This Rare Psychological Disorder Causes You To Fake Symptoms To Appear Ill, Injured, Or Impaired
Imagine faking an illness so well that even doctors are convinced. That is the essence of factitious disorder, which is also known as Munchausen syndrome. It’s all about fabricating symptoms or even tampering with medical tests to appear ill, injured, or impaired.
People with factitious disorder are not trying to invent medical problems for money or other perks, like getting out of work or winning a lawsuit. The gain is believed to be for primarily psychological reasons.
It is classified as a mental illness. People with this puzzling and complex condition are aware that they are causing their own symptoms or sicknesses, but they may not understand why they are behaving in this way or recognize that they have a problem.
Factitious disorder is hard to identify and difficult to treat. People with the disorder will go to great lengths to hide their deception and to receive care and attention.
Symptoms
The signs and symptoms of factitious disorder may include vague/inconsistent symptoms, conditions that worsen for no apparent reason, conditions that don’t respond to standard treatments, seeking treatments from several doctors or hospitals, and an eagerness to undergo testing and surgical operations.
In addition, they may argue with medical staff, be reluctant to let doctors talk to family/friends and have evidence of surgical scars on their bodies.
Types of Factitious Disorder
There are two types of factitious disorder. One of them is factitious disorder imposed on the self. It involves making up medical histories, exaggerating existing symptoms, faking symptoms altogether, tampering with medical tests, and inflicting self-harm.
They might inject themselves with bacteria, feces, gasoline, or milk to make themselves sick. They could injure, cut, or burn themselves. Or they may even take certain medications to imitate diseases.
The second type of factitious disorder is when the illness is imposed on others. People with this kind of factitious disorder will invent symptoms of sickness in others under their care, whether it’s children, older adults, disabled people, or pets.
They will harm their dependents on purpose in order to receive attention. It occurs most often in mothers. The diagnosis is not given to the victim but to the perpetrator.
Risk Factors
The exact cause of factitious disorder is unknown, but several risk factors can contribute to its development. Some theories suggest that a history of childhood trauma, such as neglect and emotional/physical abuse, can lead to factitious disorder.
Other factors include having a serious illness as a child, a poor sense of identity, low self-esteem, depression, personality disorders, receiving attention during past times of sickness, and experiencing the loss of a loved one due to death, illness, or abandonment.
Many patients who have been diagnosed with this condition have also had professional experience in the field of healthcare. The disorder is considered to be rare, but it is unclear how many people suffer from it in the United States.
Some use fake names to avoid detection, some visit multiple doctors/hospitals, and others are never identified. It is estimated that about one percent of those admitted to hospitals have factitious disorder, but the statistic is probably lower than what’s been reported.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
More About:News