Münchhousen by Internet

[greygoose]

The Sickness Bloggers Who Fake It On-line

theguardian.com/society/201...

This is very worrying. And the net result is that doctors are going to be even more reluctant to believe us! (Pun intended.)

[Clutter]

GG, Prior to the internet they they lied to GPs and hospital doctors in order to get unnecessary diagnostics. Now some are using internet health fora to garner attention and sympathy. It's an abuse of the goodnature of posters who respond in good faith but I don't see why it should make doctors less inclined to believe us.

[greygoose in reply to Clutter]

Well, most of the time they Don't believe us anyway. And the fact that some people lie makes them seem to think that we're all liars. You haven't noticed that?

[Clutter in reply to greygoose]

GG, no, my doctors were wrong about symptoms being non-thyroidal before thyroidectomy and wrong about adverse effects caused by Levothyroxine but they didn't once imply I was lying.

[greygoose in reply to Clutter]

Well, you were Lucky, then. A lot of doctors Don't believe our symptoms and tell us... It's all in your head!!!

[recovered7 in reply to greygoose]

My GP more or less told me that as i wasn't improving. He said my symptoms were due to stress, so he suggested a Councellor ?? Sad for the people that are genuine

[greygoose in reply to recovered7]

Very sad!

[Glynisrose]

There will always be some people who know how to play the system no matter what rules are applied. What worries me is the fact that genuine people are being treated so badly because of it.

[greygoose in reply to Glynisrose]

Exactly. But the problem of lying patients is now more well-known due to the Internet.

However, Münchhousen 'patient's' Don't do it because they want to play the system in the sense of obtaining benefits or drugs, they do it because they want the attention and the symptathy. I have read on here many times about doctors accusing their Hashi's patients of being attention-seekers. Which is so cruel.