People who constantly feign illness or its symptoms may have a psychological condition called factitious disorder.
Maybe you have a family member, friend, or colleague who always seems sick, constantly reporting vague symptoms that could point to any or no illness, and you think, «He likes being sick.» well they exist some people who take this custom to the limit.
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This is the case of Belle Gibson, an Australian blogger who wrote about health, who created a successful business (with a best seller on board) by ensuring that she survived terminal cancer. It is now known that she never suffered from the disease. What kind of person does something like this?
Healthy and balanced people do not have to invent diseases to get attention or to obtain financial benefitsMelissa Keogh, a clinical psychologist in Melbourne, Australia, explained to the BBC.
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Factitious disorder consists of a series of disorders characterized by feigned or intentionally produced physical or psychological symptoms in order to assume the role of sick. For example, a person can take blood thinners to pretend to have a blood disease or check the Internet how a bipolar behaves to act that way.
The subject cannot avoid assuming the role of the patient, since it is something uncontrollable for him. They are distinguished from a mere simulation because in this the intentions are clear (fraud, interests, etc.); in factitious disorder there is no such clarityexplains psychologist Andre Didyme-Dome.
The serious thing about this behavior is that those who are used to doing it It can happen to him like the lying shepherd: when you get really sick, neither the doctors, nor your family, nor at work will believe you. Do you know someone who spends their time making up illnesses or symptoms? Share this note on your social networks and tell us in the comments.