To know anyone irl with munchausens?

[Lw87]

Watching the gypsy rose doc, I'd never heard of munchausens disease before and can't even think I'd know anyone with it in real life

Has anyone actually had an RL encounter with someone with this?

My sister's DP was married to a woman we think has something from this field. She claimed to have developed Cystic Fibrosis in her late 40s. Conveniently about the time their marriage broke up. My DSis got together with him a couple of years later, and he still (5 years later) gets calls from her, saying she's ill with the CF. He offered to take her to hospital on a number of occasions, but she is VERY resistant. She tells him she has no medication or exercises. (My DSis has had children in her class who have had CF; as a teacher she is aware of some of the aspects of their condition.) I suspect it's a lie the ex-wife just gotten carried away with, which is sad for her..

I've come across it once in my professional career as a veterinary nurse. We had a couple who were at the vets literally several times a week every week with their dog, all sorts of complaints which were always vague enough to be able to be attributed to any number of illnesses. Nothing could ever be found.
The dog had multiple and many investigations.
Several operation to look for foreign bodies that the owners claimed they had swallowed.
It went on for years, they were so regular at the practice they knew everyone by name.
The dog was energetic and happy every time we saw him, but at home, if you believed the owners, was literally dying. Phonecalls to say the dog was barely breathing, struggling for breath, seizures, only to be brought in bouncing across the waiting room.
They got a second dog and the whole cycle started again, multiple referrals to experts for vague symptoms etc.
Nothing was ever found.
Eventually they moved vets after questions started to be asked. We heard through the grapevine that they do the same at their current vets.
So the condition can definitely manifest 'by proxy' in animal companions too.

In my field there was also a vet nurse who was struck off due to injecting her own dog with stolen insulin (he wasn't a diabetic) to make him ill, she was found out after she did this multiple times to get sympathy from her co workers. It was big news a couple of years ago.

@allergyupset

Amazing how many of you claim to know someone who's always being sent for tests, scans and referrals etc, when those of us who actually are ill and desperately need these tests, keep being told no by our GPs. I have no idea how these alleged Munchausen's people actually manage to persuade doctors to test them, when some of us have been practically begging for years to be taken seriously but keep being turned away.

Quite.

@allergyupset

Amazing how many of you claim to know someone who's always being sent for tests, scans and referrals etc, when those of us who actually are ill and desperately need these tests, keep being told no by our GPs. I have no idea how these alleged Munchausen's people actually manage to persuade doctors to test them, when some of us have been practically begging for years to be taken seriously but keep being turned away.

No I don’t understand either. I seriously questioned that fact every time the person i mentioned, states yet again she has another test scan or referral to a specialist. I initially thought it was being fabricated, but was and is always backed up by my family member. He is the most honest person I know otherwise I’d not believe it.

Yet when my dad had a basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) removal. He couldn’t get his follow up surgeons appointment for love nor money. They cancelled it time and time again, moved it to a location he wasn’t physically able to get to, then cancelled again. In the end they phoned him and asked him how he was….signed him off without checking it.

Trying to get an appointment alone is like pulling hens teeth but Yet here she is attending appointments every other week with treatment being offered at the drop of a hat!

I don’t think it’s amazing so many know one person with this pattern of behaviour. Most of us know hundreds of people and these people seek attention

Come across a few in my line of work. I work in education. It’s heartbreaking.

I have looked after several patients with this. Not a huge number in my 2 decades of nursing. But I do recall a patient when I was a student nurse who was considered to have this.

It's often not diagnosed until late, after a long standing pattern has become clear. They are very cunning and quite pathological. They will know the human body and disease that they are trying to get diagnosed inside and out and absolutely tell Drs the right thing and be very good at mimicking symptoms. They really are very manipulative and cleaver and for many their whole lives revolved around this.

Beverly Allet, the nurse who injected insulin into babies in her care had munchausnes by proxy. Terrifying to think she made it into nursing. She basically made her patients critically ill as a means of eliciting attention up herself. Sadly lots of babies died. A totally tragedy.

I was an inpatient in an antenatal ward for a prolonged period of time and there was one woman who came in a number of times and it was very obvious she was enjoying being in a hospital environment. She couldn't keep any food down apparently and had HG but when she was in the next bed to me I discovered she was actually making herself sick. After every meal (that she wolfed down) she would tell me that she had to pull the curtains around as she wanted to sleep and then I could see her putting her fingers down her throat and making herself sick. She would then pull back the curtains, announce she had been sick and needed me to call the midwife. The weird thing was that she looked so happy at this stage. She used to get lots of visitors and tell them complete lies about going into labour the night before, the doctors having to push the baby back in and how it was all such an emergency and she nearly lost her life.
All of her 5 dc were all very "severely disabled", despite looking completely healthy and age appropriate. I think she just loved the attention.

@Lw87

Watching the gypsy rose doc, I'd never heard of munchausens disease before and can't even think I'd know anyone with it in real life

Has anyone actually had an RL encounter with someone with this?

It is now referred to as 'fabricated or induced illness'. Yes I worked in social care and saw it. Also schools would identify this in some families where parents would make up illness to keep children off school.

@RVN123

I've come across it once in my professional career as a veterinary nurse. We had a couple who were at the vets literally several times a week every week with their dog, all sorts of complaints which were always vague enough to be able to be attributed to any number of illnesses. Nothing could ever be found. The dog had multiple and many investigations. Several operation to look for foreign bodies that the owners claimed they had swallowed. It went on for years, they were so regular at the practice they knew everyone by name. The dog was energetic and happy every time we saw him, but at home, if you believed the owners, was literally dying. Phonecalls to say the dog was barely breathing, struggling for breath, seizures, only to be brought in bouncing across the waiting room. They got a second dog and the whole cycle started again, multiple referrals to experts for vague symptoms etc. Nothing was ever found. Eventually they moved vets after questions started to be asked. We heard through the grapevine that they do the same at their current vets. So the condition can definitely manifest 'by proxy' in animal companions too.

In my field there was also a vet nurse who was struck off due to injecting her own dog with stolen insulin (he wasn't a diabetic) to make him ill, she was found out after she did this multiple times to get sympathy from her co workers. It was big news a couple of years ago.

Wow. People do it to animals too? As if it wasn't shocking enough.

Oh yes… we diagnosed my mother with this as well as NPD years ago!! 😂

Name changed for this but had two fits whilst pregnant with ds many years ago. I was told that they weren't " real" fits as they were caused by my stress/imagination.
Fast forward to having an emergency section under a general and I had another. I came round to find that i had a scar from hip to hip, and that they had cut my bladder so had to stay in hospital for two weeks and be supervised when holding my baby as I could have a fit at any time.
I came home on lots of tablets and numerous follow up appointments which I didn't attend as I had my driving license taken away plus I wasn't interested in seeing the consultant who dismissed my problem without any investigations.
A few months later I weaned myself off the tablets and started driving again after a year.
Luckily I've been fine but have always wondered if my sons additional needs were caused by the two long fits that could most likely have been prevented.

As a former nurse I knew quite a few nurses and student nurses who had M by Proxy. They all seemed to work on the children’s ward too!

I'll tell you how these people get test and results they want.
They harass, harangue and general don't let up. They will send multiple emails, text and phone calls, they will talk in Person on and on until people give in to get rid of them.
They're behaviour is bullying/starker like.

Yes. It’s a nightmare. I was stopped from pursuing my career of choice as I was told I had a medical condition that would make it a bad choice and could kill me. My doctor later confirmed there was no evidence of this. I grew up believing I spent months in hospital as a baby with another condition that (as an adult) no one knew anything about and there is zero evidence of.
Now this person creates her own reality about her health status and has people running round when no need. This person had narcissistic personality disorder I think and it’s not something you can deal with as that person would need to acknowledge the problem in order to deal with it. So we have someone with grandiose views, huge self entitlement and a fabricated career that never existed at all. Ironically she tells everyone she was a neonatal nurse but I recently discovered there was no neonatal ward at hospital she worked in and saw her RCN graduation certificate which shows she graduated only a year before my sister was born. Hence she didn’t have the years of experience she claims. Sadly the lies are so ingrained and there’s way more in terms of family who have been cut off from my Dad’s side cos she didn’t like them, that I have no idea if I’ll ever be able to get the truth out when she dies. She used to start screaming randomly when my Dads key went in the door growing up and started kicking off for no reason, saying how bad me and my sister were. We were routinely belted/left in rooms for a day etc cos of this. My mum basically turned our dad on us as she hated how he was proud of us. I feel sorry for my dad who is now deceased, that he lived with this controlling and lying monster. My sister and I realise now in our 40’s that we are royally screwed emotionally by this and the only silver lining, is that we are unbreakable and will always have each other’s back. Ironically, we were so goody two shoes girly swots, nobody at school would ever believe it. Furthermore, I came from a very middle class family and it clearly wasn’t apparent to school at all. I made it my mission when I became a mum to make sure I repeated none of this and actively try daily to break the history. I’m an insecure human at times who struggles with trusting people and making/keeping friends. It’s a constant work in progress and exhausting but I think I’m doing ok as a mum. My kids are great - confident, happy and doing well in school.

@itssarcasmjoan

I'll tell you how these people get test and results they want. They harass, harangue and general don't let up. They will send multiple emails, text and phone calls, they will talk in Person on and on until people give in to get rid of them. They're behaviour is bullying/starker like.

But equally this is the behaviour of desperate parents whose dc have genuine issues and aren’t being listened to

My dd nearly died i had to repeatedly take her to a and e and I was dismissed multiple times and had to beg for tests

And yes the gp actually said to me ‘we are only doing these tests to put your mind at rest’ …….

Not long after that we were in an ambulance

We have a pupil at school whom I suspect. Not sure if it’s her or mother but so

Posted too soon…
So many things just don’t add up about her various medical conditions.

calvados I’ve just read your last comment. That’s scary. Why?? Ironically, it makes me feel better though to hear that.

Most people with genuine munchausens tend to move around hospitals quite a lot so no one catches on. They often get banned from trusts eventually so move on elsewhere.

The one thing I am not sure of is treatment for these people. Not sure if there are any people here I who work in mental health. It seems very similar to a personality disorder which I don't think revive any treatment. Not sure with Munchausens though.

Justilou1 That's bloody awful

@calvados

As a former nurse I knew quite a few nurses and student nurses who had M by Proxy. They all seemed to work on the children’s ward too!

Beverly Allett.

Yes, a horrid mother at my DDs primary school. She is middle class and a vet who lives in a naice village so behaviour is overlooked. She blames her ExH who is desperate to be in his DDs life but mum makes up mad story after mad story as to why her lovely girl can't cope with school. We all recognise it (I am on staff as a TA) I worry for the girl so much.

I knew of a woman who used to induce low haemoglobin/anaemia by bleeding herself so that she would be admitted to hospital. They realised it wasn't a haematology condition after a few admitions and exhausting other possibilities and she was referred to psychiatric care. I know she was suspected munchausens, but what diagnosis she finally received, I'm not sure.