU HAD A HEALTH SCARE YOU CREATED YOURSELF THAT THEY WERE DELIGHTED TO TELL YOU WAS NOTHING AT ALL.

It is frustrating because we love them, as people we’re programmed to believe people we love and support them in illness and so it’s discombobulating to find yourself wondering ‘is this really real’ plus frustrating when they treat the beleaguered NHS like a personal on-call medical service. Except never for anti-anxiety meds.

Its like an unanswerable cry for help.

Because she was claiming to still have said migraine. Never just a headache, always the worst migraine known to man

I wish i had advice, my SIL is exactly the same. She has a new illness every week, been to the doctors more times than i have had hot dinners - never really has any sort of diagnosis, but always on some sort of antibiotics/ painkillers.
Every illness is quoted as 'the worst case the doctor has ever seen'. She is constantly off work, loosing jobs then guilt tripping parents into giving her money because she is ill. Its exhausting, unfortunately majority of her siblings no longer bother with her because every conversation results in her latest illness.
I fear one day she may actually be quite ill but she has cried wolf so many times that almost everything she says is met with an eye roll.

My husband's sister is exactly like that! Says she's gluten intolerant but eats toast. Reckons she's lactose intolerant, but she'll have custard, and sauces made with cream in. Not one single doctor has ever told her she's got any medical condition that should restrict her diet (she picks and chooses when she's got these things). Never, ever had any type of medical test for any intolerance. She's an attention-craving hypochondriac. She once told us that all 4 chambers of her heart were damaged/not working. It turned out she had absolutely nothing wrong with her heart at all.

It’s so tricky. The people I know with long covid are the ones you would have guessed would get long covid if you’d been a betting person. I’m sure some are genuine but there’s a certain type of person who love a diagnosis and one with no outright blood test to confirm is perfect for them.

Onset of long covid can be delayed for up to 3 months (possibly longer) after the acute infection, and occurs in about 10% of cases.

So although she sounds like a PITA, it is entirely possible that she also has long covid.

Be less available.. Cut phone calls short... Change the subject without acknowledgment of the latest issue... We had a relative that claimed he had had surgery the day before his visit for testicular cancer... Took a photo for my own sanity of him wrestling on the floor with my dc.. to remind me he is full of bs...

@HowdidImanagetohavetwoaccountaandthenloseboth Have you tried just ignoring your MIL when she starts talking about her health? Change the subject. She's right to be concerned about moles, though. There are mole clinics where you can go and get them all checked in one appointment. And she's very unlucky to have been stung multiple times by bees!

I'm not a medical professional, I can only speak for myself. I had covid (for the second or possibly third time), was pretty mild. The only issue was a lingering cough which I didn't bother to do anything about until it had gone on for four months, it wasn't severe and I don't think a lot of people would even have noticed, if they hadn't been constantly in my company. Eventually a short dose of steroid inhaler sorted it out, but since then my asthma has been set off by various allergens and I go through cycles of being breathless to the point of not being able to walk up a flight of stairs, back to nearly normal (though still not the lung capacity I had until last year), and then off again. I hadn't had an asthma attack for nearly 30 years, since I grew out of my childhood asthma. The GP confirmed it seems to be as a result of the covid that it came back. I wouldn't have classed myself as having long covid for the first few months because all I had was a slight cough.

Because people who make up illnesses can be incredibly draining to be around. They often do it for attention and can ramp up their efforts if sufficient attention is not offered.

How does this affect you?

I'm with you on the food thing, but I agree with a pp that the long covid could be genuine. Probably not, given her history, but it doesn't sound completely out of line for how long covid can present.

She rocked up to work one day with a full face of makeup saying she's had a very severe migraine for 3 days. Like she wouldn't be fit to lift her head if that was the case but anyway.

Why would being fit and made up for work on day 4 preclude the fact that she had a migraine for the 3 days before?

I feel your pain it's so frustrating being around this type of person.
I have started to ignore and not offer any advice, and I do lots of 🙄🙄

Used to work with someone like this, she had every illness going. It was draining. She rocked up to work one day with a full face of makeup saying she's had a very severe migraine for 3 days. Like she wouldn't be fit to lift her head if that was the case but anyway. Her handbag used to rattle she had that many pills. Her kids were the same, if they had asthma it was never any old asthma it was the worst the doc had ever seen.. blah blah blah.

Sounds like she's got health anxiety. And it can be very toxic/draining to engage in (DH has got it, and he's driving me round the bend following recent hernia surgery - his latest is that he thinks his scar is infected. It isn't, so I'm not engaging in discussion with it).

I would just parrot back the same answer each time "oh dear, is your health anxiety bad again at the moment, have you tried the GP".

I have an old friend with a bit of this going on and I will be honest it has ramped up lately and it's put some distance between us. You could put it down to her mental health, attention seeking, wanting to feel special or a bit of all three. Ultimately though, happy well adusted people don't make up illnesses, and it points to an emotional or psychological imbalance.