🤝 Community Munchausen's by Internet (Malingerers, Munchies, Spoonies, etc) - Feigning Illnesses for Attention

[Kate Farms Shill]

Nah, I think it's just giving her something we take for granted in the states, the right to make absolutely terrible decisions about her medical care. Much as I love the no-no casts, they'd never fly here, and apparently not in Canada either since Vampire Kelly has no legs.

I think I posted about this before, but I learned this lesson when I said a girl I was archiving "VSED" to a British person. They thought it meant there was proof of a real disease because no doctor would sign off on that if she wasn't really very ill. Sign off on what? This is the United States. We do not need to be sick. We do not need to fake sick well enough to trick doctors. We do not need to ask permission. We can just stop and there's nothing anyone can do. To me this truth is so self-evident that I thought the other person was being sarcastic at first.

We are the country where a homeless schizophrenic woman won the legal right to refuse all treatment and help, be homeless, shit and piss on the sidewalks, sleep on an air vent, panhandle, eat out of dumpsters, and aggressively scream at passers-by.

 

[Flourishing Pinecone ❧]

The munchies I knew of personally would get a basic once-over in the ER if they showed up, and were quickly turfed back out the door to follow up with whichever primary care physician hasn’t ‘fired’ them from their practice.

This is often the case for BPD/Cluster B nightmares, they will have a plan in place in the ED to say things like "must be seen by a senior clinician, not for opioids, not for admission unless medically necessary". I have even seen plans for BPD patients who keep self harming that they won't even patch them up because they will just unpick the stitches and come back.

But the nasty Antisocial Personality Disorders can also end up banned from hospitals if they are aggressive/violent/sexually harass staff enough times for someone to put their foot down.

 

[Pho Real]

I’m glad you guys enjoy Emma, she definitely posts enough to sustain a thread. Yesterday she decided to make her Facebook profile pic a photo of Anne Frank, a nice callback to when she claimed this poor dead jewish girl was her autistic special interest.

I don’t know if we have any ASL speakers in this thread, but if you exist, I’d love some feedback on this video. She went through a long phase of posting these long reels with no captions or explanations, supposedly blathering on in ASL. This one is my favourite. It’s unfortunate the Nobel committee doesn’t take applications in sign.

As a technological troglodyte, I apologize in advance for any formatting errors.
Video-85.mp4

I got you.

Spoiler: Transcript attempt

:00-:07
WANT MY
Should be ME, not off to a great start
CHAT
both hands facing the wrong direction
ABOUT G-U-A-N-T-U-M-P-H-Y-S-I-C-S
She signs the first letter wrong, G instead of Q, and there’s signs for both QUANTUM and PHYSICS. She doesn’t use any facial expressions to indicate this is a question so it ends up being a statement that doesn’t make sense.
WHATEVER

:08-0:18
MAYBE IF
I think she’s trying to sign IF, might be IDEA but either way it’s wrong
EARTH/WORLD/GLOBE/DRAGON BALL-Z
Who knows tbh, she’s not doing anything that makes sense unless she’s talking about the planet’s movement without any necessary set up and still not correctly. And these are just guesses at her attempts based on what I think quantum physics is about. Though I’m pretty sure at this point she doesn’t know either.
BEFORE
ORBIT
or WHEN, neither sign fits. If she was going for ORBIT, there’s none of the necessary set up to establish what’s orbiting what. If it’s WHEN, it’s too large and awkward of a movement
FIRST ELECTRON
ELECTRON is probably giving her too much credit. It was a finger wiggle that could be part of ELECTRON, but if that’s the case half the sign is missing
THEN KIND CLOSER-TO
She signs the wrong KIND, she meant and mouthed KIND-OF but signs KIND/TYPE like “this kind of thing”. Rookie mistake done by all these sign fakers, they don’t know enough to realize English words mean multiple things and that you have to use the sign with the right meaning, not the first video that pops up

0:19
[Repeats the same random finger-wiggle around the screen]
No idea what she means, it’s gibberish given the lack of context and actual sign.

0:22
SUN
She does a strange hybrid of SUN and LIGHT that’s wrong for both, it’s also close to SHOWER and HONG KONG. I only figured out she means LIGHT because she mouths it. It’s still the wrong sign for LIGHT in the context of physics, even if she signed it correctly above her head directly down. That would be the sign for LIGHTS in a ceiling. Then she keeps signing the same thing but moving outward, kind of like OCTOPUS

0:23
BLINK SUN
Too far out from and below her face to be blinking eyes, and now the octopi are attacking her. And back to some weird finger wiggling.

0:26
MEASURE DRINKING* PARENT SAME** SUN DINOSAUR
Things have really gone off the rails. I think she was trying to say something about light being the same as parents and then showing light moving, but she’s so, so bad at this.
*wrong location and with two hands instead of one, but not close to anything else. I think she’s trying to say SAME for both MEASURE and DRINKING but fucks it up both times
**this is one reason I’m pretty confident she’s a faker vs someone who legitimately signs but uses home signs/is dysfluent. She makes different mistakes for the same sign multiple times. A dysfluent signer, eg. a deaf person who grew up without language until late childhood, will typically make identical mistakes with a sign every or most times that sign comes up.

0:33
UNDERSTAND MY FAMILY [random finger wave toward the sky]
No clue what she’s referencing with that finger wiggle
PERSON DINOSAUR MY LIFE SAME DINOSAUR LIFE
She might actually mean dinosaur at this point. If she doesn’t, I’m impressed shes managed to sign it correctly this many times. Not sure how dinosaurs relate to quantum physics or her life though

0:45
MY …[finger mumbling]…WHATEVER
Then half the old sign for RECORD but not close enough to count it as anything with meaning
SAME DINOSAUR SAME
She mouths LIKE for the second SAME
THAT MY S-A-S-L
This is a joke, right? She can’t even sign ‘ASL’ correctly. It’s 3 letters
[random hand shaking/flicking]
A-S-L
Q-U-A-N-T-U-M SIGN [shrug]
Nope, not at all. This wasn’t quantum physics, it wasn’t even language for the most part (minus the random DINOSAURS, I liked that part).

Emma doesn’t know enough sign to ramble, let alone ramble about quantum physics. She signs most of the basic signs wrong, and can’t put together a single coherent phrase. And that’s if you give her credit for signs that are wrong but still close enough to be intelligible.

Not that it’s a surprise a munchie with facial tattoos is also larping as a fluent ASL user.

 

[Dharma bump]

OT, but do deaf people in psychosis sign in word salad?

 

[Oracular Slug]

OT, but do deaf people in psychosis sign in word salad?

Probably, if it's their first language. Seems like there's something up with how auditory hallucinations work if you want a rabbit hole: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2007/jul/exploring-how-deaf-people-hear-voice-hallucinations

 

[Polychromos]

PERSON DINOSAUR MY LIFE SAME DINOSAUR LIFE

Thank you for your service, you are absolutely amazing!
I am very disappointed that the sign for dinosaur is not doing T-Rex hands.
I know there where fakers who made up sign language completely. I guess it's too hard to get away with nowadays. I still don't understand why they don't just learn it. If they fake just having become deaf, noone would expect perfection. The mistakes seem like they're half remembering a YouTube video. I get that the answer is probably "lack of effort", but some are very ambitious when it comes to their munching. I could also be way of on how "learnable" ASL is as an adult.

 

[wimzi]

Stumbled on someone weird, did some digging, wanted to share what I found with y'all and see what you made of it.

This is Eva (Instagram | YouTube | Linktree)

This video randomly came up while scrolling. Its a short slideshow, purporting to show leg atrophy, showing a skinny young woman then some truly incomprehensible angles.


Unable to tell WTF I was looking at, I scrolled over to her profile, where I saw the video directly beneath this one of her thirst trapping her full and unatrophied thighs in a power chair which made me even more



I saw her begging to be unbanned from TikTok. I searched her username to see if there was a call-out and found her Linktree which led me to a video very defensively called "Stop Pretending to Be Disabled". She also shared her side of the story as to what led to her being cancelled and subsequently banned on TikTok- as far as I could follow she had one strike on her account for calling someone a cunt, called out a more popular user for being casually ableist, got mass reported by his fans, made a react video to someone mocking her that got a strike for bullying, then got a second ban for trying to evade the first ban. The screenshots she shared showed DMs of people accusing her of faking.

In all of this she was very suspiciously vague on what her disability actually was- just "chronic illness". I noticed she was a former theater kid and a nerdy lesbian. Scrolling through her IG for clues, I saw many attention seeking thirst traps and begging for toys:


And then, her very first post in the wheelchair had my answer:


Another Long COVID warrior opting to lie around in bed all day rather than work, unless there's something fun to do.
Not as exciting as some of the girls documented here, and I don't have TikTok to try and see what survives of her cancelling there, but there is something satisfying in connecting a few dots.

 

[Adrenochrome Dreams]

And no, she’s not deaf. Or a pooner. Or a terf. Or a zionist. Or hindu, sicilian, reform jew, orthodox jew, hispanic, or any other identity she’s cycled through. Just a fat thumb

Given that she has an Inuit-style chin line tattoo, she has almost certainly larped as indigenous at some point.

 

[Flourishing Pinecone ❧]

Probably, if it's their first language. Seems like there's something up with how auditory hallucinations work if you want a rabbit hole: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2007/jul/exploring-how-deaf-people-hear-voice-hallucinations

"Individuals with severe language deprivation and incomplete acquisition of either speech or sign, were remarkable in that they did not experience either auditory characteristics or perception of subvisual imagery of voice articulation, suggesting that language acquisition within a critical period may be necessary for voice-hallucinations".

The brain is wild.

 

[MirnaMinkoff]

"Individuals with severe language deprivation and incomplete acquisition of either speech or sign, were remarkable in that they did not experience either auditory characteristics or perception of subvisual imagery of voice articulation, suggesting that language acquisition within a critical period may be necessary for voice-hallucinations".

The brain is wild.

This seems logically, that if you’ve never heard voices or language they would not be a part of you delusions/hallucinations.

However, no one with congenital blindness (or blindness acquired soon after birth) has ever been diagnosed with schizophrenia. That is a great and fascinating mystery.

 

[Flourishing Pinecone ❧]

This seems logically, that if you’ve never heard voices or language they would not be a part of you delusions/hallucinations.

But the interesting part is that even people born profoundly deaf, but who have learned some form of language, still get "auditory" hallucinations in the form of "voices" signing or mouthing words. They're not seeing a person signing, but it's like a person is signing in their brain? So bizarre and interesting.

 

[Spunt]

But the interesting part is that even people born profoundly deaf, but who have learned some form of language, still get "auditory" hallucinations in the form of "voices" signing or mouthing words. They're not seeing a person signing, but it's like a person is signing in their brain? So bizarre and interesting.

What is shows is that the sound component of words is not actually necessary for the understanding of syntax and language. Most of us who are not deaf have "spoken" words as our internal monologue, and we hear the "spoken" version of a word when we read it, but that's only because that is the way we picked up language as children. Those who learn it in other ways (such as those who have been deaf from birth) still have that internal monologue, but it presumably consists of a succession of mental word-concepts that are just as coherent. That does make sense, the internal monologue is not a 24/7 thing and it is possible to perform complex thought processes without having a narration, such as when performing complex non-linguistic tasks. Think about drawing or painting, chances are you aren't always thinking "I'll draw this line here then this line here", but the series of tasks you must perform in the right order to create visual art do work similarly to language but can function perfectly well without it.

We understand so little about the brain. The "I fucking love science" brigade who say that science has everything figured out and that the spiritual is no longer necessary get really fucking stuck when it comes to things like emergent consciousness, which can't be detected scientifically and has no clear evolutionary origin path or purpose. It's that unbridgeable gap between our rather basic understanding of the brain as an electro-chemical computer and the existence of the self-conscious first-person perspective that for me at least is strong evidence that the mental world does not exist on the same plane as the physical, there's nothing about the structure of the brain that explains it. But it definitely exists somewhere (cf: Descartes), so that means, logically, that physical reality is not all that there is. Science can only measure physical reality (and even then in quite limited ways, philosophically speaking), therefore science cannot tell us everything about human existence or existence in general.

Imagine being given such an immense and complex gift of life and existence, whether by evolution, God or anything else, and choosing to spend it pretending that you're dying.

 

[Pho Real]

OT, but do deaf people in psychosis sign in word salad?

Yes, but unlike the fakers we’ve seen, it’s still ASL. The signs are understandable even if the sentences/general message doesn’t make sense.

Spoiler: More/PL

A lot of the available professional development in the ASL-career world in recent times is focused on healthcare, and especially mental health. Much of that involves being able to distinguish between dysfluent signing due to disability (beyond deafness), lack of language growing up, etc., and dysfluent signing due to mental illness. There’s also a phenomenon dubbed “language deprivation syndrome” documented and suggested by researchers in which deaf individuals who have not been provided language as children go on to display a much higher incidence rate of mental illness than deaf individuals who have fluent language. My experience is very limited in healthcare, but I’ve sadly still witnessed possible examples of this in other settings. If anyone’s interested in some of the research that’s been done, I’ll link an article (archive). There’s also a good presentation (archive) by a Deaf child and adolescent psychiatrist; it’s pretty long but interesting if anyone’s curious.

 

[Otterly]

"Individuals with severe language deprivation and incomplete acquisition of either speech or sign, were remarkable in that they did not experience either auditory characteristics or perception of subvisual imagery of voice articulation, suggesting that language acquisition within a critical period may be necessary for voice-hallucinations".

The brain is wild.

They say that nobody born blind has even been diagnosed with schizophrenia

What is shows is that the sound component of words is not actually necessary for the understanding of syntax and language

That’s fascinating. I think I remember reading about this somewhere - Anthony burgess maybe? I can’t remember.

 

[CoolFool]

Physics Girl posted an update. She's up and walking now!

Things that stick out:

- Still claiming that she was 100% bedbound for over two years. Could not get up, could not roll over, could not feed herself or bathe herself or go to the bathroom. She was so sick that she couldn't even wear clothes.

- Still claiming that she could do absolutely nothing all day but sleep, not even watch YouTube or listen to audio books.
- Despite being completely bedbound for over two years, she still has fine muscle tone and no bedsores.

- She claims she became besties some guy named Tobias Schweikert that also seems like a munchy tbh. But he got approved for medically assisted suicide, so if he's a munchie, I guess he's committed to the bit or just really mentally unwell, idk.

- They do not talk at all about what made her better or why she's "suddenly" healthy again.

Spoiler: A thought

At the start of the video, the husband mentions how they wanted to start a family before all this happened. Maybe this is the cause of all this bullshit? I have always wondered why she went the munchie route when she doesn't have the typical characteristics of a munchie. She had education, fame, fortune, and simps. She didn't need to prove anything to anyone, she got invited to jobs and experiences people could only dream of. She didn't need money, she was making bank on YouTube alone. She didn't need attention, she had plenty of it from her fans and literal simps. But maybe the thought of being a mother was too much for her? Now she has an excuse. She can't be a mom because she's sick. Now her husband and parents will stop pestering her about it.

I still find the case odd. I still can't figure out if this started out genuinely as a bad reaction to the covid vaccine/covid itself and she just ran with it, or if she planned this from the start.

I don't know if this was posted here already but I rolled my eyes at this video of Dianne "standing for the first time":

How can anyone buy this bullshit?

 

[failed mist]

At the start of the video, the husband mentions how they wanted to start a family before all this happened. Maybe this is the cause of all this bullshit? I have always wondered why she went the munchie route when she doesn't have the typical characteristics of a munchie. She had education, fame, fortune, and simps. She didn't need to prove anything to anyone, she got invited to jobs and experiences people could only dream of. She didn't need money, she was making bank on YouTube alone. She didn't need attention, she had plenty of it from her fans and literal simps. But maybe the thought of being a mother was too much for her? Now she has an excuse. She can't be a mom because she's sick. Now her husband and parents will stop pestering her about it.

I truly think there’s a case for thoughtfully bringing back and updating the “hysteria” diagnosis. That constellation of factitious disorder, conversion syndrome, BPD, maybe a smattering of OCD, some complex trauma woven into the mix…

Similar to the idea behind Shit Life Syndrome, there should be a way to say “yeah your experience of being a woman made you insane.”

It’s like…a deep need/compulsion to only take control and change your own life, but only in ways that are perceived as passive to outsiders. She knows she needs to take control and say no to kids, but she Cannot do that, on pain of [???]. Taking extreme steps to say no and still be lovable and worthy.

 

[SaltyButter]

I am starting to wonder if maybe we should bring back some form of small asylums for munchies because think of the money it would save, have them all in one spot would reduce the amount of ER admissions, it could be treated as the mental illness it is with medication via shots and restraining people who are too self destructive and removes the attention for them from strangers. They would still be in a care environment. Like a nursing home for them. Doc comes once a week and only listens to all their imaginary problems so he can cut through the nonsense of actual vs imagined / feigned illnesses with the help of nurses keeping notes on the patients actual symptoms which are not declared but rather observed covertly somehow.

Not a solution or anything but. I dunno. Every day I think its more needed.

 

[GainsGoblin]

I am starting to wonder if maybe we should bring back some form of small asylums for munchies because think of the money it would save, have them all in one spot would reduce the amount of ER admissions, it could be treated as the mental illness it is with medication via shots and restraining people who are too self destructive and removes the attention for them from strangers. They would still be in a care environment. Like a nursing home for them. Doc comes once a week and only listens to all their imaginary problems so he can cut through the nonsense of actual vs imagined / feigned illnesses with the help of nurses keeping notes on the patients actual symptoms which are not declared but rather observed covertly somehow.

Not a solution or anything but. I dunno. Every day I think its more needed.

I think we should just bring back public floggings. Really give them something to cry about.

 

[Zemblan Physics]

Congenital blindness is rare, as is schizophrenia (though more common than congenital blindness). I’ve seen studies suggesting that the statistical power to prove or disprove a protective effect of CB against schizophrenia hasn’t been met in most studies. Not saying it can’t be true, but I’m a little skeptical. People with Usher syndrome (congenital deafness & visual impairment) definitely are susceptible to psychotic disorders, though, but then again their visual impairment is usually gradual.

 

[Fat Black Woman]

I am starting to wonder if maybe we should bring back some form of small asylums for munchies because think of the money it would save, have them all in one spot would reduce the amount of ER admissions, it could be treated as the mental illness it is with medication via shots and restraining people who are too self destructive and removes the attention for them from strangers. They would still be in a care environment. Like a nursing home for them. Doc comes once a week and only listens to all their imaginary problems so he can cut through the nonsense of actual vs imagined / feigned illnesses with the help of nurses keeping notes on the patients actual symptoms which are not declared but rather observed covertly somehow.

Not a solution or anything but. I dunno. Every day I think its more needed.

They would enjoy the attention too much. How romantic and fragile and dainty and tragic to be committed! I have negative opinions of psychiatry, but there are very real suffering people who need help and a lack of psychiatric beds and they shouldn't be wasted by munchies who will revel in their tragic stories of medical trauma and mistreatment. The proper way to deal with them is to flag them everywhere and completely ignore them unless they are actively for real for real dying. These people are attention-seeking, narcissistic retards, not genuinely mentally ill. Unless we're talking Munchausen's, of course, or factitious disorder.

I agree with @GainsGoblin that public floggings are also a great option.