Sick note: Faking illness online

[kirsten]

Hi, Motorbill. No, I wasn't trying to fall into 'I've got it worse than you' at all. I guess it came across that way. I just wanted you to understand what I was talking about when I spoke of why it took a lot of energy to post when I was that ill--that it was purely a physical problem and I wasn't some sort of narcissist or something. I am getting better, so that's changed now. I got the 3 tcs since 2009 from your profile. Either I misunderstood it or you forgot to add those two 00s.

 

[motorbill66]

That profile was written about 6 years ago, during one of the 'good times'. But in point of fact, things have lightened up considerably during the last three or four months, with only one TC. And, wonder of wonders, I didn't chew my tongue into a cheeseburger with extra ketchup! Maybe for now we are on the right track with my meds. That'd be nice. When I'm in one of those 'bad periods' I get awfully down and don't feel so good either, like many others who post here. But I want you to understand that I don't mean to argue with you or anyone else on this site. It's too precious for that. I was just giving my particular experience. I learn something new each time I post. That's wonderful, because like the old saying goes: "When you're through learning, you're just plain through". Stay healthy Kirsten. My thoughts are with you.

 

[Penny]

I don't often , oh Hell, yes I do, try to think about these things from a perspective that examines my life and that of others from 'outside of me'. Nobody likes to think that they themselves have a 'Hair O' The Dog' when discussing this subject, but remember your youth. Who here can say they never faked a stomach ache or some other pure baloney to avoid school? Maybe there was a test we wanted to avoid, or maybe there is some important paper or homework due. The point is that sometimes we got away with it and got the desired result. That is positive reinforcement as a result of the action we took. I guess some folks fall into a pattern and can't stop...

I used to rub the thermometer between the blanket to make it look like I had a fever when my Mom wasn't looking. One day I was in a hurry as she was coming home for lunch, so smart kid I was, I held it over the gas stove. The mercury thermometer broke. Wow, is it hard to clean up mercury!! lol

 

[Penny]

I was part of an online forum once for men's issues. There were lots of good people and good comments, but the "bad apples" finally got to be too much for me so I quit participating. The main thing that bothered me was that those people could get away with saying things, and acting in ways, that they could never get away with if they were in an actual, in person group. Other people simply wouldn't put up with their s--t, and they would probably get punched out somewhere along the line. One guy, for instance, only made posts in free verse. That might not get him hit in an actual group setting, but he sure would be shunned by a lot of the others.
Trolls are a common occurrence on forums. It doesn't seem that we have any obvious ones here, though!

What is "free verse".

 

[Penny]

Yes, good vibes and energising support are there when you're well enough to sit in front of a PC. When sitting up for five minutes makes you feel very ill and you need every bit of energy you can coax out of yourself to make your meals and get yourself cleaned up in the mornings, good vibes don't fix your physical exhaustion. I didn't say that my participation was 'ever draining.' I did say that during times of good health, it's been a pleasure to come here and offer something back, and that it was only during the last six months that my health had declined to the point where I was house bound (first time in five years, in fact). On your profile you say you've had three tonic clonics since 2009. Until two weeks ago, I was having at least one a day, along with a few partials daily and up to 20 absence seizures a day. With that, I was also having severe reactions to my meds, and I was being taken off some AEDs and very suddenly just lumped onto a ton of neurontin without any titration. I was completely whacked. Can you understand why, in that scenario, it might be tiring to type? My situation was not the worst of it: there are people here who experience far worse and over more extended periods of time.

I toataly understand what you have been feeling and how it zapps you to where you just cant type. I have been there a lot in the last month so I havnt been here or online for awhile. Darn Keppra! Its made it very hard lately. Like you said though there are others here who do have it far worse and I thank God for every new day (or I try too)! :bigsmile:

 

[valeriedl]

I think free verse is something like writing poems - right?

I find it easier to talk about things here on the web site than I could talk about with people face to face. It's sort of embarrassing at times some of the things that you do during a seizure. I know that a lot of people have done the same things like lost their bowels or peed themselves, I drool all over the place during a good bit of mine.

I'm a rather personal person when it comes to things like that and don't want to be looking at people when I tell them that last night during a seizure I pooped on the couch and my husband had to clean me up then scrub the couch. I'd rather not be looking people in the eye when I say these things.

I'd like to be in a in person group just to be around other people who have epilepsy but I don't know how much talking I'd be doing.

 

[valeriedl]

I toataly understand what you have been feeling and how it zapps you to where you just cant type. I have been there a lot in the last month so I havnt been here or online for awhile. Darn Keppra! Its made it very hard lately. Like you said though there are others here who do have it far worse and I thank God for every new day (or I try too)! :bigsmile:

I have a ton of keprage from my keppra and I have trouble being around people a good bit of times.

There are those people out there that my have one seizure a year and act like the world is going to end I'd probably go off on (there doesn't seem to be anyone on here like that that). Then you have others who have 50 or more seizures a month and can still jump for joy and go out and play, there are many people on here like that!

 

[bighealey]

I wish I was faking it.

 

[kirsten]

There are those people out there that my have one seizure a year and act like the world is going to end I'd probably go off on (there doesn't seem to be anyone on here like that that). Then you have others who have 50 or more seizures a month and can still jump for joy and go out and play, there are many people on here like that!

Totally.

 

[kirsten]

And since I'm here, I think we need a sticky thread for diagnosing illness online.

My title submission is 'Dr Google is a Quack.'

 

[bighealey]

O jeeze..................I was reading this thread, apparently again. I did not remember it. I was going to post "I wish I was Faking it"

I already posted that. My family tells me I am repeating my self a lot and don't remember what I just said.

Does this happen to anyone else?

At least I am consistent LOL I have to laugh or I will cry..... Jeeezo-smeezo

 

[motorbill66]

bighealey,

Yes. It was the meds for me. Lots of them do this. At first, I felt I was experiencing early onset dementia. I wasn't, though my immediate short term memory (Where' I put that pen? Fifteen seconds at most may have passed.) I know a certain amount of this is normal for folks at 65, but this came on suddenly with the switch to Lamictal. I slowly got better at it all, but that very short term thing...

 

[acshuman]

Causes

I know that there are probably some people who will look at me and say 'he wants pity'. This is something that many people who have had hard lives may face.
Some people have situations like I had when I was a child. No parental acceptance, no understanding. a parent NOT letting the child talk to anyone outside the immediate family about their problem because the parent didn't want anybody to know and plain accusations by the parent of being an attention seeker!onder:
I know that I faced that and really needed someone to listen to me! I would just want to unload, so it sounded like I was stretching the truth. I am NOT saying that lying is OK. Nobody should lie to get support and attention. But, if a person has been denied a way to vent, when they do get that ability, they are going to unload and stretch things(NOT GOOD).
Maybe that woman had nurses in the hospital that blew her off and pushed her away! That type of abuse can cause a person to do anything to get someone to listen!
This is NOT right, but it is something that person needs to work through in counseling or something similar. If not, it could very possibly be done again! That is NOT something we want on our site!
This means that some people (like me) can sound just like a person who is making things up. Their doing this(lying) only makes it more difficult for the people who are truthful.

ACsHuman:agree:

 

[MAB]

I know someone that does this (but not on the internet). In the beginning her husband either believed her or enabled her. Now she convinces people that her son is ill.

Her entire family has more or less disowned her. She would go so far as whenever they would go on vacation they would have to get an emergency flight back.

I think her husband stays with her for the sake of their son. I tried to tell him what it is like to be raised by a disfunicial (spelling?) mother. It's hard to say too much since he is the owner of the company I work for. He was always large, a body builder, now he has lost so much weight and hair that he no longer looks like the same person.

 

[Mike Chapman]

As someone whom has had his life ripped apart by epilepsy. I have lost my Job, I lost my drivers license. It makes me angry to know people would even think to try to get attention by faking these kinds of things. However over the last few months I have had to also learn compassion. So I only pity them, and would remind them of the story of the little boy that cried wolf.

 

[seagull]

As someone whom has had his life ripped apart by epilepsy. I have lost my Job, I lost my drivers license. It makes me angry to know people would even think to try to get attention by faking these kinds of things. However over the last few months I have had to also learn compassion. So I only pity them, and would remind them of the story of the little boy that cried wolf.

Ditto on all levels.I don't pity them though as they taking the money away from genuine people.I just watched tv programme of sponges who done just that they sitting there smoking and drinking rolling joints on tax paid by genuine people working all hours.

This old thread

 

[terry c]

I work with people who have mental health issues and occasionally run across people that claim they have health problems they don't have. While I can understand attention seeking behavior people that fake things to get money burn me up.


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[seagull]

Catfishing

 

[rock and roll]

I wish I could fake not having siezures.

 

[Highlander]

I wish I could fake not having siezures.

Ditto!

In response to ShannonD's comment about how on earth would you know how to fake a TC (sorry I know that isn't an exact quote). I do role play and for one performance I had to argue with the villain and collapse before magically being resurrected as a beautiful princess (someone else in a pretty dress with flowers in her hair and a few decades less on the clock)
Everyone knows I have epilepsy but in the 12 years we have been doing this no one has ever seen me have a seizure and, to be honest, I'm not sure if some of them have ever seen a seizure.
Anyway, one particularly good argument with the villain I was doing what I thought was doing a rather good lead up to my collapse and trying to hint to the kids that I'm not really some scruffy old bag who talks to trees I'm an enchanted princess. I miss timed it and just went down moments before the kids arrived with the magic stuff to change me into the princess. Martin the villain and everyone else were suddenly all about.

I'd managed a very convincing collapse and it wasn't on cue. The day was really hot and I have epilepsy. If people aren't sure, their minds will pad out a lot.

You know the bystanders' descriptions of seizures where you would think you were turning into a werewolf...

Regards the people who post videos of themselves on line having seizures or faking them. This is my opinion for what it's worth, some people do it and they do it in the hope that someone will say 'yeah that is normal, that's what happens to me' because even your GP hasn't seen multiple seizures to clarify (as I found out on one occasion when I was given a drug I had innate tolerance to), my GP sat and quivered I was told before becoming my ex-GP.

The fakers, well you will always get them.

As long as the con artists are never confused with actual patients with real issues that have been previously mentioned e.g. psychogenic, functional, dissociative etc.

What really winds me up is not the videos, but the nasty little haters in the comments section at the side. Even if someone is faking they don't always get good wishes, hugs, and prayers!

If you go onto a certain internet video site and look up seizures of animals (I'm not warped I did it for a research project at uni until I found a veterinary site that had animals with the seizure videos and diagnosis - and no comments other than medical) - pretty sure they aren't faking it - the comments that people give to animals are a lot more concerned, understanding and sympathetic than they are of their own species.

The other thing is videos of children taking seizures. Some parents may think that this is helpful for other parents or a useful online record but have they never heard of privacy settings or home videos? Imagine those children at secondary school or work with free access videos of their seizures as children on the internet, given that 70% of the 50% of childhood epilepsies stay in childhood.