Latest / Do You F*cking Mind? / Brain Fact: Munchausen Syndrome by proxy

Transcript

Brain Fact: Munchausen Syndrome by proxy · Do You F*cking Mind?

• 0:15
  Speaker 1: In fact of today is Munchausen's syndrome and also munchausen
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: syndrome by proxy. So what is it? And the reason
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about this is because I was listening to Uh,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I'm currently listening to a podcast. It's one episode released
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: every week called Scamander. Fucking. If you know me, you
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: know how much I love listening to podcasts about scams,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: cons all the above live and Brether Pyramid Schames. Love
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: that shit so much. If you have a good one
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to recommend to me, please, I'm all ears. But this
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: one's called Scamander, and another one is called Oh It'll
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: come to me something about magic. It'll come to me.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: But it got me thinking that this is what I
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: should do the brain fact on. So what is Munchausen's syndrome.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: So it's a rare psychological and behavioral condition where some
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: one makes up and even induces or fakes symptoms of illness.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: So oh sorry. The podcast is called Believe in Magic,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: So there's Believe in Magic and there's Commander. Go listen
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to both of them. So it is listed as a
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: psychiatric mental health problem, but there is generally nothing physically
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: wrong with the patient and the origin of the name.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It's after a German aristocrat, aristocrat called Baron Munchausen, who
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: was known for telling like wild stories and adventures of
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: his past which were not necessarily true. So basically it's
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: just named after someone who was known to be a liar.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Loel for that person. So people with Munchausen's have these
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: set of behaviors, like a pattern of behaviors that's kind
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of generally seen across the board with people that have
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Munchausen So what are the behaviors. Lying about their past
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and certain aspects of their life, even if it's not
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: related to the disease. They're often gonna be telling lies
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: in general about their past, lying about having symptoms to
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a disease that they claim to have, being dodgy, or
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: manipulating medical results to make it look like they have
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: certain symptoms, doing things to actually bring on certain symptoms,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: like harmful things. It could even be trying to poison
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: themselves so they actually get the symptoms of the disease
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: that they're faking. Seeing different doctors in many different areas,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: they might not stick to one doctor for a long
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: period of time because this could then just give away
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the fact that they don't actually have that disease because
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: they're not going to be diagnosed with the disease or
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the condition that they claim to have. What is it not,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: So it's not hypochondria. Hypochondria is when you genuinely think
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you are sick with something. Okay, it's this genuine belief
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: that you are sick with something. You're not being dodgy,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: you're not trying to manipulate anything. You just believe that
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: you're sick. And people with hyper who are hypochondriacs often
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: but that they're sick all the time and believe that
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: something's always wrong with them. But they're not trying to
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: fake it. They're not trying to pull the wool over
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: anyone's eyes. They're they're not trying to be dodgy. Okay,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: that's hypochondria. Then there's malingering. Malingering, and these people are
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: pretending to be sick, but more so to receive some
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: sort of benefit like a worker's compensation, you know, like
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: pretending that you fucked your back at work so you
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: can get a payout, or faking COVID so that you
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: don't have to go into the office, but then kind
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: of can still get like COVID leave or whatever. So
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: malingering is specifically to get some tangible, measurable benefit, normally
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: in the way of paid leave or a payout. With Munchausen's,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: it's something that's kind of intangible. It's harder to measure,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: and more so it's for like attention or you know,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: for people to care about them or whatever it is. Now,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: these people will fake symptoms. They'll go to the doctor
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: or the hospital. They'll say that they have all these symptoms.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: They're often going to look up the symptoms of a
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: particular disease so it lines up, so it makes it
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: look like they know what they're talking about. The doctor's
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: going to run all these tests, find nothing, and then
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: they send them home because they found nothing. And then
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: they just go to another doctor and go to another doctor,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and they'll just keep going to all these different doctors
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and claiming that they've got all these you know, symptoms.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: They can say things like that they're vomiting blood, they
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: have a fever, pain, they've been bleeding from their nose,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: all sorts of things. And these people normally have a
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: very very very good understanding of the disease that they're
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: trying to fake. So they will even know when to
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: induce a fever, how to induce a fever, how to
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: do all of that, So it's like semi believable. There's
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: normally with people with Munchausen's there's normally a history of
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: emotional trauma or abuse or emotional difficulties in that person's life.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: They maybe did have an illness during their childhood, and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: that illness might make up a really big part of
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: their identity. And it also is common in people that
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: have really really healthy, sorry, really unhealthy relationships, not healthy
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: unhealthy relationships. Why do they do it? Why do they
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: affect these symptoms? Like what is the reason behind it?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: So it's not for a measurable gain, Like I said,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the only motivation is to be sick, and there are
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: theories behind why. So a lot of it comes down to,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: like I said, attention, medical attention, because you know, when
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you have medical attention, there's just so much care involved
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: and so much detail that's you know, so much attention
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that's paid to detail, and it might be the only
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: way for them to feel good enough. They might like
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: being associated, like they have this feeling of being cared
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: for or receiving love and attention and then they can
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: blame any issue that they have on this disease and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: they don't have to blame it on themselves, so they
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: feel like they're now good enough and any downfalls that
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: they have or short fallings, they can just blame on
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the disease. To diagnose it, you have to look at
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the person's history. If all medical tests are coming back
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: clear and normal, then you kind of have to look
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: at the person's history and see if you can find
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: something in there or in their past that might indicate
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that they have Munchausen's. In a lot of cases, there
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: will be people from their past who will be like,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: this fucking person is a fucking liar and they've always
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: lied and they've always like told these crazy tales and
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: they're normally they'll often they move from city to city,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: so people can't really track everything that they've done. There's
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: a famous case in Australia for another woman who faked
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: cancer as well. Oh my god, Bell Gibson. That's a
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: really interesting one too that I'm sure there's I haven't
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: listened to it, but I'm sure there's a podcast out
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: there about that as well. But yeah, this whole idea
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: of moving cities, and you know, coming up with a
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: new identity every time new communities. All of that. Now,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: what's really interesting is something called Munchausen's by proxy, and
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: this is where a person will fake illness in a
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: person who is under their care. So this normally happens
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: with with someone's own child. So they're going to fake
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: that their own child has an illness, and they're off
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: going to groom the child to go along with this
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: illness and then maybe even get the child to believe
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: some of it as well, obviously depending the age of
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the child and how much they can groom them. A really,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: really famous case of this was a girl called Gypsy Rose.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Look it up. It's a hectic story. Just look up
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Gypsy Rose Munchausen's by Proxy and it will blow your
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: mind if you haven't already heard this story, Like she
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the mom ends up getting murdered. Like it's hardcore. Anyway.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: In Munchausen's by proxy, they might induce symptoms in the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: child by making the child sick, or when I say child,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: by making the person under their care sick. They might
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: give them certain foods or do certain things to restrict
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: them from gaining access to things which could cause them
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: to become more ill. Like in gypsy Ros's case, the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: mum had this her daughter confined to a wheelchair, so she,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: you know, was weaker and weaker and weaker when there
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: was no reason that she had to be in a wheelchair.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: She just believed that she couldn't walk because she had
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: been doing it from such a young age. The red
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: flags here is that they're very, very over the top
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: with what is happening to their child. They're very controlling
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: with the child. Obviously, I'm talking about a parent child situation.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: They have a really really good level of medical knowledge
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and this need to control the situation, and they will
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: never let the child be with the doctor alone. They
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: always have to be present at all times. Whenever there's
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: a doctor with the child, They're not going to ever
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: leave the room. They're not going to have the doctor
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: just have a private conversation. They might even be within
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the medical profession, so it's a lot easier for them
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: to falsify symptoms and stories and all of that. Now,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: due to this, the child will then grow up, grow
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: up in that environment and then go with what the
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: parent is telling them to do. And a lot of
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: this comes down to grooming and being isolated from the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: rest of the world without the parent being there. So
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: a lot of the time, this munchousands by proxy can
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: go from childhood into teenagehood, into adulthood and then you think, well,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: where where's the line of responsibility. You're now an adult.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: But you've got to keep in mind that this child
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: who is now an adult has been groomed their entire life.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: They've never been away from that parent. It's this hectic control.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: So then you have to understand that that's a level
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: of brainwashing that is almost unfathomable. Okay, so they're isolated,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it becomes really difficult to know how much of it
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: is the child's doing, even though they themselves might be
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: faking the illness. We always have to consider the role
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: of how much brainwashing on the part of the parent
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: and how emotionally abused that person is by their parent
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: or caregiver. So that is Munchausen's and Munchausen's by proxy
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: fucking hectic. And how is it treated. It has to
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: be treated through psychiatric treatment. That is how it's treated.