Breezilla said:
What IS (are?) the exact criteria for Munchausen's? I know a few people who seem to have something like it... Everyone complains excessively now and then to get a little extra sympathy, but these few people seem to do it constantly
I've known a few (fortunately only a few) people with diagnosed mental ailments - a paranoid, a paranoid schizophrenic, a depressive, two alcoholics, an ADHD - plus the unfortunate gentleman who used to hang out on the street corner by my workplace arguing with the tree (we were all angry when new management forced him to move on. as he kept the gangs away and we all looked after him to our best ability) - and so far as my limited observation goes, few of the behaviors involved are outside the range of behavior exhibited by folks who have no diagnosable mental problems. The paranoid in fact was far more reasonable, most of the time, than most of the people I worked with. When she was diagnosed, she actually said: "Ah! That explains a lot!" and she was thereafter scrupulous in keeping up with her meds. She even told her friends the specific symptoms to watch for and to warn her when she started acting paranoid. These symptoms would have been normal behavior for the person I shared an office with at the time - failure to meet obligations, haste to shift blame, excessive defensiveness, I don't remember what else, but I remember noting the resemblance strongly at the time.
The primary difference, from a non-clinical point of view, appeared to be one of degree and controllability. We all have days when we feel lousy for no apparent reason, can't sleep and/or can't make ourselves get out of bed, feel certain that nothing we do is ever going to come out right, that everyone hates us, etc. A depressive has months and weeks and years of such days. "Snap out of it," people tell them, because when most of us feel lousy an act of will, forcing ourselves out of bed and into productivity, is effective; but a depressive has no snap. He is physically incapable of feeling hope.
From the outside, depression looks like laziness; Munchausen's like malingering; paranoia like refusal to take responsibility for one's own life. A schizophrenic with an agenda may be indistinguishable from a con man. Even those who devote their lives to dealing with mental problems have only a rudimentarly understanding of what's going on or the best approach to any individual case. We live in the alchemical age of mental health; treatments are available, but a lot of them are trial-and-error, all of them are most effective in the short term, and all of them rest on a diagnosis which is as much art as science.
But if you can't stop yourself from throwing yourself at glass tables to get out of unpleasant situations, alchemy is better than nothing. The people I know who get better, or at least go through periods of self-sufficiency, have done so by getting help and actively engaging in the cure process. Only the sufferer can mend the suffering; but no one ever cured himself alone, no matter how smart or determined or tough he was. You need a safe place to be sick in; access to new information, pharmaceuticals, and treatments; at least one exterior reality check you can trust; and someone to spot you and take the pills away when necessary.
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