#playing sick

[mockva]

🦘In Australia, a kangaroo plays sick to get tourists to feed and pet it. Yo, we gotta take notes on that hustle.

[printedword]

The estimated mortality rate [of Munchausen by proxy] is 9 to 10 percent, making it perhaps the most lethal form of child abuse… In MBP, a child may undergo an extraordinary number of unpleasant and often painful diagnostic tests. He or she may also be exposed to numerous pointless medication trials and/or surgeries with all their attendant risks. Some children have had as many as 300 clinic visits and 14 hospitalizations in their first 18 months of life.

Marc Feldman, from Playing Sick?: Untangling the Web of Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, Malingering, and Factitious Disorder

[a-supernova-girl]

Faking It - David 8 x OC

As promised, a little fluffy ficlet for David, being all cute and stuff and probably OOC but it’s my fic and I’ll do what I want! I know it’s short, but I advertised it as such when I announced it so don’t be too bummed? Also, if you’re new to my fics and enjoy this, please see my masterlist in my blog description (I don’t want to link it for fear this won’t show up anywhere searchable as a result)

“David, you are not sick,” she sighed, looking over the synthetic as he lay in bed, clutching blankets and looking uncharacteristically pathetic.

“How can you say that?” he answered in a dejected voice, and followed his own response with a fake cough. “I feel feverish.”

“You...” she began, pausing to look around his room for help that obviously wasn't there. “David, you can't get sick, maybe you're malf-” She stopped. She had been about to say malfunctioning. She hated using words that alluded to his non-human status. She didn't see him as a robot, the way that other crew members considered him. But he was absolutely not sick.

She looked back to him, taking in the handsome features, his strangely hopeful eyes. Hopeful that she would humor him and take care of him as if he truly were sick. He wasn't even sure why the mood had come over him, but a wish to be taken care of and doted over had struck him, and if that meant playing sick, well...it would just have to do. The human couldn't help but smile as the synthetic removed a hand from under the blanket and reached out to her.

“Why are your hands...David, did you lick your palms?”

“I saw it in a film”

“...You watched Ferris Bueller?”

“My tastes are more varied than you might assume,” he answered simply, still holding her gaze.

She remained silent as she watched him, contemplating the situation. He certainly was precious to her, and if he truly were to become sick, she would do everything in her power to aid him in getting well.

“Well...with hands that, uh...clammy, I guess you really are sick.” David's eyes seemed to brighten at her words, betraying his own actions. “I suppose I'll have to take care of you,” she concluded, leaning over him where he lay in bed to press a comforting kiss to his forehead, his skin not remotely feverish.

tagging @capsgrantrogers @spacefirebird7 @niralamba @asaucerfulbabybearsmusings @wastelandheart @pro-procrassie @justdreamingofthestars @bringingdapperback @amaltheametalweld @filling-the-darkness-with @yeetimgimagines @gildodildo38 @onnetonprinsessa @elvenw4rrior @magpie-king @fassymioamor8 @tradigitalhollow @taxodium-distichum @kelseyxyeslek-blog

[printedword]

Some classic techniques to elicit evidence for medical deception appear in a book by Sir John Colie—enormously valuable today though it was published almost a century ago. Dr. Colie’s observations, amassed from the tens of thousands of physical examinations he had performed, still apply to patients in whom the diagnoses of authentic and fabricated illness appear hopelessly intertwined. Some examples from Dr. Colie’s “hands-on” practice, which mostly targeted pain and neurologic syndromes:

Patients claiming to be unable to walk unaided forgetfully leave their crutches or canes behind in the exam room.

Individuals barely able to move their arms and hands briskly get dressed after the physical.

Patients’ medical signs (e.g., contorted faces with every movement due to excruciating pain) miraculously improve when they are unaware of being observed.

They may be found in incriminating postures (e.g., tying a shoelace while claiming to have unyielding back pain) if the doctor walks into the room unannounced.

A nonhealing wound on an arm or leg promptly heals after being placed in a cast that prevents the patient’s engaging in medical mischief. Removal of the cast results in recurrence of the wound.

Patients are unable, with their eyes closed tightly or blindfolded, to point reliably to the sites of greatest pain or, alternatively, trace the area of loss of sensation. These sites and “maps” may vary by many inches as the test is performed several times during the course of the exam.

A doctor’s quick pinch of areas of supposed loss of sensation, performed while the patient is distracted or (in the hospital) asleep, results—inconsistent with the claim—in instant startle or awakening.

Patients complaining of chest pain may howl when their ribs are directly pushed by the hands of the examiner, but remain undistressed when undergoing a lung or heart exam during which they are pressed just as forcefully by the stethoscope.

Forcibly moving a painful limb may result in protests, but not the increased heart rate or pupil dilation seen when people are in genuine acute pain.

With eyes closed or blindfolded, patients unintentionally reveal that they can feel a sensation even when they claim the body part is totally incapable of feeling. For instance, they may promptly answer “no” when asked if they can feel a pinprick or light touch to an area of allegedly lost sensation. If they truly had no sensation, they wouldn’t even have known that the stimulus had been applied when it was; they would have said nothing. Thus, they betray their true capacity to feel.

Such procedures and observations, ignoble though they may seem, can neatly demonstrate that a sign or symptom is at least partially psychological. Still, they do not necessarily indicate whether the initiation of the symptom is conscious (factitious or malingered) or unconscious (conversion disorder).

— Marc Feldman, from Playing Sick?: Untangling the Web of Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, Malingering, and Factitious Disorder

[printedword]

People with factitious disorder practice a kind of thievery. They “play sick,” telling lies about personal illness or crisis and secretly misusing others to gain the attention and nurturance missing from their lives. In most cases, their suffering is indeed genuine, but it is not the physical suffering of cancer or the grief of a lost loved one. It is the emotional suffering that comes from a profound perception of being unloved and unlovable.

Marc Feldman, from Playing Sick?: Untangling the Web of Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, Malingering, and Factitious Disorder

[printedword]

One of the paradoxes of Internet discussion groups is the level of intimacy that can be established while maintaining near-perfect anonymity. This unusual circumstance affords a risk-free opportunity for deceptions that may serve as a practice arena for individuals not yet bold enough to try their deceptions openly. Such online behavior can be easily viewed as a manifestation of factitious disorder. Instead of seeking care at numerous hospitals, these individuals can now gain new audiences merely by clicking from one support group to another. Under the pretense of illness, they can also join multiple groups simultaneously or establish different personae in a single group or one-on-one interactions.

Marc Feldman, from Playing Sick?: Untangling the Web of Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, Malingering, and Factitious Disorder

[printedword]

A peculiar variant of human MBP [Munchausen by proxy] surfaced in 1980 in Israel, resulting in the first known incident of what doctors termed Munchausen by adult proxy. The central figure in this case, a 34-year-old man, began inducing illness in his wife by putting sleeping pills in her coffee. While she was sedated, he injected gasoline into sections of her body to create abscesses. The perpetrator kept an almost ‘round-the-clock vigil at his wife’s bedside under the guise of assisting in her care. She died from the ailments he had induced and his role in the death went unrecognized. Three years later, the same man hired a nanny to help him care for his daughters. Eventually he proposed marriage to her. When she expressed a lack of enthusiasm about his offer, he drugged her coffee and injected gasoline into her breasts, neck, and buttocks. Extensive lab tests ultimately led to his being discovered and he was sentenced to 46 years in prison for the murder of his wife and the assault of the nanny. This man became publicly known as the “Gasoline Injector.”

Marc Feldman, from Playing Sick?: Untangling the Web of Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, Malingering, and Factitious Disorder

[printedword]

Cancer has been the disease of choice of a number of factitious disorder patients who consciously and intentionally lie about illness. Sometimes they actually injure themselves or induce physical symptoms and signs to gain sympathy, admiration, and concern. The heroic image that cancer survivors increasingly have is attractive to factitious disorder patients, as is the strong emotional response a cancer diagnosis is sure to draw from loved ones and associates.

Marc Feldman, from Playing Sick?: Untangling the Web of Munchausen Syndrome, Munchausen by Proxy, Malingering, and Factitious Disorder