They deliberately inflict wounds on themselves, swallow sharp objects, use anesthetics … They are even ready to lie on the operating table, just to satisfy their passion for treatment.
This passion is called Munchausen syndrome. So the name of the dear baron, who loved to lie, became a medical diagnosis.
PROFESSION - SICK
You can call people suffering from Munchausen syndrome whatever you want: simulators, professional patients, but they are really sick. The syndrome is officially recognized as a type of mental disorder.
As a rule, the illness occurs as a result of a serious bodily illness, or the loss of a loved one, or is a consequence of loneliness. According to statistics, 0.8-9% of patients suffer from Munchausen syndrome. It is not always possible for doctors to understand that mental problems are at the root of complaints of bodily malaise.
The first to notice this syndrome was the Englishman R. Asher. In 1951, he identified several types of "baronial" disease.
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The most common is a sharp abdomen. Since the dream of every "baron" is a surgical scalpel, they simulate a perforated stomach ulcer. The doctors are at a loss: the tests are such that even if you launch them into space, the patient is twisted in pain. How can you not help here? So another scar from a scalpel appears on the body of an imaginary patient. Some have dozens of them.
The second type is hysterical bleeding. Sometimes this is caused by natural reasons, but more often the "Munchausen" themselves inflict several cuts on themselves and bleed with pleasure, additionally using animal blood for greater persuasiveness.
There is also a neurological type of syndrome. Fainting, seizures, irregular gait, headaches, paralysis are used here. They imitate symptoms so skillfully that sometimes they even mislead neurosurgeons and get what they want - brain surgery.
Sufferers of this syndrome exhibit miracles of cunning. Today, other varieties of Munchausen sid-rum are already known: skin (the patient organizes non-healing wounds, similar to ulcers), cardiac (simulation of various heart diseases), pulmonary (imitation of tuberculosis) and, finally, mixed.
There are very terrible cases when a pregnant woman, in order to cause premature birth, pierces the amniotic fluid with a sharp object. Sometimes the "barons" go for a sophisticated trick: they steal analyzes of really sick people and pass them off as their own.
DISLOVED CHILDREN
The story of Wendy Scott can serve as a rather vivid illustration of the disease. During her life, the woman was hospitalized 600 times and underwent 42 surgical interventions. She described the symptoms of fictional diseases in such detail that doctors considered her seriously ill.
I must say that Wendy eventually got rid of Munchausen syndrome, which is extremely rare. When her psyche returned to normal, the woman spoke about what, in her opinion, caused the abnormal craving for treatment.
Wendy Scott had a difficult childhood, her parents practically did not take care of the child, did not give her love and warmth. To all this, it should be added that she had to go through a sexual rape. Therefore, the most pleasant childhood memory for Wendy was the time spent in the hospital, where she ended up with an attack of appendicitis.
After the operation, a nanny looked after the girl, she was interested in the child's well-being, stroked her head, straightened the blanket.
For a girl who never knew how to take care of herself, it was the happiest time. This is probably why, becoming an adult woman, Wendy tried to get away from problems in search of care and attention to people in white coats.
Only once did another operation end in such a complication that the woman was dying. And just then, when she did not want to die at all, since she had a cat, to which she became attached, and he answered her with love. So Wendy was able to overcome her craving for treatment.
Indeed, "barons" most often come from disliked children. After all, when a child is sick, he receives a large portion of attention. Wendy Scott's story confirms this fact.
"MUNCHHAUSEN" BY ATTORNEY
In addition to self-harm, there is another type of disease called Munchausen's syndrome through an intermediary, or Munchausen's syndrome by proxy. In the event of such a mental disorder, parents manipulate the health of their children, who sometimes do not yet know how to speak and tell doctors what tests their mother is subjected to.
In order to show themselves as selfless parents fighting for the health of the baby, such mothers stuff children with various medications and may even cause some kind of damage.
This type of syndrome in most cases goes away as soon as the child can intelligently tell the doctor about their health problems, real, and not invented by their parents. But this is in the event that he survives after such manipulations.
One day a frightened woman came to the hospital with complaints that she saw blood in the urine of her one-year-old child. While the examination of the boy lasted, his mother was constantly nearby, trying in every possible way to help the doctors. She even took the test tubes to the laboratory herself. According to the results of the study, there was indeed blood in the urine.
Everything else was in order, and the child did not look sick. The treatment would have continued if the nurse had not noticed how the inconsolable mother in the toilet, piercing her finger with a pin, squeezes blood into the test tube with the analysis of her son.
It was then that it became clear: the woman was sick with Munchausen's syndrome. But she gave the impression of a caring mother, was always at the bedside of her son, gave medicine, controlled temperature, etc. Nevertheless, she was not worried that she was harming her own child.
Or another mother forced her son to take a huge amount of drugs that he absolutely did not need, which led to the extreme degree of obesity of the child. The boy could not even walk on his own. It's good that the doctors noticed something was wrong and intervened, after which the “caring” mother was deprived of parental rights.
Of course, it is quite difficult to identify a sick person disguised as a caring parent. Outwardly, they are quite adequate and sincere. Therefore, in Jerusalem, after a mother was grabbed by the hand to cut off the tubes that fed her infant baby, video cameras were installed in some hospital wards.
One way or another, the “Munchausen” parents make their children hostages of their mental illness, depriving them not only of a normal childhood, but sometimes even of life. This means that such people are socially dangerous.
PORTRAIT ON THE BACKGROUND OF THE DISEASE
Usually "Munchausen" are intelligent, have good knowledge of medicine. Many of them are medical professionals, so they know which drugs can be used to achieve the desired symptoms. For example, laxatives lead to dehydration of the body, and if you clamp an artery, you can earn the death of a limb, etc.
"Barons" are artistic, hysterical, love to be in the spotlight. They are characterized by infantilism and rich imagination.
But most importantly, they all experience a deficit of love and warmth, they feel unnecessary. An imaginary patient comes to the doctor with a huge and impressive medical history. Of course, a doctor cannot send such a patient home.
Most often "Munchausen" seek "medical attention" at the ambulance station at night or on holidays in the hope that shifts will fall on young and inexperienced doctors. If the doctor is not imbued with complaints about the "fatal" symptoms, then the "barons" do not argue, they leave this hospital and go to another.
They are cunning and do not come to the same hospital twice. One of the "Munchausen" visited 60 clinics in a year. In some countries there is a special list of such patients, and doctors always check with it.
True, everything can happen, as in the famous parable, when the boy shouted: “Wolves! Wolves!”And eventually people stopped believing him. If the "baron" is actually ill and his life is in danger, and the doctor, instead of helping him, blames everything on a mental disorder, a lethal outcome is guaranteed.
Galina BELYSHEVA